The IU Musicology Department and Graduate Musicology Association are thrilled to welcome William Gibbons, Professor of Music History and Dean of the Crane School of Music at SUNY Potsdam. His talk, “Ode to Joysticks: Canonic Fantasies and the Beethoven of Game Music,” will be the third installment of the Peter Burkholder Lecture series. This event will be held in Ford-Crawford Hall, on Friday, March 22, 2024, at 12:30 pm.
Dr. Gibbons’ educational and administrative work centers on the role music can play in contemporary conversations about equity, ethics, and leadership. His scholarship focuses on how the past shapes how we interpret and value music today, including topics ranging from arcades and video game music to modern operatic repertoire. His published writing includes dozens of articles and book chapters, and he is the author of Unlimited Replays: Video Games and Classical Music (2018), and Building the Operatic Museum (2013). Gibbons is also co-editor of the essay collections Music in Video Games: Studying Play (2014), and Music in the Role-Playing Game: Heroes & Harmonies (2020). His latest project is co-editing The Oxford Handbook of Video Game Music and Sound, due for release later this year. In addition to his writing, Gibbons is in demand as a speaker, and has given lectures at universities, conferences, and concert venues across the US and Europe. He frequently collaborates with various arts organizations on educational outreach programs, and performs as a collaborative pianist, focusing on contemporary American music.
Friday, March 22
12:30 pm | Ford-Crawford Hall (Simon Music Center)
Peter Burkholder Lecture Series: William Gibbons (Crane School of Music, SUNY Potsdam), “Ode to Joysticks: Canonic Fantasies and the Beethoven of Game Music”
What does it mean to call someone “the Beethoven of video game music?” In this talk, William Gibbons explores how this label has become synonymous with the video game composer Nobuo Uematsu, best known for his music for the Final Fantasy series. Gibbons is concerned with our understanding of Uematsu’s place in music history, but more generally in how and why such labels develop, and how they shape perceptions of musical value over time.
Leave a Reply