It is with great sadness that I report the passing on 9 June of Robert Pascall, Honorary Professor of Music Philology at Cambridge University, Professor of Music at Nottingham University from 1988 to 1998, and Professor at Bangor University from 1998 to 2005.
Robert’s contribution to the development of music analysis in Britain is hard to overestimate. He was President of the Society for Music Analysis from 1996 to 2000, was instrumental in the founding of the journal Music Analysis, and served as Chair of its Editorial Board from from 1989 to 2002. He was also one of the world’s leading Brahms scholars, serving as Vice-chair of the New Complete Brahms Edition at its founding in 1991 and subsequently on its editorial board. His editions of Brahms’s symphonies, encompassing the arrangements for one and two pianos, were published between 1996 and 2013. In addition to his editorial work, he was a pioneer of research into the historically informed performance of Brahms’s music. An Honorary Member of the Royal Musical Association, in 1978 he founded the biennial cycle of nineteenth-century music conferences.
Robert will be remembered with tremendous affection by theorists, analysts and musicologists in the UK and abroad. He was meticulous in his scholarship, energetic in his dedication to academic citizenship, and selfless in his support and encouragement for generations of young scholars. With his passing, the SMA has lost one of its founding figures.
Julian Horton
Professor of Music Theory and Analysis, University of Durham
President, Society for Music Analysis