Macdonald, Hugh (John)
Macdonald, Hugh (John)
Macdonald, Hugh (John), English musicologist; b. Newbury, Berkshire, Jan. 31, 1940. He was educated at the Univ. of Cambridge (B.A., 1961; M.A., 1966; Ph.D., 1969), where he also was a lecturer in music (1966–71). He also was a lecturer in music at the Univ. of Oxford (1971–80), and in 1979 was a visiting prof. at Ind. Univ. After serving as the Gardiner Prof. of Music at the Univ. of Glasgow (1980–87), he became the Avis Blewett Prof. at Washington Univ. in St. Louis in 1987. Macdonald has devoted much of his time to the elucidation of 19th century music. He is especially known for his studies in French music, and is a leading authority on the life and music of Berlioz. In 1965 he became general ed. of the New Berlioz Edition. In 1985 and 1996 he was awarded the Grand Prix de Littérature Musicale Charles Cros for his contributions to the study of French music. He has contributed articles to many journals, and also to The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians(1980; 2nd ed., rev., 2000) and The New Grove Dictionary of Opera (1992). He was an ed. of the Correspondance générale de Hector Berlioz (Vols. 4, 1984, 5, 1989, and 6, 1995), and also ed. Selected Letters of Berlioz (1995). He authored Berlioz Orchestral Music (1969), Skryabin (1978), and Berlioz (1982).
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire