Percival Robson Kirby (17 April 1887 – 8 February 1970) was a Scottish-born South African ethnomusicologist, musicologist, historian, and professor.
Kirby was the first person to hold the position of Professor of Music at the University of the Witwatersrand, where he served for thirty-one years until his retirement in 1952.
Kirby's legacy as a lecturer was far-reaching in South African music studies, with notable students including Anton Hartman,[9] Rosa Nepgen,[10] and Yvonne Huskisson.
[15][16] His most famous publication, The Musical Instruments of the Native Races of South Africa (1934), is regarded as one of the first comprehensive studies of African musicology.
[23][24][25] Nevertheless, scholars like Coplan and Kofi Agawu have praised his work for its thoroughness and its lasting importance in the study of the organology of southern African indigenous music.
Only two of his compositions—Three African Idylls, for soprano solo with piano accompaniment (Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press, 1939/1940), and O mistress mine, for unaccompanied mixed chorus, text by William Shakespeare (London: J. Curwen & Sons, 1961)—are listed as published.
Jonathan Hughes has disputed the accuracy of an article published by Kirby on a historic William Hill chamber organ at Wesley Methodist Church, Makhanda.
[32] Given that the instrument is currently the oldest playable pipe organ in South Africa, the article has been widely cited, despite several inaccurate claims made by Kirby without evidence.
[37] Kirby's work has been instrumental in preserving the rich musical heritage of southern Africa and continues to influence the field of ethnomusicology.