Nicholas Temperley, professor emeritus of the School of Music, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, died April 8. Born and educated in England, Temperley came to the University of Illinois in 1959 as a postdoctoral fellow, and he joined the faculty in 1967. He taught classes in the School of Music, supervised over fifty dissertations and theses, and served on dozens of doctoral committees. His publications include The Music of the English Parish Church (1979), Hymn Tune Index (1998), editions of music (including volumes for the Musica Britannica series, and an edition of Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique), and Bound for America: Three British Composers (2003), as well as several edited essay collections and scores of book chapters and journal articles.
After retiring in 1996, Temperley continued to be a researcher, writer, and editor. He also went on to guide the establishment of the North American British Music Studies Association [NABMSA] (2003) and serve as its first president, and he endowed prizes for student research: the Nicholas Temperley Dissertation Prize (later the Nicholas Temperley Musicology Research Scholarship, University of Illinois) and the Nicholas Temperley Student Paper Prize [NABMSA]. In 1977, he was one of the co-founders of the Midwest Victorian Studies Association [MSVA], a group that sought to promote the interdisciplinary study of Victorian culture.
In 2012, a Festschrift in his honor (Music and Performance Culture in Nineteenth-Century Britain, ed. Bennett Zon) was published. In April 2019, MVSA presented him with its Lifetime Achievement Award for his work in bringing music into the purview of Victorianists.
A memorial service will be planned for a later date. Memorial gifts may be sent to the Evelyn Burnett Underwood fund at the Urbana School District, which provides musical instruments to students who cannot otherwise afford them (contact Stacey Peterik at speterik@usd116.org).
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