The chair was previously a joint appointment with the directorship of the Scottish National Academy of Music (now the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland), although this practice ceased on the retirement of Sir Ernest Bullock in 1952.

The Chair of Music was established in 1928 with funds provided by brothers William and Sir Frederick Gardiner, Glasgow shipping merchants.

Whittaker had originally intended studying science but switched to music, and taught at Armstrong College of Durham University before his appointment to the chair.

[4] He was succeeded the same year by Hugh Macdonald, a lecturer in music at St John's College, Oxford, and noted scholar of Hector Berlioz.

He resigned in 1987 on his appointment as Avis Blewett Professor of Music at Washington University in St. Louis.

In 1990, Graham Hair, Head of Composition at Sydney Conservatorium of Music, was appointed to the chair.