Ross W. Duffin

Duffin was born in London, Ontario. He earned a BMus in Music History from the University of Western Ontario (now Western University) in 1973, studying with Gordon K. Greene,{{Cite web|url=https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/gordon-greene-emc|title=Gordon Greene|website=The Canadian Encyclopedia}} Philip G. Downs, and Timothy Aarset. He received a scholarship from the Charles H. Ivey Foundation and was Valedictorian for the Faculty of Music.{{Cite web|url= https://music.uwo.ca/alumni/wall-of-fame/2018.html |title=Alumni Wall of Fame 2018|website=Western University}}

As a Canada Council Doctoral Fellow,{{Cite web|url=https://canadacouncil.ca/|title=Canada Council for the Arts|website=Canada Council for the Arts}} Duffin enrolled at Stanford University to earn an MA and DMA in Performance Practice of Early Music (1974 and 1977, respectively), working primarily with William P. Mahrt and George Houle.{{Cite web|url=https://news.stanford.edu/2017/03/30/george-houle-stanford-professor-music-emeritus-early-music-champion-dies-89/|title=George Houle, Stanford professor of music emeritus and early music champion, dies at 89|website=Stanford University|date=March 30, 2017 }}

After teaching for a year (August 1977–June 1978) at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, Duffin joined the Music Department at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. He was named to the Fynette H. Kulas chair in 1986, and Distinguished University Professor in 2017.

As director of Case's Historical Performance Practice program (1978–2018),{{Cite web|url=https://case.edu/artsci/music/academics/areas-study/historical-performance-practice|title=Historical Performance Practice Department of Music {{pipe}} Case Western Reserve University|date=March 22, 2023|website=Case Western Reserve University}} he taught graduate and undergraduate courses; directed the CWRU Collegium Musicum,{{Cite web|url=https://case.edu/artsci/music/ensembles/collegium-musicum|title=Collegium Musicum Department of Music {{pipe}} Case Western Reserve University|date=June 20, 2023|website=Case Western Reserve University}} and the Early Music Singers,{{Cite web|url=https://case.edu/artsci/music/ensembles/early-music-singers|title=Early Music Singers Department of Music {{pipe}} Case Western Reserve University|date=June 20, 2023|website=Case Western Reserve University}} and founded the Baroque Orchestra.{{Cite web|url=https://case.edu/artsci/music/ensembles/baroque-orchestra|title=Baroque Orchestra Department of Music {{pipe}} Case Western Reserve University|date=June 20, 2023|website=Case Western Reserve University}} He also served as artistic director for the concert series, Chapel, Court, & Countryside, for its 25-year run.

In 2013, Duffin spent a year as Visiting Fellow at Clare Hall, Cambridge University, in the UK. He is now a Life Member.

In addition to giving talks on historical tuning throughout England and Scotland, Duffin coached the choral scholars at King's College, Cambridge and St. John's College, Cambridge. He was the first guest director of the Choir of St John's College, Cambridge, in an Evensong service, recounted in his article, "Cracking a Centuries-Old Tradition," in Early Music America's EMAg.{{Citation|magazine=Emag|title=Cracking a Centuries-Old Tradition|volume=20/4|date=Winter 2014|pages=44–48}}

He remains a Reader at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC, and at the Huntington Library in San Marino, California.

• Some Other Note: The Lost Songs of English Renaissance Comedy. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2018. Reviewed in Early Theatre{{cite journal|url=https://earlytheatre.org/earlytheatre/article/view/3945|last=McInnis|first=David|title=Ross W. Duffin, Some Other Note: The Lost Songs of English Renaissance Comedy|journal=Early Theatre|volume=22/1|date=2019}} and Shakespeare Quarterly.{{citation|last=Wood|first=Jennifer Linhart|title=Some Other Note: The Lost Songs of English Renaissance Comedy by Ross W. Duffin (review)|journal=Shakespeare Quarterly|volume=70/2|date=Summer 2019|pages=177–179|doi=10.1093/sq/quz013 }}
• The Music Treatises of Thomas Ravenscroft: 'Treatise of Practicall Musicke' (c.1607) and A Briefe Discourse (1614), editor. In the series Music Theory in Britain 1500–1700, Jessie Ann Owens, general editor. Farnham, UK: Ashgate, 2014.
• How Equal Temperament Ruined Harmony (And Why You Should Care). New York: W. W. Norton, 2007; paperback, 2008; Polish translation, 2016; Chinese translation, 2018; French translation, 2022. Reviewed in Early Music (journal),{{cite web|url=https://academic.oup.com/em/article/35/3/452/405455|last=Ortgies|first=Ibo|title=Not Quite Just|website=Oxford Academic}} Echo,{{cite web|url=http://www.echo.ucla.edu/review-how-equal-temperament-ruined-harmony-and-why-you-should-care-by-jonathan-bellman/|title=Review: How equal temperament ruined harmony (and why you should care), by Ross W. Duffin|website=Echo.UCLA}} and Kirkus Reviews.{{Cite web|url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/ross-w-duffin/how-equal-temperament-ruined-harmony/|title=How Equal Temperament Ruined Harmony (and Why You Should Care)|website=Kirkus Reviews}}
• Shakespeare's Songbook. New York: W. W. Norton, 2004. Winner of the inaugural Claude V. Palisca Award from the American Musicological Society (2005). Reviewed in Early Music (journal){{Citation|last=Barlow|first=Jeremy|title='Woeful Ballads' and 'Filthy Tunes'?|journal=Early Music|volume=32/4|pages=623–625|date=November 2004|doi=10.1093/em/32.4.623 }} and College Music Symposium.{{Citation|last=Andrews|first=Joyce|title=Review Essay of Books on Song|journal=College Music Symposium|volume=45|date=2005}}
• A Performer's Guide to Medieval Music, editor. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2000; paperback, 2002. Reviewed in Early Music (journal){{Citation|last=Rastall|first=Richard|title=Review: Medieval performances: A performer's guide to medieval music|journal=Early Music|volume=32/2|pages=319–320|date=May 2004|issue=2 |doi=10.1093/em/32.2.319 }} and Journal of the Royal Musical Association.{{Citation|last=Barrett|first=Sam|journal=Journal of the Royal Musical Association|title=Performing Medieval Music|volume=130/1|date=2005}}
• Inventory of Musical Iconography, no. 8: The Cleveland Museum of Art. Répertoire Internationale d'Iconographie Musicale, 1991.

In addition to books, Duffin has made historically informed editions of Medieval and Renaissance music, including most of the music performed by Quire Cleveland,{{Cite web|url=https://www.quirecleveland.org/|title=Quire Cleveland|website=Quire Cleveland}} a professional choir of which he was founding artistic director (2008–2018).{{Cite web|url=https://www.quirecleveland.org/board-of-directors-2/|title=Quire Cleveland Board of Directors|website=Quire Cleveland}} He produced several CDs and hundreds of videos with the ensemble.{{Cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/@QuireCleveland/videos|title=QuireCleveland, 2008–18|website=YouTube}}

Highlights among his published editions include Forty-five Dufay Chansons from Canonici 213Miami: Ogni Sorte Editions, 1983 which won the Noah Greenberg Award, A Josquin Anthology: 12 Motets,Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999 Richard Davy: St. Matthew Passion,Reconstructed from the Eton Choirbooks with lyrics in Latin and English, Middleton, WI: A-R Editions, 2019 and Gude & Godlie Ballatis.Middleton, WI: A-R Editions, 2022 He designed historic music fonts for this purpose, which have been used by Early Music (journal) and other publications.{{Cite web|url=https://casfaculty.case.edu/ross-duffin/homepage/fonts-for-early-music/|title=Fonts for Early Music|website=CWRU}}

In 2024, he published a series of 12 books of Renaissance Choral Favorites for SATB Singers.{{Cite web|url=https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CV456787?binding=paperback&searchxofy=true&ref_=dbs_s_aps_series_rwt_tpbk&qid=1711234319&sr=8-3|title=Renaissance Choral Favorites for SATB Singers|website=amazon.com}} Featuring both sacred and secular music from England, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain, the editions were prepared for school choirs and amateur musicians.

His scholarly articles have been published in North America and Europe. Several have been covered in the press, including "Calixa Lavallée and the Construction of a National Anthem,"Musical Quarterly, 103/1–2, Spring–Summer 2020, pages 9–32 proposing that "O Canada" was assembled from a handful of pre-existing works; it was featured on the front page of Toronto's Globe and Mail.{{Citation|last=Wheeler|first=Brad|title="O Canada is a copy-and-past composition drawn from Mozart, Wagner and others, musicologist contends"|newspaper=The Globe and Mail|date=3 August 2020|page=1}} Another article, "Leonardo's Lira,"{{Cite web|url=https://www.clevelandart.org/magazine/cleveland-art-2015-highlights/leonardo%E2%80%99s-lira|title=Leonardo's Lira|website=Cleveland Museum of Art}} identifying a portrait of Leonardo da Vinci in an early sixteenth-century engraving at the Cleveland Museum of Art, was covered in Live Science,{{Cite journal|url=https://www.livescience.com/51045-da-vinci-engraving-discovered.html|title=Da Vinci Discovered: Art Sleuthing Reveals Leonardo Engraving|last=Jarus|first=Owen|journal=Live Science|date=2 June 2015}} NBC News,{{Cite web|url=https://www.nbcnews.com/science/science-news/leonardo-da-vinci-discovered-500-year-old-engraving-n369186|title=Leonardo da Vinci Depicted in 500-Year-Old Engraving?|date=13 March 2012|website=NBC News}} and Huffington Post.{{Cite web|url=https://www.huffpost.com/entry/leonardo-da-vinci-portrait_n_7494326|last=Frank|first=Prescilla|title=Music Professor Claims Discovery Of New Leonardo Da Vinci Portrait|date=8 June 2015|website=HuffPost}}

Duffin also earned notice for his parody compositions. In 1995, when the Cleveland Indians (now the Cleveland Guardians) reached the World Series, he wrote "Come All Ye Baseball Fans"{{Citation|last=Rosenberg|first=Donald|newspaper=The Plain Dealer|title=Ode strikes chord with the fans|date=21 October 1995}} to the tune of Henry Purcell's "Come Ye Sons of Art," which was noted in The Chronicle of Higher Education{{Citation|journal=Chronicle of Higher Education|title=Indians Have Classic Alternative For 7th Inning Stretch|date=20 October 1995 }} and Sports Illustrated,{{Citation|last=McCallum|first=Jack|magazine=Sports Illustrated|title=Tribal Tune|date=23 October 1995}} and nominated for a Northern Ohio Live Award of Achievement.{{Citation|magazine=Northern Ohio Live Awards of Achievement 1995–1996|title=Classical Music|date=16 September 1996|page=14}} When his daughter, Selena Simmons-Duffin,{{Cite web|url=https://www.npr.org/people/349308023/selena-simmons-duffin|title=Selena Simmons-Duffin|website=National Public Radio}} joined the staff of All Things Considered at National Public Radio, he wrote and produced historically based theme music ("trixies") for the program.

• Howard Mayer Brown Award from Early Music America (with Beverly Simmons), recognizing "lifetime achievement in the field of early music". (2018)
• Claude V. Palisca Award from the American Musicological Society for Shakespeare's Songbook, an edition chosen from world-wide publications to "best exemplify the highest qualities of originality, interpretation, logic and clarity of thought, and communication". (2005)
• Thomas Binkley Award from Early Music America, recognizing "outstanding achievement in both performance and scholarship by the director of a university or college collegium musicum". (2005)
• Noah Greenberg Award from the American Musicological Society for "distinguished contribution to the study and performance of early music". (1980)

In 1976, Duffin married Beverly Simmons (1950–), whom he met in their graduate program. They have two children,{{Cite web|url=https://www.ijn.com/betty-simmons/|newspaper=Intermountain Jewish News|date=20 October 2011|title=Betty Simmons}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.cleveland.com/musicdance/2013/05/quire_cleveland_welcomes_condu.html|title=Quire Cleveland welcomes conductor Jameson Marvin for Palestrina program|website=cleveland.com|date=May 23, 2013 }} Caltech physicist David Simmons-Duffin{{Cite web|url=http://theory.caltech.edu/~dsd/|title=David Simmons-Duffin|website=Caltech}} (1984–) and NPR correspondent Selena Simmons-Duffin (1986–). His sister, Jacalyn Duffin, is a medical historian and hematologist.{{Cite web|url=https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/jacalyn-duffin|title=Jacalyn Duffin|website=The Canadian Encyclopedia}}

{{reflist}}

• {{Cite web|url=https://case.edu/artsci/music/general/people/ross-duffin|title=Ross Duffin|website=Case Western Reserve University|date=April 5, 2021 }}
• {{Cite web|url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/educational-magazines/duffin-ross-w|title=Duffin, Ross W.|website=Encyclopedia.com}}

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Category:1951 births

Category:Living people

Category:American musicologists

Category:Canadian musicologists

Category:People from London, Ontario

Category:20th-century American musicologists

Category:21st-century American musicologists

Category:American music educators

Category:Stanford University alumni

Category:Canadian music educators

Category:Case Western Reserve University faculty

Category:20th-century Canadian educators

Category:21st-century Canadian educators