Zimmerman, Franklin B(ershir)
Zimmerman, Franklin B(ershir)
Zimmerman, Franklin B(ershir), American musicologist; b. Wauneta, Kans., June 20, 1923. He was educated at the Univ. of Southern Calif, in Los Angeles (B.A., 1949; M.A., 1952; Ph.D., 1958, with the diss. Purcell’s Musical Heritage: A Study of Musical Styles in 17th-century England) and at Oxford Univ. (B.Litt, 1956). He taught at the State Univ. of N.Y. in Potsdam (1958-59) and at the Univ. of Southern Calif. (1959-64), and then was prof, of music at Dartmouth Coll. (1964-67), the Univ. of Ky. (1967-68), and the Univ. of Pa. (from 1968). In 1996 he developed a new musical notation called “Visible Music Soundscapes,” which is designed to help children learn to read music and sight sing more easily. The new notation is copyrighted, trademarked, and has a patent pending. He devoted much time to the study of English Baroque music, particularly the life and works of Purcell.
Writings
Henry Purcell 1659-1695: An Analytical Catalogue of His Music (London, 1963); Henry Purcell 1659-1695: His Life and Times (London, 1967; 2nd ed., rev., 1983); Henry Purcell 1659-1694: Melodic and Intervallic Indexes to His Complete Works (Philadelphia, 1975); Henry Purcell: A Guide to Research (N.Y., 1988).
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire