Basil Raymond Lam (1914 - 4 March 1984) was an English

early music Early music generally comprises Medieval music (500–1400) and Renaissance music (1400–1600), but can also include Baroque music (1600–1750) or Ancient music (before 500 AD). Originating in Europe, early music is a broad Dates of classical ...

scholar and

harpsichord A harpsichord is a musical instrument played by means of a musical keyboard, keyboard. Depressing a key raises its back end within the instrument, which in turn raises a mechanism with a small plectrum made from quill or plastic that plucks one ...

ist. He was educated at

Reading School Reading School is a state grammar school for boys with academy status in the English town of Reading, the county of Berkshire. It traces its history back to the school of Reading Abbey and is, thus, one of the oldest schools in England, alth ...

and at

St John's College, Oxford St John's College is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford. Founded as a men's college in 1555, it has been coeducational since 1979.Communication from Michael Riordan, college archivist Its foun ...

, where he studied English Literature. A producer for the

Third Programme The BBC Third Programme was a national radio station produced and broadcast from 1946 until 1967, when it was replaced by BBC Radio 3. It first went on the air on 29 September 1946 and became one of the leading cultural and intellectual forces ...

of the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

from its inception in September 1946, Lam eventually became head of the classical musical division in the 1960s. His contemporaries at the BBC included

Deryck Cooke Deryck Cooke (14 September 1919 – 26 October 1976) was a British musician, musicologist, broadcaster and Gustav Mahler expert. Life Cooke was born in Leicester to a poor, working-class family; his father died when he was a child, but his mother ...

William Glock Sir William Frederick Glock, CBE (3 May 190828 June 2000) was a British music critic and musical administrator who was instrumental in introducing the Continental avant-garde, notably promoting the career of Pierre Boulez. Biography Glock was b ...

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 ...

Humphrey Searle Humphrey Searle (26 August 1915 – 12 May 1982) was an English composer and writer on music. His music combines aspects of late Romanticism and modernist serialism, particularly reminiscent of his primary influences, Franz Liszt, Arnold Sch ...

, Robert Simpson and Leo Black. Simpson's String Quartet No. 4 is dedicated to Lam. He was best known for his contributions as a commentator on early and baroque music on

BBC Radio 3 BBC Radio 3 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It replaced the BBC Third Programme in 1967 and broadcasts classical music and opera, with jazz, world music, Radio drama, drama, High culture, culture and the arts ...

, particularly the 28 episode series "Plainsong and the Rise of European Music" (1978–1979). He also played harpsichord in several musical ensembles, including the Basil Lam Sonata Ensemble (1946-1954). Lam published many articles and books, specializing on

Bach Johann Sebastian Bach (German: �joːhan zeˈbasti̯an baχ ( – 28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his prolific output across a variety of instruments and forms, including the or ...

Handel George Frideric (or Frederick) Handel ( ; baptised , ; 23 February 1685 – 14 April 1759) was a German-British Baroque composer well-known for his operas, oratorios, anthems, concerti grossi, and organ concerti. Born in Halle, Germany, H ...

and

Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. He is one of the most revered figures in the history of Western music; his works rank among the most performed of the classical music repertoire ...

, and edited various musical scores, including editions of

Rameau Jean-Philippe Rameau (; ; – ) was a French composer and music theorist. Regarded as one of the most important French composers and music theorists of the 18th century, he replaced Jean-Baptiste Lully as the dominant composer of French opera a ...

, Handel's

Messiah In Abrahamic religions, a messiah or messias (; , ; , ; ) is a saviour or liberator of a group of people. The concepts of '' mashiach'', messianism, and of a Messianic Age originated in Judaism, and in the Hebrew Bible, in which a ''mashiach ...

and the lute music of Dowland.Obituary
(1984), ''

The Musical Times ''The Musical Times'' was an academic journal of classical music edited and produced in the United Kingdom. It was originally created by Joseph Mainzer in 1842 as ''Mainzer's Musical Times and Singing Circular'', but in 1844 he sold it to Alfr ...

'', vol. 125, page 278

Selected publications

* ''Beethoven String Quartets'', BBC Music Guides, Vols 32–33 (1975) * 'Beethoven Symphonies', in Robert Simpson (ed.): ''The Symphony: Haydn to Dvořák'' (Penguin, 1967), pp. 104-174 *''The Collected lute Music of John Dowland, with lute tablature and keyboard notation'' (with Diana Poulton) (Faber, 1974, 1978 and 1981) * ''Handel: A Symposium'' (

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press officially granted the legal right to print books ...

, 1954), chapters on church and orchestral music. * ''Of German Music: A Symposium'' (Oswald Wolf, 1976), chapter on the Classical Symphony * 'The Ascendancy of Plainsong', ''The Listener'', 15 December 1977, pp. 20-22
'Authenticity and the St John Passion'
''Early Music'', Vol. 5, 1977, pp. 45–49

References

External links

Basil Lam archive

Royal College of Music The Royal College of Music (RCM) is a conservatoire established by royal charter in 1882, located in South Kensington, London, UK. It offers training from the undergraduate to the doctoral level in all aspects of Western Music including pe ...

March That Goes Out With a Lam

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

Review of Lam's performing edition of Handel's Messiah

Gramophone A phonograph, later called a gramophone, and since the 1940s a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogue reproduction of sound. The sound vibration waveforms are recorded as corresponding physic ...

Quadrille with a Raven
memoirs by

1914 births 1984 deaths English musicologists English harpsichordists BBC Radio 3 presenters 20th-century British musicologists BBC radio producers BBC music executives People educated at Reading School Alumni of St John's College, Oxford {{musicologist-stub