Malcolm Macdonald 1948-2014

[Albion]

Sad news: Malcolm Macdonald, the tireless champion of Havergal Brian, John Foulds and many other neglected composers has died aged 66. His three-volume survey of Brian's symphonies remains the cornerstone study of this repertoire and his contributions to International Record Review and numerous CD booklets were always a pleasure to read. His efforts on behalf of the two composers mentioned above have brought them out of obscurity and we owe him a great debt for his untiring advocacy.

http://slippedisc.com/2014/05/an-encyclopedia-of-music-knowledge-has-died/

He was a personal friend of Colin Mackie (Dundonnell) and my thoughts go out to him and Malcolm's family.

[Gauk]

Very sorry to hear that news - a great loss.

[autoharp]

That's a bit of a shock. He was a contemporary of mine at University in the late 60s and a couple of years later introduced me to the music of Vermeulen and Langgaard amongst others. Unfortunately we bumped into each other only occasionally in recent years.

A long time ago he once told me that his ambition was to hear every piece of music that had been written. I wonder to what extent he succeeded.

[Dundonnell]

I shall simply copy what I wrote on Tuesday night, minutes after hearing of Malcolm's death, and posted on my Facebook page. It is a very personal statement but Malcolm and I were very close friends. Malcolm's partner, Libby, asked me to cross-post it on Malcolm's own FB page and I have no hesitation therefore in posting it here:

"I have just heard the dreadful news that my dear friend Malcolm MacDonald has died. Malcolm had been ill for quite a long time but had seemed to be coping remarkably with such a serious illness. Malcolm and I became very close friends at school when I was about 14 and he a year younger. We shared a burning passion for Music, J.R.R. Tolkien and Roman and Naval History. My first holiday abroad was as a guest of his mother and father. I spent huge amounts of my free time in his company. Although our paths separated when he went off to Downing College, Cambridge in 1966 we kept in regular touch during term times and saw each other a lot through the vacations. In 1967 Malcolm, Hugh Macdonald and I had a memorable holiday together in Rome. Malcom wrote me a letter every week from Cambridge for the next four years, letters packed with news about his activities and his observations on music, letters always many pages long. I have them all still, bundled together. We saw far too little of each other over the last 40 years but kept in touch by letter and email. I viewed with huge admiration his achievements in writing his marvellous books on Brahms, Schoenberg and, of course, Havergal Brian-on whom he became the leading authority (and whose name he first heard of from me 51 years ago now). He has at least lived to see almost all of the HB symphonies on disc but his three incredibly eloquent volumes on these symphonies represent part, but a major part, of a legacy of writing on music which was revered by other writers. I find it extremely difficult to accept his death (the second of my oldest and dearest friends to die within the last three months). I owe to Malcolm and my own late father so much of my love of music. I deeply mourn his passing."

[jimfin]

Oh dear dear, what a dreadful loss. I didn't know him at all personally, but he is a personal hero of mine, and almost single-handedly introduced me to Brian, via his  survey of the symphonies, editing the journalism of Brian and endless other articles and sleeve notes. So very young, and yet he knew Brian personally.