Today we heard the sad news of the deaths of two pillars of musicology in Oxford: Bonnie Blackburn died on 19 March and Peter Ward Jones over the weekend 21–22 March, 2026.

Bonnie Blackburn edited countless publications in music, as well as pursuing her own research, contributing in countless ways to the enrichment of the study of medieval and early modern music. Vincenzo Borghetti described her as 'an incredible scholar whose academic work served as a model for the entire discipline, and—in her case, the two go hand in hand—a wonderful person, passionately devoted to her work and always open to discussion and new ideas and methods. Like most of us, I owe a great deal to her work and to the exchanges we had over the years.'

Peter Ward Jones was music librarian at the Bodleian Library until 2009. His successor, Martin Holmes, wrote: 'Those of us who knew him will remember a kind and gentle man whose quiet exterior concealed firm opinions and a lively sense of humour. He was a fine musician and a distinguished scholar whose deep knowledge of the library's music collections, in particular the Deneke Mendelssohn collection, led him to become one of the foremost Mendelssohn experts in the world. He was a wise colleague and a good friend, and he will be greatly missed.'