ALLAN KEILER Obituary

KEILER--Dr. Allan Ronald. Dr. Allan Ronald Keiler, of Dedham, MA, and formerly of Brookline, passed away on February 26, 2024. Allan was born November 8, 1938, in Cleveland, Ohio. Allan's parents were his mother, Pearl Keiler (nee Krause), and his father, Arthur Keiler. His sister, Carol Keiler, passed away in 2008. Allan received his B.A. in linguistics from the University of Michigan, and his Ph.D. in linguistics from Harvard University. Allan had a fulfilling first career as a professor of linguistics at the University of Michigan. After subsequent further graduate work in musicology and music theory, in 1975 he joined the faculty of Brandeis University, where he enjoyed a long and fulfilling second career as a professor of music. Allan had a great interest in the musical career of the renowned American contralto, Marian Anderson. After years of research, in 2000 he published Marian Anderson: A Singer's Journey, which remains the definitive source on this remarkable and famous singer. Allan touched the lives of countless people, including colleagues and students, and he is mourned by his many friends. A memorial gathering to celebrate his life will be held at a later date. Donations in Allan's memory are encouraged to a charity of your choice.

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Published by New York Times on Mar. 10, 2024.

Memories and Condolences
for ALLAN KEILER

13 Entries

Cantor Michael Zoosman

June 26, 2025

Zichrono Livracha, and may the abiding Neshama of my beloved professor Dr. Allan Keiler be an everlasting loving guide to all who were privileges to know - and learn from - him in this world....Alav HaShalom, Michael

Howard Treibitz

May 7, 2025

Allan Keiler was a great help to me when I ran into difficulty with my doctoral thesis. He was interested in the work that I was doing and was very supportive. He became my advisor and I earned the degree. I have thought of him often.

Virginia Mosser

April 10, 2025

He was a professor of mine at Brandeis.w

Robert Marshall

September 15, 2024

Allan Keiler Memorial, September 8, 2024

I´m sure that many of you were much closer to Allan and knew him far better than I. But I wonder how many of you -apart, of course, from his lifelong friend Marion - knew him longer than I did.

I first met Allan some fifty years ago. The year was either 1972 or 73 or 74. The place was Chicago, more specifically, the campus of the University of Chicago - even more specifically, the Department of Music. I had recently become the chairman of the department. Allan had just become a first-year graduate student.

So, what´s so remarkable about that?

I´ll tell you: For Allan enrolling as a first-year graduate student in music at this moment in his life was perhaps the most consequential, most courageous, decision he had ever made.

While most of the incoming grad students were in their early or mid-twenties, Allan was already in his mid-thirties. More than that: He already had a career. Indeed, he was already an established scholar - a tenured professor of linguistics at the University of Michigan with a budding reputation.

But he was not content. He loved scholarship and he loved the discipline of linguistics. But it was not his greatest love. That was music.

And, after what we may be sure was considerable internal debate and anguish, he decided to do something radical about it. He would start over, pursue his first love and become a grad student once again, this time with the objective of becoming a professor of music.

I think it was during my first interview with Allan after he showed up on the Chicago campus that fall that he described to me his ambivalence and conflict in reaching that decision. The die was cast when he had mentioned to a friend his concern that if he went ahead and chucked it all, became a student again, by the time he got his degree he would probably be forty years old. His friend replied: "Well, you´re going to be forty years old in any case. Why not just do it!"

And so he did!

As you all know, Allan´s great interest was music theory - in particular - no surprise, given his background - the relationship - or however you may wish to characterize it - between the fundamental, deep structure of human language, as described by Noam Chomsky and the similar hierarchical structure of tonal music, as described by Heinrich Schenker. He chose the University of Chicago in order to explore these questions with Leonard B. Meyer, one of the country´s most original and provocative music theorists. While there, Allan, thanks to his linguistic background and, above all, his command of Latin, also made a strong favorable impression on the department´s other leading scholar, Edward Lowinsky, who became quite a fan of his.

Allan did not stay in Chicago very long. After just a year or two he was recruited away - to Brandeis University. The rest of the story, of course, is already familiar to you.

Allan became one of the most beloved teachers at the University. The reason for this is abundantly obvious. Allan´s devotion to his students was boundless. He inspired them with his enthusiasm and his uncompromising standards. He motivated them to do their best; he spared no effort in supporting and criticizing their work. He became their advisor and trusted confidante. He loved them, and they amply returned his love.

Such mutual affection and devotion are not very common in the world of academia.

As a postscript, let me only report that after Allan departed Chicago for Brandeis, we fell out of touch - for about a decade. Then, sometime around 1982 or 83, I heard from him. Now the chairman of the Brandeis music department, he wanted to invite me to come to Brandeis as a visitor for the next academic year. I accepted the invitation - which eventually became a permanent position.

Over the next decades, until my retirement in the year 2000, our relationship had changed. Once teacher and student, we were now colleagues: at first, Allan, as chairman, was my boss; later on, I, as chairman, was his. Of course, those designations meant little. What we became were mutually admiring friends.

Among other things we shared our enthusiasms, in particular, for the artistry of our favorite pianist, Arthur Rubinstein. I was also able to witness his growing and ever deepening scholarly, and personal, involvement with the legendary Marian Anderson - a project that resulted, of course, in his landmark biography of the great singer and civil rights icon.

Let me end by citing the inscription that Allan wrote in the copy of the book he gave me. It is dated April 25, 2000 and reads simply: "For Robert Marshall, teacher, colleague, friend."

Yes, that is the sequence. And the greatest of these is . . . friend.

Sharon Lund

September 8, 2024

So glad I met Allan via a mutual friend so many years ago!

Beverly Stein

September 6, 2024

I studied nineteenth-century music and analysis with Allan Keiler when I was getting my Ph.D. at Brandeis. I remember that our first analysis assignment was Schubert's famous song "Gretchen am Spinnrade." Clearly the experience stayed with me to this day: my book Unlocking Meaning in Art Song: A Singer’s Guide to Practical Analysis Using Schubert Songs (coming out this month), draws inspiration from my studies with him at Brandeis, as well as my work teaching graduate analysis classes to singers and other students at California State University, Los Angeles. Studying with Allan changed the way I thought about music, and I thank him in the dedication of my book.

Dianne Pettipaw

Planted Trees

Don Polzella

August 16, 2024

My wife Marion and I met Allan in the fall of 1969, when I began my graduate studies in psycholinguistics at the University of Michigan. Allan was my first teacher-a required course in phonological analysis. Erudition combined with modesty along with a Mr. Chips-like persona is how I remember Allan in the classroom. I cannot recall how our friendship began, but for the next three years, the three of us, and our Springer Spaniel, Phoebe, were nearly inseparable. Sharing meals was a favorite pastime along with going to films, plays, and concerts. After we left Ann Arbor, we visited one another many times, and Allan remained our closest friend until his death.

I am struggling to find words that can adequately convey how grateful I am to have benefited from Allan´s extraordinary intellect. Allan was a polymath, particularly in the arts and humanities, where he was a fount of delightful anecdotes. We shared a deep interest in psychoanalysis and had fun sharing insights about important matters. Allan loved art and his apartment was filled with it. His collection included Pre-Columbian pottery, original Art Nouveau posters, an impressive group of German expressionists, and many contemporary European and American works. I treasure Leonard Baskin´s woodcut of the artists Millet and Rousseau, a birthday gift from Allan.

Of course it is in music that I am most grateful. I had a modest background before I met Allan. When I was an undergraduate at the University of Rochester, I took voice at Eastman along with musicology courses on the main campus. I had also studied clarinet and some theory before I started at university. But I knew a mere fraction of what Allan taught me. There were so many hours of listening to recordings together and attending concerts at Hill Auditorium. The most memorable concert I ever heard was there. Josef Krips was touring with his Vienna Symphony. The first piece was Eduard Van Beinum´s Concerto for Orchestra, an interesting piece that we did not know but enjoyed. It was followed by Haydn´s Symphony #94, which I knew well. To my ears the performance was perfect. And after intermission, they played Schubert´s Great C-Major. It was exhilarating. We wept while listening. Another time we heard Arthur Rubinstein in recital toward the end of his career. He was wheezing loudly while he played Chopin´s Berceuse and shushed the noisy audience a few times. Allan had breakfast with him the following morning for an interview that appeared in the Michigan Daily. I visited Allan when he moved to Chicago. I remember vividly a sublime recital there by Elly Ameling and Jörg Demos. There were so many more.

Allan introduced me to three of his and now my favorite pieces: Schoenberg´s Verklärte Nacht (the version for string orchestra conducted by Jascha Horenstein-one of Allan´s favorite conductors), Prokofiev´s Violin Concerto #1 (the classic 1935 recording with Joseph Szigeti and the London Philharmonic), and Elgar´s Enigma Variations (with the composer conducting). I spent many hours listening to Allan playing for me, especially in Chicago, when he was studying piano with Easley Blackwood. Sadly, distance has a way of quieting friendships. We still had long phone conversations, which always included deliberating on the relative merits of particular performances, but we didn´t see each as often as before. During the last few years of his life Allan sent me two selfies-one near the beginning and one nearer the end. He was physically diminished, but his wonderful face looking directly at the lens was still wise and kind. I realized he was saying goodbye.

Donald Polzella
August, 2024

Edward Nowacki

July 9, 2024

Allan Keiler was my best friend and a profound influence on my intellectual development. For twelve years, from 1975 to 1987, we were inseparable. There was little that I wrote or thought about music theory that did not benefit from his trenchant commentary. And I flatter myself to think that I also helped him, as a reader of his rough drafts, and as the designer of the musical examples in several of his published articles. Allan to me was like family. When his mother died, I cancelled my classes and drove five hours from Cincinnati to Cleveland to attend her funeral. Now that he is gone, I ask myself, who can I ask for advice when I have a personal problem. His absence leaves a huge hole in my life. But his memory also fills my memories with pride and satisfaction. Allan Keiler lives on in my memories. He was a huge part of my life.

Amy & Alex

April 12, 2024

Alex and I were lucky enough to get to know Allan when we moved into the same building in Brookline. Initially he would sit on his porch and talk to us while we gardened and we would help him plant his impatiens in his window boxes. We became friends and began to have dinners together.. we would rotate between us picking (a new restaurant) and him picking (always Chinese food). He taught me piano and helped me pick out my weighted keyboard. He frequently called us when he wanted to give us books... or when he needed a lightbulb changed, his heater adjusted or his TV fixed. We will miss Allan enormously and are so so thankful for the opportunity to get to know the personal side of such an incredible human.

Shawna Kelley

March 13, 2024

Dr. Keiler and I shared an office wall, lunch and an acupuncturist. He was my favorite "eeyore-like" curmudgeon, funny, brilliant and caring. I loved hearing him play the piano in his office. I've missed him since I left Brandeis, and I'll cherish the memories.

Arnold Krause

March 13, 2024

My cousin Allan interested me in classical music when I was a preteen..he suggested that Rock and Roll was not the only worthwhile musical genre...He was right!!...I kept this new discovery to myself....I became a closet a closet classical musical enthusiast, but kept it secret from my friends, for fear of being blackballed from being considered cool...please inform me of the memorial...my brother and I want to be pesent

Alan Stevens

March 10, 2024

My ex wife and I knew Allan very well when we were both at the University of Michigan 1964-1966. We had such good times together, laughing at the absurdities of academic life. Both of us eventually left Ann Arbor and moved to the east coast. That's when we lost touch, and I never saw him again. Very sad to read his obit in today's New York Times.

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