William Eric Fenby
(b Scarborough, 1906; d Scarborough, 1997). Eng. organist, composer, and teacher. His unique claim to fame was that, at the age of 22 and totally unknown, he volunteered to go to Grez‐sur‐Loing to act as amanuensis to the blind and paralysed Delius. Several of Delius's late works, incl. A Song of Summer, the 3rd vn. sonata, Songs of Farewell, Fantastic Dance, Irmelin Prelude and the Idyll, were dictated to Fenby, a laborious and sometimes acrimonious process recorded in Fenby's book Delius as I knew him (1936, rev. 1981). Also arr. some of Delius's mus., and after the composer's death in 1934 was active in writing about it, and in working for the Delius Trust. Comps. incl. a sym. and the ov. Rossini on Ilkla Moor, and mus. for the film Jamaica Inn. Mus. dir. North Riding Training Coll. 1948–62. Prof. of harmony, RAM 1964–77. Art. dir. Delius centenary fest. 1962. OBE 1962.
The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music. 5th Edition. Copyright © Oxford University Press, 2007. All rights reserved.