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Sylvia Kenney

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Sylvia Kenney
Born(1922-11-27)November 27, 1922
Tampa, Florida, U.S.
DiedOctober 31, 1968(1968-10-31) (aged 45)
Northampton, Massachusetts, U.S.
Occupations
  • Musicologist
  • violist
AwardsGuggenheim Fellowship (1963)
Academic background
Alma mater
ThesisThe 'Contenance angloise' in the Music of Walter Frye and his contemporaries (1955)
Leo Schrade
Academic work
DisciplineMusicology
Sub-discipline
Classical music
Institutions

Sylvia Wisdom Kenney (November 27, 1922 – October 31, 1968) was an American musicologist. She originally performed as a violist and played for the United Service Organizations in World War II. After completing her graduate studies, she worked in music cataloguing and later as a professor at Bryn Mawr College, University of California, Los Angeles, University of California at Santa Barbara, and Smith College. A 1963 Guggenheim Fellow, her publications included Catalog of the Emilie and Karl Riemenschneider Memorial Bach Library (1960) and Walter Frye and the Contenance Angloise (1964).

Biography

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Sylvia Wisdom Kenney was born on November 27, 1922, in Tampa, Florida.[1] Her father Arthur W. Kenney worked as a chemist for DuPont. and her mother Marion Coes spent World War II as a WAVES officer.[2] The family later lived in Wilmington, Delaware.[2] She obtained her Bachelor of Arts degree from Wellesley College in 1944.[3]

Kenney originally performed as a violist. Her music teacher was Max Aronoff [de].[4] The Portland Press Herald said that Kenney "possesses an inborn love of the old masters, which gives to her work a depth of interpretation both mature and musicianly".[4] During World War II, she was a violist for the United Service Organizations, appearing in shows throughout East Asia.[2] After the war, she studied at the Yale School of Music and got her BMus there in 1946.[3][2]

She returned to Yale for her graduate studies, obtaining her MA in 1948 and PhD in 1955.[3] Her doctoral dissertation, The 'Contenance angloise' in the Music of Walter Frye and his contemporaries, was supervised by Leo Schrade.[1][5] In 1950, she went to Belgium as a Fulbright Fellow in music,[6] and she studied at the Université libre de Bruxelles, where Charles Van den Borren, Albert Vander Linden, and Robert Wangermée [fr] were her mentors.[1] In 1952, she worked at the Library of Congress' copyright division as a cataloguer in the music section.[7] From 1952 to 1954, she was a music instructor at Wells College,[7] where she was also head of the music library.[1]

She went to Baldwin–Wallace College to work on a catalog of the college's Bach collection;[8] it was published as Catalog of the Emilie and Karl Riemenschneider Memorial Bach Library (1960).[1] She was editor for The Collected Works of Walter Frye, published by the AIM the same year.[9][1] In 1963, she was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship to do research on the motet.[7][10] In 1964, her dissertation was republished as a book, Walter Frye and the Contenance Angloise.[5] Philip Keppler called both her Walter Frye books "monuments to scholarly exactitude and indispensable contributions to our knowledge of early English influence on the music of the Continent".[11]

In 1957, she began working as an assistant professor at Bryn Mawr College, and she became associate professor in 1963.[7] In 1961, she worked at University of California, Los Angeles as an assistant professor of music during the summer session.[7] In October 1964, she was appointed to the University of California at Santa Barbara Department of Music,[12] becoming an associate professor there.[3] She moved to Smith College in 1966[11] and became professor of music history.[3]

Kenney died on October 31, 1968, in Cooley Dickinson Hospital in Northampton, Massachusetts, two days after falling ill at a Detroit Symphony Orchestra concert.[13]

Bibliography

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References

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  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Kaufmann, Henry W. (1969). "Sylvia Wisdom Kenney (November 27, 1922 — October 31, 1968)". College Music Symposium. 9: 8–9. ISSN 0069-5696. JSTOR 40373793.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Kenney Family's War Service Ends as U.S.O. Girl Returns". The News Journal. August 7, 1946. p. 13 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Who's Who of American Women and Women of Canada. Vol. 5. A.N. Marquis Company. 1968. p. 649.
  4. 1 2 "Annual Reunion Of Ingraham Family Is Held At Glen Cove". Portland Press Herald. August 3, 1940. p. 4.
  5. 1 2 Kenney, Sylvia W. (1964). Walter Frye and the Contenance Angloise. p. vii.
  6. ↑ "Grantee Directory". Fulbright U.S. Student Program. Retrieved May 31, 2025.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 Reports of the President and the Treasurer. John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. 1963. p. 41. Archived from the original on January 25, 2025. Retrieved May 31, 2025.
  8. ↑ "Catalogue of Bach Library Nearly Ready". The Plain Dealer. May 20, 1957. p. 23 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. ↑ "Publications 2024: Medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque Music" (PDF). American Institute of Musicology. Retrieved May 31, 2025.
  10. ↑ "Sylvia W. Kenney". Guggenheim Fellowship. Archived from the original on January 25, 2025. Retrieved May 30, 2025.
  11. 1 2 Keppler, Philip (1969). "Sylvia Kenney (1923-1968)". Journal of the American Musicological Society. 22 (3): 528–528. doi:10.2307/830756. ISSN 0003-0139. JSTOR 830756.
  12. ↑ "UCSB Names Five To Music Staff". October 7, 1964. p. C5.
  13. ↑ "MISS SYLVIA KENNEY SMITH COLLEGE PROFESSOR, DIES". Transcript-Telegram. November 2, 1968. p. 5 – via Newspapers.com.
  14. ↑ E., W. (1961). "Review of Catalog of the Emilie and Karl Riemenschneider Memorial Bach Library". Music & Letters. 42 (4): 376–377. ISSN 0027-4224. JSTOR 732780.
  15. ↑ LaRue, Jan (1961). "Review of Catalog of the Emilie and Karl Riemenschneider Memorial Bach Library". Notes. 18 (2): 236–237. doi:10.2307/891642. ISSN 0027-4380. JSTOR 891642.
  16. ↑ "Review of Catalog of the Emilie and Karl Riemenschneider Memorial Library". Music Educators Journal. 47 (5): 100–100. 1961. doi:10.2307/3389488. ISSN 0027-4321. JSTOR 3389488.
  17. ↑ P., A. (1962). "Review of Catalog of the Emilie and Karl Riemenschneider Memorial Bach Library". The Musical Times. 103 (1429): 171–171. doi:10.2307/949270. ISSN 0027-4666. JSTOR 949270.
  18. ↑ B., J. D. (1967). "Review of Walter Frye and the Contenance Angloise". Music & Letters. 48 (4): 376–378. ISSN 0027-4224. JSTOR 733237.
  19. ↑ Brown, Charles U. (1966). "Review of Walter Frye and the Contenance angloise". Notes. 22 (4): 1212–1215. doi:10.2307/895205. ISSN 0027-4380. JSTOR 895205.
  20. ↑ Charles, Sydney Robinson (1967). "Review of Walter Frye and the Contenance Angloise". Journal of the American Musicological Society. 20 (2): 290–292. doi:10.2307/830793. ISSN 0003-0139. JSTOR 830793.
  21. ↑ Gülke, Peter (1966). "Review of Walter Frye and the „Contenance angloise"". Die Musikforschung. 19 (4): 459–460. ISSN 0027-4801. JSTOR 41115215.
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