Thomas James Mathiesen (born 30 April 1947) is an American musicologist, whose research focuses on

Ancient music Ancient music refers to the musical cultures and practices that developed in the literate civilizations of the ancient world. Succeeding the music of prehistoric societies and lasting until the Post-classical era, major centers of Ancient musi ...

and the music theory of ancient and

early Early may refer to: History * The beginning or oldest part of a defined historical period, as opposed to middle or late periods, e.g.: ** Early Christianity ** Early modern Europe Places in the United States * Early, Iowa * Early, Texas * Early ...

periods. A leading scholar of the

music of Ancient Greece Music was almost universally present in ancient Greek society, from marriages, funerals, and religious ceremonies to theatre, folk music, and the ballad-like reciting of epic poetry. It thus played an integral role in the lives of ancient Greek ...

, Mathiesen has written four monographs and numerous articles on the topic.

Life and career

Thomas James Mathiesen was born in

Roslyn Heights, New York Roslyn Heights is a hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) in the Town of North Hempstead in Nassau County, on Long Island, in New York, United States. It is considered part of the Greater Roslyn area, which is anchored by the Incorporated Vil ...

, US on 30 April 1947. He received a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

at Willamette University in 1968, and both a Master of Music and a PhD at the

University of Southern California The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in C ...

(USC). At the latter school, Mathiesen's teachers included scholars such as

Ingolf Dahl Ingolf Dahl (June 9, 1912 – August 6, 1970) was a German-born American composer, pianist, conductor, and educator. Biography Dahl was born Walter Ingolf Marcus in Hamburg, Germany, to a German Jewish father, attorney Paul Marcus, and his Swed ...

and Halsey Stevens. After a stint teaching at USC from 1971 to 1972, he became a professor at the

Brigham Young University Brigham Young University (BYU, sometimes referred to colloquially as The Y) is a private research university in Provo, Utah. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day ...

. In 1988 he became a professor at

Indiana University Bloomington Indiana University Bloomington (IU Bloomington, Indiana University, IU, or simply Indiana) is a public university, public research university in Bloomington, Indiana. It is the flagship university, flagship campus of Indiana University and, with ...

, and in 1996 he was made a distinguished Professor of Music there. Mathiesen's research centers around

, in particular, he is a leading scholar of the

. This subject is the topic of his four book-length studies, ''Aristides Quintilianus on Music in Three Books: Translation, with Introduction, Commentary, and Annotations'' (1983), ''Ancient Greek Music Theory: A Catalogue raisonné of Manuscripts RISM B/XI'' (1988), ''Greek Views of Music'' (1997) and ''Apollo’s Lyre: Greek Music and Music Theory in Antiquity and the Middle Ages'' (1999). Other topics he engages in include the history of

music theory Music theory is the study of the practices and possibilities of music. ''The Oxford Companion to Music'' describes three interrelated uses of the term "music theory". The first is the "rudiments", that are needed to understand music notation (ke ...

, particularly of

Medieval music Medieval music encompasses the sacred and secular music of Western Europe during the Middle Ages, from approximately the 6th to 15th centuries. It is the first and longest major era of Western classical music and followed by the Renaissance ...

and

Renaissance music Renaissance music is traditionally understood to cover European music of the 15th and 16th centuries, later than the Renaissance era as it is understood in other disciplines. Rather than starting from the early 14th-century '' ars nova'', the Tr ...

. His scholarship includes the topics of "textual criticism, editorial technique, bibliography and

codicology Codicology (; from French ''codicologie;'' from Latin , genitive , "notebook, book" and Greek , '' -logia'') is the study of codices or manuscript books. It is often referred to as "the archaeology of the book," a term coined by François Masai. ...

". Mathiesen established in 1990 the online project ''Thesaurus Musicarum Latinarum'' (TML) and led it until 2015. Due to his efforts TML became a world-wide known database of early music treatises, with a free access. The recipient of numerous awards and grants, Mathiesen has received a

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...

in 1990, the American Musicological Society's Kinkeldey Award and multiple Deems Taylor Awards from

ASCAP The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) () is an American not-for-profit performance-rights organization (PRO) that collectively licenses the public performance rights of its members' musical works to venues, broadca ...

, among others.

Selected bibliography

* * *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mathiesen, Thomas J. 1947 births 20th-century musicologists 21st-century musicologists Living people