Stevenson Robert Murrell, *3 July 1916 Melrose (New Mexico), †14 October 2004 Bedford (near Boston), American musicologist and presbyterian pastor. He studied music at the University of Texas in El Paso (graduating in 1936) and in 1938 completed his piano studies at the Juilliard Graduate School of Music in New York. In 1939, he received a degree from Yale University in New Haven, where he studied composition with D. Stanley Smith and musicology with L. Schrade. Privately, he studied composition with I. Stravinsky in 1939, piano with A. Schnabel in 1940, and organ with E. Power-Biggs; he also studied composition with H. Hansen at the Eastman School of Music (University of Rochester), where he received his doctorate in 1942. In addition, he studied theology at Harvard Divinity School and Princeton Theological Seminary (graduating in 1949). During World War II, Stevenson served as a chaplain in the US Army. He remained in military service until 1953, then continued his studies at the University of Oxford – musicology under J.A. Westrup and literature (graduating in 1954). He began teaching while still a student. From 1941 to 1943 and in 1946, he taught music at the University of Texas, from 1946 to 1949 he lectured at Westminster Choir College in Princeton (New Jersey), and from 1949 at the University of California in Los Angeles, where he was appointed professor in 1961. From 1962, he worked as a specialist on South America at the US State Department, and from 1976, he collaborated on the development of the Handbook of Latin American Studies (published by the Library of Congress in Washington). In 1978, he founded the “Inter-American Music Review”, where he served as editor-in-chief. He was a visiting lecturer at many universities in the United States and South America. He popularised musical knowledge by organising music courses and seminars for amateur composers at the University of California, as well as courses on rock and roll music. Stevenson composed orchestral and choral works, and especially piano pieces, which he performed at recitals in the United States and England. He retired in 1990. He received honorary doctorates from the Catholic University of America in Washington (1991) and Universidade Nova de Lisboa (1993), as well as numerous awards, including: the W. Fulbright Foundation (for research activities in 1958–59, 1964, 1970–71, 1988–89), the Carnegie Foundation (for his teaching activities, 1955–56), the Gabriela Mistral Inter-American Culture Prize (1985), the Villa-Lobos Jury Award (1988), Lifetime Achievement Citation (awarded by the Sonneck Society for American Music, 1999) and decorations: the Organisation of American States medal (1986), the Certificate of Merit from the Mexican Consulate in San Bernardino, California (1987), the gold medal awarded by King Juan Carlos of Spain (1990), and the Order of Andrés Bello, First Class (1992, Venezuela). He was an honorary member of musicological societies in the United States, Argentina, Brazil, Portugal, and the Real Academia De Bellas Artes and Comisión Nacional de Venezuela. In 1988, the Organisation of American States established the Robert Stevenson Prize in Latin American Musicology.
Stevenson was one of the leading experts on musical culture in Latin America, Spain and Portugal. He conducted extensive archival research in Mexico, Guatemala, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Uruguay and Argentina. Stevenson’s prolific scholarly output includes over 30 books, numerous extensive studies in collective works, numerous articles in various journals, and over 400 articles in more than a dozen encyclopaedias (mainly in the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians and the MGG). His works are an important contribution to the development of knowledge about the history of music in South America (from the pre-Columbian era to the present day), as well as about Spanish and Portuguese music from the Renaissance and Baroque periods.
Literature: L. Merino, Contribución semanal de Robert Stevenson a la musicología histórica del nuevo mundo, “Revista musical chilena” No. 164, 1985.
Music in Mexico. A Historical Survey, New York 1952, reprint 1971
Patterns of Protestant Church Music, Durham (North Carolina) 1953
La música en la Catedral de Sevilla 1478–1606. Documentos para su estudio, Los Angeles 1954, Madrid 1985
Music before the Classic Era, London 1955, 2nd edition 1958, reprint 1973 (with musical supplement)
Cathedral Music in Colonial Peru, Lima 1959
Juan Bermudo, The Hague 1960
The Music of Peru. Aboriginal and Viceroyal Epochs, Washington 1960
Spanish Music in the Age of Columbus, the Hague 1960
Spanish Cathedral Music in the Golden Age, Berkeley (California) 1961, Spanish edition Madrid 1993
Music Instruction in Inca Land, Baltimore 1960, Washington 1964
Protestant Church Music in America, New York 1966, 2nd edition 1971
Portugaliae música. A Bibliographical Essay, Lima 1967
Music in Aztec and Inca Territory, Berkeley 1968, 2nd edition 1976
Music in El Paso, El Paso 1970
Philosophies of American Music History, Washington 1970
Renaissance and Baroque Musical Sources in the Americas, Washington 1970 (includes a thematic catalogue)
Foundations of New World Opera with a Transcription of the Earliest Extant American Opera 1701, Lima 1973
A Guide to Carribean Music History, Lima 1975
Francisco Asenjo Barbieri, Madrid 1986
La música de México, vol. 1 part 2: Historia, periodo virreinal (1530 a 1810), with J.A. Guzman-Bravo, Mexico 1986
Music in the Cathedral of Mexico in the 16th Century and The “Distinguished Maestro” of New
Spain. J. Gutiérrez de Padilla, “Hispanic American Historical Review” XXVI, 1946 and XXXV, 1955
Ancient Peruvian Instruments, “The Galpin Society Journal” XII, 1959
Opera Beginnings in the New World, “The Musical Quarterly” XLV, 1959
Early Peruvian Folk Music, “Journal of American Folklore” LXXVIII, 1960
La música colonial en Colombia, “Revista musical chilena” No. 81/82, 1962, English translation in “The Americas” XIX, 1962
Música en Quito, “Revista musical chilena” No. 81/82, 1962, English translation in “Hispanic American Historical Review” XLIII, 1963
European Music in 16th-Century Guatemala, “The Musical Quarterly” L, 1964
Mexico City Cathedral Music. 1600–1750, “The Americas” XXI, 1964
Chilean Music in the Santa Cruz Epoch, “Inter-American Music Bulletin” No. 67, 1968
Francisco Correa de Arauxo. New Light in his Career, “Revista musical chilena” No. 103, 1968
Some Portuguese Sources for Early Brazilian Music History, “Yearbook for Inter-American Musical Research” IV, 1968
The First New World Composers. Fresh Data from Peninsular Archives, “Journal of the American Musicological Society” XXIII, 1970
Americas First Black Music Historian, “Journal of the American Musicological Society” XXVI, 1973
The Toledo Manuscript Polyphonic Choirbooks and some other Lost or Little Known Flemish Sources, “Fontes Artis Musicae” XX, 1973
English Sources for Indian Music until 1882, “Ethnomusicology” XVII, 1973
Protestant Music in America, in: F. Blume Protestant Church Music. A History, London 1974
Josquin in the Music of Spain and Portugal, in: Josquin des Prez, Proceedings of the Congress held in New York 1971, ed. E.E. Lowinsky, London 1976
Sixteenth- through Eighteenth-Century Resources in Mexico, “Fontes Artis Musicae” XXV, 1978
In „Inter-American Music Review”:
Music in the San Juan, Puerto Rico Cathedral to 1900, I, 1978/79
Carribean Music History. A Selective Annotated Bibliography with Musical Supplement, IV, 1981/82
Hispanic-American Music Treasury, 1580–1765, VI, 1984/85 and VII, 1985/86
editions:
Christmas Music from Baroque Mexico, facsimile and transcription, Berkeley 1974
Seventeenth-Century Villancicos from a Puebla Convent Archive, Lima 1974
Latin American Colonial Music Anthology, Washington 1975
T de Torrejón y Velasco La púrpura de la rosa, Lima 1976
Vilancicos portugueses, «Portugaliae Música» series A, XXIX, Lisbon 1976
Antologia de polifonia portuguesa, 1490–1680, with L. Pereíra Leal and M. Morais, «Portugaliae Música» series A, XXXVII, Lisbon 1982
