Richard Freedman

Biography

I first came to Haverford in 1986 from the University of Pennsylvania, where I earned both M.A. and Ph.D in the History and Theory of Music. My undergraduate studies were completed at the Faculty of Music of the University of Western Ontario, a leading Canadian music school. When not busy in the classroom or with research I enjoy giving public lectures on music, notably a series of pre-concert talks for the Philadelphia Orchestra and for the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society. I have also worked with One-Day-University (a traveling set of continuing education panels). More than Mozart, a set of 14 recorded talks for those curious to be better listeners, can be purchased through Barnes and Noble and Recorded Books.

Education

B.Mus., University of Western Ontario

M.A. and Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania

Research

My scholarly work has focuses on the music of Renaissance France and Italy--works by composers such as Josquin des Prez, Orlando di Lasso and Luca Marenzio. I’m interested in the stories of stylistic and cultural change these works can tell. Much of my work involves primary sources and documents in one way or another, and I often travel to European libraries and archives. In 1992-1993 I was a Visiting Scholar at Wolfson College, Oxford University. In 2001 I held a faculty fellowship at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C.

Other projects have been supported by the Mellon Foundation and (most recently), the American Council of Learned Societies, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. My work has appeared in various forms: presentations at scholarly conferences in Belgium, England, France, and Germany. Papers have appeared in leading journals such as The Musical Quarterly, Journal of Musicology, Early Music History, Journal of the Royal Musical Association, Notes, and Music and Letters. I’ve also written a long list of articles (all on Renaissance topics) for the second edition of the New Grove Dictionary of Music.

My book on the French songs of Orlando di Lasso considers the publication history of those work in 16th-century Paris and Geneva, showing how Calvinist listeners adapted Lasso’s music for pious devotion: The Chansons of Orlando di Lasso and their Protestant Listeners: Music, Piety, and Print in Sixteenth-Century France (The University of Rochester Press/Boydell and Brewer, 2001).

My most recent book, Music in the Renaissance, was published by W.W. Norton in 2012, along with a companion Anthology for Music in the Renaissance.  They are ideal for intermediate and advanced courses on the period, and take their place in Norton's new Western Music in Context series, under the editorial supervision of Walter Frisch.    You can find sound recordings via iTunes, Amazon, and Naxos Music Library, and many readings, facsimiles, and other resources to accompany the book, too.   See my Digital Resources Page, and Norton's Study Space.

The Lost Voices Project is creating a new electronic forum for collaboration among scholars, students, and performers. It centers on a dozen sets of music books originally printed by the Parisian press of Nicholas Du Chemin. The project began thanks to support from a Digital Humanities Start-Up Grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.   Now it continues through at least the fall of 2013 through generous support from the American Council of Learned Societies (Digital Innovations Fellowship) and the Scholarly Editions initiative of the National Endowment for the Humanities.  My partners in this work include the Centre d’Etudes Superieures de la Renaissance in Tours, France, the leading French institute for the study of Early Modern culture. See the links posted below.

My Links

• Music in the Renaissance: Digital Resources
  Companion Web Site for Music in the Renaissance (W.W. Norton)
• Music History at Haverford College
• Du Chemin Project Narrative
  (Scope, Aims, and Methods)
• Du Chemin Image and Edition Archive
  The Project!
• Du Chemin Lost Voices Interface
  Go here to search the Thesaurus and Display Dynamic Editions
• Du Chemin Editor's Forum
  Our collaborative space
• NEH Office of Digital Humanities
• CESR, Tours France
• Folger Shakespeare Library
• Wolfson College, Oxford
• University of Western Ontario Faculty of Music
• University of Rochester Press
  (Link to book: The Chansons of Orlando di Lasso)
• Understanding Classical Music
  (From Recorded Books, Inc)
• Understanding Classical Music
  (From Audible.Com)

Courses: Fall 2013, Haverford

Courses: Spring 2014, Haverford