Williams, Peter 1937–

PERSONAL:

Born May 14, 1937, in Wolverhampton, England; son of Ernest James and Annie Williams; married Rosemary Seymour (an editor), June 10, 1982; children: Rachel Lucy, Peter Daniel, Gregory P.F., Edward J.P. Education: St. John's College, Cambridge, B.A., 1958, Mus.B., 1959, M.A., 1962, Ph.D., 1963, Litt.D., 1981. Religion: Anglican.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Gloucestershire, England. Office—6695 College Station, Durham, NC 27708.

CAREER:

University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland, lecturer, 1962-72, reader, 1972-82, professor and dean, 1982-85; Duke University, Durham, NC, distinguished professor, 1985-90, director of Center for Performance Practice Studies, beginning in 1990, university organist, 1985-90; University of Cardiff, Cardiff, Wales, John Bird Professor of Music. Harpsichord recitalist and organist. Friends of St. Cecilia's Hall (Edinburgh), president, beginning 1968.

MEMBER:

Royal College of Organists (fellow), Royal Society of Arts (Edinburgh; honorary member), Royal Music Association, Royal Scottish Academy.

WRITINGS:

The European Organ, 1450-1850, Batsford (London, England), 1966.

Figured Bass Accompaniment: Harpsichord, Edinburgh University Press (Edinburgh, Scotland), 1970.

A New History of the Organ, Faber (New York, NY), 1980.

The Organ Music of J.S. Bach, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), Volumes I-II, 1980, Volume III, 1984, 2nd edition, Volumes I-II, 2003.

(Editor) Tercentenary Essays, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 1985.

(Editor) Musicalisches Opfer: BWV 1079 (title means "Musical Offering"), Eulenburg (New York, NY), 1986.

(Editor) Kunst Der Fuge: BWV 1080 (title means "Art of Fugue"), E. Eulenburg (New York, NY), 1986.

Playing the Organ Works of Bach: Some Case Studies, American Guild of Organists (New York, NY), 1987.

(With Barbara Owen) Organ, W.W. Norton (New York, NY), 1988.

(Editor) Organ Concertos: Op. 7, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1988.

(Editor, with R. Larry Todd) Perspectives on Mozart Performance, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 1991.

(Interpreter) Klavierwerke (title means "Keyboard Works"), Wiener Urtext Edition (Mainz, Germany), 1991.

The Organ in Western Culture, 750-1250, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 1993.

The Chromatic Fourth during Four Centuries of Music, Clarendon Press (Oxford, England), 1997.

Bach, the Goldberg Variations, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 2001.

The Life of Bach, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 2004.

(Editor, with R. Larry Todd) Perspectives on Mozart Performance, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 2006.

J.S. Bach: A Life in Music, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 2007.

Coeditor of the book Perspectives on Mozart Performance, Cambridge University Press.

SIDELIGHTS:

Peter Williams was educated at St. John's College of Cambridge University, where he earned several degrees in music and musicology. A writer and educator, he has taught at a number of prestigious universities, including the University of Edinburgh, Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, and the University of Cardiff in Wales, where he serves on the faculty as the John Bird Professor of Music. Williams is known internationally as a performer and as a scholar of the life and works of the composer J.S. Bach. He has written a number of books on Bach's life and his musical compositions.

Williams's The Organ Music of J.S. Bach is a major work, originally published in three volumes. The book contains a wealth of gathered scholarship on the music it covers, including multiple versions of the sheet music with annotations made through the years, and an analysis of how Bach's organ music relates to organ music written by other composers. Lawrence Archbold, in a review for Notes, praised the original edition of the work, declaring it marked "a new era in the scholarship of Bach's organ music," and commented that the additions to the revised edition of the first two volumes only served to improve Williams's effort.

In J.S. Bach: A Life in Music, Williams offers readers a comprehensive biography of the composer, which he researched extensively, examining all public notices and writings about the man, beginning with his obituary. He also takes into account the wealth of previous biographical material that has been written on the subject. Additional details include information about the various instruments that Bach used, his teaching experiences, and the way he related to performers. Barry Zaslow, writing for Library Journal, found the book to be "a well-rounded portrait of Johann Sebastian Bach that leavens erudition with entertaining turns of phrase."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Library Journal, December 1, 2006, Barry Zaslow, review of J.S. Bach: A Life in Music, p. 127.

Notes, December, 2004, Lawrence Archbold, review of The Organ Music of J.S. Bach., p. 430.