Manfred Bukofzer
Manfred Bukofzer (
March 27,
1910–
December 7,
1955) was a
German-
American musicologist and
humanist. He studied at
Heidelberg University and the
Stern Conservatory in
Berlin, but left Germany in
1933, going to
Basle, where he received his doctorate. In
1939 he moved to the United States where he remained, becoming a U.S. citizen. He taught at the
University of California, Berkeley from
1941 until his premature death.
Bukofzer is best known as a historian of early music, particularly of the
Baroque era. His book
Music in the Baroque Era is still one of the standard reference works on the topic, though some modern historians assert that it has a Germanic bias, for instance in minimizing the importance of
opera (Italian by origin) during the development of musical style in the
17th century.
In addition to Baroque music, Bukofzer was a specialist in English music and music theory of the
14th through
16th centuries. His other scholarly interests included
jazz and
ethnomusicology.
* Manfred Bukofzer,
Music in the Baroque Era. New York, W.W. Norton & Co., 1947. ISBN 0393097455
*
