James William McKinnon (April 7, 1932 – February 23, 1999) 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 ...

most known for his work in the fields of Western

plainchant Plainsong or plainchant (calque from the French ''plain-chant''; la, cantus planus) is a body of chants used in the liturgies of the Western Church. When referring to the term plainsong, it is those sacred pieces that are composed in Latin text ...

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

and renaissance music,

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

liturgy and musical iconography.

Life and career

He studied classical languages at Niagara University before going to

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

to study with

Paul Henry Lang Paul Henry Lang (August 28, 1901 – September 21, 1991) was a Hungarian-American musicologist and music critic. Career Lang was born as "Pál Láng" in Budapest, Hungary, and was educated in Catholic schools. In 1918, as World War I was coming ...

and Edward Lippman, completing his PhD in 1965. He also studied organ with

Frederick Swann Frederick Lewis Swann (July 30, 1931 – November 13, 2022) was an American church and concert organist, choral conductor, composer, and president of the American Guild of Organists. His extensive discography includes both solo organ works and ...

and was active as a church organist and choir director in New York throughout his life. He began teaching at State University of New York, Buffalo in 1967, where he stayed until 1989, becoming full professor in 1979 and serving as chair from 1987-89. He was also appointed Richard H. Fogel Professor of Music at

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States ...

. He was the author of five books, including ''Source Readings in Music History'', ''Music in Early Christian Literature'', and ''The Advent Project: The Later Seventh-Century Creation of the Roman Mass Proper'', which attempts to reconstruct the history of plainchant from the Patristics(

Early Church Fathers The Church Fathers, Early Church Fathers, Christian Fathers, or Fathers of the Church were ancient and influential Christian theologians and writers who established the intellectual and doctrinal foundations of Christianity. The historical per ...

) to the Carolingian period. He also edited the collection ''The Music of Antiquity and the Middle Ages'' which includes chapters he wrote on early

Western civilization Leonardo da Vinci's ''Vitruvian Man''. Based on the correlations of ideal Body proportions">human proportions with geometry described by the ancient Roman architect Vitruvius in Book III of his treatise ''De architectura''. image:Plato Pio-Cle ...

, Christian antiquity and the emergence of

Gregorian chant Gregorian chant is the central tradition of Western plainsong, plainchant, a form of monophony, monophonic, unaccompanied sacred song in Latin (and occasionally Greek (language), Greek) of the Roman Catholic Church. Gregorian chant developed ma ...

. McKinnon published more than one hundred articles in music journals and reference books.

Selected bibliography

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References

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Memorial for James McKinnon
1932 births 1999 deaths 20th-century American musicologists University at Buffalo faculty {{US-music-bio-stub