THE founder of the University of York's music department, Professor Wilfrid Mellers, has died, aged 94.

The prolific composer and author, whose love of music ranged from The Beatles and Bob Dylan to Bach and Beethoven, joined the city's university on its formation in 1964 to teach in the English department, rapidly becoming its first professor of music and building up a distinctive music school.

He was renowned for his charismatic enthusiasm for music and his innovative approach to teaching, often sitting cross-legged on a table or even a grand piano and delighting in the sheer sound of music.

He was the author of about 20 books on music commentary and analysis and a huge number of articles and reviews.

He was also a prolific composer, writing more than 60 pieces of music, and was still writing into his late 80s, publishing his last two books in 2001 and 2002.

The 2004 York Late Music Festival opened with a weekend tribute to Prof Mellers and later that year a 90th birthday tribute concert was held in his honour at Downing College, Cambridge, where he read English upon leaving school.

Prof Mellers was born in April 1914 in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, and was educated at Leamington College, from where he won a scholarship to Downing College.

He gained a first class honours degree, began drawing and painting and wrote reams of poetry. But his first love was music and he began composing, then studying for a further degree, this time in music.

In 1945 he was appointed to teach English and music at Downing, later moving to Birmingham University as an extra-mural tutor in music.

In 1960-62 he was the visiting professor of music at the University of Pittsburg in the United States, before taking up his post in York in 1964.

He retired from the university in 1981.

The same year he was awarded an honorary doctorate of philosophy by City University, London, then appointed an OBE in 1982 and had an Emeritus Professorship conferred upon him by the University of York in 1984.

Prof Mellers was married three times, first to Vera then to Peggy, with whom he had two daughters, Caroline and Judy, and a granddaughter, Helen. In 1987 he married Robin, who had five children of her own.

He also had a third daughter, Sarah, from a previous relationship.