Howard Mayer Brown (April 13, 1930 – February 20, 1993) was an Americanmusicologist.
Brown obtained his BA fromHarvard in 1951 and his Ph.D. in 1959, studying underWalter Piston andOtto Gombosi among others. He conducted and performed on flute often as a graduate student. He taught atWellesley College, 1958–60, and then at theUniversity of Chicago from 1960, where he became chair of the music department in 1970. In 1972 he became professor atKing's College in London, but returned to Chicago in 1974. Brown was editor ofRenaissance Music in Facsimile, published 1977–1982, and was the general editor of several other monument series of musical editions. He contributed prolifically to theNew Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. He served as president of theAmerican Musicological Society, 1978–80.
Brown's scholarship covered a wide range of subjects. He published on the music of the Renaissance, especially thechanson andinstrumental music, and frequently returned to problems in historicalperformance practice, a subfield in which he was one of the most important commentators. His workMusical Iconography (1972) was an important study of the depictions of musical instruments in the visual arts. He also made contributions to the study of Baroque opera.
The Howard Mayer Brown fellowships of the American Musicological Society were established his honor on the occasion of his sixtieth birthday.[1] Each fellowship supports a year of graduate studies for a member of a group historically underrepresented in musicology.
