Peter M. Lefferts, Professor and Interim Director of the Glenn Korff School of Music, has released a new book titled “Manuscripts of English Thirteenth-Century Polyphony (Early English Church Music).”
The book was released Nov. 1, 2016, by Stainer & Bell, Ltd.
Lefferts said this book collects all of the surviving fragments of Latin-texted music for the Catholic Church in England in the 13th century (1200-13300) with high-resolution color photos reproduced at life size and a detailed description of each source. He has been working on the book for more than 20 years.
“The project was initiated by Professor William J. Summers of Dartmouth College five or ten years before that, with the initial round of photographic orders,” he said. “I came on board to write the introduction and catalogue. The book represents a new direction in my work, but it is rooted in previous research as well. My first big project (and first book) studied the motet in England in the 14th century. The motet is a sacred genre, so I have moved back a century and broadened the scope of the repertoire being studied. The focus is still on England, though.”
Lefferts is professor of music history. He came to UNL in 1989. His teaching responsibilities have spanned a broad range from introductory courses in listening for freshman non-majors and courses in music history and theory for undergraduate majors to doctoral seminars.
Lefferts has lectured and published extensively in North America and Europe. As an author and editor, his areas of research specialization include medieval and Renaissance English music, the medieval motet, early music notation, early music theory in Latin and English, the tonal behavior of 14th and 15th century songs, and the relationship between church architecture and liturgy. He has also published on topics in American music history.
He is a member of the international advisory board of the Digital Image Archive of Medieval Music based at Oxford University, and a member of the Advisory Board of the Center for the History of Music Theory and Literature at Indiana University. At UNL he directs the web-based project titled Texts on Music in English from the Medieval and Early Modern Eras (TME), which is found on-line at http://www.music.indiana.edu/tme, and he also runs a project center of the Thesaurus Musicarum Latinarum (TML). He also served one full term as the director of the Medieval and Renaissance Studies Program at UNL from 2001 to 2004.
Lefferts holds the B.A., M.A., M.Phil. and Ph.D. degrees, all from Columbia University. Before coming to UNL, he taught at Columbia University and the University of Chicago.