Donald Charles Peter Mitchell
CBE
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations,
and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...
(6 February 1925 – 28 September 2017) was a British writer on music, particularly known for his books on
Gustav Mahler and
Benjamin Britten
Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten (22 November 1913 – 4 December 1976, aged 63) was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He was a central figure of 20th-century British music, with a range of works including opera, other ...
and for the book ''The Language of Modern Music'', published in 1963.
Mitchell was born in London, and educated at
Brightlands Preparatory School and
Dulwich College
Dulwich College is a 2–19 Independent school (United Kingdom), independent, Day school, day and boarding school for Single-sex education, boys in Dulwich, London, England. As a Public school (United Kingdom), public school, it began as the Col ...
, London. In 1943 he registered as a
conscientious objector and his war-time service was spent in the
Non-Combatant Corps
The Non-Combatant Corps (NCC) was a corps of the British Army composed of conscientious objectors as privates, with NCOs and officers seconded from other corps or regiments. Its members fulfilled various non-combatant roles in the army during the ...
. After the war, he taught at
Oakfield Preparatory School
Oakfield Preparatory School is an independent coeducational preparatory school in West Dulwich, Lambeth.
Oakfield is a member of the Independent Schools Association. With over 350 boys and girls aged between 2 and 11, it is housed in historic ...
, London and in 1947 founded and edited the journal ''
Music Survey''; several issues appeared before he was joined in 1949 by
Hans Keller
Hans (Heinrich) Keller (11 March 19196 November 1985) was an Austrian-born British musician and writer, who made significant contributions to musicology and music criticism, as well as being a commentator on such disparate fields as psychoana ...
and the journal was re-launched in the Music Survey's so-called 'New Series' (1949–52), whose uncompromising critical standards and pugnaciously pro-Britten and pro-Schoenberg stance brought it renown and notoriety in equal measure. Mitchell studied at
Durham University 1949-50.
In the 1950s he was a regular contributor to the journals
Musical Times
''The Musical Times'' is an academic journal of classical music edited and produced in the United Kingdom and currently the oldest such journal still being published in the country.
It was originally created by Joseph Mainzer in 1842 as ''Mainzer ...
and
Musical Opinion
''Musical Opinion'', often abbreviated to ''MO'', is a European classical music journal edited and produced in the UK. It is currently among the oldest such journals to be still publishing in the UK, having been continuously in publication sinc ...
. In 1958 he became editor of Music Books at
Faber and Faber and in the same year was appointed Editor of
Boosey & Hawkes's music journal ''
Tempo
In musical terminology, tempo ( Italian, 'time'; plural ''tempos'', or ''tempi'' from the Italian plural) is the speed or pace of a given piece. In classical music, tempo is typically indicated with an instruction at the start of a piece (ofte ...
'', until 1962. From 1963 to 1964 he was a special music adviser at Boosey & Hawkes with particular responsibility for contemporary music and the acquisition of contemporary composers. He was responsible for
Peter Maxwell Davies
Sir Peter Maxwell Davies (8 September 1934 – 14 March 2016) was an English composer and conductor, who in 2004 was made Master of the Queen's Music.
As a student at both the University of Manchester and the Royal Manchester College of Musi ...
and
Nicholas Maw
John Nicholas Maw (5 November 1935 – 19 May 2009) was a British composer. Among his works are the operas '' The Rising of the Moon'' (1970) and '' Sophie's Choice'' (2002).
Biography
Born in Grantham, Lincolnshire, Maw was the son of Clarence ...
joining the publisher's list. In 1965, with the encouragement of Benjamin Britten he founded the music-publishing firm of
Faber Music
Faber Music is a British sheet music publisher best known for contemporary classical music. It also publishes music tutor books, and in 2005 acquired popular music publisher International Music Publications.
Faber Music has close relations to ...
, and was its first Managing Director (vice-chairman, 1976, chairman, 1977, president, 1988–95).
In 1972 Mitchell became the first Professor of Music at
Sussex University (until 1976). Following the death of Benjamin Britten, he became a senior trustee of the
Britten-Pears Foundation; in 1986 he became the Foundation's director and chairman of the Britten Estate Ltd. From 1989 to 1992 he was chairman of the
Performing Right Society
PRS for Music Limited (formerly The MCPS-PRS Alliance Limited) is a British music copyright collective, made up of two collection societies: the Mechanical-Copyright Protection Society (MCPS) and the Performing Right Society (PRS). It undertake ...
. He was appointed a CBE in the
2000 New Year Honours
The New Year Honours 2000 for the United Kingdom and New Zealand were announced on 31 December 1999, to celebrate the year passed and mark the beginning of 2000. The ''Honours list'' is a list of people who have been awarded one of the various ...
, and died on 28 September 2017, at the age of 92.
Mahler and Britten
Mitchell's two major written projects were a four-volume exploration of the music of Gustav Mahler (Faber), and as Editor-in-Chief of six volume edition of the letters of Benjamin Britten (Faber and Boydell Press). Although Mitchell did not work on the fifth and final volumes he appears extensively in them as a Britten correspondent.
By his own admission, Mitchell's work on Mahler was not principally as a work of biography (he cited
Henry-Louis de La Grange
Henry-Louis de La Grange (26 May 1924 – 27 January 2017) was a French musicologist and biographer of Gustav Mahler.
Life and career
La Grange was born in Paris, of an American mother (Emily Sloane, daughter of Henry T. Sloane) and a French ...
's four-volume work as the standard), but rather a series of extended essays, often personal in nature.
[Mitchell, Donald ''Gustav Mahler, Vol. 3: Songs and Symphonies of Life and Death: Interpretations and Annotations.'' Faber, 1985] Across the four volumes Mitchell presented analyses of Mahler's work, grouped loosely into early works (vol. 1), ''Wunderhorn'' works (vol. 2) and later works (vols. 3 and 4).
Selected writings
* (ed., with Hans Keller): ''Benjamin Britten: A Commentary on His Works from a Group of Specialists'' (London, Rockliff, 1952). With drawings by
Milein Cosman
Emilie Cosman, known as Milein Cosman, (31 March 1921 – 21 November 2017) was a German-born artist based in England. She is best known for her drawings and prints of leading cultural figures, dancers and musicians in action, such as Francis Baco ...
* (ed., with
H.C. Robbins Landon
Howard Chandler Robbins Landon (March 6, 1926November 20, 2009) was an American musicologist, journalist, historian and broadcaster, best known for his work in rediscovering the huge body of neglected music by Haydn and in correcting misunderstand ...
): ''The Mozart Companion'' (London: Rockliff, 1956)
* (ed., with Philip Reed and Mervyn Cooke): ''Letters From a Life: The Selected Letters of Benjamin Britten.'' 6 vols., Faber (vols 1-3), Boydell Press (vols 4-6) 1991–2012
* ''Benjamin Britten: Death in Venice'' (Cambridge University Press, 1987)
*''Britten and Auden in the Thirties: The Year 1936'' (Boydell Press, 2nd Ed., 2000)
* ''Gustav Mahler: The Early Years.'' Rockliff, 1958 (revised as ''Gustav Mahler, Vol 1: The Early Years'' with Paul Banks and David Matthews, Faber 1978)
* ''The Language of Modern Music'' (Faber & Faber, 1963, revised 1966, 1969)
* ''Gustav Mahler, Vol. 2: The Wunderhorn Years: Chronicles and Commentaries.'' (Faber 1975)
* ''Gustav Mahler, Vol. 3: Songs and Symphonies of Life and Death: Interpretations and Annotations.'' (Faber 1985)
* ''Discovering Mahler. Writings on Gustav Mahler 1955-2005.'' (Boydell Press 2007)
* ''The Mahler Companion.'' (Oxford, 1999)
onlineat
Google Books
Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google Inc. that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical ...
)
References
* Philip Reed (ed.): ''On Mahler and Britten. Essays in Honour of Donald Mitchell on His Seventieth Birthday.'' Aldeburgh Studies in Music Vol. 3. Boydell Press, 1995
onlineat
Google Books
Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google Inc. that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical ...
) Contains a Chronology of Mitchell's career to 1995.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mitchell, Donald
1925 births
2017 deaths
Military personnel from London
Alumni of Durham University
Academics of the University of Sussex
British conscientious objectors
Commanders of the Order of the British Empire
English writers about music
Honorary Members of the Royal Academy of Music
English magazine editors
Personnel of the Non-Combatant Corps
Writers about music
Mahler scholars
Britten scholars