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Thomas J. Mathiesen

Thomas James Mathiesen (born April 30, 1947) is an American musicologist, whose research focuses on Ancient music and the music theory of ancient and early periods. A leading scholar of the music of Ancient Greece, Mathiesen has written four monographs and numerous articles on the topic.

Life and career[edit]

Thomas James Mathiesen was born in Roslyn Heights, New York, US on April 30, 1947. He received a Bachelor of ArtsatWillamette University in 1968, and both a Master of Music and a PhD at the University of Southern California (USC). At the latter school, Mathiesen's teachers included scholars such as Ingolf Dahl and Halsey Stevens. After a stint teaching at USC from 1971 to 1972, he became a professor at the Brigham Young University. In 1988 he became a professor at Indiana University Bloomington, and in 1996 he was made a distinguished Professor of Music there.^[1]

Mathiesen's research centers around Ancient music, in particular, he is a leading scholar of the music of Ancient Greece.^[1] This subject is the topic of his four book-length studies, Aristides Quintilianus on Music in Three Books: Translation, with Introduction, Commentary, and Annotations (1983), Ancient Greek Music Theory: A Catalogue raisonné of Manuscripts RISM B/XI (1988), Greek Views of Music (1997) and Apollo's Lyre: Greek Music and Music Theory in Antiquity and the Middle Ages (1999).^[2] Other topics he engages in include the history of music theory, particularly of Medieval music and Renaissance music.^[1] His scholarship includes the topics of "textual criticism, editorial technique, bibliography and codicology".^[1]

Mathiesen established in 1990 the online project Thesaurus Musicarum Latinarum (TML) and led it until 2015. Due to his efforts TML became a world-wide known database of early music treatises, with a free access.^[3]

The recipient of numerous awards and grants, Mathiesen has received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1990, the American Musicological Society's Kinkeldey Award and multiple Deems Taylor Awards from ASCAP, among others.^[4]

Selected bibliography[edit]

• Mathiesen, Thomas J. (1999). Apollo's Lyre: Greek Music and Music Theory in Antiquity and the Middle Ages. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. ISBN 978-0-8032-3079-8.
• Chew, Geoffrey; Mathiesen, Thomas J.; Payne, Thomas B.; Fallows, David (2001). "Song". Grove Music Online. Oxford: Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.50647. ISBN 978-1-56159-263-0. (subscription or UK public library membership required)
• Romanou, Katy; Mathiesen, Thomas J.; Lingas, Alexander; Maliaras, Nikos; Chaldaiakis, Achilleus; Plemmenos, John; Bamichas, Pyrros; Kardamis, Kostas; Kontossi, Sofia; Economides, Myrto; Tragaki, Dafni; Tsagkarakis, Ioannis; Chardas, Kostas; Seiragakis, Manolis; Chianis, Sotirios; Brandl, Rudolph M. (2019). "Greece". Grove Music Online. Oxford: Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/omo/9781561592630.013.3000000167. ISBN 9781561592630. (subscription or UK public library membership required)

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