William Oliver Strunk was an American musicologist.

Strunk was the son of Professor William Strunk, Jr. (1869-1946). He attended Cornell University

Cornell University

Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...

 from 1917 to 1919 and again in 1927, studying under Otto Kinkeldey

Otto Kinkeldey

Otto Kinkeldey was an American music librarian and musicologist. He was the first president of the American Musicological Society and held the first chair in musicology at any American university....

. While never earning a university degree, he received honorary degrees from the University of Rochester

University of Rochester

The University of Rochester is a private, nonsectarian, research university in Rochester, New York, United States. The university grants undergraduate and graduate degrees, including doctoral and professional degrees. The university has six schools and various interdisciplinary programs.The...

 in 1936 and from 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...

 in 1970. He studied at Berlin University from 1927 to 1928 and then worked at the Library of Congress

Library of Congress

The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...

, becoming head of the Music Division in 1934. He began his teaching career as a lecturer at the Catholic University of America in 1934, and in 1937 joined the faculty of 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....

, becoming a full professor in 1950. Retiring from teaching in 1966 he moved to Grottaferrata

Grottaferrata

Grottaferrata, Italy is a small town and comune in the province of Rome, situated on the lower slopes of the Alban Hills, 20 km south east of Rome. It is bounded by other communes, Frascati, Rocca di Papa, Marino, and Rome.-History:...

, Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

, continuing his research on Byzantine music at the Abbey of Santa Maria (Badia Greca) there.

Strunk served as president of the Music Library Association

Music Library Association

The Music Library Association is the main professional organization for music libraries and librarians . It also serves corporations, institutions, students, composers, scholars and others whose work and interests lie in the music librarianship field...

 (1935-7) and was a founding member of the American Musicological Society

American Musicological Society

The American Musicological Society is a membership-based musicological organization founded in 1934 to advance scholarly research in the various fields of music as a branch of learning and scholarship; it grew out of a small contingent of the Music Teachers National Association and, more directly,...

, as well as the initial editor of JAMS

Journal of the American Musicological Society

The Journal of the American Musicological Society The Journal of the American Musicological Society has been published three times a year since 1948. It was preceded by the annual Bulletin of the American Musicological Society and the annual Papers of the American Musicological Society...

 in 1948 and the president of the AMS from 1959-1960. He directed the Monumenta Musicae Byzantinae, 1961-71. His scholarship was exceptionally broad, covering the notation of early Byzantine music

Byzantine music

Byzantine music is the music of the Byzantine Empire composed to Greek texts as ceremonial, festival, or church music. Greek and foreign historians agree that the ecclesiastical tones and in general the whole system of Byzantine music is closely related to the ancient Greek system...

, the ars nova

Ars nova

Ars nova refers to a musical style which flourished in France and the Burgundian Low Countries in the Late Middle Ages: more particularly, in the period between the preparation of the Roman de Fauvel and the death of the composer Guillaume de Machaut in 1377...

, Renaissance motet

Motet

In classical music, motet is a word that is applied to a number of highly varied choral musical compositions.-Etymology:The name comes either from the Latin movere, or a Latinized version of Old French mot, "word" or "verbal utterance." The Medieval Latin for "motet" is motectum, and the Italian...

s, Haydn, and Verdi. He was one of the leading figures in post–World War II American musicology. His Source Readings in Music History (1950; rev. 1998 by Leo Treitler

Leo Treitler

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....

) was and is a standard primary-source text for music historians.

Books

• State and Resources of Musicology in the United States (Washington DC, 1932)
• Source Readings in Music History (New York, 1950, enlarged 2nd ed. 1998 by Leo Treitler
  Leo Treitler
  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....
  
  )
• (ed.) Specimina notationum antiquiorum (1966)
• Essays on music in the Western World (New York, 1974)
• (with E. Follieri) Triodium Athoum (1975)
• Essays on music in the Byzantine World (New York, 1977)