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Cuthbert Girdlestone

1895 – 1975

British musicologist

Musicologist Music historianComposer
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About Cuthbert Girdlestone

Lived 1895 – 1975 (aged 80). Cuthbert Girdlestone was a British musicologist, music historian, composer, literary scholar, university teacher and man of letters.

Cuthbert Morton Girdlestone (17 September 1895 – 10 December 1975) was a British musicologist and literary scholar.

Born in Bovey Tracey, Devon, Girdlestone was educated at Southey Hall, Worthing, and the Lycée de Pau; at the Sorbonne, where he was awarded a Licencié-ès-lettres (LèsL) in 1915; and finally at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he was a senior scholar in 1920 and completed the modern and medieval languages tripos the following year (one of only three to do so with a starred first, the other two being the brothers Sergey and Vladimir Nabokov).

Thereafter, Girdlestone was a Fellow at Trinity for several years before taking up the chair in French at Armstrong College (later to be King's College in Newcastle) in 1926, a position he held until 1960. His most famous publications are his much-reprinted study of the Mozart Piano Concertos (1939, published originally in French) and his biography of Jean-Philippe Rameau (1957).

Books Girdlestone, Cuthbert. Mozart et ses concertos pour piano. Paris, Fischbacher. 1939. Girdlestone, Cuthbert. Mozart and His Piano Concertos. New York: Dover Publications, 1964. "An unabridged and corrected republication of the second (1958) edition of the work first published in 1948 by Cassell & Company, Ltd., London, under the title Mozart’s Piano Concertos." A translation of Mozart et ses concertos pour piano. (pbk.) (3rd edition published London: Cassell, 1978. .) Girdlestone, Cuthbert. Jean-Philippe Rameau, His Life and Work. London: Cassell. 1957. (2nd Edition: Paris: Lettres modernes, 1968, and in English: New York: Dover Publications, 1969. .) Girdlestone, Cuthbert. Jean-Philippe Rameau: sa vie, son œuvre. Desclée de Brouwer, 1983, ©1962. . Girdlestone, Cuthbert. La tragédie en musique, considéré comme genre littéraire. Droz, Geneva. 1972. OCoLC 772775.

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Important facts

Birth century
Education
University of Cambridge, University of Paris, Trinity College
Also known as
Cuthbert Morton Girdlestone

People in Cuthbert Girdlestone's life

Named in this biography and alive at the same time

Contemporaries

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Frequently asked questions

Who was Cuthbert Girdlestone?

British musicologist (1895–1975)

When was Cuthbert Girdlestone born?

Cuthbert Girdlestone was born on 17 September 1895 in Bovey Tracey.

When did Cuthbert Girdlestone die?

Cuthbert Girdlestone died on 10 December 1975.

What was Cuthbert Girdlestone's occupation?

Cuthbert Girdlestone was a musicologist, music historian, composer, literary scholar, university teacher and man of letters.

What nationality was Cuthbert Girdlestone?

Cuthbert Girdlestone was British.

Sources & further reading

· Wikipedia: Cuthbert Girdlestone

· Wikidata: Q545416

· DBpedia: Cuthbert Girdlestone

Cite this page

APA: Biography.guide. (2026). Cuthbert Girdlestone. https://biography.guide/cuthbert-girdlestone/

MLA: "Cuthbert Girdlestone." Biography.guide, https://biography.guide/cuthbert-girdlestone/.

Chicago: "Cuthbert Girdlestone." Biography.guide. https://biography.guide/cuthbert-girdlestone/.

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