A tribute to Peter Burkholder

November 13, 2009

J. Peter Burkholder has announced that he is stepping down as president of the Charles Ives Society. Peter has been president for eighteen years, almost as long as Wiley Hitchcock was. He will remain on the board. I'm not sure how he's managed to handle the affairs of the Ives Society so effectively and remain so productive. He's the author of three important books on Ives and lots of shorter papers (see below). Thanks Peter, for a job well done!

Those who attended the IVM will remember his lively presence at the events. Go to iTunes U and you can hear his voice as the able moderator of the panel "Specific Topics, Specific Songs," featuring papers by Judith Tick, William Brooks and Yonatan Malin.

Books on Ives by J. Peter Burkholder:

All Made of Tunes: Charles Ives and the Uses of Musical Borrowing
Charles Ives and His World
Charles Ives: The Ideas Behind the Music

His other writings on Ives include:

Charles Ives and the Classical Tradition (ed. Burkholder and Block)
Charles Ives: A Bio-Bibliography (preface by JPB)
Charles Ives Remembered (by Vivian Perlis, new forward by JPB)
Various dictionary entries
"The Organist in Ives," in the Journal of the American Musicological Society, Vol. 55, No. 2, 2002 (this article won the [Irving] Lowens Article Award of the Society for American Music in 2004)
"Ives and Yale: The Enduring Influence of a College Experience." College Music Symposium 39, 1999

I could go on, but you get the idea. I have read most of these writings, and I can attest that they are invaluable. Especially when I am teaching. Over and over, when preparing my Ives seminar in the fall of 2008, I found myself asking "I wonder what Peter Burkholder has to say about this." So I'd go back to the books and check it out. My curiosity was always rewarded, both on the micro level (his discussions of the symphonies in All Made of Tunes will tell you all you need to know) and the macro level (his discussion of the legacy of Emerson in Charlie and his extended family is invaluable for setting the record straight—a nuanced treatment of a much-oversimplified subject).

So many thanks, Peter—for your wonderful writings, your leadership of the Society, and your warm, friendly presence here at Wesleyan last winter!