Dr. Young, as he is known professionally,
is Mel to colleagues, friends and relatives, the
latter category knowing little of his career,
accomplishments and interests as he is simply
"Faye's man"! This appraisal, if ever read by
such relatives should rectify this generic travesty
and endemic proclivity which blights his actuality -
a persona with bifurcated roots in the Morgan and
Horne lineages effecting unification of two Keltic
streams, Brythonic and Goidelic.
His formal education was
acquired at The High School of Dundee, a private Alma Mater
whose history predates Eton College by 201 years,
Fettes College in Edinburgh by 631 years and is
but 30 years younger than the University of
Cambridge. One of the seven oldest schools
in Scotland, it was founded by the Abbot and monks
of Lindores Abbey as a Latin Grammar School,
attended by the Scottish patriot Sir William
Wallace.
Education here
is from the age of 4½ to 18, establishing
an exclusive ethos in each pupil.
The motto above the school arms is "Prestante
Domino ("With God As Our
Guide" But we were never told to
which god the nottto referred.)
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By the age of 17 Mel was Pipe
Major of The High School of Dundee CCF pipe band
in addition to having functioned as accompanist to
the various choirs at seasonal church services and
represented House of Airlie in track events.
High School of
Dundee
During the early period, i.e.
from the age of 7 to 13 he was trained as a
chorister at St. Paul's Cathedral, Dundee where he
studied organ, becoming an assistant organist by
the age of 12 and obtaining his first post one
year later as Organist & Choirmaster at a city
centre church - Dundee Methodist Church.
Dundee Methodist
Church
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Ward Chapel Congregational
Church
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Clepington Parish Church
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Gilfillan Memorial Church
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St. Mary's Episcopal Church
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The zenith of his career came as Master of The
Music at Perth Cathedral in 1981.
St. Ninian's
Cathedral Perth
Lieder Recital at St.
Salvador's
A graduate of Trinity College of
Music London, Mel was Head of Music for 18 years
at Linlathen High School, Dundee, lecturing weekly
to final year music students in methodology at
Dundee College of Education, conducting the St.
Cecilia Symphony Orchestra and his own choral
society the Chandos Choir which he founded in 1967
to provide additional annual performances of
oratorios and secular concerts in the Dundee arts'
calendar. He is also a founder member of
Tayside Opera, Dundee's Grand Opera Company
inaugurated in 1966, with which company he sang
lead tenor in a number of productions in the early
years.
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| Linlathen High School |
Dundee College of Education
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As a composer of organ and choral
works, he obtained his M.Mus. in composition in
2011. In 2014 he was awarded Fellowship of
the Academy of Saint Cecilia which promotes and
researches music of the Renaissance and Baroque
Periods. Mel appears in 'A Dictionary of
Composers for Organ' by Dr. John Henderson,
honorary librarian and archivist to the Royal
School of Church Music, and retains membership of
the Association of British Choral Directors.
Two of his organ works were commissioned by the
international recitalist Michael Bonaventure
Tomassi and given their first performance at the
Edinburgh Festival of 2002. His choral works
are featured regularly in various churches of both
Anglican and Roman Catholic faiths. His
instruments are pipe organ, pianoforte,
synthesizers, timpani, clarinet, alto & tenor
saxophones and blockflöten. A number of his
research papers appear on Academia.edu, the
website where academics freely ventilate
contemporary areas of research.
Addendum (the early years)
In his early
professional life, i.e. in the two post-school
decades, he qualified as a Registered
Psychiatric Nurse (training at Royal Dundee
Liff Hospital) and as a Registered General
Nurse (achieving Nurse of the Year in 1960 at
Stracathro Hospital, Brechin) before returning
to the 'Royal Dundee' as Recreational
Officer.
Royal Dundee Liff
Hospital
Stracathro Hospital from
the air
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Saint Andrew's Episcopal Church,
Brechin
Later as manager of the Dundee
Senior Training Centre and foundationary manager
of Dudhope Gardens Industrial Training Centre for
the disabled for 11 years, he became an Associate
Member of the Institute of Personnel Management
and in 1970 was awarded Fellowship of the
Institute of Therapeutic Industries for his
sterling work and innovative approaches to that
industry in Scotland. His teach-ins to
social work and nursing students, lectures to
various Societies for the Handicapped and Disabled
even included one instructional day given to the
Director of Social Work of Sydney, Australia!
(In the four year hiatus between the
above major management position and teacher
training at the Dundee College of Education, he
functioned as an Associate of Hambro's Merchant
Bank Group, in merchandising management with
House of Fraser and in finance and insurance
management with a local dealership of Ford Motor
Company. Ongoing training was assimilated
during this period at Hambro's Merchant Bank,
London, Harrod's Management Training Centre,
London and Ford Marketing Institute, Brentwood.)
Now a wheelchair-bound
arthritic double amputee with a complex health
scenario, he still exhibits periods of prolificacy
amid a continuous welter of research, website
maintenance and professional activity with his
wife Faye as pro bono consultant
Metaphysicians.
His Ph.D. is in comparative
religion and his second doctorate, that of
Metaphysics, was awarded by the College of Divine
Metaphysics, Glendora, California which also
conferred Fellowship of the college but all this
is in relation to another side of his life:- in
depth researcher into the Kymraec Mabinogi &
other Medieval Welsh literary works and on-line
tutoring in Metaphysics. These degrees he
assiduously obtained by distance tutoring from
1980 to the early 90s.
The College of
Divine Metaphysics
Glendora California
Indeed his two doctoral theses,
produced 'end-on' and in addition to his heavy
diurnal professional duties, engendered the need
for a triple coronary arterial by-pass in January
1992! He never ever forgets his wife Faye's
daily journeys for five weeks from Dundee to the
Glasgow Royal Infirmary and back to visit him as
he lay critically ill following three inter
thoracic operations within the first 10 days since
admission. As he is wont to say: "That's
dedication for you!"
Mel has another massive website which is devoted
to the examination of the personages in Fourth
Branch of the Mabinogi and, although there is some
relevant connection with quantum physics and in
pertinent Sanskrit concatenations, it may be
broadly classified as being in the 'New Age
Mysteries' genre - especially that stream devoted
to the pantheons of the Brythonic Kelt. Be
all that as it may, this academic ontogeny has no
place in his mundane professional timeline herein
ventilated.
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