Frederic Basil Rowley Smallman (30 June 1921 – 8 December 2001), commonly known as Basil Smallman, was an English music scholar.
Born in Croydon on 30 June 1921,[1] Smallman was educated at Cranleigh School, New College, Oxford, and the Royal College of Music.[2] After war service, he completed the Bachelor of Music degree at Oxford in 1946–47,[3] and then completed a Diploma in Education in 1947.[4] He was then the music master at Malvern College between 1947 and 1949,[2] before he was appointed to a lectureship in music at the University of Nottingham in 1950; for a time after 1955 he also worked as an accompanist with the BBC. Promotion to a senior lectureship at Nottingham in 1961 was followed in 1964 by his appointment to the James and Constance Alsop Chair of Music at the University of Liverpool.[1][2][4] He was Dean of the Faculty of Arts there between 1969 and 1971, Public Orator between 1972 and 1973, and Pro-Vice-Chancellor between 1973 and 1976; on retirement in 1985, he was appointed an emeritus professor.[1][5] Smallman was especially interested in the German Baroque Passion and Heinrich Schütz; in retirement, he expanded his academic output, and published three monographs. He died on 8 December 2001, and was survived by his three children and his wife Ann,[3] née Hesketh-Williams.[2]