Clifford Bartlett obituary
This article is more than 4 years oldMy friend Clifford Bartlett, who has died aged 79, was a music librarian and editor, and a reviewer and publisher of early music. He became the go-to person for everyone seeking advice on how to obtain and perform music from the middle ages to the 19th century.
Clifford was born in London, the son of Alfred Bartlett, a builder and, latterly, surveyor for Lewisham borough council, and Nora (nee Hiskey), who also worked for Lewisham council. He won a scholarship to Dulwich college and in 1958 an exhibition in classics to Magdalene College, Cambridge, receiving an MA in 1961.
After briefly working in London University library and then the library of the Royal Academy of Music (where he catalogued its remarkable collection of music manuscripts including Handel’s then unknown Gloria), he became assistant music librarian at the BBC in 1970. He left in 1984 to establish the publishing company King’s Music (later the Early Music Company) with his wife, Elaine (nee King), a former teacher; they had married in 1975. They settled in Godmanchester near Huntingdon (subsequently moving to nearby Wyton), benefiting from the excellent support the local authority offered for their children, Clare and John, both with learning difficulties.
He had become well known while still at the BBC for his exceptional knowledge of early music and his generous willingness to supply advice and music to everyone from world-famous conductors appearing at the Proms to humble amateurs, and with King’s Music he began to publish on a large scale. He started with photocopied reprints of 18th-century chamber and orchestral music and then issued hundreds of new computer-set editions, made in collaboration with Brian Clark.
His catalogue has an extraordinary range, though with a focus on Giovanni Gabrieli, Monteverdi (particularly groundbreaking editions of the 1610 Vespers and the operas), Henry Purcell and Handel. He provided performers with what they needed: plain editions at an affordable price. He also published fine scholarly editions with OUP, notably of Handel’s Coronation Anthems (1990) and Messiah (1998); he assisted Hugh Keyte and Andrew Parrott with The New Oxford Book of Carols (1992) and John Rutter with his Oxford Choral Classics series. He was an incisive and knowledgable reviewer of books and music, initially in Early Music News and from 1994 in his own Early Music Review.
Clifford was not just remarkable for his generosity to musicians. He and Elaine were determined to give their children the best possible life, particularly finding the time to take them on foreign holidays.
His last years were clouded by Alzheimer’s disease. He is survived by Elaine, Clare and John, and by his sister, Kathleen.
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