[Smt-talk] Bruce Campbell
Benjamin Ayotte
benjamin.m.ayotte at wowway.com
Wed Jan 4 13:20:51 PST 2012
Dear Colleagues,
I was privileged to have known Bruce during my time at Michigan State. I got to know him pretty well during that time: I served as his teaching assistant for a year, completed two semesters of counterpoint study with him, and was rewarded with his insight when he gladly agreed to serve as co-chair of my dissertation committee. O ne of my fondest memories was a conversation we were having the day I arrived to tour the campus, and before I actually committed to study there: I found his candor refreshing and disarming: I felt that here was a man of sincerity and integrity; a man posessed of a deep knowledge of, and love for, music and music theory. I knes that I wanted to study with him.
As I got to know him through working with him as he prepared and taught his freshman classes, I gained more admiration for his dedication to the art of teaching. He spend innumerable hours developing materials and carefully crafting his approach to a complex subject matter to ensure clarity and transparency. As a teacher of counterpoint, his pedagogy was nothing short of masterful, and he spent time with each individual student in order to bring out the strongest aspects of his or her work, develop motivic ideas, and keep us focused on a solid and idiomatic tonal structure. His socratic method of questioning questions was often homorous to those inclined to find humor in advanced contrapuntal studies. When I asked what we should do in a contrapuntal situation that seemed to have no solution, he wrote "WWJD" on the board and asked, "What would Johann do?"
I have been enriched by by association with Bruce, and have been inspired by him. I pray for strength and comfort to his family duting this most sorrowful time.
Requiem æternam dona eis domine, et lux perpetua luceat eis. Rest in peace, Bruce. You are missed.
Sincerely,
Benjamin Ayotte
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Subject: Smt-talk Digest, Vol 36, Issue 2
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Today's Topics:
1. Bruce Campbell (Elizabeth W. Marvin)
2. Bruce Campell (Elizabeth W. Marvin)
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Message: 1
Date: Tue, 03 Jan 2012 13:04:49 -0500
From: "Elizabeth W. Marvin" <bmarvin at esm.rochester.edu>
To: <smt-talk at lists.societymusictheory.org>
Subject: [Smt-talk] Bruce Campbell
Message-ID: <CB28AD71.3E9D4%bmarvin at esm.rochester.edu>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
We are writing with the sad news that our colleague Bruce Campbell, recently
retired from Michigan State University and former faculty member at the
Eastman School of Music, died on December 29, 2011, of a heart attack while
driving. His memorial service is Tuesday, January 3 at 4:00 p.m. at
Eastminster Presbyterian Church in East Lansing, where he had served as
organist for many years. A few biographical notes from his obituary: Bruce
had degrees from Brandeis University, the Juilliard School, and Yale
University. He studied organ with Anthony Newman, harpsichord with Fernando
Valenti and Ralph Kirkpatrick, composition with Leonard Stein and Frank
Lewin, and advanced theoretical studies with Allen Forte, Oswald Jonas, and
Ernst Oster. He was also a composer, whose published works include music
for band, orchestra, choir, and many solo instruments. Bruce had a passion
for hiking, travelling, and bagpipe playing, and had recently spent three
months living and working in Scotland's Iona Community.
>
We remember Bruce from his time at Eastman, where we heard him perform and
where we had many conversations with him about music theory and music theory
pedagogy. He was well known at Eastman for his deep knowledge of Baroque
and species counterpoint, and also for his work as an early Macintosh
adopter and HyperCard programmer. Bruce was a ?straight talker? who was not
shy about voicing his opinions about our discipline, as any one who knew him
will attest. But a conversation with him was almost always stimulating, and
even when his critique became particularly pointed, it still grew out of a
deep engagement with music and musicianship.
Betsy Marvin, Bob Wason, and Steve Laitz
Eastman School of Music
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Message: 2
Date: Tue, 03 Jan 2012 16:29:29 -0500
From: "Elizabeth W. Marvin" <bmarvin at esm.rochester.edu>
To: "smt-talk at lists.societymusictheory.org"
<smt-talk at lists.societymusictheory.org>
Subject: [Smt-talk] Bruce Campell
Message-ID: <CB28DD69.3E9F1%bmarvin at esm.rochester.edu>
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Julie Nemire asked me to post this response to the list:
I was so saddened to learn this. Dr. Campbell was the advisor for my
dissertation at MSU, which was completed in 2002. I was pretty self-directed
about my dissertation, and he allowed me to be, for which I will ever be
grateful.
I took his graduate species counterpoint class and can testify that his
teaching of that class was sublime. I also studied HyperCard with him (still
have the massive manual at home somewhere!) and probably owe my fondness for
Macs to him, as well. Several of us on Facebook were swapping stories and
the many little gems he uttered are still memorable these many years later.
I specifically remember his great reverence for J. S. Bach (whom he always
referred to as "The Great Man") and for Heinrich Schenker.
May he rest in peace ... he will be missed and fondly remembered.
Best wishes,
Julie Nemire
Posted by: Elizabeth Marvin
Eastman School of Music
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