1922 Encyclopædia Britannica/Wooldridge, Harry Ellis

25318241922 Encyclopædia Britannica, Volume 32 — Wooldridge, Harry Ellis

WOOLDRIDGE, HARRY ELLIS (1845–1917), English musical antiquary, was born in 1845. He studied art, and became a student of the Royal Academy in 1865, about the same time commencing his researches into early music. He received various commissions for artistic works, the most important being a reredos for St. Martin's church, Brighton, and the frescoes in St. John's church, Hampstead. At the same time his reputation as in authority on music was steadily rising, and in 1895 he was elected Slade professor of Fine Arts at Oxford, a post which he held until 1904. His chief works on music are a new edition of Chappel’s Popular Music of the Olden Time, which appeared under the title Old English Popular Music (1893) and The Polyphonic Period, parts I. and II. (vols. i. and ii. of the Oxford History of Music, 1901–5). He died in London on Feb. 13 1917.