Tovey, Donald (Francis) (1875–1940)

English music scholar, pianist, and composer. His music is classical in form and style; as a pianist he was for some time in the front rank with his interpretations of Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms. He was Reid professor of music at Edinburgh University from 1914, and conducted the Reid orchestral concerts there. He wrote several books, including six volumes of Essays in Musical Analysis, which were notes for performances by the Reid Orchestra.

From childhood his knowledge of the musical classics, his memory, and his contrapuntal skill were prodigious. At 13 he was a pupil of Hubert Parry (1848–1918). In 1894, after giving a concert with Joseph Joachim at Windsor, he went to Balliol College, Oxford, where he studied classics. He distinguished himself there by brilliant scholarship and by taking a leading part in the university's musical life. He gave piano recitals at St James's Hall in London 1900–01, and in Berlin and Vienna 1901–02. In 1914 he was appointed Reid professor of music at Edinburgh University, a post he held until his death. His Essays and Lectures on Music were edited by H Foss in 1950.

Works Stage the opera The Bride of Dionysus (1929); incidental music for Maeterlinck's Aglavaine et Sélysette.

Orchestral symphony in D major; suite for wind band; piano concerto (1903), cello concerto (1935).

Other two string quartets; conjectural completion of Bach's Art of Fugue (1931).