Osmond-Smith, David 1946-2007

OBITUARY NOTICE—

See index for CA sketch: Born December 27, 1946, in Worthing, Sussex, England; died of complications from HIV, May 31, 2007. Musicologist, educator, and author. A professor at the University of Sussex, Osmond-Smith was a popular teacher and noted authority on modern Italian art music. He completed an M.A. at Gonville and Caius, Cambridge, in 1968, and then did doctoral studies at the University of New York for two years. He also studied with Roland Barthes in Paris and with Umberto Ecco in Milan. Though he did not complete a Ph.D., with this experience he was hired by the University of Sussex in 1973 to be part of its new music department. Beginning as a lecturer, he later served as dean of the School of English and American Studies from 1991 to 1994, and was promoted to professor of music in 1994. Frequently serving as conductor for the university's orchestra and choir, he also directed stage productions and occasionally performed narrations. As a scholar, he was interested in the ideology, sociology, and aesthetics of music, and his expertise in Italian art music was enhanced by his personal friendship with composer Luciano Berio. He wrote the books Playing on Words: A Guide to Luciano Berio's Sinfonia (1985), Berio (1991), and Four Italian Modernists: Dallapiccola, Maderna, Nouo, Berio (1995), and was coeditor and translator of Luciano Berio: Two Interviews (1986).

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PERIODICALS

Times (London, England), June 27, 2007, p. 70.