Dr. James Hepokoski

Biography

James Hepokoski is the Henry L & Lucy G Moses Professor Emeritus at Yale University, specializing in musicology with a focus on the history and analysis of European art music from approximately 1750 to 1950. His research explores historical contexts, musical structures, and hermeneutics, particularly in relation to symphonic and chamber works by composers such as Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Debussy, Ravel, Mahler, Sibelius, Elgar, and Richard Strauss. Hepokoski addresses issues of extramusical connotation and metaphor within program music and examines differing conceptions of musical modernism between 1880 and 1920, including topics like Italian opera and the ties between music, ideology, and nationalism. He has taught at several institutions including Oberlin College Conservatory and the University of Minnesota before joining Yale in 1999. He is a co-editor of the musicological journal 19th-Century Music and received the Sidonie Miskimin Clauss Prize for Teaching Excellence in Humanities from Yale in 2010. His work notably synthesizes music history and analysis with cultural discourse, focusing on the goals of deep engagement with music. Hepokoski has authored several publications, including books on music form and analysis, and he regularly teaches undergraduate and graduate courses on music history, seminar topics, and methodological approaches in music analysis.

Research Interests

Experience