Robert Stevenson (musicologist)


Robert Murrell Stevenson was an American musicologist. He studied at the College of Mines and Metallurgy of the University of Texas at El Paso, the Juilliard School of Music, Yale University and the University of Rochester ; further study took him to Harvard University, Princeton Theological Seminary and Oxford University. He taught at the University of Texas and at Westminster Choir College in the 1940s. In 1949 he became a faculty member at the University of California at Los Angeles, where he taught until 1987. Stevenson is well known for having studied with Igor Stravinsky when he was young, and for later being a teacher of influential minimalist La Monte Young.
His major interest was within the area of Latin American music and he contributed significantly to the historical record of Spanish, Portuguese and American music. He wrote extensively on African-American music and the music of the Protestant church within the Americas. In 1978 he became founder-editor of the Inter-American Music Review; now in its thirteenth volume. His works include nearly 30 books, a vast quantity of journal articles, and a large number of encyclopedia entries. He was coordinator of American entries for the Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart supplement and wrote over 300 articles for the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians.

Works

Books