Don Harrán

Biography

Born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Don Harrán did his undergraduate work at Yale University, majoring in French literature (B.A. magna cum laude, 1957), and pursued graduate studies in musicology, mainly under Edward Lowinsky and, as dissertation advisor, Joseph Kerman, at the University of California at Berkeley (M.A., 1959; Ph.D., 1963). He settled in Israel with his Israeli wife, who also studied at UC Berkeley, in 1963. During the years 1963–66 he taught music history at the Rubin Academy of Music in Jerusalem and, since 1966, has been a member of the Department of Musicology at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, becoming Emmanuel Alexandre Associate Professor of Musicology in 1976, Artur Rubinstein Full Professor of Musicology in 1980, and since his retirement in 2004 Artur Rubinstein Professor Emeritus of Musicology. He chaired the Department of Musicology during the years 1977–80, 1991–92, and 1994–97. In 1993 he was Visiting Professor at the Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles, and in 2004 Visiting Professor at Villa I Tatti (Harvard University Center for Research in the Italian Renaissance), Florence. He received various fellowships and grants, among them the American Council of Learned Societies (1974–75), the Memorial Foundation of Jewish Culture (1980–81, 1992–93, 2001–2), Newberry Library (Chicago; 1993), Folger Shakespeare Library (Washington D.C.; 1998), the American Philosophical Society (1975), the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation (1978), the Israel National Academy of Sciences (1976–77, 1982–84, 1985–87, 1988–89), and the Institute for Advanced Study (Princeton, New Jersey; 2001–2, 2004).

Harrán served as musical advisor for the Cultural Center of the American Embassy in Israel, organizing concerts of American music and lecturing thereon during the years 1967–70; as corresponding editor on musicology in Israel for the journal Current Musicology from 1968 to 1990; and, since 1908, he was Associate Editor (for music history) for the Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies. He was a member of Phi Beta Kappa, the Israel Musicological Society (chair, 1978–80), the American Musicological Society, the International Musicological Society (board of directors, 1987–92; vice-president, 1992–97), the Renaissance Society of America, the World Union of Jewish Studies, and the European Association of Jewish Studies. During the years 1996–2000 he was named Acting Director of the Jewish Music Research Centre (Hebrew University, Jerusalem).

Don Harrán was married to Aya, granddaughter of the Biblical commentator Samuel Leib Gordon, and a music therapist; they had two children.

Prizes and honors

Writings

Principal areas of research: word-tone relations in the Renaissance as determined by historical, theoretical, and practical/performing considerations; humanism and music; music as rhetoric; instrumental music in the early Baroque; Jewish musicians (composers, singers, instrumentalists, theorists), both male and female, in 16th- and 17th-century Italy; early Jewish female poets, among them Sara Copia Sulam; and the beginnings of Hebrew music historiography in the 18th century. He is an expert of the Jewish western art music.

Books

Critical editions

Articles

Harrán has had numerous articles published in musicological and interdisciplinary journals as well as in dedicatory volumes and anthologies see external links).

Translations