| Variations of Name | Professor John Morehen JP MA DLitt PhD FRCO (Chm) FRCCO Hon. FGCM FRSA FISM |
| Biography | John Morehen's (b. 1941 - d. 1 April 2021) main interests lay in 16th and 17th Century music. For 50 years he was involved in major editorial projects, including the British Academy major project Early English Church Music (Assistant Editor, 1972-80, General Editor, 1980-95) and Musica Britannica (Editorial Committee member since 2003, and Trustee since 2007). His scholarly editions included the complete English church music of Christopher Tye, the complete Latin and English church music of Thomas Morley, the collected madrigals of Amner, Nicolson, John Hilton ('the Younger') and Croce, Byrd's Psalmes, Songs and Sonnets (1611), and Merulo's keyboard Recercari (1567). His edition of Ravenscroft's Pammelia/Deuteromelia (1609) and rounds and songs from Melismata (1611) appeared in 2012. He was the editor of English Choral Practice, 1400-1650 (CUP, 1995), the first book to survey the performing practices in English choral foundations during the 15th-17th centuries. He wrote widely on 16th and 17th Century music, and contributed to numerous reference works, including The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (2001 edition). His articles in The Transactions of the Cambridge Bibliographical Society dealt with Jacobean music printing. He gave presentations on computer applications in musicology at conferences in Orsay (1981), Paris (1984), The Hague (1986), Toronto (1989), and Washington DC (1993). His revised edition of the memoirs of Sir Herbert Brewer, organist of Gloucester Cathedral (d.1928), was published in 2015 to mark Brewer's sesquicentenary. His last publication was an anthology of Elizabethan rounds and canons (Stainer & Bell, 2018).
For 25 years (1964-89) Morehen was a regular BBC solo organ recitalist, giving broadcast recitals from Kings College Chapel, Cambridge, Hampstead Parish Church, St Georges Chapel, Windsor Castle, The Great Hall of Nottingham University, St Marys Church (Clifton Village), Southwell Minster, and Lincoln Cathedral. His championship of contemporary music has involved numerous first (and first broadcast) performances, including works by Christopher Brown, Adrian Cruft, Martin Dalby, Paul Patterson, Ned Rorem, Leo Sowerby, Bohuslav Martinu, Egon Wellesz and Peter Wishart. He conducted the USA Premiere of Maurice Duruflé's Mass Cum Jubilo in Washington Cathedral in 1968. Conductors for whom he has prepared choirs include Yehudi Menuhin, Sir Charles Mackerras and Sir David Willcocks.
John Morehen was a JP for Nottingham from 1991-2011. Within Nottinghamshire he served as Conductor of the Nottingham Bach Choir (1982-9), Music Advisor to Nottingham Lunchtime Proms (1986-9), Convenor of the North Midlands Chapter of The Royal Musical Association (1988-91), Chairman of the Nottingham Centre of The Incorporated Society of Musicians (1992-95), Conductor of The Nottingham University Singers (1984-2002), and President of the East Midlands Choirs Charitable Trust (1993-2000). He was Patron of the Nottingham Young Musician competition (since 2003), President of Nottingham Harmonic Choir (since 2008), a Past-President of The Nottingham and District Society of Organists, and a member of the Southwell Music Festival Advisory Council (2015-19). He was a member of the Binns Organ Restoration Appeal Fund Committee, which secured the funding for the restoration of the organ in Nottingham's Albert Hall.
John's musical compositions, comprising ceremonial brass fanfares and Christmas carols and anthems, were published by Encore Publications. Amongst the venues in which his compositions have been performed are The Mansion House, Westminster Abbey, Washington National Cathedral and St Thomas's Church, Fifth Avenue, New York.
John Morehen's national appointments included:
Adviser to The Leverhulme Trust and The Humanities Research Board (now The Arts and Humanities Research Council)
Subject Assessor (Music) for the Higher Education Funding Council for England (1994/5)
UK representative at the European Pilot Project for Evaluating Quality in Higher Education (Brussels, 1995)
Member of the 'Music Research Panel' of The Humanities Research Board (1994-7)
Member of the Advisory Committee of Arts and Humanities Data Service (Performing Arts) (1995-2003)
Music Adviser to the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission (1996-2000)
President of The Incorporated Society of Musicians (2003-4)
Trustee of Chetham's School of Music, Manchester (2007-12)
In the Guild of Church Musicians John was Fellowship Director from 2002-9, and he has sat on the Guild's Academic Board (2002-14) and Council (2004-14). He has served as Examiner at numerous UK universities, and was an External Examiner to the University of Malta from 2001-12. John and his wife Marie (an alumna of The New England Conservatory of Music, Boston, and of American University, Washington DC) live in rural Nottinghamshire.
Johns interests included antiques, genealogy, enjoying country life, and indulging in nostalgia. |