William Gillies Whittaker was an English-Scottish composer, pedagogue, conductor, musicologist, Bach scholar, publisher and writer
Education
The University of Durham, where he once studied and taught, called him one of "Britain"s most influential musicians during the first half of the twentieth century". Whittaker initially studied mathematics at Armstrong College, University of Durham, later studying organ and vocals, and from 1898, he began studies at the same university. After he graduated, he worked as an instructor, lecturer and reader in music at his alma mater.
Career
He spent his life promoting music An autodidact, he was a prodigious creator of Gebrauchsmusik. In 1929, he moved to Glasgow and became a professor at the University of Glasgow (1929-1938) and Head of the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama (RSAMD) (1929-1941).
Whittaker worked as the conductor of choirs in Northumberland, working with the Newcastle Choral Union, Newcastle Bach Choir and the Gateshead Choral Union.
He founded the Newcastle Bach Choir in 1915, based in Newcastle Cathedral. A neighbour who attended his choir observed that he was "not only learned but also showed great sense of music and art in general".
With Newcastle Bach Choir, he made a concert tour to London and participated in a three-day festival in 1922. He performed the first complete version of the Great English Service of William Byrd in Newcastle upon Tyne, and performed it again at Saint Margaret"s Church in Westminster in 1924.
His forte was cantatas of J.S.Bach.
Whittaker"s book on the subject was published posthumously in 1959 in two volumes. Whittaker also promoted musicians like Holst, Vaughan Williams, Debussy, Satie, and Poulenc. He was a noted scholar of Bach and a publisher and editor of music from the 17th and 18th centuries.
Among his works are A Lykewake Dirge and The Celestial Sphere for Chorus and Orchestra, Psalm CXXXIX and Among the Northumbrian Hills.
He was also interested in the folk music of his native region, of which he composed several folk songs.
Membership
He was a member of three British Broadcasting Corporation musical advisory committees.