Music professor Cone '39 passes away at 87

When Edward Cone '39, professor of music emeritus, passed away Oct. 23, he left a legacy of almost four decades of musical instruction and profound changes to the way music is studied and played.

"He was a legend — I can't tell you how many times students raved about him," said Scott Burnham, chair of the music department.

Burnham never had the opportunity to teach with Cone, as he came to the University four years after Cone retired in 1989. However, Burnham invited Cone back to teach current music students during one of his seminars.

Burnham said Cone had a unique ability to bring "the intellectual consideration of music to bear on the performative aspect of music." He received numerous emails from past students praising Cone, he said.

One former student, Gilbert Levine '71, told Burnham that he had "never met anyone who could connect music analysis and music performance the way Cone did."

Milton Babbitt — professor emeritus and faculty member at the Juilliard School in New York City — said part of Cone's greatness as a professor came from his abilities as a piano virtuoso.

"I used my mouth to teach, while he used his piano," Babbitt said. "He was an extraordinarily brilliant man."

During Cone's senior year at the University, Babbitt was one of his music instructors. A few years later, the two men became colleagues. They both taught at the University until the mid-1980s.

Cone studied music before it was an actual department at the University — in the 1940s, it fell under the art and archaeology department. Cone became the first student to compose a piece of music as his senior thesis: he wrote a string quartet.

Both Burnham and Babbitt said they remembered Cone as a Southern gentleman. Burnham described him "as a kind of role model."

The Department of Music will hold a memorial service on Nov. 22 at 5 p.m. in the University Chapel.

Cone had specifically requested he not be eulogized, so the service will center on performances of his own musical compositions.