Background
Ian Walter Alfred Spink was born on March 29, 1932, in London, England, to William James and Margaret Hamilton (Anderson) Spink.
Ian Walter Alfred Spink was born on March 29, 1932, in London, England, to William James and Margaret Hamilton (Anderson) Spink.
In 1953, Spink received a Bachelor of Music from Trinity College of Music and a Master of Arts from the University of Birmingham in 1957.
For two years Ian worked as an examiner for Trinity, travelling widely overseas. From 1962 to 1968 he lectured in music at Sydney University, but then returned to Britain as head of music at Royal Holloway. There he created a department offering an honors course and postgraduate study. Hitherto, though there was a strong tradition of music-making at the college, music as an academic subject was offered only as part of a general degree. Ian was made professor in 1974. The high regard in which the department is held today is due largely to his foresight and wisdom.
Spinkwas a member of the Purcell Society for more than 30 years, becoming a trustee in 2000, and edited five of its volumes: Timon of Athens (1994), A Song for the Duke of Gloucester's Birthday (1990), Dramatic Music, Part II (1998), Catches (2000) and Duets, Dialogues and Trios (2007).
In addition to editing Purcell, he also produced new editions in the English Lute Song series by Robert Johnson (1961), Thomas Greaves, George Mason and John Earsden (1962) and Alfonso Ferrabosco (1966). Much of his work, however, was focused on lesser known aspects of the period. His well-chosen anthology, English Songs, 1625-1660 (1971), made available songs from this transitional period and his seminal book, English Song: Dowland to Purcell (1974), traced developments between these two masters, charting both a tuneful, lyrical style and the characteristically English form of expressive declamation that was such an important component of Purcell's style.
His later study of Restoration Cathedral Music, 1660-1714 (1995) included a survey of all the cathedral and college establishments in the country and assessed the contributions of their mainly competent, often interesting, composers. Ian edited the 17th-century volume of the Blackwell History of Music in Britain (1992), to which he contributed chapters on church and vocal music from 1660. He also published An Historical Approach to Musical Form (1967) and Henry Lawes: Cavalier Songwriter (2000), and contributed to the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (1980). While in London during the 1950s he played the organ at Southwark Roman Catholic Cathedral, and after his move to Royal Holloway, he served as organist for the local Catholic church for nearly 40 years.
(Ian Spink, a leading authority on seventeenth-century Eng...)
1996(Henry Lawes (1596-1662) has long been acknowledged as the...)
2000Ian was a keen gardener, a lover of fine food, a genial and generous host, with a quirky sense of humour, and, above all, a devoted family man.
In 1960, Spink married Margaret Storry Walton. They had three sons and four daughters.
