Gordon Athol Anderson

Gordon Athol Anderson (1929-1981), was a celebrated musicologist and medievalist. 

Anderson graduated from the University of Adelaide (Mus.Bac., 1958; BA, 1959; M.Mus., 1971; Mus.Doc., 1977). In 1968 he enrolled as a research student in the musicology program at the university. In his first year he published `Notre Dame Bilingual Motets’ (Miscellanea Musicologica) and `Mode and Change of Mode in Notre-Dame Conductus’ (Acta Musicologica). That year he also completed Part 1 of The Latin Compositions in Fascicules VII and VIII of the Notre Dame Manuscript Wolfenbüttel Helmstadt 1099 (1206 , (1968-76), his first critical edition of thirteenth-century manuscripts.

Aderson was appointed as a lecturer in music at the University of New England in 1973, and promoted to senior lecturer in 1975, associate professor in 1977, and to a personal chair in musicology in 1979.

In 1977 he became the first national president of the Musicology Society of Australia and a fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities. He also served on the editorial board of Studies in Music (1977-80). In 1978 he joined the advisory committee of the Humanities Research Centre at the Australian National University, Canberra. 

Over thirteen years from 1968, Anderson produced four critical editions of major manuscripts, wrote more than two dozen articles and reviews, and completed nine of the projected eleven volumes of the monumental series Opera Omnia. Robert Curry, describes Anderson as 'a fine teacher and brilliant researcher, he was a down-to-earth, kindly man, keen on football, fond of jazz, and devoted to his family'.

Reference: Robert Curry, 'Anderson, Gordon Athol (1929–1981)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/anderson-gordon-athol-12135/text21741, published first in hardcopy 2007.