Roger Nichols

Roger David Edward Nichols (born 6 April 1939) is an English musicologist, critic, translator and author. After an early career as a university lecturer he became a full-time freelance writer in 1980. He is particularly known for his works on French music, including books about Claude Debussy, Olivier Messiaen, Maurice Ravel, Francis Poulenc and the Parisian musical scene of the years after the First World War. Among his translations are the English versions of the standard biography of Gabriel Fauré by Jean-Michel Nectoux and of Harry Halbreich's study of Arthur Honegger.

Life and career Nichols was born in the English city of Ely, Cambridgeshire, the son of Edward Nichols and his wife Dorothy, née West, who were respectively a lawyer and an accountant. He was educated at Harrow, where he read classics, and Worcester College, Oxford, where he studied under Edmund Rubbra. In 1964, he married Sarah Edwards, a teacher; they have two sons and a daughter. After graduating he became a schoolmaster at St Michael's College, Tenbury (1966–1973), after which he was a lecturer for the Open University (1975–1976) and the University of Birmingham (1978–1980). In 1982 he studied piano in Paris with Magda Tagliaferro.

After research into the songs of Claude Debussy, Nichols's first book, published by the Oxford University Press (OUP) was a study of that composer (1972), an 86-page work, part of the OUP's "Oxford Studies of Composers" series. and Harry Halbreich's Arthur Honegger (1992), published by the Amadeus Press under the same title (1999).

In 2002 Nichols produced The Harlequin Years: Music in Paris 1917–1929. This volume grew out of a 12-part series of the same name for BBC Radio 3. From 1980 to 1992 Nichols also presented the Radio 3 drive time programme Mainly for Pleasure, now called In Tune. Among his other broadcasts on Radio 3 was a five-part series on the life and art of Emmanuel Chabrier, with Clive Swift speaking the composer's words.

For the 1980 Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Nichols wrote the articles on Debussy and Poulenc. "A Winning Hand" (Benno Moiseiwitsch) 1990 "Arthur Honegger, a portrait" 1992

Music scores edited For Edition Peters, London: The Art of French Song, 2 vols, each both high and medium low, ISMN: 9790577081618

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