Jonathan Rhodes Lee
Jonathan Rhodes Lee is Assistant Professor of Musicology and director of the Arnold Shaw Popular Music Center at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He has published in the Journal of Musicology, Cambridge Opera Journal, Eighteenth-Century Music, Music and Letters, the Händel-Jahrbuch, and with A-R Editions, and he has recorded as harpsichordist on the MSR and Equilibrium labels. His Film Music in the Sound Era: A Research and Information Guide, appeared in 2020 with Routledge.
Subjects: Music
Biography
Jonathan Rhodes Lee is Assistant Professor of Musicology and director of the Arnold Shaw Popular Music Center at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He has published in the Journal of Musicology, Cambridge Opera Journal, Eighteenth-Century Music, Music and Letters, the Händel-Jahrbuch, and with A-R Editions, and he has recorded as harpsichordist on the MSR and Equilibrium labels. His Film Music in the Sound Era: A Research and Information Guide, appeared in 2020 with Routledge.Education
-
PhD, University of California, 2014
Fulbright Scholar, Royal Conservatoire, The Hague, 2004
MM, San Francisco Conservatory of Music, 2002
BA, Colgate University, 2000
Areas of Research / Professional Expertise
-
eighteenth-century music, George Frideric Handel, film music
Websites
Books
Articles
Commentary on Corelli, Sonata da chiesa op. 5, no. 1
Published: Dec 02, 2020 by A-R Music Anthology
Authors: Jonathan Rhodes Lee
Subjects:
Music
Provides a student introduction to Corelli's famous op. 5 sonatas.
Commentary on J.S. Bach, Brandenburg Concerto no. 5
Published: Dec 02, 2020 by A-R Music Anthology
Authors: Jonathan Rhodes Lee
Subjects:
Music
Provides a student introduction to Bach's famous concerto.
Giulia Frasi: Singer of Sentiment
Published: Aug 01, 2020 by Music and Letters
Authors: Jonathan Rhodes Lee
Subjects:
Music
This article provides several examples of how Handel’s music, particularly his works of the 1740s and 1750s, operated within the culture of sentiment. It uses the career of Handel’s last leading lady, Giulia Frasi, as an illustration of the nexus between these ethical-aesthetic trends, Handel’s musical works, and this singer’s career.
Music, Morality, and Sympathy in the Eighteenth-Century English Sermon
Published: Feb 02, 2020 by Eighteenth-Century Music
Authors: Jonathan Rhodes Lee
Subjects:
Music
While the furrows of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century religious writing on music have been deeply ploughed, eighteenth-century English sermons about music have received relatively slight scholarly attention. This article demonstrates that the ideas of sympathy and sensibility characteristic of so much eighteenth-century thought are vital to understanding these sermons.
From Giuseppe to Joseph: A Possible New Borrowing Source for the Music of Joseph and His Brethren
Published: Aug 02, 2018 by Händel-Jahrbuch
Authors: Jonathan Rhodes Lee
Subjects:
Music
This article examines the role of artistic borrowing in Handel's oratorio Joseph and His Brethren. Through manuscript study, it suggests that Handel was aware of Antonio Caldara's 1722 setting of the same text (in Italian), and that Caldara's compositional choices in that work affected Handel's own musical decisions.
Introduction to the Baroque Era
Published: May 02, 2016 by A-R Music Anthology
Authors: Jonathan Rhodes Lee
Subjects:
Music
Provides an overview of music in the baroque period (1600–1750).
From Amelia to Calista and Beyond: Sentimental Heroines, ‘Fallen’ Women and Handel’s Oratorio Revisions for Susanna Cibber
Published: Apr 01, 2015 by Cambridge Opera Journal
Authors: Jonathan Rhodes Lee
Subjects:
Music
The history of singer and famed tragedienne Susanna Cibber (1714–66) demonstrates the influences of the British theatre and the culture of sentiment on Handel’s oratorios. This article both illustrates the nature of Cibber’s evolving public identity and explains Handel’s revisions of pre-existing parts for her.
Videos
Published: Nov 04, 2020
Lee plays a ricercar by Froberger on a harpsichord by Kevin Fryer
Published: May 01, 2020
Lee joins the artists of the Las Vegas Philharmonic in public conversation about Handel's Messiah.