PhD Oxford

420 Baird Hall
University at Buffalo
Buffalo NY, 14260

tel: (716) 645-2765 x1271
fax: (716) 645-3824
email: jdunsby@buffalo.edu

Jonathan Dunsby has taught in the USA before, as Associate Professor at USC in Los Angeles, but most of his career has been in England where he was Professor of Music and Head of Department at the University of Reading following his first long-term appointment at King’s College London. A prize-winning pianist, who studied with Fanny Waterman, in recent years he made many tours and broadcasts with Bulgarian violinist Vanya Milanova. His scholarly career began with a First Class degree in Music from Oxford University, and a PhD completed at the age of 23. He went on to publish numerous books and articles, and was the Founding Editor of the international journal Music Analysis, published by Blackwell of Oxford, which remains a market-leader. He is also Life President of the UK’s Society for Music Analysis, a sister association of the Society for Music Theory in the USA. He has served on many national committees including work for The British Academy and the Arts and Humanities Research Council.

One of his most widely disseminated publications is Performing Music: Shared Concerns (OUP, 1995 and in paperback 1996). In this book, according to his biography in The New Grove Dictionary, he brings to bear “his own experience as a performer and his originality of mind” on “the relationship between music and thought and the nature and cultural context of performance”. A recent project was his translation from French of Jean-Jacques Nattiez’s major work The Battle of Chronos and Orpheus: Studies in Applied Musical Semiology for OUP. In his most recent sole-authored book, Making Words Sing: Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Song (CUP, 2004) he explores word/music relations from Schubert through Copland and Berberian. Classical Music called this “a volume to shake up your thinking”, and Opera Today dubbed it a “unique study”.

At UB he will be teaching theory courses with an emphasis on musical performance, which is a key development vision for UB Music. His current research projects include a study in the philosophy of music theory, focusing on evidence-based approaches to the history and analysis of recorded music.

Prof. Dunsby has wide general interests. His record of public service includes having been a Justice of the Peace (a member of the lay judiciary) for the county of Buckinghamshire in England, where he was qualified to judge in the criminal and family Magistrates Courts, and was a senior member of his Bench administration responsible for the training and development of fellow judges.

Click here for a list of Professor Dunsby's publications.