News+

John Knowles Paine: attainment and legacy

1 min read

In honor of the centennial anniversary of Paine Hall, the Eda Kuhn Loeb Music Library centered its latest exhibition around the life and times of the man behind the building’s name, Harvard University’s first professor of music and pioneer of American music education, John Knowles Paine.

Paine was well-known in his day as an organist and composer, but his lasting influence has been as an educator. “The study of music as an academic discipline in a liberal arts curriculum essentially originated with Paine,” explained curator Bob Dennis.

Paine’s curriculum at Harvard focused on music history and theory as well as composition, which then served as a model for the rest of the country. A slideshow shares more on his life and works.