Alejandro Enrique Planchart (29 July 1935 – 28 April 2019) was a

Venezuela Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, p ...

musicologist Musicology is the academic, research-based study of music, as opposed to musical composition or performance. Musicology research combines and intersects with many fields, including psychology, sociology, acoustics, neurology, natural sciences, f ...

, conductor, and composer. He was considered to be one of the leading scholars on the music of

Guillaume Du Fay Guillaume Du Fay ( , ; also Dufay, Du Fayt; 5 August 1397 – 27 November 1474) was a composer and music theorist of early Renaissance music, who is variously described as French or Franco-Flemish. Considered the leading European composer of h ...

; more broadly, he was a specialist on

music of the Middle Ages Medieval music encompasses the sacred and secular music of Western Europe during the Middle Ages, from approximately the 6th to 15th centuries. It is the first and longest major era of Western classical music and is followed by the Renaissanc ...

and early

Renaissance music Renaissance music is traditionally understood to cover European music of the 15th and 16th centuries, later than the Renaissance era as it is understood in other disciplines. Rather than starting from the early 14th-century ''ars nova'', the mus ...

. He was born in

Caracas Caracas ( , ), officially Santiago de León de Caracas (CCS), is the capital and largest city of Venezuela, and the center of the Metropolitan Region of Caracas (or Greater Caracas). Caracas is located along the Guaire River in the northern p ...

, Venezuela, and moved to the United States to study at

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

, where he received the degrees of Mus.B. (1958) and Mus.M. (1960). He received his Ph.D. at

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

in 1971, with a dissertation on the

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with the fall of the West ...

English manuscript source, the

Winchester Troper The Winchester Troper refers to two eleventh-century manuscripts of Liturgy, liturgical Plainsong, plainchant and Organum, two-voice polyphony copied and used in the Old Minster, Winchester, Old Minster at Winchester Cathedral in Hampshire, Engl ...

, later turned into a two-volume study with edition. He taught at Yale for several years and founded the Cappella Cordina, an early-music ensemble that blended undergraduates, graduate students and members of the community. In 1977 he joined the faculty at the

University of California, Santa Barbara The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Santa Barbara County, California, United States. Tracing its roots back to 1891 as an ...

and re-established the Cappella there. He was made Professor Emeritus of the University of California in 2006. His Festschrift, ''“Qui musicam in se habet”: Essays in Honor of Alejandro Enrique Planchart,'' co-edited by Anna Zaruznaya, Bonnie Blackburn, and Stanley Boorman, was published by the

American Institute of Musicology The American Institute of Musicology (AIM) is a musicological organization that researches, promotes and produces publications on early music. Founded in 1944 by Armen Carapetyan, the AIM's chief objective is the publication of modern editio ...

in 2015. Planchart continued to publish many articles and scholarly editions following retirement, including the magisterial two-volume, ''Guillaume Du Fay: The Life and Works'' (Cambridge University Press, 2018). He died on April 28, 2019, in

Santa Barbara, California Santa Barbara (, meaning ) is a coastal city in Santa Barbara County, California, of which it is also the county seat. Situated on a south-facing section of coastline, the longest such section on the West Coast of the United States excepting A ...

. Among his numerous publications are entries in the ''

New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' is an encyclopedic dictionary of music and musicians. Along with the German-language ''Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart'', it is one of the largest reference works on the History of music, ...

'' (both the 1980 edition and the 2001 edition) on

Cristóbal de Morales Cristóbal de Morales (c. 1500 – between 4 September and 7 October 1553) was a Spanish composer of the Renaissance. He is generally considered to be the most influential Spanish composer before Tomás Luis de Victoria. Life Cristóbal de Mor ...

Clemens non Papa Jacobus Clemens non Papa (also Jacques Clément or Jacob Clemens non Papa) ( – 1555 or 1556) was a Netherlandish composer of the Renaissance based for most of his life in Flanders. He was a prolific composer in many of the current styles, and w ...

, St. Martial,

St. Gall Gall (; 550 645) according to hagiographic tradition was a disciple and one of the traditional twelve companions of Columbanus on his mission from Ireland to the continent. However, he may have originally come from the border region betwe ...

, Venezuelan places and musicians, and other topics. In addition, he conducted numerous live performances and recording sessions, mostly of

early music Early music generally comprises Medieval music (500–1400) and Renaissance music (1400–1600), but can also include Baroque music (1600–1750) or Ancient music (before 500 AD). Originating in Europe, early music is a broad Dates of classical ...

, many on the

Lyrichord Lyrichord Discs is an American record label specializing in world music and classical music. In 2015, Multicultural Media acquired the catalog of Lyrichord. History The label was founded in 1950 by Peter Fritsch, an Austrian immigrant who moved t ...

and

Musical Heritage Society Musical Heritage Society was an American mail-order record label founded in New York City in 1962 by Michael "Mischa" Naida (1900–1991), co-founder of Westminster Records, and T. C. Fry Jr. (1926–1996). Background After a small initial gro ...

labels.

References

Sources

Biography at Early Music America
* ''Grove Music Online'', ed. L. Macy (Accessed August 30, 2006)
(subscription access)
(While it contains no specific biography, Planchart wrote numerous articles for this publication, and many of his writings are referenced there) {{DEFAULTSORT:Planchart, Alejandro 1935 births 2019 deaths Harvard University alumni University of California, Santa Barbara faculty American musicologists Musicians from Caracas Venezuelan emigrants to the United States Yale University alumni Yale University faculty Du Fay scholars Scholars of Renaissance music