Sven Hostrup Hansell (23 October 1934 – 6 March 2014) was an American

musicologist Musicology (from Greek μουσική ''mousikē'' 'music' and -λογια ''-logia'', 'domain of study') is the scholarly analysis and research-based study of music. Musicology departments traditionally belong to the humanities, although some m ...

and Professor Emeritus of Musicology at the

University of Iowa The University of Iowa (UI, U of I, UIowa, or simply Iowa) is a public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is organized into 12 coll ...

. He was a specialist in the music and performance practices of the 17th and 18th centuries, as well as a harpsichordist and composer.University of Illinois Musicology Division
PhDs Completed in Musicology
/ref>

Life and career

Hansell was born in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

and grew up in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

. He received his bachelor's degree from the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universit ...

in 1956 and a Master's Degree from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

in 1958. He then studied composition with Nadia Boulanger in France as well as undertaking further studies at the University of Copenhagen, the Musikhochschule in Berlin, and Indiana University. He received his PhD from the

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Unive ...

in 1966 with a dissertation on the cantatas, motets, and antiphons of Johann Adolf Hasse. Hansell taught music history and harpsichord at

University of California, Davis The University of California, Davis (UC Davis, UCD, or Davis) is a public land-grant research university near Davis, California. Named a Public Ivy, it is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University of California system. The inst ...

before joining the faculty of the University of Iowa in 1973. He retired from the University of Iowa in 1999 as Professor Emeritus of Musicology. In the course of his career, he contributed over sixty articles to 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 and the ...

'', including the article on Hasse.'' Iowa City Press-Citizen'' (2 November 1993)
"Early music concert will offer familiar, unfamiliar"
/ref> At the time of his death Hansell was married to the German musicologist . He was formerly married to the musicologist and organist Kathleen Kuzmick Hansell.''New York Times'' (27 March 2014)
Obituary: Sven Hostrup Hansell

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hansell, Sven American musicologists University of Iowa faculty 1934 births 2014 deaths University of Pennsylvania alumni University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign School of Music alumni Harvard University alumni University of California, Davis faculty