Kay Norton, Associate Professor of Music History and Affiliate Faculty of the ASU Women's Studies department, completed her Ph.D. degree at the University of Colorado, Boulder, and earned baccalaureate and Master's degrees from University of Georgia.   She turned to American hymnody in 1994 after publishing about France's Société Nationale de Musique (1989), twentieth-century American composer Normand Lockwood (Scarecrow Press, 1993) , and women choral conductors in the American collegiate environment ( College Music Symposium , 1993).   In the recent monograph, Baptist Offspring, Southern Midwife—Jesse Mercer's Cluster of Spiritual Songs (1810) : A Study in American Hymnody (Harmonie Park Press, 2002), she viewed the hymnal as a musical artifact, a Baptist document, a Georgia product, a collection reflecting women as well as slaves, and a symbol of the activities that brought Mercer into contact with the Creek and Cherokee Nations.   Her 2003 article for American Music entitled “Who Lost the South?” addressed the received history of pre-1820 folk hymnody in the United States.  

Her scholarship has also been published in collections by Harmonie Park Press (1999 and 2006) and the University of Alabama Press (2003), in The New Grove Dictionary (2000), and in periodicals such as College Music Symposium , American Music Research Center Journal , Bulletin of the Society for American Music, International Federation for Choral Music Bulletin, Music Research Forum. Recent residencies include the Belgian conservatories at Oostende and Ghent (2004).   She has presented her research at national and international conferences of the Society for American Music, College Music Society, American Folklore Society, Society for Ethnomusicology, and Music Teachers National Association.   She has received grants from the University of Missouri and Wheaton College's “Hymnody in American Protestantism” project (Lilly Endowment, Inc.).  

Norton is an active member of the Society for American Music, for which she is currently member-at-large on the Board of Trustees (2005-2008).   Also for SAM, she chaired the interest group, Research on Gender and American Music (1994-2000), the Conference Site Selection Committee (2000-2005), and the Local Arrangements Committee for the 1998 annual conference in Kansas City. She was Program Chair for the 2002 annual conference of the College Music Society.  

A native Southerner, Norton previously held faculty positions at the Conservatory of Music, University of Missouri-Kansas City, where she was Associate Professor of Music History, and at Brenau Women's College in Georgia.  

Reviews of Norton's Books

Baptist Offspring, Southern Midwife—Mercer's Cluster of Spiritual Songs (1810): A Study in American Hymnody , in series Detroit Monographs in Musicology/Studies in Music , ed. J. Bunker Clark, Warren, MI: Harmonie Park Press, 2002.

“Through [Norton's] work one of the earliest American compilations is proven to be not a cluster but a complete galaxy related to many hymnic phenomena already explored. . . . [Norton] has systematically measured it, analyzed its components and helped us focus on it in such a way that it shines surprisingly clearer and brighter for all of us. . . .   She writes lyrically about Southern hymn tunes . . . and the book is informative as it is entertaining, as warm as it is academic.   . . . This book, as its subject, is for hymnody a star of the first magnitude.” Bulletin of the Society for American Music 28, no. 2 (summer 2002): 29.   Reviewed by Mary Louise VanDyke, Coordinator, Dictionary of American Hymnology , Oberlin College.

“Kay Norton offers an important new interpretation of this historic hymnal.   While retaining standard hymnological inquiries into biographical, bibliographical, and literary matters, Norton sets those interests in a much wider context that also includes race, class, gender, religious and regional history, and musical resources.   By her construction and pursuit of this ambitious agenda, Norton provides a reading that significantly advances the study of this complex religious, musical and cultural text. . . . Norton has created a study that uses The Cluster's third edition primarily as the site for a series of important postmodern inquiries.   That Norton has applied such an agenda to Mercer's text is an important and salutary development in hymnological studies because it aligns the field more closely with contemporary historical and literary methods.” Notes, the Quarterly Journal of the Music Library Association (June 2003): 884-86.   Reviewed by Stephen A. Marini , Elisabeth Luce Moore Professor of Christian Studies at Wellesley College.

“Since The Cluster has no music, Norton has created a tune repertory reflective of its musical environment by studying the history of each hymn text and matching them to possible tunes. . . . To study a words-only hymnal and suggest musical possibilities for its use in churches is truly an ambitious task that goes beyond what most of us would be willing to tackle.   Kay Norton is to be commended . . .” American Music 23, no. 1 (spring 2005), 108-09. Review by Harry Eskew, Prof. Emeritus, New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary.

“Discovering and revealing through detailed and reliable research the sources of tunes for early southern hymns is no easy task.   It requires dedication, accessibility, and time, but the journey can be rewarding.   Most hymnologists, musicologists, and church musicians never even ask the question about where tunes come from.   Kay Norton not only pondered this question but came up with the answer.” Baptist History and Heritage (Summer/Fall 2003): 112-113. Reviewed by C. Edward Spann, Dean, College of Fine Arts, Dallas Baptist University.

“The subtitle of the book, “A Study in American Hymnody” is apt—and perhaps an understatement considering the wealth of information contained therein. . . . As a late-eighteenth/early-nineteenth-century man, Mercer's attitude toward and interaction with women and Native Americans is somewhat thorny, and Norton tackles both topics as they relate to religious life and to music of the time. . . . Norton has succeeded in presenting a convincing argument as to the importance of Mercer's collection.”    College Music Symposium 43 (2003), 183-85. Review by Linda Pohly, Associate Professor, School of Music, Ball State University.

Reviews of Normand Lockwood: His Life and Music. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1993. additional excerpts at http://www.scarecrowpress.com

“Norton's book will undoubtedly become the definitive biography of Lockwood.   Scarecrow Press has provided musicians a valuable resource in its Composers of North America series.” Choral Journal 33, no. 9 (April 1995): 71-72. Reviewed by Bonnie Borshay Sneed, University of Alabama-Huntsville.  

“Norton has constructed an insightful profile of her subject's personality as a composer, teacher, and human being . . . perhaps the crowning achievement of Norton's research is the concluding section which is a catalogue of Lockwood's complete oeuvre, including pieces that remain in manuscript.” Sonneck Society Bulletin (former name of the Bulletin of the Society for American Music ) 20, no. 2 (summer 1994): 35. Review by Richard L. Bobo, Northwest Missouri State University.  

“. . . a welcome book . . . this may be the only book that will be published on this important, oft neglected composer, and there is much of value in it.   Recommended to all large academic libraries and to all libraries supporting a music department.” Choice: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries 31, no. 5 (January 1994). Review by J. L. Patterson, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire.