Stephen Davidson Tuttle (May 4, 1907 – April 9, 1954) was a musicologist and chairman of the department of music at the

University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a Public university#United States, public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. Founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, the university is ranked among the top academic institutions in the United S ...

(1941–1952), and an associate professor of music at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

(1952–1954). While at Virginia he directed the Virginia Glee Club, and commissioned

Randall Thompson Randall Thompson (April 21, 1899 – July 9, 1984) was an American composer, particularly noted for his choral works. Career Randall attended The Lawrenceville School, where his father was an English teacher. He then attended Harvard University, ...

to write The Testament of Freedom for the Glee Club in commemoration of the 200th anniversary of the birth of Thomas Jefferson. Tuttle was the son of Baptist missionaries and spent his childhood in the family home of

Parkersburg, West Virginia Parkersburg is a city in and the county seat of Wood County, West Virginia, Wood County, West Virginia. Located at the confluence of the Ohio River, Ohio and Little Kanawha River, Little Kanawha rivers, it is the state's fourth-largest city and ...

, and in

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. Tuttle studied music at

Denison University Denison University is a private liberal arts college in Granville, Ohio. One of the earliest colleges established in the former Northwest Territory, Denison University was founded in 1831. The college was first called the Granville Literary and ...

and Harvard University, where he was the roommate of composer Elliott Carter; their acquaintance resulted in Carter's composition "To Music." Following his graduation, he taught music at Harvard from 1937 to 1941 before taking the appointment at Virginia, joining the faculty along with Randall Thompson and James E. Berdahl. After joining the faculty at Virginia, Tuttle collaborated with Randall Thompson, whom he assisted in teaching undergraduate music courses. It was during this time that the commission of a piece in memory of Thomas Jefferson's bicentennial occurred. Tuttle conducted the premiere of ''The Testament of Freedom'' on April 13, 1943; the premiere was broadcast over the CBS network and via shortwave to US forces serving overseas in

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. In the early 1950s, Tuttle returned to Harvard in the capacity of an associate professor. He died of a heart attack in his home in Cambridge at the age of 47. Dr. Tuttle was active in the field of Renaissance music, editing volumes of music by

Thomas Tomkins Thomas Tomkins (1572 – 9 June 1656) was a Welsh-born composer of the late Tudor and early Stuart period. In addition to being one of the prominent members of the English Madrigal School, he was a skilled composer of keyboard and consort mus ...

and William Byrd. The Tomkins work was supported by a Guggenheim fellowship that Tuttle won in 1948.

References

1907 births 1954 deaths People from Parkersburg, West Virginia University of Virginia faculty Harvard University alumni Denison University alumni Harvard University faculty 20th-century American musicologists {{US-music-bio-stub