In musical settings with high chromaticism, it can be difficult to identify the tonality and, thus, the scale-degree motion among voices. In this paper, I propose a new methodology to describe the motion that occurs when the voices of one chord reposition themselves into different positions of another chord (e.g., from the third of one chord to the root of another). In so doing, I generalize a chord-member space with accompanying intervals that form a “mod-7” group structure, inspired by David Lewin’s (1987) definition of a Generalized Interval System, or “GIS.” By combining Richard Bass’s (2007) enharmonic position-finding nomenclature and Steven Ring’s (2011) “heard” scale-degree GIS, my methodology introduces the concept of heard chord members. I argue that my system illustrates characteristics of chromatic progressions that are not so easily detected by previously established transformational approaches. For instance, this system can illustrate motion between chords of different qualities, such as major and diminished triads, or between chords of different cardinalities, such as triads and seventh chords, more generally. By analyzing a sample of highly chromatic nineteenth-century musical passages (from Frédéric Chopin’s Etude in A-flat major, Op. 25, No. 1; Franz Schubert’s “Die junge Nonne,” D. 828; and Richard Strauss’s “Träumerei,” Op. 9, No. 4), I show that one can experience and appreciate the linearity of chord-member vertical placement. Furthermore, this system provides an intuitive way of analyzing chord progressions, especially when the chords in question do not fit easily into the same tonality.

This presentation examines the relationship between a musician, their instrument(s), and the physical space in which both reside. These connections are more complicated – and more musically significant – in some situations than others. Of particular interest to me are percussion compositions where a single performer is responsible for multiple instruments, played simultaneously or in such close succession that they are acting as different parts of a larger instrumental whole. Such configurations, called multipercussion setups, are common in contemporary percussion literature. The need to configure a potentially large number of instruments so that all can be simultaneously accessed augments the spatial challenges faced by any musician performing on unfamiliar equipment or in a new environment. It also creates opportunities for the performer to make formal decisions by highlighting (or downplaying) certain aspects of a piece’s structure. Some composers capitalize on this by building a flexible approach to the relationship between space and other musical elements directly into their works; an analysis of Maki Ishii’s solo work “Thirteen Drums” (1985) by percussionist Mark Berry (2009) details three possible instrumental arrangements, each of which results in different potential performance tempos, sticking choices, and overall levels of dramatic intensity. In this presentation, I first outline the spatial considerations unique to multipercussion compositions. I then analyze two recent multipercussion works, “As One” by Gene Koshinksi and “Vessel Redux” (2018) by Michael Laurello, building off the work of Berry and other performer-analysts who have discussed multipercussion works (Suta (2012), Duinker (2021)) to demonstrate ways in which performance decisions involve instrumental selection and orientation impact the resulting performances.

This presentation provides an overview of early intonation formulas as cited in tonaries and treatises from the Middle Ages. Through a profile of their melodies, it explores the theoretical significance of the formulas in relation to the eight modes and their essential characteristics. I contend that understanding them as embodiments of the modes can illuminate aspects of their practical applications, function, and expressive meaning. Since these intonation formulas were almost certainly adapted from Byzantine practice, I compare them with the Byzantine ēchēmata.

The soundtrack from the 2006 anime Death Note interacts with a listener’s perception of rhythm and meter in a number of sophisticated ways. Metric and rhythmic irregularities pervade the entirety of the soundtrack and their prominence, combined with the specific musical and thematic settings in which they arise, strongly indicates that they are part of a broader system of compositional design which seeks to instill particular effects in listeners. In this presentation, I provide analyses of several themes from the soundtrack, discussing instances of metric irregularity at both micro- and macro-levels. Observing continuities in its application across multiple themes in the soundtrack, I argue that metric irregularity is used in specific ways as a means of characterization for the primary protagonist (Light Yagami, a.k.a. Kira) and antagonist (Detective L). In congruence with this, I categorize types of irregularity as belonging to either a “L Group” or a “Kira Group” of characterization. L Group irregularities often occur in the musical foreground and disrupt listeners’ immediate sense of metric stability, mirroring L’s preoccupation with trickery and deception throughout the show; my analysis of these irregularities builds upon models of listeners’ processive projections of meter as described by Gretchen Horlacher and Christopher Hasty. Contrastingly, Kira Group irregularities occur either at background levels or in ways that aren’t as obtrusive to local metric stability, enticing listeners to adopt new metrical frameworks in a similar manner to how Kira encourages Death Note’s world to adopt his Machiavellian philosophies; these are understood within the taxonomy of metrical dissonances outlined by Harald Krebs.

This presentation reconceptualizes the concept of inversional symmetry within the context of diatonic collections. Inversional symmetry has long been a topic of interest in music theory, but to date, scholars have conceived of this phenomenon exclusively within the context of the total chromatic. For instance, understanding two pitches to be symmetrical about an axis of inversion if they lie the same number of semitones above and below that axis. This perspective has obvious utility for music that operates within the total chromatic, but some of the same composers known for using inversional symmetry in chromatic music—Bartók, Stravinsky, et al.—also wrote music that exists exclusively within diatonic collections. This raises some questions: might these composers have also explored the compositional possibilities of inversional symmetry in their diatonic music? And if so, how would manifestations of inversional symmetry in diatonic music differ from those in chromatic music? Building on recent work by Joseph Straus (2018) that uses “sum classes” to study inversional symmetry in chromatic music, I develop a set of theoretical tools relevant for diatonic contexts, use them to study inversional symmetry in diatonic music by Bartók and Copland, and consider possible avenues for future research along these lines. Twentieth-century diatonic music has often proved elusive to standard theoretical approaches due to its liminal position between tonality and atonality. The ideas I develop in this presentation help to provide new insight into this repertoire.

Fans of Fall Out Boy often refer to the lead singer’s “soul voice.” The band originated as a standard pop-punk group, but gradually incorporated elements of soul and funk in later albums. This leads me to the question, what does it mean for an individual to have a “soul voice,” especially as the lead singer of a pop-punk band? In this presentation, I analyze the vocal timbre of 11 songs written and performed by Patrick Stump, lead singer of Fall Out Boy. Utilizing Heidemann’s 2016 embodied performance methodology and the subjective, descriptive approach outlined by Malawey (2020), I demonstrate how Stump’s vocal timbre develops from a standard pop-punk sound to the “soul voice” that fans of Fall Out Boy often refer to. Additionally, I show how his timbral development not only mirrors the band’s stylistic development but anticipates these changes, culminating in Stump’s solo album, Soul Punk. Through this presentation, I hope to establish the analysis of vocal timbre as a valuable tool when considering an artist’s stylistic development throughout their career.

This project critically examines the Western music theory pedagogical canon through a feminist lens in order to highlight the effects of underrepresentation in music theory textbooks and anthologies. I build on Philip Ewell’s research of the seven most frequently sourced U.S. music theory textbooks to show how the most common musical examples used in theory texts and anthologies primarily consist of works by the “big three” — Bach, Beethoven, and Mozart. I explore the “hidden curriculum” of music theory as presented by Palfy and Gilson in order to reveal the ways in which women are consistently undervalued in the current pedagogical canon. I argue that the general exclusion of women from textbooks is detrimental to the professional development of women in the field, therefore proving the necessity for gender diversity in pedagogical material. I show analyses of excerpts composed by Fanny Hensel, Julie von Webenau, and Lili Boulanger with an eye toward increasing gender representation in theory pedagogy. I present these excerpts as supplemental musical examples that can be integrated into pedagogical instruction at the university level.

One of the first examples in Umberto Eco’s “The Poetics of the Open Work” is Luciano Berio’s Sequenza no. 1 for solo flute (1958), in which the score provides information on rhythmic proportions but note durations within the given framework are left open to performers. The first Sequenza became one of Eco’s exemplars for opera aperta (open work), a category of musical and literary works that present an especially broad field of interpretive possibilities to performers, listeners, and readers. However, in 1992 Berio composed a “closed” version of the Sequenza using traditional notation, limiting the freedoms that this work allows performers. A few years before revising the Sequenza, Berio said in an interview that he hopes “to rewrite Sequenza I in rhythmic notation: maybe it will be less ‘open’ and more authoritarian, but at least it will be reliable. And I hope that Umberto Eco will forgive me…” (1985).

In this paper I examine two little-known works by Berio, Continuo for Orchestra and Ekphrasis (Continuo II), published in 1989–91 and 1996 respectively, which show that the open work—albeit an altered and uniquely musical version of the concept—is a useful context for understanding Berio’s compositional poetics. While scholars (including Eco) tend to associate musical open works with certain performative freedoms, Ekphrasis transforms Continuo from a singular “closed” expression into one of multiple perspectives on Continuo’s musical idea, which the composer likens to a structure that is “open at any one time for alternative extensions by added new wings, rooms and windows” (1996).

Drawing from archival research, I argue that Berio—inspired by George Steiner’s translation theory (1975) and the architect Renzo Piano, with whom he collaborated in the 1990s—assumes both roles of composer and performer and creates multiple fully-composed pieces, which I call “composed performances,” each providing a different realization of an abstract musical object. In the subtlety of its differences from Continuo, Ekphrasis, perhaps more than any other of his works, directs listeners’ attention to the creative impetus at the core of Berio’s musical practice.

Some version of the claim that music studies are in crisis today has been circulating in the academy recently. The fall 2021 issue of Music Theory Spectrum, for example, features articles from a 2019 SMT plenary noting deficits in the ways in which theorists have addressed matters of race, gender, nationality, and disability, and urging members to work towards reframing theory and analysis. Numerous conversations, debates, and bouts of talking past in a variety of media and forums continue to highlight music theory’s ostensible shortcomings, especially as preached and practiced in the US. Questions remain, however, about the cogency of the critiques and the intellectual and pedagogical implications of some of the solutions being proposed. Because these discussions are familiar to many of us, I will refer to only a few positions, leaving spaces—metaphorically speaking—for others to chime in consonantly or dissonantly. My aim is to raise questions about the project of reframing in hopes of clarifying the vision(s) of reformers. I argue that the real critique of music theory has not yet begun, and that although questions of demographics and representation are important, they form only a small part of a larger problem, namely, the ways in which theory’s objects are constituted in the first place. I conclude that without a broadening of theory’s geo-cultural reaches and a re-imagining of its disciplinary bases, the work of reform may be with us for a while.

Africa’s art music tradition is not as widely known as it might be. For many people, African music typically indexes “traditional” music of ostensibly ancient origins or varieties of modern “popular” music. And yet, since the middle of the nineteenth century, Black Africans have routinely composed and performed for non-participating audiences such items as art songs, choral anthems, piano pieces, folk operas, and music for large and small ensembles. How might we explain the invisibility of this tradition in the competing discourses of music studies today?
Drawing from a larger study in progress, I propose in this talk to lay bare some of art music’s enabling conditions, starting with its birth out of the twin forces of missionization and colonization. Then, dwelling on a handful of examples from West Africa, I show that African art music evinces a distinct profile based on historically new patterns of co-presence among a work’s parameters.
In making a case for African art music, I will touch on contemporary debates about hybridity, essentialism, and decolonization, hoping not merely to disturb cosmopolitan views about art music from the South but to point the way towards a critical practice attuned to the specificities of the post-colony.

A question that is frequently posed in literary discussions of Pushkin’s novel in verse, Eugene Onegin, is that of the nature of the relationship between the title character and Tatiana Larina. After initially and rightfully rejecting her advances at their country estates, Onegin, upon reuniting with a now-married Tatiana many years later, suddenly pursued her. In Pushkin’s original, it is impossible to state definitely whether Onegin’s newly-professed feelings are genuine, or whether they are nothing more than a typical societal intrigue.
In this paper, using an original hypermetrical analysis, I discuss Tchaikovsky’s interpretation of this romantic relationship, as seen through the lens of his opera of the same name. My analysis draws a distinction between traditionally Western two-bar hypermetrical units and ubiquitously Russian three-bar ones. I demonstrate how the metrical properties of the Russian language seep into Tchaikovsky’s hypermetrical patterning. In turn, the distinctions between passages of two- and three-bar hypermeter correspond directly to the operatic characters’ emotional states. My analyses focus on three scenes – Tatiana’s Letter Scene, Onegin’s Response, and the Grand Finale. In each of these, Pushkin’s original text is recreated exactly in the libretto. Due to Pushkin’s metric regularity, all changes in hypermeter can be inferred to stem from musical, not textual, considerations – thus providing an insight into Tchaikovsky’s reading of Pushkin.