William Waite

William G. Waite (October 1917, in Massachusetts – February 28, 1980) was an American musicologist.

Biography

William G. Waite was born in October 1917 in Massachusetts.^{[citation needed]} He was educated at Yale University. He later received his PhD in 1951. His dissertation, The Rhythm of Twelfth-Century Polyphony: its Theory and Practice outlines his ideas on modal interpretation of organum duplum. The second half of this work is a transcription of organum from the Magnus liber organi.^{[citation needed]}

In 1947, Waite joined the Yale music department. He was chairman of the music department from 1965 to 1979. During his tenure, the department grew into the Yale School of Music.^[1] His textbook, The Art of Music (1962), written with Beekman Cannon and Alvin Johnson, was a popular introductory music text for many years.^{[citation needed]}

Waite married. He had two daughters and a son.^[1] He died of pancreatic cancer^{[citation needed]} on February 28, 1980, aged 62, at the Yale Health Center Infirmary.^[1]