Hugh Wiley Hitchcock (September 28, 1923 in

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...

Michigan Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...

– December 5, 2007 in New York, New York) was an American

musicologist Musicology (from Greek μουσική ''mousikē'' 'music' and -λογια ''-logia'', 'domain of study') is the scholarly analysis and research-based study of music. Musicology departments traditionally belong to the humanities, although some m ...

. He is best known for founding the Institute for Studies in American Music at Brooklyn College of the City University of New York in 1971. The institute was recently renamed the Hitchcock Institute for Studies in American Music in his honor. Hitchcock received a B.A. degree from

Dartmouth College Dartmouth College (; ) is a private research university in Hanover, New Hampshire. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, it is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the American Revolution. Although founded to educate Native ...

in 1944 and an M.A. from the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

in 1948. After studying under

Nadia Boulanger Juliette Nadia Boulanger (; 16 September 188722 October 1979) was a French music teacher and conductor. She taught many of the leading composers and musicians of the 20th century, and also performed occasionally as a pianist and organist. From a ...

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

, he earned his Ph.D. at the

in 1954. He taught there from 1950 to 1961 and then at Hunter College from 1961 to 1971. He taught in the CUNY system until 1993, when he retired. He served as president of the

Music Library Association The Music Library Association (MLA) of the United States is the main professional organization for music libraries and librarians (including those whose music materials form only part of their responsibilities and collections). It also serves corp ...

, 1966–1967, the Charles Ives Society, 1973–1993, and the

American Musicological Society The American Musicological Society (AMS) is a musicological organization which researches, promotes and produces publications on music. Founded in 1934, the AMS was begun by leading American musicologists of the time, and was crucial in legitim ...

, 1990–1992. Hitchcock did much work on music of the early Baroque in France and Italy, especially on

Marc-Antoine Charpentier Marc-Antoine Charpentier (; 1643 – 24 February 1704) was a French Baroque composer during the reign of Louis XIV. One of his most famous works is the main theme from the prelude of his ''Te Deum'', ''Marche en rondeau''. This theme is still us ...

. He also made important contributions to the understanding of musical traditions in America, both popular and cultivated, and his text in this field is a standard reference work. In addition to Charles Ives, he focused particular attention on contemporary American composers including

Virgil Thomson Virgil Thomson (November 25, 1896 – September 30, 1989) was an American composer and critic. He was instrumental in the development of the "American Sound" in classical music. He has been described as a modernist, a neoromantic, a neoclass ...

, John Cage, and Henry Cowell. He was the co-editor of the ''New Grove Dictionary of American Music'' and a consultant for American music for ''

The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' is an encyclopedic dictionary of music and musicians. Along with the German-language ''Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart'', it is one of the largest reference works on the history and theo ...

''.

Books

*''The Latin Oratorios of Marc-Antoine Charpentier'' (dissertation, U. of Michigan, 1954) *''Music in the United States: a Historical Introduction'' (1969; 4th ed., 1999) *(ed., with V. Perlis) ''An Charles Ives Celebration'' (Brooklyn, NY, and New Haven, CT, 1974) *''After 100 Years: the Editorial Side of Sonneck'' (Washington DC, 1975) *''Charles Ives'' (London, 1977, 3rd ed. 1988) *(with L. Inserra) ''The Music of Henry Ainsworth's Psalter'' (Brooklyn, NY, 1981) *''Les oeuvres de

: catalogue raisonné'' (Paris, Picard 1982) *''Marc-Antoine Charpentier'' (Oxford, 1990) *'' Charles Ives: 129 Songs'' (New York City, 2004)

References

*Paula Morgan, "H. Wiley Hitchcock". ''

'' online. *

External links

H. Wiley Hitchcock Papers, 1949-2007
Music Division, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. {{DEFAULTSORT:Hitchcock, H. Wiley 1923 births 2007 deaths Dartmouth College alumni University of Michigan faculty University of Michigan alumni Hunter College faculty 20th-century American musicologists Brooklyn College faculty