Alan Walker

Walker, Alan

Alan Walker. Administrator, writer, teacher, radio producer, b Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire, England, 6 Apr 1930; LGSM 1949, ARCM 1950, B MUS (Durham) 1956, D MUS (Durham) 1965. He studied piano with Alfred Nieman at the GSM, London. He lectured 1958-61 at the GSM and was a producer 1961-71 with the BBC. He moved to Canada in 1971, served until 1980 as chairman of the music department at McMaster University, then continued as a teacher there, and in 1989 resumed the chairmanship. In 1981 he inaugurated Canada's first graduate program in music criticism at this university. Walker in 1991 was preparing the third and final volume of his major study of Franz Liszt. The first volume won two international book prizes: the James Tait Black Award for the best biography of 1983, and the Yorkshire Post award for that year's best book on music. In 1974 he was made an honorary fellow of the GSM. He received medals from the American (1984) and Hungarian (1986) Liszt Societies and in 1986 was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.

Writings

A Study in Musical Analysis (London, New York 1962)

An Anatomy of Musical Criticism (London 1966, Philadelphia 1968)

- ed. Frederic Chopin: Profiles of the Man and the Musician (London 1966)

'John Field,' Listener, 23 Apr 1970

'Liszt and the Beethoven symphonies,' Music Review, vol 31, Aug 1970

- ed. Franz Liszt: The Man and His Music (London, New York 1970)

- ed. Robert Schumann: The Man and His Music (London, New York 1972)

'Music criticism,' Encyclopaedia Britannica (Chicago 1974)

'Schopenhauer and music,' Times Literary Supplement, 3 Jan 1975

'Liszt's duo sonata,' MT, vol 116, Jul 1975

'The musical imperative,' Times Educational Supplement, 11 Jul 1975

Robert Schumann (London, New York 1976)

Franz Liszt: The Virtuoso Years, 1811-1847 (London, New York 1983)

Franz Liszt: The Weimar Years, 1848-1961 (London, New York 1989)

- ed. Liszt, Carolyne, and the Vatican Documents (Stuyvesant, NY 1991)