Dr. Joseph Darby

As a musicologist, Joseph Darby has given scholarly presentations at a number of leading universities, libraries, and research institutions in North America and Europe, including Oxford University, Princeton University, Juilliard School of Music, McGill University, Bibliothèque nationale de France, International Musicological Society, American Musicological Society, College Music Society, among others. His most recent scholarly presentations involve the success of women composers, Scottish composers, and German composers in the subscription music market of eighteenth-century Britain. Professor Darby’s research covers a wide range of topics, including music publishing and musical life in eighteenth-century Britain, the life and music of G.F. Handel, the life and music of Dmitri Shostakovich, cultural politics in Soviet Russia, the life and music of Charles Ives, multidisciplinary teaching in higher education, and the early history of recorded sound. He has co-edited two books on twentieth-century music with Schirmer Books, and was formerly a concert violist.

His current research project involves the history of publishing music by subscription and the economics of music composition in eighteenth-century Britain. The results of this project are given here: an index-catalog of instrumental music, vocal music, and books about music; and a companion spreadsheet of research data.