Roger David Edward Nichols (born 6 April 1939) is an English musicologist, critic, translator and author. After an early career as a university lecturer he became a full-time freelance writer in 1980. He is particularly known for his works on French music, including books about
Claude Debussy,
Olivier Messiaen,
Maurice Ravel,
Francis Poulenc and the Parisian musical scene of the years after the First World War. Among his translations are the English versions of the standard biography of
Gabriel Fauré by
Jean-Michel Nectoux and of
Harry Halbreich's study of
Arthur Honegger.
Life and career
Nichols was born in the English city of
Ely, Cambridgeshire, the son of Edward Nichols and his wife Dorothy, née West, who were respectively a lawyer and an accountant.[1] He was educated at
Harrow, where he read classics, and
Worcester College, Oxford, where he studied under
Edmund Rubbra.[2] In 1964, he married Sarah Edwards, a teacher; they have two sons and a daughter. After graduating he became a schoolmaster at
St Michael's College, Tenbury (1966–1973), after which he was a lecturer for the
Open University (1975–1976) and the
University of Birmingham (1978–1980). In 1982 he studied piano in Paris with
Magda Tagliaferro.[3]
After research into the songs of
Claude Debussy, Nichols's first book, published by the
Oxford University Press (OUP) was a study of that composer (1972), an 86-page work, part of the OUP's "Oxford Studies of Composers" series.[1][3] Later books include studies of
Messiaen (1974) and
Ravel (1977), and as editor or translator or both, collections of letters and reminiscences by and about Debussy (1987), Ravel (1987 and 2011),
Berlioz (1995),
Satie (1995) and
Mendelssohn (1997). Among his most substantial translations are the English versions of
Jean-Michel Nectoux's Gabriel Fauré: les voix du clair-obscur (1990), published by the
Cambridge University Press as Gabriel Fauré: A Musical Life (1991),[4] and
Harry Halbreich's Arthur Honegger (1992), published by the
Amadeus Press under the same title (1999).[5][n 1]
In 2002 Nichols produced The Harlequin Years: Music in Paris 1917–1929.[2][3]The Musical Times said of it, "The Harlequin Years is a marvellous book, and it deserves to be read by the widest possible audience. ... A classic."[7] This volume grew out of a 12-part series of the same name for
BBC Radio 3.[8] From 1980 to 1992 Nichols also presented the Radio 3 drive time programme Mainly for Pleasure, now called In Tune.[n 2] Among his other broadcasts on Radio 3 was a five-part series on the life and art of
Emmanuel Chabrier, with
Clive Swift speaking the composer's words.[10]
Through Roman Eyes, (with Kenneth McLeish). Cambridge University Press. 1976.
ISBN9780521203456.
Messiaen, Oxford Studies of Composers. Oxford University Press. 1975–1986.
ISBN9780193154285.
Through Greek Eyes, (with Kenneth McLeish). Cambridge University Press. 1974.
ISBN9780521085601.
Debussy, Oxford Studies of Composers. Oxford University Press. 1972–1975.
ISBN9780193154261.
Translations
Southon, Nicolas (2014) [2011]. Francis Poulenc: Articles and Interviews – Notes from the Heart [J'écris ce qui me chante] (abridged translation). Ashgate.
ISBN9781409466222.
Saint-Saëns, Camille (2008). Camille Saint-Saëns on Music and Musicians. Oxford University Press.
ISBN9780195320169.
Henri Dutilleux: Music – Mystery and Memory [Mystère et mémoire des sons, entretiens avec Claude Glayman]. Ashgate. 2003 [1997, Actes Sud].
ISBN9780754608998.
Halbreich, Harry (1999) [1992, Fayard]. Arthur Honegger [Arthur Honegger: Un musicien dans la cité des hommes]. Amadeus Press.
ISBN9781574670417.
Nectoux, Jean-Michel (1991) [1990, Flammarion]. Gabriel Fauré: A Musical Life [Gabriel Fauré: les voix du clair-obscur]. Cambridge University Press.
ISBN9780521235242.
Livy (1982). Livy: Stories of Rome. Cambridge University Press.
ISBN9780521228169.
Editions
Burton, Richard D. E. (2016). Nichols, Roger (ed.). Olivier Messiaen: Texts, Contexts, & Intertexts. Oxford University Press.
ISBN9780190277949. Left unfinished after Burton's death.
Contributions to symposia
"La sexualité de Maurice Ravel", in Cahiers Maurice Ravel no 16, 2013–2014
"Ravel and the twentieth century", in The Cambridge Companion to Ravel, edited by Deborah Mawer, Cambridge, 2000
"The reception of Debussy's music in Britain up to 1914", in Debussy Studies, edited by Richard Langham Smith, Cambridge University Press, 1997
"Claude Debussy", "Francis Poulenc", in The New Grove Twentieth-Century Masters, Macmillan, 1980
Halbreich, Harry (1999) [1992]. Arthur Honegger. Translated by Roger Nichols. Portland, Oregon: Amadeus Press.
ISBN978-1-57467-041-7.
Nectoux, Jean-Michel (1991) [1990]. Gabriel Fauré: A Musical Life. Translated by Roger Nichols. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
ISBN978-0-521-23524-2.
Nichols, Roger (2002). The Harlequin Years: Music in Paris 1917–1929. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.
ISBN978-0-520-23736-0.