Wilfrid Mellers

Wilfrid Howard Mellers (26 April 1914 – 17 May 2008) was an English music critic, musicologist and composer.

Early life Born in Leamington, Warwickshire, Mellers was educated at the local Leamington College and later won a scholarship to Downing College, Cambridge, where he read English under F. R. Leavis. He later lodged with the Leavises for three years while pursuing a Music degree. Mellers also took private composition lessons in Oxford from Egon Wellesz and Edmund Rubbra. From 1938 he taught at Dartington Hall, and in September 1940 he married Vera Muriel Hobbs. He spent the Second World War working on the land as a conscientious objector.

Career After writing many articles for Leavis's journal Scrutiny since the September 1936 issue, he appeared on the editorial board of the January 1942 issue, and continued in that position until the December 1948 issue. Mellers also wrote regularly as a critic and reviewer for New Statesman, The Listener, The New Republic, The Times Literary Supplement and The Musical Times. From 1960 for two years he lived and worked in America as Andrew Mellon visiting professor of music at the University of Pittsburgh. His later books Bach and the Dance of God (1981), Beethoven and the Voice of God and Vaughan Williams and the Voice of Albion (1989) proceeded from visionary social and philosophical bases, "spiritual if not specifically religious", commented The Times. Between Old Worlds and New (1997) collects his occasional writings and includes a list of compositions. His final book, Celestial Music (2002) was a study of religious masterpieces. combines a jazz trio with scat singer, chorus, coloratura soprano, orchestra and electronic devices. Shaman Songs (1980) is scored for flutes doubling saxophones, keyboards, electric bass and percussion and was written for Barbara Thompson and her Jazz Paraphernalia.

The virtuosic and extensive Natalis Invicti Solis (1969) for solo piano uses corn dances of the Tewa Indians of New Mexico for some of its material. Opus Alchymicum (1969) for organ, his second large-scale keyboard work, uses the principles of alchemical studies interpreted by Jung as a starting point for musical processes. It has been recorded by Kevin Bowyer. Another notable large scale piece is Sun-flower: The Divine Tetrad of William Blake (1972–3) for solo voices and orchestra, described by Roger Carpenter as his magnum opus. The 1949 Sonata for viola and piano has been recorded by Sarah-Jane Bradley and John Lenehan.