Thomas Heck

Heck was born in Washington, D.C., but spent most of his youth in New Orleans and Paris, where his father served as a U.S. diplomat. He completed secondary school in France, earning the baccalauréat in 1960, and began to study the guitar during these years.^[1][2]

He earned his bachelor’s degree in liberal arts and music history from the University of Notre Dame in 1965 and a Ph.D. in Musicology from Yale University in 1970. While at Yale, he conducted dissertation research in Vienna as a Fulbright Scholar and later published his two-volume thesis on the nineteenth-century guitarist and composer Mauro Giuliani.^[1][2][3]

After a commission as a U.S. Army first lieutenant, Heck taught music history at various universities including Case Western Reserve, John Carroll University, and Chapman University. He earned a Master of Library Science at the University of Southern California in 1977, and his first position as a librarian was at the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music.^[4] He later served for 22 years as head of the Music and Dance Library at the Ohio State University.^[1][2][5]

Heck's doctoral research became the basis for his book Mauro Giuliani: Virtuoso Guitarist and Composer (1995),^[6] and its updated edition, Mauro Giuliani: A Life for the Guitar (2013), published as part of the GFA Monograph Series.

Heck wrote and edited books, musical editions, and articles on the guitar, including:

• A Survey of Guitar Curricula in Colleges in the U.S. and Canada (1975)
• Le Rossiniane by Giuliani (facsimile edition, 1976–78)
• Sixteen Songs with Guitar Accompaniment by Schubert (1980)
• Guitar Music in the Archive of the Guitar Foundation of America (1981)

Heck also published on the iconography and literature of Italian comedy, including Commedia dell’Arte: A Guide to the Primary and Secondary Literature (1988) and The Commedia dell’Arte in Naples (2001). He also published Picturing Performance: The Iconography of the Performing Arts (1999).^[1][7] In addition, Heck published dozens of articles in Soundboard, Early Music, and other academic journals.^[1]

Heck convened the inaugural meeting of the Guitar Foundation of America in 1973 and drafted its articles of incorporation and bylaws.^[8] He attended every GFA convention thereafter and led the Research Round Table. He founded the GFA Archives, the GFA Monograph Series, and the peer-reviewed journal Soundboard Scholar. He also contributed a regular column titled "Works in Progress/Completed" in the GFA’s magazine, Soundboard, from its first issue in 1974.^[1][9][2][5]

In 2007, he received the GFA Hall of Fame Distinguished Service Award.^[1][9][10]

After retiring to Santa Barbara, California, in 2001, Heck worked as a music minister, studied web design, supported nonprofit organizations, and volunteered in hospice care.^[11] He also initiated the digitization of 37 volumes of Soundboard magazine (1974–2010). The digitized volumes were subsequently made searchable for researchers.^[1][2][12]

Heck was married to Anne Goodrich for many years. He died in Santa Barbara on October 3, 2021, from complications of Parkinson’s disease.^[1][2]

• Commedia dell’Arte: A Guide to the Primary and Secondary Literature. New York: Garland, 1988.^[13][14]
• Music Information Explosion and its Implications for College Teachers and Students. Missoula, MT: College Music Society, 1992.^[15]
• Mauro Giuliani: Virtuoso Guitarist and Composer. Columbus, OH: Editions Orphée, 1995.^[16]
• Picturing Performance: The Iconography of the Performing Arts. Rochester, N.Y: University of Rochester Press, 1999.^[7]
• The Commedia dell'Arte in Naples: A Bilingual Edition of the 176 Casamarciano Scenarios. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2001 (with Francesco Cotticelli and Anne Goodrich Heck).^[17]