Anthony Newcomb

Who is Anthony Newcomb?

Anthony Newcomb is an American musicologist. He was born in New York and studied at the University of California, Berkeley where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in 1962. He then studied with Gustav Leonhardt in the Netherlands while on a Fulbright Scholarship. He received an MFA and Ph.D from Princeton University in 1969.

In 1968 he joined the music faculty at Harvard University, and left in 1973 to join the faculty at Berkeley. In 1981 he won the Dent Medal, a prestigious award for musicology awarded by the Royal Musical Association. From 1986–1990 he was the editor of the Journal of the American Musicological Society. In 1990 Newcomb became the Dean of Arts and Humanities at Berkeley, where he is currently a professor emeritus. In 1992 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Newcomb's early interest was in the Italian madrigal between 1540 and 1640, and especially the music of the concerto delle donne of Ferrara. Later interests include the works of Richard Wagner and the connection of 18th and 19th century instrumental works and questions of meaning.