| Jeffery T. Kite-Powell | |
| Birth Date: | 24 June 1941 |
| Birth Place: | Miami, Florida, US |
| Education: | University of Cincinnati University of New Mexico University of Hamburg |
| Occupation: | Musicologist |
Jeffery T. Kite-Powell (born June 24, 1941) is an American musicologist and professor emeritus at the Florida State University College of Music where he was active from 1984 to 2013. During his tenure at FSU, he was coordinator of the Music History and Musicology Division from 1996 to 2008.[1] He also directed the Florida State University early music ensembles and in 1989 he founded the vocal group Cantores Musicæ Antiquæ.[2] Kite-Powell's primary focuses are the music of the Renaissance and early Baroque periods, organ tablature, historical performance practice, and Michael Praetorius.
Kite-Powell received the Bachelor of Music degree in clarinet performance in 1963 from the College-Conservatory of Music in Cincinnati[3] and the Bachelor of Science in Music Education in 1964 from the University of Cincinnati. He earned the Master of Arts degree in musicology from the University of New Mexico while serving in the U.S. Army at Sandia Base (1965–1968) and the Ph.D. in Musicology from the University of Hamburg, in Hamburg, Germany in 1976.
Kite-Powell has written multiple articles based on his research of Michael Praetorius and published a translation of the 1619 treatise Syntagma Musicum III.[4]
Michael Praetorius's Syntagma Musicum III, which focuses, in part, on performance practice of the period, is the third volume of his treatise Syntagma Musicum. This work provides insight into how music of this period was actually performed and is foundational to modern, historically informed performance. Kite-Powell's early music ensembles have performed multiple works by this composer, in a historically informed manner.
In his article "Michael Praetorius: In His Own Words", Kite-Powell holds a hypothetical interview with Michael Praetorius. In this "interview", Kite-Powell outlines Praetorius's education, career, and contributions to musical theory and performance in an approachable, question and answer format.
Kite-Powell's article "Performance Forces and Italian Influence in Michael Praetorius's Syntagma Musicum III"[5] provides statistical information regarding Syntagma Musicum III. Kite-Powell uses this statistical information to illustrate Michael Praetorius's thinking process and the elements that influenced it.
In 1980, Kite-Powell published his two-volume book, The Visby (Petri) organ tablature: investigation and critical edition documenting his research of the tablature. Since the Visby (Petri) tablature, which was written circa 1600, is the earliest surviving tablature of Hamburg origin, it is critically important to the investigation of organ music from Hamburg and Northern Germany during that era. According to Kite-Powell's book, Hieronymus Praetorius was the "most prolific and influential composer in North Germany"[6] during this period. Among his many other contributions to organ music, Hieronymus Praetorius is credited with the founding of the organ tradition known as the "Hamburg School". Kite-Powell's book also covers the compositions of Jacob Praetorius contained within the tablature, which he notes are "of great significance" as well as the contributions of .[7] Levavi oculos meos à 10 by Hieronymus Praetorius as performed by the Florida State University Early Music Ensembles, performed on period instruments, and conducted by Kite-Powell on April 21, 2013, at St. John's Episcopal church, Tallahassee, is an example of how Hieronymus Praetorius's work would have been performed in this period.
In July 1995, Kite-Powell presented his paper entitled "The Hieronymus/Anonymous Question in the Visby (Petri) Tablature" at the Hamburg-Scandinavian Organ Festival in Hamburg, Germany. The Visby (Petri) tablature itself documents three known contributors, Hieronymus Praetorius, his son Jacob Praetorius, and Johann Bahr as well as one anonymous composer. The "question" this paper addresses is that of the identity of the anonymous composer. There are "41 anonymous works—hymns, Kyries, Agnus Deis, and Sequences" contained within the tablature. Kite-Powell's research presented in his paper is aimed at unraveling this mystery.
In 1989, Kite-Powell founded the vocal group Cantores Musicæ Antiquæ [Singers of Early Music] with the "goal of performing music from 1200 to 1650 in a historically informed manner". The group is generally made up of between eight and twelve singers. These singers are undergraduates, masters, and doctoral students with majors ranging from voice to musicology. The group has performed at regional and national conventions throughout the southeastern United States and has been broadcast on National Public Radio's Millennium of Music. Several of the works performed by these groups were performed for the first time since their seventeenth century premieres. Tomás Luis de Victoria's Officium Defunctorum (Requiem Mass à 6) is the most listened to performance and has garnered numerous reviews.
Kite-Powell was an invited lecturer at the Götebord International Organ Academy conference in Göteborg, Sweden, 1994, the Hamburg-Scandinavian Organ Festival conference in Hamburg, Germany, 1995, the Instrumentälischer Bettlermantl Conference at the University of Edinburgh in Edinburgh, Scotland, 1997, where he was the keynote speaker, the conference German: Michael Praetorius: Vermittler europäischer Musiktraditionen um 1600[8] in Wolfenbüttel, Germany, 2008, and the International Musicological Conference entitled Syntagma Musicum 1619–2019[9] held in Ljubljana, Slovenia, 2019.