Nigel Fortune

Nigel Cameron Fortune (5 December 1924 – 10 April 2009) was an English musicologist and political activist. Along with Thurston Dart, Oliver Neighbour, and Stanley Sadie he was one of Britain's leading musicologists of the post-World War II generation. He played an instrumental part in improving professional musicological standards in England through research initiatives, conferences and scholarly publications. This greatly increased his country's international reputation in the field of music scholarship.

Fortune's speciality in musicological research was in 17th-century Italian music and on the lives and works of George Friederich Handel and Henry Purcell. He contributed articles to several encyclopaedias and was notably one of the senior editors of The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. He also contributed writings or served as an editor to numerous music publications and books. For many years he was the co-editor of the journal Music & Letters.

Born in Northumberland, Fortune was the son of an insurance salesman. An only child, he moved with his parents at the age of 10 to the Handsworth, West Midlands area of Birmingham. He lived in the same house there for his entire life; notably living next door to the mother of British Labour Party MP Clare Short. He served as Short's agent during most of her time as an MP and was also highly active in the education system in Birmingham; serving for many years as a chairman of school governors.

After receiving his childhood education at the Handsworth Grammar School, Fortune attended the University of Birmingham from 1947–1950 where he earned degrees in music and the Italian language. He went on to earn a PhD from the University of Cambridge in 1954; becoming the second person to be awarded a doctorate for music in the history of the United Kingdom. His doctoral thesis on the development of monody in Italy was overseen by Thurston Dart. With Dart he later edited John Dowland's Ayres for Four Voices (1953–63). One of his other important mentors at Cambridge was Professor Sir Anthony Lewis, then honorary secretary of the Purcell Society and a co-founder of the Musica Britannica. With Lewis he worked on The Works of Henry Purcell, "which played a significant role in establishing the position of the major English composer".

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