Arthur Tillman Merritt (February 15, 1902 – October 25, 1998) was an American musicologist.

Education

Merritt attended Missouri University, where he received a BA in 1924 and a BFA in 1926. He received a master's of arts in music 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 1927. Merritt studied with

Nadia Boulanger Juliette Nadia Boulanger (; 16 September 188722 October 1979) was a French music teacher, conductor and composer. She taught many of the leading composers and musicians of the 20th century, and also performed occasionally as a pianist and organis ...

and

Paul Dukas Paul Abraham Dukas ( 1 October 1865 – 17 May 1935) was a French composer, critic, scholar and teacher. A studious man of retiring personality, he was intensely self-critical, having abandoned and destroyed many of his compositions. His best-k ...

in Paris.

Career

From 1930 to 1932, he taught at

Trinity College Trinity College may refer to: Australia * Trinity Anglican College, an Anglican coeducational primary and secondary school in , New South Wales * Trinity Catholic College, Auburn, a coeducational school in the inner-western suburbs of Sydney, New ...

Hartford, Connecticut Hartford is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. The city, located in Hartford County, Connecticut, Hartford County, had a population of 121,054 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 ce ...

. In 1932, he began working as a music instructor at Harvard University, then became a professor in 1943. Merritt was the chair of the music department from 1942 to 1952 and from 1968 to 1972. Starting in 1952, he served as the curator of Isham Memorial Library until his retirement in 1972. He was described by

Elliot Forbes Elliot Forbes (August 20, 1917, Cambridge, Massachusetts – January 9, 2006, in Cambridge), known as "El", was an American conductor and musicologist noted for his Beethoven scholarship. Life and career Forbes came from a Boston Brahmin family ...

, professor emeritus of music and colleague and close friend of Merritt, as "Never having married, his sole thrust was music, and then it developed into Harvard music, and then specifically, the development of the department." His musicological work centered around the

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...

and the 16th-century

chanson A (, ; , ) is generally any Lyrics, lyric-driven French song. The term is most commonly used in English to refer either to the secular polyphonic French songs of late medieval music, medieval and Renaissance music or to a specific style of ...

References

External links

A. Tillman Merritt Papers, 1932-1972
a
Isham Memorial Library, Harvard University
{{DEFAULTSORT:Merritt, Arthur Tillman American academics Harvard University alumni Harvard University faculty American musicologists 1902 births 1998 deaths Trinity College (Connecticut) faculty University of Missouri School of Music alumni