Peter Burkholder, Jacobs School of Music, IU Bloomington
Distinguished Professor
Published March 31, 2006
From rewriting the definitive text on the history of Western music, to establishing himself as one of the world’s foremost authorities on American composer Charles Ives, to developing a greater understanding of the concept of “musical borrowing,” musicologist Peter Burkholder has made a lasting impact on music scholarship throughout the world.
That Burkholder is regarded with such awe, appreciation and fondness by his colleagues and peers is testament to his generous spirit, imaginative scholarship and leadership in the field of music history.
“He is a central figure in American music studies,” said Gwyn Richards, dean of the IU Jacobs School of Music, noting Burkholder’s international recognition as a scholar and as president of the American Musicological Society and the Charles Ives Society.
Colleagues at other universities echo Richards’ assessment. “Peter is universally respected and accepted as a major musicologist—perhaps the major American musicologist—of his generation,” said H. Wiley Hitchcock, Distinguished Professor emeritus of music at the City University of New York.
Dr. Burkholder is on the very top of his profession nationally and internationally. As a faculty member of IU, he serves as an example to many others as to what an academic citizen should be.”—Cellist Janos Starker, IU Distinguished Professor of music
Burkholder’s groundbreaking scholarship on musical “borrowing”—the use of existing material as a basis for new composition—continues to enlighten historians as to how music is created and stylized and how it evolves across cultures and centuries. Similarly, his research and writings on the legendary composer Charles Ives remain essential reading for all subsequent Ives scholarship.
Burkholder’s revision of A History of Western Music (7th edition, Norton, 2005), which is the quintessential resource for the study of Western music in higher education, reflects the author’s belief that to fully explain music’s significance, historians should attempt to understand the people who composed, performed and appreciated it.
Bryon Almén studied piano literature with Burkholder at IU 15 years ago and chose him to be his dissertation adviser. Today, he teaches music theory at the University of Texas at Austin. Burkholder remains his friend and role model, embodying everything that is most “admirable and worthy” in his profession, Almén said. “If I communicate only a fraction of the humanistic spirit, the love of learning, the empathic concern for others and the integrity that I have seen in Dr. Burkholder, then I will consider my career to have been a great success.”
