Ralph T. Daniel
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"To Professor Kinkeldey who first called my attention to this unexplored chapter of Americana." - The anthem in New England before 1800
Memorial Resolution
PROFESSOR EMERITUS RALPH T. DANIEL
(April 10, 1921 - January 27, 1985)
Beginning as a jazz pianist / concert artist aspirant in Texas, the musical interests of Ralph T. Daniel were to turn to early music of the English and American church, an interest maintained life-long as his professional career evolved at Indiana University.
Ralph joined the faculty of the School of Music in 1949 as an assistant professor of musicology. He was recognized early to be a master teacher and research scholar imbued with exceptional talents and highest ideals. His courses became legendary for their organization, clarity, and the discipline required to master the materials therein. Few of the many who experienced his course in the recognition of musical styles will forget the impact made by "drop-the-needle" Daniel on their way of listening to music.
In response to an institutional need, he changed the course of his professional career in 1963 by assuming the post of Director of Graduate Studies in Music. This administrative position he was to hold until his premature retirement in 1979. That period of some sixteen years was to see the School of Music blossom, its faculty and enrollment burgeon, and its graduate programs multiply and expand. With his skilled leadership, diligence, and dedication during this period of unprecedented growth, standards of scholarly excellence were forged and maintained, an important factor contributing to the enviable reputation enjoyed by the School of Music today.
During these years, Dr. Daniel read each of the many theses, dissertations, and documents produced and--in his precise hand--indicated errors therein and changes suggested. Insistent on precision of content, logic, and style--to say nothing of grammar, syntax, and punctuation--he left his mark (figuratively, if not literally) on virtually every graduate student who passed through the School of Music during that period. He listened attentively, weighed carefully, judged fairly, and dealt firmly with the problems at hand. Many appreciated his thoroughness; some appreciated his firmness; all appreciated his fairness.
Despite his involvement in the many duties related to full-time teaching and administration, Ralph, a long-time member of the International Musicology Society, was to participate energetically in the American Musicological Society and the College Music Society, serving on the national councils of each. Further, he was to author various important essays and articles for periodicals and encyclopedias and several books, three of which are singled out for mention here: The Harvard Brief Dictionary of Music with Willi Apel, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1960; The Anthem in New England Before 1800, Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1966; and The Sources of English Church Music, 1549-1660 with Peter LeHuray, London: Stainer and Bell, 1972 (2 volumes).
About mid-career, his scholarly achievements were fittingly recognized by the award of a Guggenheim Fellowship for fifteen months of research in England on the origin and early development of the church anthem. Further, while he was to devote most of his creative talent and energy to administration, his contributions were recognized internally by his appointment to the rank of full professor and the chairmanship of the Musicology Department.
Lest one assume that these were the sole measures of this extraordinary person, it should be noted that Ralph was a devote man of the church who received strength, comfort, inspiration, and guidance from the practice of his religion. And, true to his nature, he practiced it consistently, giving generously of himself to the furtherance of the work of the Episcopal Church.
Ralph T. Daniel was born in Kerens, Texas, where he completed his secondary education and early training in music. Thereafter he was educated at North Texas State University (B.M., 1940; M.M., 1942; B.A., 1947) and Harvard University (M.A., 1949; Ph.D., 1955), a period highlighted by marriage to Genevieve Barr in 1943 and including four years of service in the U.S. Army and a year on the faculty at North Texas State University.
Ralph died at home on January 27, 1985 after a protracted illness. One cannot quantify the impact made on the lives and careers of so many as were touched by this man of high integrity and ideals. One can only be thankful that he could serve so many, so long, so well. All of those, and we, his colleagues and friends, join in remembering the unique contribution made by this distinguished teacher / scholar / administrator, in a professional career begun as pianist of the Aces of Collegeland at North Texas State University and ended as Director of Graduate Studies in the School of Music of Indiana University some forty years later.
Therefore, it is requested that the Bloomington Faculty Council pay its deepest respects to the memory of Ralph T. Daniel by the adoption of this resolution and the distribution thereof to his widow, Genevieve Barr Daniel; his brothers, Robert Daniel and William Daniel; his sisters, Martha Daniel, Mary Virginia Daniel Gibson and Edith Daniel Newsome; and his aunt, Elizabeth Daniel Williams.
William B. Christ
Commemorated by the Bloomington Faculty Council: April 2, 1985
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