Hugh Ottaway Explained

Hugh Ottaway (27 July 1925  - 6 November 1979) was a prominent British writer and lecturer on classical music.

Ottaway studied history at Exeter University (then the University of the South-West) from 1944. His career began as a teacher, freelance writer and from the 1950s as a presenter of musical talks on BBC Radio.^[1] His most significant contributions to music criticism were as a commentator on that portion of twentieth-century music which retained an allegiance to tonality; thus Nielsen, Shostakovich, Sibelius and William Walton featured largely in his output.

Ottaway was especially associated with British composers such as Edmund Rubbra and Robert Simpson, and a staunch supporter of the politically active Alan Bush.^[2] But David Scott has pointed out that he "was not limited by a nationalist outlook. His ability to view English composition in a broader context also made his reviews valuable".^[3]

He died in Malvern, aged 54.^[4] An archive of his papers is held at the Bodleian Library in Oxford.^[5]

Books

• Vaughan Williams (Novello Short Biographies; 1966)^[6]
• ‘Carl Nielsen’, ‘Prospect and Perspective’, chapter in Robert Simpson (ed). The Symphony, Vol.2 (1967, rev. 1972), pp. 268–77
• ‘The Enlightenment and the Revolution’, chapter in A. Robertson, D Stevens (ed.) The Pelican History of Music, 1968), pp. 11–96
• Sibelius (Novello Short Biographies; 1968)
• Vaughan Williams Symphonies (BBC Music Guides series; 1972 [reprinted 1977, 1980 and 1987]) .
• William Walton (Novello Short Biographies; 1972, revised 1977)
• Shostakovich Symphonies (BBC Music Guides, No 39; 1978)
• Mozart (1979)
• Edmund Rubbra, an appreciation: Together with a complete catalogue of compositions to May 1981 (Lengnick; 1981)

Articles

• ‘The Piano Music of John Ireland’, Monthly Musical Record 84 (1954), pp. 258–66
• 'Nielsen's Sixth Symphony'; The Musical Times, Vol. 95, No. 1337 (Jul., 1954), pp. 362–363
• Ottaway . Hugh . Vaughan Williams's Eighth Symphony . Music & Letters. July 1957 . 213–225 . 730270 . 38 . 3 . 10.1093/ml/xxxviii.3.213 . 2 .
• 'Clues and Keys' - Hugh Ottaway on the music of Robert Simpson'; The Listener, 21 May 1970
• ‘Rubbra’s Symphonies’, Musical Times 112 (1971), pp. 430–32, 549–52
• Review: 'Simpson's New Symphonies'; Tempo (New Ser.), No. 105 (Jun., 1973), pp. 53–54

Notes and References

1. https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/page/b606613b90f84f9bbf1613463b79b887 For instance: 'Rubbra' Symphonies', BBC Third Programme, 7 October 1955
2. Joanna Bullivant. 'Bush as Stalinist: The Year 1948', in Alan Bush, Modern Music, and the Cold War The Cultural Left in Britain and the Communist Bloc (2107), pp. 139 - 176
3. Scott, David. 'Ottaway, Hugh', in Grove Music Online (2001)
4. https://www.jstor.org/stable/963229 'Hugh Ottaway', obituary, The Musical Times, Vol. 121, No. 1643 (Jan., 1980), p. 48
5. https://archives.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/repositories/2/resources/3659 Archive of Hugh Ottaway, Bodleian Library
6. McVeigh, Diana. The Musical Times, Vol. 107, No. 1476, February, 1966, p. 104