Safford Cape (28 June 1906 - 26 March 1973) was an American

conductor Conductor or conduction may refer to: Biology and medicine * Bone conduction, the conduction of sound to the inner ear * Conduction aphasia, a language disorder Mathematics * Conductor (ring theory) * Conductor of an abelian variety * Cond ...

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and def ...

and

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 ...

. Born and educated in

Denver Denver ( ) is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Consolidated city and county, consolidated city and county, the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Colorado, most populous city of the U.S. state of ...

Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...

, Cape moved to

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

in 1925 to further his studies in composition and musicology. From 1933, after a few years of chamber music composition, Cape began focusing on the performance of medieval and Renaissance music. To this end, he founded and conducted the Pro Musica Antiqua of Brussels, an ensemble specialising on music from the medieval and Renaissance periods. This group toured throughout Europe and the Americas and produced many recordings. Cape's work inspired

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 ...

to form a similar ensemble in America, the New York Pro Musica which was recorded first by

EMS Recordings EMS Recordings was founded in 1949 by Jack Skurnick in New York City. The company won first prize at the Audio Fair of 1950 for the high quality and interest of its recordings. It issued the first recording of works of Edgard Varese. Skurnick's par ...

. For health reasons, Cape retired in 1967 and died in Brussels six years later.

External links

A partial discography at medieval.org

References

1906 births 1973 deaths American male conductors (music) American male composers American performers of early music 20th-century American composers 20th-century American conductors (music) 20th-century American male musicians {{US-composer-20thC-stub