IN MEMORIAM

IN MEMORIAM

Edgar H. Sparks

Professor of Music, Emeritus

Berkeley

1908—1996

Edgar Herndon Sparks was born in Lincoln, California, on December 12, 1908, and died in Berkeley on December 1, 1996. He demonstrated great talent as a pianist at an early age and in 1930, he began studies at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. After only one year of study, he received a certificate of completion in the Normal Department (education) of the Conservatory. In 1931 he was elected to the faculty of that institution, where he taught piano for 10 years. In 1935 he enrolled at the University of California, Berkeley and received his A.B. in music with highest honors in 1939. When he graduated, he was a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Phi Delta Kappa, and Alpha Mu. He entered Harvard University as a graduate student in music in 1940 and received an M.A. in 1942. During these years of study he received three important fellowships: the Sigmund Martin Heller Travelling Fellowship (1940-41), a Harvard University Fellowship in music (1941-42) and the John Knowles Paine Travelling Fellowship (1942-43). He had to relinquish the last one because of the war and he served in the Navy from 1942 until 1946. He then returned to the University of California to resume study on his Ph.D. and received the degree in 1950, completing a dissertation on cantus firmus treatment in fifteenth century music under the direction of Manfred Bukofzer. In 1948 he was appointed a lecturer in music at the University of California, became a full professor in 1960, and retired in 1974.

 

During his tenure at Berkeley, his teaching covered a large area, including undergraduate courses in both music theory and music history for majors, general courses in music for nonmajors, and specialty courses for graduate students in fifteenth and sixteenth, as well as nineteenth century music. He was both a flexible and a popular teacher. He also conducted several graduate seminars and supervised numerous Ph.D. dissertations. As a member of an untold number of committees, he was a thoughtful, considerate, and pleasant colleague.

 

His main contributions to scholarship were his dissertation, which was published in a much expanded form as Cantus-Firmus Treatment in the Mass and Motet: 1420-1520 (University of California Press, Berkeley, 1963), and his book The Music of Noel Bauldeweyn (The American Musicological Society, 1972). He published substantial articles on the motets of Antoine Busnois and on the composers Jacob Obrecht and Johannis Regis, as well as an important contribution on authenticity in the motets of Josquin Des Prez. He also wrote numerous reviews of articles on fifteenth and sixteenth century music.

 

His wife Ingrid, whom he married in 1946, survived him by four years.

 

Daniel Heartz

Lawrence Moe