Robert Gauldin

From 1958 to 1963 he served as professor of theory at William Carey College. From 1963-97 he was a professor at Eastman School of Music.

Gauldin's compositions include works for wind ensemble, chamber orchestra, and chorus. He received a Ford Foundation Grant for the Contemporary Music Project pilot program at Eastman from 1966 to 1968. As a theorist, Gauldin published articles and three textbooks, and presented papers at conventions and universities in the United States and United Kingdom.

He served as reviewer and adviser for several publishers, including the Yale University Press and Prentice-Hall, and served on various boards and committees for music theory societies, including a federal committee chosen to select summer seminars in music for the National Endowment for the Humanities (1981–1982).

He was a charter member of the Society for Music Theory and served as its vice president and president (1988–1992). Gauldin retired in 1997 after 34 years of service to the School but remained an active member of the Eastman community. In recognition of his accomplishments and contributions, the theory department established the Gauldin Acquisition Fund for Rare Books in Music Theory for the Sibley Music Library, with an initial focus on counterpoint treatises and Wagnerian studies.

Gauldin's parents were Robert Luther Gauldin (b. October 20, 1905, Honey Grove, TX; d. April 2, 1959, Vernon, TX) and Lula Mae Self (b. December 31, 1905, Boswell, OK; d. August 6, 1977, Paris, TX.

Gauldin graduated in 1949 from Vernon High School (in Vernon, TX). During his senior year, he was Vice President of the Honor Society and, as clarinetist, President of the Band. In the 1949 Vernon High School Yearbook, he was labeled "the BEBOP man."[1]

• 1953 — bachelor's degree in composition from the University of North Texas College of Music
• 1955 — master's degree in music theory from the Eastman School of Music
• 1958 — doctorate in music theory from the Eastman School of Music

• 1988 — honorary doctorate, College of William & Mary
• R.T. French Company Visiting Professor at Oxford University's Worchester College
  • The R.T. French Company, headquartered in Rochester, and its parent, in Great Britain (Reckitt & Colman Ltd. from 1926 to 2000; then, by merger in 2000, becoming Reckitt Benckiser Group plc), established an exchange professorship between the University of Rochester and University of Hull in 1953 and later expanded to exchanges between Rochester and colleges at Oxford University.[2] Today, the program continues between professors at Oxford and the University of Rochester.
• 1952 — First Prize, Student Composition, Texas Federation of Music Clubs[3] - Sonatina
• 1952 — BMI Student Composer Award[4]
• 1964 — Winner of the 1954 Music Mountain Contest for works by American composers for string quartet - Partita in Four Movements: Intrada; Scherzo; Passecaille; and Rondo

• Movement for wind quintet (©1953)

Gauldin is the author of Harmonic Practice in Tonal Music and has authored many articles in publications that including Journal of Music Theory Pedagogy, Music Theory Spectrum, Journal of the American Liszt Society and Sonus.

• Gauldin, Robert (1997). Harmonic Practice in Tonal Music. W.W. Norton. ISBN 9780393970746.
• Gauldin, Robert (2013-03-04). A Practical Approach to 16th Century Counterpoint: Revised Edition. Waveland Press. ISBN 9781478608752.
• Gauldin, Robert (2013-03-04). A Practical Approach to 18th Century Counterpoint: Revised Edition. Waveland Press. ISBN 9781478608769.
• The historical development of scoring for the wind ensemble microform, PhD thesis (1958), University of Rochester, Eastman School of Music, 205 pgs. (©1961)

• Eastman's portrait of Gauldin