Theodore Cyrus Karp, American musicologist, Died at 89

  Dead Famous

Theodore Cyrus Karp was born on July 17, 1926, and died on November 5, 2015.

He was an American musicologist. His principal area of study was saecular mediaeval monophony, especially the music of the trouvères.

Theodore was a major contributor in this area of the Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians.

Born in New York, he attended Queens College of the City University of New York, where he received his B.A. in 1947.

Theodore later attended the Juilliard School of Music and, from 1949 to 1950, the Catholic University of Leuven.

He returned to New York University, where he studied under Curt Sachs and Gustave Reese.

Theodore received his PhD from New York in 1960.

In 1963 Theodore was taken on as a faculty member by the University of California at Davis and in 1971 became a music professor.

Theodore moved to Northwestern University in 1973, where he was dean of the department until 1988 and a professor until his retirement in 1996.

Besides trouvère monophony, Karp has written articles on the polyphony of the schools of Saint Martial’s, Santiago de Compostela, and Notre Dame.

Theodore proposed new methods for the transcription of polyphony from the manuscripts.

In more recent research Karp has studied the application of computers in his field.

Theodore passed away at age 89 in November 2015.