The Tovey Professorship of Music was established as a named chair at the University of Edinburgh by an ordinance (no. 550) approved by the University Court in 1965 and by the Privy Council the following year.[1] The first person appointed to the chair was Michael Tilmouth, in 1971. He died in 1987.[2][3] The next appointment was Simon Frith, OBE, who held the chair from 2006 until retiring in 2017.[4]