Philip Brett (October 17, 1937 – October 16, 2002) was a British-born American

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 ...

, musician and conductor. He was particularly known for his scholarly studies on

Benjamin Britten Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten of Aldeburgh (22 November 1913 – 4 December 1976) was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He was a central figure of 20th-century British music, with a range of works including opera, o ...

and

William Byrd William Byrd (; 4 July 1623) was an English Renaissance composer. Considered among the greatest composers of the Renaissance, he had a profound influence on composers both from his native country and on the Continental Europe, Continent. He i ...

and for his contributions to the development of lesbian and gay musicology.Adams (October 31, 2002) At the time of his death, he was Distinguished Professor of Musicology at the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school the ...

Life and career

Philip Brett was born in

Edwinstowe Edwinstowe is a village and civil parish in the Newark and Sherwood district of Nottinghamshire, England, on the edge of Sherwood Forest and the Dukeries. It is associated with the legends of Robin Hood and Maid Marian, and to a lesser extent ...

, a coal-mining village in north

Nottinghamshire Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated ''Notts.'') is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. The county is bordered by South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. Th ...

, England. His father was a collier and his mother a school teacher. He was educated first at the choir school of

Southwell Minster Southwell Minster_(church), Minster, strictly since 1884 Southwell Cathedral, and formally the Cathedral and Parish Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary, is a Church of England cathedral in Southwell, Nottinghamshire, England. The cathedral is the s ...

and then attended

King's College, Cambridge King's College, formally The King's College of Our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Cambridge, is a List of colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college lies beside the River Cam and faces ...

as a

choral scholar {{Short description, Student who receives a scholarship for singing in a choir A choral scholar is a student at either a university or a private school who receives a scholarship in exchange for singing in the school or university's choir. This is ...

. He received his BA degree from Cambridge in 1958 and a

MusB A Bachelor of Music (BMus; sometimes conferred as Bachelor of Musical Arts) is an academic degree awarded by a college, university, or music school, conservatory upon completion of a program of study in music. The degree may be awarded for performa ...

in 1961, studying under

Philip Radcliffe Philip FitzHugh Radcliffe (27 April 1905 – 2 September 1986) was an English academic, musicologist and composer, born in Godalming, Surrey. Early life He was educated at Charterhouse and read Classics at King's College, Cambridge, gaining a sc ...

Boris Ord Boris Ord (born Bernhard Ord), (9 July 1897 – 30 December 1961) was a British organist and choirmaster of King's College, Cambridge (1929-1957). During World War II he served in the Royal Air Force. He is best known for his choral setting of ...

and

Thurston Dart Robert Thurston Dart (3 September 1921 – 6 March 1971) was an English musicologist, conductor and keyboard player. Along with Nigel Fortune, Oliver Neighbour and Stanley Sadie, he was one of Britain's leading musicologists of the post-World W ...

. After a year studying at

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

with

Joseph Kerman Joseph Wilfred Kerman (3 April 1924 – 17 March 2014) was an American musicologist and music critic. Among the leading musicologists of his generation, his 1985 book ''Contemplating Music: Challenges to Musicology'' (published in the UK as ''Mu ...

, he returned to Cambridge as a Fellow of King's College and completed his PhD there in 1965. He wrote his doctoral dissertation on the songs of William Byrd, a composer on whom Brett would write extensively throughout his career. In 1966 he joined the faculty of the University of California, Berkeley and remained there for nearly 25 years. He was made a full professor in 1978 and went on to become chairman of the music department in 1988. During his time at Berkeley, he became a naturalised US citizen and participated in the musical life of the university both as a recitalist and as a choral conductor in addition to his teaching.Anderson (October 21, 2002) In 1991, Brett moved to

University of California, Riverside The University of California, Riverside (UCR or UC Riverside) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Riverside, California, United States. It is one of the ten campuses of the University of Cali ...

to be with his long-term partner, George Haggerty, a professor of English there. He was appointed Associate Dean of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences at Riverside in 1998, a position which he held until 2001 when he became Distinguished Professor of Musicology at

. Brett died of cancer in Los Angeles at the age of 64, a year after taking up his appointment at UCLA. On the sixth anniversary of his death, the University of California, Riverside dedicated the Philip Brett Memorial Peace Garden, a traditional Japanese Karesansui designed by

Takeo Uesugi was a Japanese-American landscape architect who designed acclaimed Japanese garden installations. He was a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, and Kyoto University. Works Born in Osaka, Uesugi's prominent works include: * Th ...

. The annual Philip Brett Award from the

American Musicological Society The American Musicological Society (AMS) is a musicological organization which researches, promotes and produces publications on music. Founded in 1934, the AMS was begun by leading American musicologists of the time, and was crucial in legiti ...

honors exceptional musicological work in the field of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender/transsexual studies.

Musicologist

As a musicologist, Brett was known for his scholarly studies on

and

. The two English composers were separated by almost four centuries, but united in Brett's view by their positions as 'outsiders' in their respective societies—Byrd as a

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

during the

English Reformation The English Reformation began in 16th-century England when the Church of England broke away first from the authority of the pope and bishops Oath_of_Supremacy, over the King and then from some doctrines and practices of the Catholic Church ...

and Britten as a

closeted ''Closeted'' and ''in the closet'' are metaphors for LGBTQ people who have not disclosed their sexual orientation or gender identity and aspects thereof, including sexual identity and sexual behavior. This metaphor is associated and sometime ...

homosexual. Overlapping with these themes, was the other area in which Brett made a major, if at times controversial contribution—the development of lesbian and gay musicology. Brett's earliest scholarship was in music of the

Tudor period In England and Wales, the Tudor period occurred between 1485 and 1603, including the Elizabethan era during the reign of Elizabeth I (1558–1603). The Tudor period coincides with the dynasty of the House of Tudor in England, which began with ...

. While studying for his doctorate with

, he found over 50 music manuscripts from a single documented

scriptorium A scriptorium () was a writing room in medieval European monasteries for the copying and illuminating of manuscripts by scribes. The term has perhaps been over-used—only some monasteries had special rooms set aside for scribes. Often they ...

, and identified the hitherto anonymous songs for voice and

viol The viola da gamba (), or viol, or informally gamba, is a bowed and fretted string instrument that is played (i.e. "on the leg"). It is distinct from the later violin family, violin, or ; and it is any one of the earlier viol family of bow (m ...

s in one of the manuscripts as late works of William Byrd. He edited the whole corpus for Musica Britannica in 1967 and Byrd's own songs separately in 1970. Brett collaborated with Dart in revising a series by

Edmund Fellowes Edmund Horace Fellowes (11 November 1870 – 21 December 1951) was an English musicologist who became well known for his work in promoting the revival of sixteenth and seventeenth century English music. Outside of music, he was a Church of Engl ...

on English

madrigal A madrigal is a form of secular vocal music most typical of the Renaissance (15th–16th centuries) and early Baroque (1580–1650) periods, although revisited by some later European composers. The polyphonic madrigal is unaccompanied, and the ...

composers. He also revised one of the volumes in the ''Collected Works of William Byrd'' (another Fellowes project) and demonstrated the doubtful authenticity of many of the pieces which Fellowes had attributed to Byrd. On Dart's recommendation, Brett was appointed General Editor of the new seventeen-volume ''Byrd Edition'', which revised (and in some cases replaced) the work begun by Fellowes. Brett worked on the series right up until his death and edited several of the volumes himself. The final volume was published in 2005. According to Anthony Bye writing in ''

The Musical Times ''The Musical Times'' was an academic journal of classical music edited and produced in the United Kingdom. It was originally created by Joseph Mainzer in 1842 as ''Mainzer's Musical Times and Singing Circular'', but in 1844 he sold it to Alfr ...

'', it was to become the first modern multi-volume, critical edition of a major English composer to reach completion.Bye (2002) The extensive introductions which Brett had written to the volumes on Byrd's '' Gradualia'' were published posthumously as a separate monograph in ''William Byrd and His Contemporaries: Essays and a Monograph'' (2007). In 1976, Brett delivered a paper on Benjamin Britten's opera ''

Peter Grimes ''Peter Grimes'', Op. 33, is an opera in three acts by Benjamin Britten, with a libretto by Montagu Slater based on the section "Peter Grimes", in George Crabbe's long narrative poem '' The Borough''. The "borough" of the opera is a fictional ...

'' at a national meeting of the

. The paper, published as an article by ''

'' the following year, proposed that study of Britten's sexual identity could illuminate the interpretation of his music. It was the first time that this aspect of Britten had been considered in print. Britten's homosexuality had previously been what Antony Bye described as "off limits, an 'open secret' recognised but not publicly acknowledged." The reaction was mixed, and when Brett initially submitted the paper to ''

The Musical Quarterly ''The Musical Quarterly'' is the oldest academic journal on music in America. Originally established in 1915 by Oscar Sonneck, the journal was edited by Sonneck until his death in 1928. Sonneck was succeeded by a number of editors, including C ...

'' for publication, the then editor, Joan Peyser, dismissed it as "a personality study". However, Brett continued to explore the relationship between Britten's sexuality and his operas. In the succeeding years he wrote a series of influential articles and books both on Britten and on the more general implications of gay and lesbian sexuality in music. The discipline gradually entered the academic mainstream as part of the '

new musicology New musicology is a wide body of musicology since the 1980s with a focus upon the cultural study, aesthetics, criticism, and hermeneutics of music. It began in part a reaction against the traditional positivist musicology—focused on primar ...

' with the American Musicological Society's Gay and Lesbian Study Group (co-founded by Brett) established in 1989. The 2001 edition of 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, ...

'', contained, for the first time in its history, an article on gay and lesbian music (co-written by Philip Brett and Elizabeth Wood).Church (30 December 2000)

Conductor and musician

From 1966 to 1991, Brett was the conductor of the University of California, Berkeley Chamber Chorus. As a choral conductor, he received the American Musicological Society's

Noah Greenberg Noah Greenberg (April 9, 1919 – January 9, 1966) was an American choral conductor. Greenberg was born in the Bronx. In 1937, aged 18, he joined the Socialist Workers Party of Max Shachtman, and worked as a lathe operator and party activist. He ...

Award in 1980 for the performances of

Jacopo Peri Jacopo Peri (20 August 156112 August 1633) was an Italian composer, singer and instrumentalist of the late Renaissance music, Renaissance and early Baroque music, Baroque periods. He wrote what is considered the first opera, the mostly lost ''D ...

's '' Euridice'' and

Monteverdi Claudio Giovanni Antonio Monteverdi (baptized 15 May 1567 – 29 November 1643) was an Italian composer, choirmaster and string player. A composer of both secular and sacred music, and a pioneer in the development of opera, he is considere ...

's '' Orfeo'' as well as

motet In Western classical music, a motet is mainly a vocal musical composition, of highly diverse form and style, from high medieval music to the present. The motet was one of the preeminent polyphonic forms of Renaissance music. According to the Eng ...

s from Byrd's '' Gradualia''. His 1990 recording of

Handel George Frideric (or Frederick) Handel ( ; baptised , ; 23 February 1685 – 14 April 1759) was a German-British Baroque composer well-known for his operas, oratorios, anthems, concerti grossi, and organ concerti. Born in Halle, Germany, H ...

's oratorio '' Susanna'' was nominated for a

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards, stylized as GRAMMY, and often referred to as The Grammys, are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize outstanding achievements in music. They are regarded by many as the most prestigious ...

(Best Choral Performance).Adams, Kerman, McClary, and Moroney (2002) Brett also played the

harpsichord A harpsichord is a musical instrument played by means of a musical keyboard, keyboard. Depressing a key raises its back end within the instrument, which in turn raises a mechanism with a small plectrum made from quill or plastic that plucks one ...

and Renaissance

organ Organ and organs may refer to: Biology * Organ (biology), a group of tissues organized to serve a common function * Organ system, a collection of organs that function together to carry out specific functions within the body. Musical instruments ...

in some of these performances, as well as giving solo harpsichord recitals. Although most of his performances and recordings were of

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

Baroque music Baroque music ( or ) refers to the period or dominant style of Classical music, Western classical music composed from about 1600 to 1750. The Baroque style followed the Renaissance music, Renaissance period, and was followed in turn by the Class ...

, he also participated in the recordings of 20th century works including

Lou Harrison Lou Silver Harrison (May 14, 1917 – February 2, 2003) was an American composer, music critic, music theorist, painter, and creator of unique musical instruments. Harrison initially wrote in a dissonant, ultramodernist style similar to his for ...

's ''La koro sutro'' (1988) and

Morton Feldman Morton Feldman (January 12, 1926 – September 3, 1987) was an American composer. A major figure in 20th-century classical music, Feldman was a pioneer of indeterminacy in music, a development associated with the experimental New York School o ...

's ''Rothko Chapel'' (1991). ;Recordings *Harrison: ''La koro sutro'', New Albion Records, 1988 *Handel: ''Susanna'',

Harmonia Mundi Harmonia Mundi is a record label that specializes in classical music, jazz, and world music (on the World Village label). It was founded in France in 1958 and is now a subsidiary of PIAS Entertainment Group, which is itself owned by Universal M ...

, 1990 *Morton Feldman: ''Rothko Chapel'', New Albion Records, 1991 *Handel: ''

Messiah In Abrahamic religions, a messiah or messias (; , ; , ; ) is a saviour or liberator of a group of people. The concepts of '' mashiach'', messianism, and of a Messianic Age originated in Judaism, and in the Hebrew Bible, in which a ''mashiach ...

'', Harmonia Mundi, 1991 *Handel: ''

Theodora Theodora may refer to: * Theodora (given name), a given name of Greek origin, meaning "God's gift" Historical figures known as Theodora Byzantine empresses * Theodora (wife of Justinian I) ( 500 – 548), saint by the Orthodox Church * Theodo ...

'', Harmonia Mundi, 1992

Selected bibliography

Brett published many articles, monographs, books, and critical editions of scores during his lifetime. The following is an indicative bibliography of key works over the course of his career. ;Articles *"The English Consort Song, 1570-1625", ''Journal of the Royal Musical Association'', Volume 88, Issue 1, 1961, pp. 73–88 *"Word-Setting in the Songs of Byrd", ''Journal of the Royal Musical Association'', Volume 98, Issue 1, 1971, pp. 47–64 *"Britten and Grimes", ''

'', Vol. 118, No. 1618, December 1977, pp. 995–1000 *"Homage to Taverner in Byrd's masses", ''Early Music'', Volume 9, No.2, 1981, pp. 169–176 *"Homosexuality and Music: A Conversation with Philip Brett" in Lawrence Mass (ed.), ''Dialogues of the Sexual Revolution: Homosexuality as Behavior and Identity'', Routledge, 1990 *"Musicality, essentialism, and the closet" and "Eros and Orientalism in Britten's Operas" in ''Queering the Pitch: The New Gay and Lesbian Musicology'', Routledge, 1994 *"Piano Four-Hands: Schubert and the Performance of Gay Male Desire", ''19th-Century Music'', Vol. 21, No. 2, Franz Schubert: Bicentenary Essays, Autumn 1997, pp. 149–176 ;Single-authored books *''Benjamin Britten, Peter Grimes'', Cambridge University Press, 1983 *''Music and Sexuality in Britten'', University of California Press, 2006 *''William Byrd and his Contemporaries'', University of California Press, 2007 ;Edited books *'' Queering the Pitch: The New Gay and Lesbian Musicology'', Philip Brett, Elizabeth Wood and Gary Thomas (editors), Routledge, 1994 *''Cruising the Performative: Interventions into the Representation of Ethnicity, Nationality, and Sexuality'', Sue-Ellen Case, Philip Brett, Susan Leigh Foster (editors), Indiana University Press, 1995 *''Decomposition: Post-disciplinary Performance'', Sue-Ellen Case, Philip Brett, Susan Leigh Foster (editors), Indiana University Press, 2000 ;Edited scores *

John Taverner John Taverner ( – 18 October 1545) was an English composer and organist, regarded as one of the most important English composers of his era. He is best-known for ''Missa Gloria tibi Trinitas'' and ''The Western Wynde Mass'', and ''Missa Coro ...

, ''The Western Wynde Mass'', Stainer & Bell, 1962; ''Mater Christi'', Stainer & Bell, 1964 *''Consort Songs'', ( Musica Britannica 22), Royal Music Association, 1967 *

Thomas Tallis Thomas Tallis (; also Tallys or Talles; 23 November 1585) was an English composer of High Renaissance music. His compositions are primarily vocal, and he occupies a primary place in anthologies of English choral music. Tallis is considered one ...

, ''

Spem in Alium ''Spem in alium'' (Latin for "Hope in any other") is a 40-part Renaissance motet by Thomas Tallis, composed in c. 1570 for eight choirs of five voices each. It is considered by some critics to be the greatest piece of English early music. H. B. ...

'' (revised edition), Oxford University Press, 1969; ''The Lamentations of Jeremiah'', Oxford University Press, 1969. *

, ''The Byrd Edition'', Stainer & Bell. Completed in 2005, the new ''Byrd Edition'' was under the General Editorship of Philip Brett, who also edited the following volumes: **Vol. 4 ''The Masses'', 1981 **Vol. 5 ''Gradualia I (1605): The Marian Masses'', 1989. **Vol. 6a ''Gradualia I (1605): All Saints and Corpus Christi'', 1991. **Vol. 6b ''Gradualia I (1605): Other Feasts and Devotions'', 1993. **Vol. 7a ''Gradualia II (1607): Christmas to Easter'', 1997. **Vol. 7b ''Gradualia II (1607): Ascension, Pentecost and the Feasts of Saints Peter and Paul'', 1997. **Vol. 15 ''Consort Songs for Voice and Viols'', 1970. **Vol. 16 ''Madrigals, Songs and Canons'', 1976.

References

Sources

*Adams, Byron; Kerman, Joseph; McClary, Susan; and Moroney, Davitt
In Memoriam: Philip Brett
Academic Senate of the University of California, 2002. Accessed 13 September 2010. *Adams, Byron
"Philip Brett, Gay musicologist who radicalised his subject"
''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'', October 31, 2002. Accessed 13 September 2010. *Anderson, Martin
"Professor Philip Brett, Outstanding musicologist and conductor"
''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'', October 21, 2002. Accessed 13 September 2010. *Brett, Philip
"Homosexuality and Music: A Conversation with Philip Brett"
in Lawrence Mass (ed.), ''Dialogues of the Sexual Revolution: Homosexuality as Behavior and Identity'', Routledge, 1990. *Brett, Philip
''Music and Sexuality in Britten: Selected Essays''
University of California Press, 2006. *Brett, Philip, and Wood, Elizabeth

(the uncut version of the article which appeared as "Gay and lesbian music" in the ''

'' second edition), ''Electronic Musicological Review'', Volume VII, December 2002. Accessed 13 September 2010. *Bye, Antony, "In memoriam: Philip Brett", ''

'', January 2002. Accessed vi
subscription
13 September 2010. *Church, Michael

''

'', 30 December 2000. Accessed 13 September 2010. *''

San Jose Mercury News ''The Mercury News'' (formerly ''San Jose Mercury News'', often locally known as ''The Merc'') is a morning daily newspaper published in San Jose, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. It is published by the Bay Area News Group, a subsidia ...

''
"Respected Musician Leaves UC Post for a New Job—and Love"
July 29, 1990, p. 5 (Arts section). Accessed 13 September 2010. *Scott, David and Morgan, Paula. "Brett, Philip",

Grove Music Online ''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 and t ...

, ed. L. Macy. Accessed vi
subscription
12 September 2010. *''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

''
"Philip Brett, Musicologist who outed Benjamin Britten and edited William Byrd"
November 4, 2002. Accessed 13 September 2010.

External links

Philip Brett
on

WorldCat WorldCat is a union catalog that itemizes the collections of tens of thousands of institutions (mostly libraries), in many countries, that are current or past members of the OCLC global cooperative. It is operated by OCLC, Inc. Many of the O ...

Remembrances of Philip Brett

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...

Department of Music {{DEFAULTSORT:Brett, Philip 1937 births 2002 deaths People from Edwinstowe University of California, Berkeley College of Letters and Science faculty University of California, Riverside faculty UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music faculty Alumni of King's College, Cambridge 20th-century American musicologists Britten scholars Byrd scholars