Staff

Professor David Greer, MA (Oxon), MusD (Dublin), FRSA

Emeritus Professor in the Department of Music

Telephone: +44 (0) 191 33 43140

Biography

David Greer graduated from Oxford in 1960. From 1963 to 1972 he was Lecturer in Music at Birmingham University. In 1972 he was appointed Hamilton Harty Professor of Music at The Queen’s University of Belfast, where he remained until 1984, when he became Professor of Music at Newcastle University. In 1986 he was appointed to the Professorship at Durham University, where he remained until his retirement in 2001. Since then, as Emeritus Professor, he has continued teaching part-time. He has also held visiting fellowships in California and Washington DC, most recently in 2007 and 2008.

David Greer’s publications cover topics from the 15th to the 20th century, but his main area of research is English music of the 16th-17th centuries, focusing on the madrigal and lute song, and the inter-relationships between music and literature. Jointly with Frederick Sternfeld he published English Madrigal Verse (3rd edn., 1967), and many of his scholarly articles have appeared in literary journals. He has also edited much music of that period, including three volumes for Musica Britannica. He has recently completed an edition of Musica Transalpina for the series The English Madrigalists. David Greer also has an interest in British and Irish musical life in the 20th century, and has published work on the Irish composer and conductor Hamilton Harty. He is also author of A Numerous and Fashionable Audience: the Story of Elsie Swinton, a study of an Edwardian society lady. For many years he was the editor of the Journal (formerly Proceedings) of the Royal Musical Association, and was active on the Council of that organisation.

Earlier in his career David Greer was active as a conductor. In Birmingham he specialised in directing performances of 20th-century music. In Belfast and Newcastle he conducted the University Orchestra and Choir, while in Belfast he appeared regularly as guest conductor of the Ulster Orchestra. He has also served as adjudicator at music competitions at home and abroad.

Publications

1. '"What if a day": an examination of the words and music', Music and Letters, 43 (1962), 304-19
2. (ed.) John Adson: Three Courtly Masquing Ayres (Schott & Co., London, 1963)
3. 'An early setting of lines from "Venus and Adonis"', Music and Letters, 45 (1964), 126-9
4. (ed.) '"O, let us howl, some heavy note": commentary and transcription', in The Duchess of Malfi, ed. John Russell Brown (Methuen, London, 1964), 210-13
5. 'Thomas Heywood's parody of a lyric by Campion', Notes and Queries, new series, 12 (1965), 333-4
6. 'The lute songs of Thomas Morley', Lute Society Journal, 8 (1966), 25-37 (and music supplement)
7. 'Campion the musician', Lute Society Journal, 9 (1967), 7-16
8. (ed., with Frederick W. Sternfeld) E.H. Fellowes, English Madrigal Verse (3rd edition, revised and enlarged, Oxford, 1967), pp. xxx, 798
9. (ed.) English Lute Songs, 1597-1632 (9 vols., Scolar Press, Menston, 1967-1971): A series of facsimile reprints issued in 9 vols and 36 parts, of which 26 ed. by D.G.: 2-13, 20-23, 26-31, 33-36
10. 'The part-songs of the English lutenists', Proceedings of the Royal Musical Association, 94 (1967-8), 97-110
11. (ed.) Claudio Monteverdi: Three Sinfonias (Orfeo) (Faber Music, London, 1968)
12. (ed.) Giovanni Gabrieli: Canzon Quarti Toni (Faber Music, London, 1968)
13. (ed.) Twenty Songs from Printed Sources: The English Lute-Songs, 2nd series, 21 (Stainer & Bell, London, 1969)
14. (with K.A. Macfadyen) 'A detunable organ', The Musical Times, 110 (1969), 612-13
15. (ed., with F.W. Sternfeld), John Wilbye: Second Set of Madrigales (Scolar Press, Menston, 1972) (facsimile)
16. 'Music for Shakespeare's "Samingo": Lasso versus Anon' Shakespeare Quarterly, 23 (1972), 113-16
17. 'Songbooks 1500-1660', in New Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature, ed. George Watson, 1 (Cambridge, 1974), cols 1337-60
18. 'John Earsden', in Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart, ed. Friedrich Blume, 16 (Kassel, 1974), 1
19. '"...Thou court's delight": biographical notes on Henry Noel', Lute Society Journal, 17 (1975), 49-59
20. 'A Spanish song in King Lear', English Studies, 58 (1977), 186-7
21. (ed.) Hamilton Harty: His Life and Music (Blackstaff Press, Belfast, [1978], repr., Da Capo, New York, 1980), pp. xi, 161; chap. 6, 'Dear Sir Hamilton: Letters 1915-41' by D.G.
22. (ed.) Songs from Manuscript Sources, 2 vols. (Stainer & Bell, London, 1979)
23. (ed.) Hamilton Harty: Early Memories (The Queen's University, Belfast, 1979)
24. 'Sir Hamilton Harty 1879-1941', Annual Review (The Queen's University, Belfast, 1979), 34-43
25. 'The collaboration of Cathal O'Byrne and Cahir Healy in The Lane of the Thrushes', Irish Booklore, 4 (1978-80), 109-12
26. Articles on: Air (2); Childe; Cornysh; Cowper, Robert; Hampshire, Richard; Henry VIII; Phelyppis, Thomas; Sheryngham; Smert, Richard; Stretton, Thomas; Turges, Edmund; Trouluffe, John. In The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. Stanley Sadie, 20 vols. (Macmillan, London, 1980)
27. 'Two songs by William Corkine', Early Music, 11 (1983), 346-9
28. Gustav Mahler: Serenade for Voice and Wind Instruments. Instrumentation by David Greer (Boethius Press, Clarabricken, 1983)
29. 'Ulster Orchestra', in Robert R. Craven (ed.), Symphony Orchestras of the World (Greenwood Press, Westport, Conn., 1987), 339-41
30. (ed.) Collected English Lutenist Partsongs, Musica Britannica 53-4 (Stainer & Bell, London, 1987-9), pp. xxv, 238, xxv, 246
31. 'Hamilton Harty Manuscripts', The Music Review, 47 (1988, for 1986-7), 238-52
32. Additional note and Appendix II in Thomas Morley: The First Booke of Ayres (Stainer & Bell, London, 1988)
33. 'A Dowland curiosity', The Lute, 27 (1990 for 1987), 43-4
34. 'The composition of The Children of Lir', Irish Musical Studies I, ed. Gerard Gillen and Harry White (Dublin, 1990), 74-98
35. 'Five variations on "Farewell dear loue"', The Well Enchanting Skill: Essays in Honour of Frederick W. Sternfeld, ed. John Caldwell, Edward Olleson and Susan Wollenberg (Oxford, 1990), 213-29
36. 'Manuscript additions in early printed music', Music and Letters, 72 (1991), 523-35
37. '"Sleepest or wakest thou iolly shepheard"', Shakespeare Quarterly, 43 (1992), 224-6
38. 'Vocal Music I: up to 1660', The Blackwell History of Music in Britain: the Seventeenth Century, ed. Ian Spink (Oxford, 1992), 138-74
39. 'Songbook lyrics in England's Helicon', English Studies, 74 (1993), 236-45
40. Hamilton Harty's Swansong (Belfast: The Queen's University, 1994)
41. 'Irish Music Between the Wars: the case of Hamilton Harty', Glasba med obema vojnama, ed. Primo* Kuret (Ljubljana, 1995), 254-61
42. 'Manuscript Additions in "Parthenia" and other early English printed music in America', Music and Letters, 77 (1996), 169-82
43. 'Hamilton Harty's music for bells', The Music Review 52 (1997 for 1994), 138-40
44. A Numerous and Fashionable Audience: the story of Elsie Swinton (London: Thames Publishing, 1997), xii+172
45. ‘Bach’s Cantata no. 140 and the tradition of the alba’ Muzikoloki zbornik [Musicological Annual], 33 (Ljubljana, 1997), 49-55
46. ‘Elgar in Belfast’, The Elgar Society Journal, 10 (1998), 167-76
47. Articles on: Balfe, Michael; Benedict, Julius; Harty, Hamilton; Wallace, Vincent. In The Blackwell Companion to Modern Irish Culture, ed. W.J. McCormack (Blackwell, Oxford, 1999)
48. (ed.) Musicology and Sister Disciplines: past, present, future. Proceedings of the 16th Congress of the International Musicological Society London 1997 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000), pp. xxix, 681
49. (ed.) John Dowland: Ayres for Four Voices, Musica Britannica 6 (London, Stainer & Bell, 2000), pp. xxxv, 215
50. 'Thomas Campion', in Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart, 2nd edn., ed. Ludwig Finscher, Personenteil 4, col. 46-7 (Kassel: Bärenreiter, 2000)
51. Articles written or revised for The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd edition: Air $2, Childe, William Corkine, Cornysh, Robert Cowper, John Danyel, Richard Hampshire, Henry VIII, William Leighton, Philip Rosseter, Thomas Phelyppis, Sheryngham, Richard Smert, Thomas Stretton, John Trouluffe (London, Macmillan, 2001)
52. 'Michael East', 'Edmund H. Fellowes', 'Thomas Ford', in Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart, Personenteil 6 (Kassel: Bärenreiter, 2001), 2-4, 939-41, 1452-54
53. 'John Hilton, father and son', in Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart (Kassel: Bärenreiter, 2003), Personenteil 8, 1591-92
54. 'Robert Jones', in Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart (Kassel: Bärenreiter, 2003), Personenteil 9, 1183-84
55. Articles in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, ed. Brian Harrison (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004): John Daniel (15:69-70), John Dowland (16:782-85), Robert Dowland (16:785)
56. 'Music of Global Interest', Notes & Queries, 250 (new series 52) (2005), 216-19
57. ‘Sir Robert Ayton’s Translation of a Poem by Guarini’, Notes & Queries, 253 (2008), 225-27
58. Articles on William Croft, John Dowland, Orlando Gibbons, Hans Leo Hassler, Henry Lawes, James Nares, John Playford, Thomas Ravenscroft, Thomas Tallis, for The Canterbury Dictionary of Hymnology, ed. J. R. Watson et al. (in the press)
59. Musica Transalpina. The English Madrigalist 42 (London: Stainer & Bell, 2011, xvii + 302 pp.)

OTHER

Editor, Journal (formerly Proceedings) of the Royal Musical Association, 103-115 (1977-1990)

Sleeve notes

Harty, Violin Concerto, John Field Suite, Londonderry Air, Water Music, Variations on a Dublin Air: Chandos DBR 2001 (1979)
Harty, Irish Symphony, Comedy Overture: Chandos ABRD 1027 (1981)
Harty, Piano Concerto, In Ireland, With the Wild Geese: Chandos ABRD 1084 (1983)
Hamilton Harty and His Orchestral Music, booklet with Chandos DBRD 4002 (1983); repr. as Hamilton Harty: Orchestral Music, 3 booklets with CHAN 7035(3) (1996)
Harty, Comedy Overture, Fantasy Scenes (from an Eastern Romance), Piano Concerto: Naxos 8.557731 (2005)

Reviews in: Music and Letters, The Musical Times, Early Music, Theatre Research, Notes and Queries, Shakespeare Quarterly, Times Higher Education Supplement, Renaissance Quarterly, Notes

Research Interests

British and Irish music of the 19th and 20th centuries
British music of the 16th and 17th centuries
Music and poetry