JON K. BARLOW

JON K. BARLOW, Professor of Music, Emeritus, died Dec. 15, 2015. He was 73. After receiving his B.A. and M.A. from Cornell University, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, he joined the faculty at Wesleyan and taught in the music department for 34 years. Grounded in Western music history, he expanded his horizons geographically and conceptually, constantly creating innovative courses that attracted serious students. Many of his students went on to become established composers, performers, musicologists, and ethnomusicologists. He was very proud of the interdisciplinary courses he taught, including a course on the metaphysics of baseball. He also co-taught courses with Joe Reed and Bob Rosenbaum, focusing on the films of John Ford, the novels of William Faulkner, and the music of Charles Ives. These courses reflected not only his love of teaching, but also his belief that his best teaching occurred while he was learning and that Wesleyan was a special place to have offered him the opportunity to learn alongside and from his own students. According to his friend and colleague, Mark Slobin, Winslow-Kaplan Professor of Music, “He was a brilliant and original pianist who collaborated with eminent composers and performers, mostly at Wesleyan, and did individualistic scholarship on figures ranging from the medieval Guido d’Arezzo to the New Englander Charles Ives.” He maintained an active program of research in retirement. Survivors include his wife, Muriel Barlow, two children, a foster daughter, and two grandchildren.