Obituary: Raymond Monelle, 72, music lecturer

EDINBURGH University music lecturer, conductor, author and critic Raymond Monelle has died aged 72.

Mr Monelle was a member of the University's music faculty for more than 30 years, before going on to lecture and critique music in Europe and Mexico following his retirement in 2002.

He was belatedly given an honorary professorship in recognition of his work.

Born in Bristol on 19 August, 1937, he was educated at Bristol Grammar School and Hymer's College in Hull.

He gained his degree in modern history at Pembroke College, Oxford, a BMus at the Royal College of Music in London, and later a PhD for his thesis on the 16th-century opera style "opera seria".

He came to Edinburgh University in 1969, establishing himself as a popular lecturer and conductor of the university society choir and opera club.

He was immensely proud of his students, and inspired many to become professional musicians and academics.

In the 1970s he conducted performances of Stravinsky's The Wedding, Handel's Judas Maccabaeus and, during the heyday of the university opera club, productions of Boieldieu's La Dame Blanche, Granados's Goyescas, Falla's Master Peter's Puppet Show, Monteverdi's Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda, Weber's Oberon and Offenbach's Orpheus in the Underworld.

His love of Wagner prompted a series of annual four-day study courses at Grantown-on-Spey and on the Holy Isle. He also nurtured the careers of two of Scotland's most notable composers, Donald Runnicles and James MacMillan.

During his academic career he wrote many books, including a major title on musical semiotics called The Sense of Music.

Towards the end of his life he wrote a novel, yet to be published, entitled Bird in the Apple Tree, about the adolescence of the composer Alban Berg.

Mr Monelle was also a classical music critic for Opera magazine and the Independent newspaper.

He was a devoted father to his two daughters Cathy and Julia. He composed piano pieces in their honour soon after they were born, and loved spending evenings singing and playing music as a family.

He married his second wife Mhairead last year, with the ceremony incorporating one of his own organ pieces.

Daughter Cathy said: "My favourite memories of my childhood are of us gathering round the piano, him playing and us singing. When he was not being an academic he was very amusing.

"He was always smartly dressed and never went out without a tie on.

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He died on 12 March, following a long battle with cancer, and is survived by his wife, his sister Suzy and two daughters. More than 150 people attended his funeral mass, at Old St Paul's Church, featuring music he had composed.