Bukofzer, Manfred F(ritz)

Bukofzer, Manfred F(ritz), eminent Germanborn American musicologist; b. Oldenburg, March 27, 1910; d. Oakland, Calif., Dec. 7, 1955. He studied at the Hoch Cons, in Frankfurt am Main, and at the univs. of Heidelberg, Berlin, and Basel (Ph.D., 1936, with the diss. Geschichte des englischen Diskants unà des Fauxbourdons nach den theoretischen Quellen; publ, in Strasbourgh, 1936); also took courses with Hindemith in Berlin. He lectured in Basel (1933–39); also at Oxford and Cambridge Univs. In 1939 he settled in the U.S., becoming a naturalized American citizen in 1945. He taught at Case Western Reserve Univ. in Cleveland (1940^41). In 1941 he became a member of the faculty of the Univ. of Calif, at Berkeley where, a year before his untimely death, he was appointed chairman of its music dept. His numerous publications are distinguished by originality of historical and musical ideas coupled with precision of factual exposition; having mastered the English language, he was able to write brilliantly in British and American publications; he was also greatly esteemed as a teacher. Bukofzer ed. the works of Dunstable (Vol. VIII of Musica Britannica, 1953; 2^nd ed., rev., 1970 by M. Bent, I. Bent, and B. Trowell).

Writings

Sumer Is Icumen In: A Revision (Berkeley, 1944); Music in the Baroque Era (N.Y., 1947); Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Music (N.Y., 1950); The Place of Musicology in American Institutions of Higher Learning (N.Y., 1957); Music of the Classic Period, 1750–1827) (Berkeley, 1958).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire