I was a friend of Eleanor Selfridge Field at Drew University in New Jersey (fellow student in the 1960's). I will miss her terribly; we kept in touch by old fashioned postal mail at Christmas, thanks to her husband, Clive Field. I admire Ellie so much and I want to honor her and I don't have the words. I just found out about her passing and I'm not very technological. Her Celebration of Life is tomorrow, I understand. I want Clive and Brent and the whole family to know how much Ellie and music will always mean to me!! I.hope this message goes through! It's from Margaret V. Langdon, aka Peggy, Drew University Class of 1964. Sent with great sympathy and love.
I was sorry to hear of Eleanor's death. She appreciated one of the my very first articles (the topic was one of her favourite, if obscure, Venetian Seventeenth Century composer, Massimiliano Neri), so she encouraged to write more on him, and about other Venetian composers of the time. She was very kind and humble, a thing very rare in musicologist, on both side of the Ocean.
I was so sorry to hear of Eleanor's passing. We worked together on many projects, mostly editions of Handel's operas and oratorios. These we subsequently performed either with Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra or the Göttingen International Festival in Germany. She was one of the best musicologists I ever met and one of the kindest too. I will miss her greatly. N. McG.
Though I didn’t see Eleanor often, we did keep in touch by phone. When we were together we found so much in common - particularly are love of Venice and all of Italy. She was so devoted to her family, including me. SHe made my life richer. I will miss her.