McCalla, James
McCalla, James
McCalla, James , American musicologist; b. Lawrence, Kans., Aug. 25, 1946. He received a B.Mus. in piano and a B.A. in French from the Univ. of Kans. in Lawrence (1968), and an M.M. in music literature from the New England Cons, of Music in Boston (1973). He then took a Ph.D. in musicology, specializing in 20th-century music, with Kerman at the Univ. of Calif, at Berkeley (1976, with the diss. “Between Its Human Accessories”: The Art of Stéphane Mallarmé and Pierre Boulez). He taught at the Univ. of Va. (1976–78), the State Univ. of N.Y. at Stony Brook (1978–85), and Bowdoin Coll. in Maine (from 1985). His textbooks include Jazz: A Listener’s Guide (Englewood Cliffs, N.J., 1982) and Chamber Music of Our Time (1991). His research employs literary critique to analyze the interface between complex musical and textual works, with subjects including indeterminacy and jazz.
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire