Paul Rapoport

Paul Rapoport (born 1948) is a Canadian musicologist, writer, music critic, composer, and Professor Emeritus at McMaster University School of the Arts in Hamilton, Ontario. Originally from Toronto, Rapoport received his bachelor's degree in linguistics and music at The University Of Michigan in 1970. Paul continued studying at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, attaining his master's in 1972 with a thesis on Havergal Brian's "Gothic" Symphony No. 1, followed by a doctorate he earned in 1975 with a dissertation on four Symphonic Metamorphoses by Vagn Holmboe. As an accomplished expert and scholar of Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji, Paul Rapoport assisted with two substantial acquisitions of Sorabji's archives at McMaster University Libraries in 1998 and 2005. He also provided liner notes for Opus Clavicembalisticum 4xLP boxset, with a live recording by pianist Geoffrey Douglas Madge on 11th June 1982 at Muziekcentrum Vredenburg, Utrecht during Holland Festival. In addition to Sorabji, Brian, and Holmboe, Paul Rapoport's work has been most associated with composers Allan Pettersson, Ronald Stevenson, and various aspects of microtonal music and just intonation tunings. He corresponded with Erv Wilson, who shipped some materials to Rapoport in the 80s, as McMaster University had one of the last functional Motorola Scalatrons (an obscure '70s microtonal electronic instrument) installed. Rapoport also composed microtonal music, including a song cycle on Erica Jong poems, Songs of Fruits and Vegetables (for mixed choir a cappella) in 1986-87.