Christopher Small
Christopher Small (actually: Neville Charles Christopher Small * 17th March 1927 in Palmerston North , † 7. September 2011 in Sitges , Spain ) was a from New Zealand originating musicologist , composer and author .
Life
Christopher Small was born in Palmerston North in 1927. His father was a dentist, his mother a teacher. After earning a degree in zoology from the University of Otago , he switched to music and studied piano , choral conducting and composition at Victoria University in Wellington , before teaching music in New Zealand schools from 1953. In addition, he was engaged in the production of cartoons , for which he composed. He moved to London on a scholarship, wrote compositions for ballet and continued his composition studies with Priaulx Rainier in London in 1961 . After a brief period in publishing, he taught from 1971 to 1986 at the Ealing College of Higher Education in Slough .
Career
After his first book Music, Society, Education (1977), which he had written while teaching, he devoted himself to the history of Afro-American music in the work Music of the Common Tongue , published in 1987 , by exploring musical traditions in Africa, Asia and Europe and America, describing the rise of Western music as a commercial, non-participatory art. In Musicking , he analyzed an imaginary symphonic concert to support his thesis that music is action, not an object, a verb, not a noun, as the book title implies. Small also composed works for orchestra and choir; In 1988 he developed a series of programs on African American music for the BBC entitled This Is Who We Are . From 1986 he lived with his partner, the dance teacher Neville Braithwaite, in the Spanish town of Sitges near Barcelona . There he directed a Catalan choir and continued his musical studies.
Christopher Small died on September 7, 2011 at the age of 84.
Web links
- Ben Ratliff : Obituary in The New York Times
- Interview with Robert Christgau 2000
- Robert Christgau: Thinking About Musicking
Individual evidence
- ↑ Christopher Small Born: 1927 Deceased: 2011 Biography - SMALL, Neville Charles CHRISTOPHER - Born Palmerston North 17-3-27, Died 07-09-11, in Sounz
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Small, Christopher |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Small, Neville Charles Christopher |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | New Zealand musicologist and author |
| DATE OF BIRTH | March 17, 1927 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Palmerston North , New Zealand |
| DATE OF DEATH | September 7, 2011 |
| Place of death | Sitges , Spain |