
Jesse Rodin
Associate Professor of Music
Bio
Jesse Rodin strives to make contact with lived musical experiences of the Renaissance. Immersing himself in the original sources, he sings from choirbooks, memorizes melodies and their texts, and recreates performances held at weddings, liturgical ceremonies, and feasts. As Director of the Josquin Research Project (josquin.stanford.edu), he uses digital tools to explore a large musical corpus. As Director of the ensemble Cut Circle (cutcircle.org), he works with world-class singers to animate Renaissance music.
Rodin is the recipient of awards and fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation; the Université Libre de Bruxelles; the American Council of Learned Societies; the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers; the Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies; and the American Musicological Society. For his work with Cut Circle he has received the Prix Olivier Messiaen, the Noah Greenberg Award, Editor’s Choice (Gramophone), and a Diapason d’Or.
He is the author of "Josquin’s Rome: Hearing and Composing in the Sistine Chapel" (Oxford University Press, 2012), editor of a volume of the L’homme armé masses for the New Josquin Edition (2014), and co-editor of "The Cambridge History of Fifteenth-Century Music" (2015). His articles have appeared in the Journal of the American Musicological Society, Music & Letters, Acta Musicologica, and other major journals. A recent essay in Early Music tackles the longstanding problem of the Josquin canon, classifying all 346 pieces somewhere attributed to Josquin in descending order of confidence.
An in-progress book explores how fifteenth-century polyphony happens in time. Drawing on his experiences as a scholar and performer, Rodin argues that composers activated a new collection of compositional building blocks to create a powerful and imaginative range of musical experiences (Cambridge University Press).
Cut Circle performs internationally, with recent appearances in Florence and Arezzo, Italy to mark the 500th anniversary of Josquin’s death (27 August 1521). With the Belgian label Musique en Wallonie, Cut Circle has published recordings devoted to two riveting anonymous masses of the fifteenth century (2021), the complete songs of Johannes Ockeghem (2020), the late masses of Guillaume Du Fay (2016), and music in the Sistine Chapel in the time of Josquin (2012). A short film titled "Sounds of Renaissance Florence" recaptures the soundscape of fifteenth-century Italy. A disc of songs and motets by Josquin is scheduled for release soon.
A passionate teacher, Rodin has led seminars, workshops, and masterclasses at institutions such as Princeton University, the Schola Cantorum (Basel, Switzerland), the University of Vienna, and the Centre d’Études Supérieures de la Renaissance (Tours, France).
At Stanford Rodin directs the Facsimile Singers, in which students develop native fluency in old musical notation. He has organized symposia on the composer Johannes Ockeghem, medieval music pedagogy, and musical analysis in the digital age. In addition to undergraduate and graduate music courses, he teaches a class on late-medieval feasting that marries art, music, poetry, and politics with hands-on experience in the kitchen.
Academic Appointments
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Associate Professor, Music
Administrative Appointments
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Visiting Researcher, Institut de recherche en musicologie, Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS), Paris (2022 - 2023)
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Co-editor, Journal of Musicology (2015 - 2019)
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Associate Professor of Music, Stanford University (2013 - Present)
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Faculty Fellow, Stanford University (2011 - 2013)
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Director, Josquin Research Project (2010 - Present)
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Assistant Professor of Music, Stanford University (2007 - 2013)
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Director, Cut Circle (2003 - Present)
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Teaching Assistant, Harvard University (2002 - 2004)
Honors & Awards
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Guggenheim Fellowship (awarded 2017), John Simon Guggenheim Foundation (2022–23)
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Frederick Burkhardt Residential Fellowship for Recently Tenured Scholars, American Council of Learned Societies (2017–18)
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Villa I Tatti postdoctoral fellowship (declined), Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies (2017–18)
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Prix Banneux for scholarship on the history, culture, and geography of Wallonia, Université Libre de Bruxelles (2014)
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Digital Innovation Fellowship, American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) (2013–14)
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Deems Taylor Award for "Josquin’s Rome: Hearing and Composing in the Sistine Chapel", American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (2013)
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Graves Award in the Humanities, American Council of Learned Societies and Pomona College (2010)
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Hellman Faculty Scholar Award, The Hellman Fellow Fund (2010)
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Noah Greenberg Award, American Musicological Society (2010)
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Alvin H. Johnson AMS 50 Dissertation-Year Fellowship, American Musicological Society (2006–7)
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Nino Pirrotta Fellowship, Harvard University (2006)
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Paul A. Pisk Prize, American Musicological Society (2006)
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Oscar S. Schafer Award for excellence in teaching non-majors, Harvard University (2005–6)
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Term Time Award, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Harvard (2005)
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Richard F. French Prize, Harvard University (2003)
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Excellence in Teaching Awards, Committee on Undergraduate Education, Harvard (2002)
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Phi Beta Kappa, University of Pennsylvania (2000)
Boards, Advisory Committees, Professional Organizations
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Editor, Journal of Musicology (2015 - Present)
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Member, AMS Council (2013 - Present)
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Director, Josquin Research Project (josquin.stanford.edu) (2010 - Present)
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Chair, Undergraduate Studies Committee, Stanford Music, Stanford University (2008 - 2010)
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Member, Graduate Studies Committee, Stanford Music, Stanford University (2007 - 2008)
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Artistic Director, Cut Circle (vocal ensemble; cutcircle.org) (2003 - Present)
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President, Graduate Music Forum, Harvard University (2003 - 2005)
Professional Education
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Ph.D., Harvard University, Musicology (2007)
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B.A., University of Pennsylvania, Music (2000)
2022-23 Courses
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Independent Studies (8)
- Concentrations Project
MUSIC 198 (Aut, Win, Spr) - Independent Study
MUSIC 199 (Aut, Win, Spr, Sum) - Independent Study
MUSIC 299 (Aut, Win, Spr) - MA/MST Capstone Project
MUSIC 298 (Aut, Spr) - PhD Dissertation Proposal
MUSIC 398 (Aut, Win, Spr) - Practicum Internship
MUSIC 390 (Sum) - Readings in Music Theory
MUSIC 321 (Aut, Win, Spr, Sum) - Research in Musicology
MUSIC 302 (Aut, Win, Spr, Sum)
- Concentrations Project
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Prior Year Courses
2021-22 Courses
- Josquin at 500
MUSIC 141K, MUSIC 241K (Spr) - Music History to 1600
MUSIC 40 (Aut) - Musicology Dissertation Colloquium
MUSIC 330 (Win) - Renaissance Notation
MUSIC 300B (Win)
2020-21 Courses
- Music History to 1600
MUSIC 40 (Aut) - Musicology Dissertation Colloquium
MUSIC 330 (Win) - Renaissance Notation
MUSIC 300B (Win) - Research Seminar in Musicology
MUSIC 310 (Spr)
2019-20 Courses
- Food, Text, Music: A Multidisciplinary Lab on the Art of Feasting
FRENCH 166, FRENCH 266, FRENCH 366, MUSIC 133, MUSIC 333 (Aut) - Musicology Dissertation Colloquium
MUSIC 330 (Aut) - Performance as Analysis: Late-Medieval Music in Action
MUSIC 159J (Win)
- Josquin at 500
Stanford Advisees
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Orals Chair
Chelsea Elzinga -
Doctoral (Program)
Zach Haines, Christina Kim, Daniel Koplitz, Lorenzo Tunesi
All Publications
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The Josquin canon at 500 with an appendix produced in collaboration with Joshua Rifkin
EARLY MUSIC
2021; 49 (4): 473-497
View details for DOI 10.1093/em/caab062
View details for Web of Science ID 000853928000002
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The Songbook as Sensory Artifact
SENSORY REFLECTIONS: TRACES OF EXPERIENCE IN MEDIEVAL ARTIFACTS
2018; 1: 22–49
View details for DOI 10.1515/9783110563443-002
View details for Web of Science ID 000466965900002
- "Form and Experience in Fifteenth-Century Music: Problems, Fallacies, New Directions" Journal of the Alamire Foundation 2016; 8: 275–92
- The Cambridge History of Fifteenth-Century Music edited by Rodin, J., Berger, A. Cambridge University Press. 2015
- New Josquin Edition vl. 6 (critical edition of the L’homme armé masses of Josquin des Prez) edited by Rodin, J. Royal Society for Music History of The Netherlands. 2014
- Josquin des Prez Lexikon der Musik der Renaissance edited by Schmierer, E. Laaber-Verlag. 2012
- Josquin’s Rome: Hearing and Composing in the Sistine Chapel Oxford University Press and American Musicological Society Studies in Music. 2012
- With a Flourish: Melismatic Writing in Du Fay’s Early Songs Essays on Renaissance Music in Honour of David Fallows: Bon jour, bon mois, et bonne estrenne edited by Fitch, F., Keil, J. Woodbridge: Boydell Press. 2011: 114–23
- Ockeghem’s Highpoints The Soul of Wit: Micro-Festschrift Rob Wegman zum 50. Geburtstag edited by Cuthbert, M. S. Somerville, MA: Wall Status Press. 2011
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UNRESOLVED
MUSIC & LETTERS
2009; 90 (4): 535-554
View details for DOI 10.1093/ml/gcp074
View details for Web of Science ID 000272101100001
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When Josquin Became Josquin
ACTA MUSICOLOGICA
2009; 81 (1): 23-38
View details for Web of Science ID 000268896100002
- A ‘Most Laudable Competition’? Hearing and Composing the Beata Virgine Masses of Josquin and Brumel Tijdschrift van de Koninklijke Vereniging voor Nederlandse Muziekgeschiedenis 2009; 60: 3-24
- Unresolved Music & Letters 2009; 90: 535-54
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"When in Rome ...": What Josquin learned in the Sistine Chapel (Josquin des Prez)
72nd Annual Meeting of the American-Musicological-Society
UNIV CALIFORNIA PRESS. 2008: 307–72
View details for DOI 10.1525/jams.2008.61.2.307
View details for Web of Science ID 000257796300002
- 'When in Rome…’: What Josquin Learned in the Sistine Chapel Journal of the American Musicological Society 2008; 62: 307-72
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A Josquin substitution
EARLY MUSIC
2006; 34 (2): 249-?
View details for DOI 10.1093/em/cal002
View details for Web of Science ID 000238347800006
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Finishing Josquin's "unfinished" mass: A case of stylistic imitation in the 'Cappella Sistina'
JOURNAL OF MUSICOLOGY
2005; 22 (3): 412-453
View details for Web of Science ID 000236215000003