White, Eric Walter
White, Eric Walter
White, Eric Walter, English writer on music and administrator; b. Bristol, Sept. 10,1905; d. London, Sept. 13,1985. He attended Clifton Coll., Bristol, and studied English at Balliol Coll., Oxford (1924-27). After working as a translator for the League of Nations in Geneva (1929-33), he was employed by the National Council for Social Service in London (1935-2); in 1942 he became asst. secretary of the Council for the Encouragement of Music and the Arts, which became the Arts Council of Great Britain in 1946; he retired in 1971. He publ. valuable studies on Stravinsky and an invaluable register of English opera premieres.
Writings
(all publ. in London): Stravinsky’s Sacrifice to Apollo (1930); Stravinsky: A Critical Survey (1947); Benjamin Britten: A Sketch of His Life and Works (1948; 3rd ed., enl., 1970 as Benjamin Britten: His Life and Operas); The Rise of English Opera (1951); Stravinsky: The Composer and His Works (1966; 2nd ed., rev., 1979); A History of English Opera (1983); A Register of First Performances of English Operas and Semi-Operas from the 16th Century to 1980 (1983).
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire