Leo Treitler
Encyclopedia
Leo Treitler is an American musicologist born in Dortmund
, Germany
, and is Distinguished Professor at the Graduate Center
of the City University of New York
.
Treitler studied at the University of Chicago
under Grosvenor Cooper, achieving the BA in 1950 and the MA in 1957. He received an MFA from Princeton University
in 1960 and a Ph.D. in 1967; there he studied under Oliver Strunk
, Arthur Mendel
, and Roger Sessions
. From 1961 to 1965 he taught at the University of Chicago, and following this at Brandeis University
and SUNY Stony Brook.
Treitler's major work is in Medieval
and Renaissance music
, particularly in Gregorian chant
and the earliest polyphony
. He also published a series of essays exploring historiography
in music history, which were collected, with other works on music history and theory, in Music and the Historical Imagination. He revised Oliver Strunk
's Source Readings in Music History in 1998.
Dortmund
Dortmund is a city in Germany. It is located in the Bundesland of North Rhine-Westphalia, in the Ruhr area. Its population of 585,045 makes it the 7th largest city in Germany and the 34th largest in the European Union....
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, and is Distinguished Professor at the Graduate Center
CUNY Graduate Center
The Graduate Center of the City University of New York brings together graduate education, advanced research, and public programming to midtown Manhattan hosting 4,600 students, 33 doctoral programs, 7 master's programs, and 30 research centers and institutes...
of the City University of New York
City University of New York
The City University of New York is the public university system of New York City, with its administrative offices in Yorkville in Manhattan. It is the largest urban university in the United States, consisting of 23 institutions: 11 senior colleges, six community colleges, the William E...
.
Treitler studied at the University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
under Grosvenor Cooper, achieving the BA in 1950 and the MA in 1957. He received an MFA from Princeton University
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
in 1960 and a Ph.D. in 1967; there he studied under Oliver Strunk
Oliver Strunk
William Oliver Strunk was an American musicologist.Strunk was the son of Professor William Strunk, Jr. . He attended Cornell University from 1917 to 1919 and again in 1927, studying under Otto Kinkeldey...
, Arthur Mendel
Arthur Mendel
Arthur Mendel was an American musicologist.- Literary works :* music critics on the "Nation" * editor of "The Bach Reader", 1945...
, and Roger Sessions
Roger Sessions
Roger Huntington Sessions was an American composer, critic, and teacher of music.-Life:Sessions was born in Brooklyn, New York, to a family that could trace its roots back to the American revolution. His mother, Ruth Huntington Sessions, was a direct descendent of Samuel Huntington, a signer of...
. From 1961 to 1965 he taught at the University of Chicago, and following this at Brandeis University
Brandeis University
Brandeis University is an American private research university with a liberal arts focus. It is located in the southwestern corner of Waltham, Massachusetts, nine miles west of Boston. The University has an enrollment of approximately 3,200 undergraduate and 2,100 graduate students. In 2011, it...
and SUNY Stony Brook.
Treitler's major work is in Medieval
Medieval music
Medieval music is Western music written during the Middle Ages. This era begins with the fall of the Roman Empire and ends sometime in the early fifteenth century...
and Renaissance music
Renaissance music
Renaissance music is European music written during the Renaissance. Defining the beginning of the musical era is difficult, given that its defining characteristics were adopted only gradually; musicologists have placed its beginnings from as early as 1300 to as late as the 1470s.Literally meaning...
, particularly in Gregorian chant
Gregorian chant
Gregorian chant is the central tradition of Western plainchant, a form of monophonic liturgical music within Western Christianity that accompanied the celebration of Mass and other ritual services...
and the earliest polyphony
Polyphony
In music, polyphony is a texture consisting of two or more independent melodic voices, as opposed to music with just one voice or music with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chords ....
. He also published a series of essays exploring historiography
Historiography
Historiography refers either to the study of the history and methodology of history as a discipline, or to a body of historical work on a specialized topic...
in music history, which were collected, with other works on music history and theory, in Music and the Historical Imagination. He revised Oliver Strunk
Oliver Strunk
William Oliver Strunk was an American musicologist.Strunk was the son of Professor William Strunk, Jr. . He attended Cornell University from 1917 to 1919 and again in 1927, studying under Otto Kinkeldey...
's Source Readings in Music History in 1998.
Books
- The Aquitanian Repertories of Sacred Monody in the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries (dissertation, Princeton U., 1967)
- Music and the Historical Imagination. (Cambridge, MA, 1989) [collection of essays]
- Source Readings in Music History. New York, 1998 (orig. ed. O. StrunkOliver StrunkWilliam Oliver Strunk was an American musicologist.Strunk was the son of Professor William Strunk, Jr. . He attended Cornell University from 1917 to 1919 and again in 1927, studying under Otto Kinkeldey...
, pub. 1950) - With Voice and Pen: Coming to Know Medieval Song and How it Was Made. (Oxford, 2003)
On the rise of Western plainchant and notation
- Homer and Gregory: The Transmission of Epic Poetry and Plainchant. The Musical Quarterly Vol. 60, No. 3 (Jul., 1974), pp. 333-372
- "Centonate" Chant: "Übles Flickwerk" or "E pluribus unus?". Journal of the American Musicological Society Vol. 28, No. 1 (Spring, 1975), pp. 1-23
- The Early History of Music Writing in the West. Journal of the American Musicological Society Vol. 35, No. 2 (Summer, 1982), pp. 237-279
- Reading and Singing: On the Genesis of Occidental Music-Writing. Early Music History Vol. 4 (1984), pp. 135-208
- The "Unwritten" and "Written Transmission" of Medieval Chant and the Start-Up of Musical Notation. The Journal of Musicology Vol. 10, No. 2 (Spring, 1992), pp. 131-191
On historiography and musical analysis
- The Present as History. Perspectives of New Music Vol. 7, No. 2 (Spring, 1969), pp. 1-58
- History, Criticism, and Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. 19th-Century Music Vol. 3, No. 3 (Mar., 1980), pp. 193-210
- "To Worship That Celestial Sound": Motives for Analysis. The Journal of Musicology Vol. 1, No. 2 (Apr., 1982), pp. 153-170