Composers for screen media have long appreciated the power of an unwelcome musical detail—an awkward instrument, an ill-timed stinger, an unresolved chord—to disrupt a scene of amorous nature. Whether for purposes of melodrama, comedy, or worse, few storytelling tropes have the visceral oomph of the broken-off kiss, and never more so than when underscored by resourceful (and sadistic) composers. Hollywood composers learned their cruelest tricks from the late-Romantics, for whom stymieing desire was raised to an aesthetic principle. But film music’s particular brand of mood-killing draws as much from the innate temporal and editorial affordances of the medium as it does the psychosexual hang-ups of figures like Wagner or Tchaikovsky.

In this presentation, I examine how film composers generate and then ruin erotic tension. My focus falls on the musical parameter most able to channel—and frustrate—listener anticipation: the cadence. Working from theories of the expectation and the “contra-cadential style” (Huron 2006), desire in underscore (Buhler 2023), and studies of thematic/harmonic/cadential structuring of filmic expectation (Richards 2016, Lehman 2013), I devise a typology of ways that tonal/phrasal structure can go off the tracks to anti-romantic effect. Parameters examined include melodic continuity, orchestration, harmonic irresolution versus non-resolution and displacement, and motivic liquidation. The latter in particular is shown to pertain to the differentiation of genuinely romantic versus comic affects. I offer an extensive corpus of examples in screen media, drawn from a range of composers including Steiner, Goldsmith, Snow, and Barber. I conclude with an analysis of music by cinema’s most vindictive cadential obstructionist, John Williams, focusing on a set of star-crossed cadences in Star Wars series. The middle chapter of each trilogy features a scene of frustrated erotic tension coupled with leitmotivic incompletion. In each case, the artfulness of the post-cadential denial passage almost seems like an apology for the shamelessness of the foregoing musical blockage. Cadentially speaking, nothing perfect, nor authentic, is to be heard here in these scenes.

From a lifetime of watching movies and television, we all instinctively know that music plays an important role in filmic humor—but what is the precise nature of that role? By what means does music create humor in film? Many scholars have investigated musical humor in common-practice Western art music and recent studies have explored it within the filmic realm. But film music humor studies have focused on particular films and individual elements. This paper presents the first systematic taxonomy for categorizing all forms of music- and sound-based humor in film/television.

I divide sonic film humor into three broad categories: techniques that are mainly-audio, mainly-visual, and fully-audiovisual. With mainly-audio techniques, the humor exists primarily in the sonic realm, due to silly instrumentation, funny song lyrics, or musical antics in composition or performance (i.e. you could hear a recording without the visuals and it would still be funny). With mainly-visual techniques, the humor arises chiefly from the mise-en-scène or physical actions that accompany the music (i.e. you could watch the scene on mute and it would still be funny). With fully-audiovisual techniques, the humor is sonic-based but it is dependent on the filmic setting. The fully-audiovisual category (the focus of this paper) consists of fourteen different techniques through which music and sound can create humor in filmic settings. I posit that every type of sonic humor in cinema can be classified in terms of these categories and techniques.

The transformational music-theoretical field has continuously expanded both in its theoretical apparatus and the repertoire to which it is applied. Its outgrowth from neo-Riemannian theory and diversification of methodologies has facilitated the analysis of an increasingly broad repertoire. This expansion beyond the European canon is driven partly from within, but also by a broader disciplinary motivation to diversify not only repertoire but also theoretical and methodological foundations. Responding to this presents theoretical challenges, but also opportunities.

This session features three papers expanding the scope of transformational theory via: methodological hybridity with tonal theory, rhythmic transformations, and a theoretical expansion to include group improvisation and its visual animation.

The first paper will extend functional-transformational hybrid methodology in a new direction, considering a song by the American supergroup Flying Colors. Departing from established rock chord progressions, the harmony suddenly diverges towards non-functional chromaticism in the bridge. The harmonic syntax of verses, choruses, and the unusual interlude-bridge block will be juxtaposed with the neo-Riemannian Tonnetz. The analysis proposes a framework for discussing harmony in recent rock music, focusing on the typifying contrast between the more conventional verse-chorus openings and exploring later parts of songs.

The second paper examines rhythmic transformation in Brazilian nationalist composer Francisco Mignone’s fourth piano sonatina. Built as combinations of ostinatos and claves, rhythmic cycles and their variants are treated as chains of transformations, visualized in a manner typical of transformational analytical studies on harmony. The introduction of popular Brazilian rhythms into the piece, many matching tresillo variants found in the genre maxixe, demonstrates how Mignone incorporates popular Brazilian rhythms into his concert music in a quite original and economical way.

The final paper discusses animation as a general tool for transformational analysis and jazz improvisation in particular. The interactions inherent in group improvisation pose a particular theoretical challenge. Even geometrically rich diagrams provide limited clarification of improvised events, with transformational analysis yet to exhaust the benefits of animation, despite the technological advancements since its 2009 MTO special issue. Two-dimensional Tonnetz animations, which follow the interactions of multiple musicians, provide a valuable tool for comparative analysis of group improvisation.

Is musical analysis meant to guide performance—or to be based on it? Is it possible to test the reliability of a particular Schenkerian analysis in light of an esteemed musical performance of the analyzed work? These questions are addressed through a well-known test case—Bach’s first prelude of the Well-Tempered Clavier I, as analyzed by Schenker in Five Graphic Analyses. Focusing on the hypermetric aspect of the Prelude, I compare Schenker’s hypermetric interpretation with a more intuitive approach. In order to decide who is right, Schenker the scholar or our “natural instinct”, I turned to arbiters from four categories. First, because the hypermeter has immediate implications for performance practice and forces performers to make real decisions, I begin with performance artists. Rather than analyzing recordings I examined 37 instructive editions of WTC, published between 1837 and 1953, edited by well-known composers, pianists, and musicologists such as Carl Czerny, Frédéric Chopin, Carl Reinicke, Karl Klindworth, Ferruccio Busoni‏, Hugo Riemann, Engelbert Humperdinck, Béla Bartók, Albert Schweitzer, and Gabriel Fauré. My analysis of the hypermeter focused on the dynamic markings and articulations added by the editors. Second, I turn to composers who used the first Prelude as raw material for a new work in order to see how they express the hypermeter. I compared Charles Gounod’s well-known Ave Maria with a similar setting by Shlomo Gronich and an instrumental setting by Ignaz Moscheles. I also looked at Arvo Pärt’s Credo and a jazz improvisation by the Jacques Loussier trio. Third, I queried the analysis of the Prelude’s hypermetric structure by Fred Lerdahl and Ray Jackendoff, Wallace Berry, and other music theorists, who knew Schenker’s interpretation and reacted to it explicitly or implicitly. Finally, I go back to Bach himself and compare the Prelude with its preliminary versions and with its accompanying fugue. Almost all the evidence goes against Schenker’s hypermetric conception, but one category provides surprising arguments in support of his unique approach. In conclusion, I discuss the gap between conception and perception in relation to phrase rhythm in particular and musical analysis in general.

This paper argues that the music of Americana artist Tyler Childers continues a tradition of “crookedness” in Old-Time Country and Bluegrass music in novel ways, affectively playing with the interaction of phrase rhythm and prosody to convey emotion and authenticity. This work builds on and synthesizes prior research by Neal (2002), Rockwell (2011), and Mitchell (2021) on crookedness (the dropping/adding of beats, or even measures), phrase rhythm (Rothstein 1989, Attas 2011), and prosody (BaileyShea 2021), demonstrating how Childers’ use of poetic techniques in a crooked context can impart meaning to listeners.

This study explores the hypermetrical accents and structure within the introductory sequences of CBS's Survivor, focusing on the first twenty-six seasons. By employing hypermetrical analytical frameworks from Cone and Lerdahl and Jackendoff, combined with the cognitive approaches of London and Mirka, this research deciphers cultural and geographical musical motifs embedded within each season's setting. The distinctive musical introduction of Survivor, characterized by Russ Landau's "Ancient Voices," has been a staple since its inception, with each season's theme adapted to the filming location's cultural context through local musicians and styles, enhancing the show's authenticity.

The paper demonstrates how perceived metric cultural signifiers, crucial in media music analysis due to the aural nature of rhythmic phenomena, play a pivotal role in establishing thematic and geographical authenticity. The analysis focuses on themes that meet specific criteria: composed by Landau, featured at each episode's start, and from the era when filming locations varied. The core of "Ancient Voices" remains consistent across seasons, but its hypermetrical structure and orchestrational elements undergo significant variations to reflect each season's unique cultural backdrop.

Through examples that highlight the adaptability and complexity of "Ancient Voices," the study showcases how orchestrational changes—from rhythmic ostinatos to countermelodic figures and background events—can alter hypermetrical perception and enhance the composition's ability to convey the thematic and cultural essence of each season. These modifications not only shift the hypermetrical framework but also underscore the theme's role in conveying an authentic cultural narrative to the audience.

Ultimately, this paper argues that "Ancient Voices" serves as more than mere entertainment; it is a musically sophisticated element that significantly contributes to the thematic experience of Survivor. Through detailed hypermetrical and orchestrational analysis, the study reveals how each arrangement of "Ancient Voices" encapsulates the cultural essence of its respective season, offering audiences a musically authentic glimpse into the show's diverse geographical settings.

Various features of American popular music have morphed and diversified since the Tin Pan Alley days of the late 1800s (Everett 2004, Brackett 2016, Peres 2016). By contrast, changes in form occur in abrupt punctuations followed by long periods of relative homogeneity. Several studies have offered bottom-up explanations for changes in formal paradigms from technological (Gronow 1983, Brackett 2016, Barnett 2020) and aesthetic perspectives (Summach 2011 and 2012, Nobile 2022), but their scope excludes the persistence and recession of formal types. I argue that the American music industry has undergone at least three “form regimes” during which one formal type was produced at higher volumes than all others, that each regime is delimited by the industry’s labor practices, and that abrupt changes in the division of labor account for abrupt changes in dominant formal types.

Georgina Born’s study on IRCAM’s internal politics foreshadowed many recent concerns regarding AI’s imposition on artistic creation. In explaining IRCAM’s development of AI programs that codify harmonic progressions, Born notes that “AI-influenced composition represents its ultimate rationalization, the scientific, high-cultural version of what Adorno accused the cultural industries of bringing about: the standardization of music.” (Born 1995, 319). This observation is now manifest in the popularization of creative AI technologies that generate new compositions with minimal user expertise. Ironically, AI restrains modernism from its attempted aesthetic rupture, as original artistic works have their music-structural data appropriated and then translated into music-theoretical procedures. Generated compositions then satiate consumer-capitalist demands for faux-modernist “universalizing” novelty without developing procedural novelty.

This paper hypothesizes future directions for musical modernism’s aesthetic mission, analyzing and critiquing the ontological assumptions within musical semiotics that are unsettled by AI. Current copyright laws vary worldwide regarding whether novice users or AI-service corporations are the legal authors and, by extension, owners of output compositions. Authorial questions are particularly unsettling when creative AI arrives at its logical endpoint whereby personal identities are emulated. Such legal tensions correlate with an irreconcilable structure inherent in modernist aesthetics: as Generative Adversarial Networks classify sonic data into procedural rules that may legally justify substantial similarity, so too does Barthes’ vocal “grain” become sublimated into the plane of processed signifier data, collapsing the ontological distinction between original author and artwork.

It is this now-broken semiotic framework that the modernist-capitalist model of authorial copyright law relies on and which it currently struggles to reconcile. Certain legal scholars recommend weighting creative protections to the “persons” responsible for AI without admitting that AI is administered by elite corporations, thus reifying the monopolization of symbolic goods theorized by Pierre Bourdieu. The paper concludes by hypothesizing two paths that may allow musical modernism to circumvent AI appropriation. The first involves a potential legal argument that neglects copyright for anyone engaging with creative AI outputs, and the second involves “experiential” compositional instructions that stray from authorial direction, whereby compositions are oriented towards performative interactions of musical material.

Recent decisions regarding copyright infringement in popular music have been strongly influenced by testimony from forensic musicologists due to the imbalance of musical understanding between the expert and the court. This paper focuses on the intersection between music copyright law and music theory. In particular, the role of musicologists and music theorists in copyright infringement cases and the influence they have on court decisions when acting as expert witnesses, or forensic musicologists. Forensic musicology is a form of “public music theory,” an approach used by academic music theorists when issues in society rely on the knowledge of professionals or experts. Typically, public music theory embraces public knowledge over analytical methods and focuses on improving the musical understanding of the public (Jenkins 2021). Unfortunately, this balance is not often prioritized in the testimony of forensic musicologists. Katherine Leo (2021) notes that the role of forensic musicologists is to act as translators to the court and identify protectable and non-protectable elements of musical compositions.

This paper offers a framework for analysis that aims to promote public music theory and clearer arguments from forensic musicologists. I take a Schenkerian approach to analyzing the alleged similarity between musical works discussed in court, due to the theory’s legal background and similarity to the legal understanding of “music.” Copyright infringement in the United States follows a standard two-step test, as set out in Arnstein v. Porter (1946) and Krofft v. McDonald’s (1977). The use of a forensic musicologist as an expert witness is only allowed during step one of two in order to determine whether copying has occurred, not whether the amount copied is unlawful. The answer to this question must be “yes” for the court to proceed to the second step of the test, which asks whether the amount copied is unlawful. As a result, forensic musicologists are given a considerable amount of power over the outcome of a court case, and having been hired to defend one side of an argument, they are rarely held accountable for their testimony.

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It is undisputed that the practical application of Just Intonation (JI) in tonal music is merely a fiction. However, JI as a theoretical concept may not be as futile as widely assumed. The first part of this paper is a historical survey, highlighting the unique perspectives on JI by lesser-known theorists Sigfrid Karg-Elert (1930) and Christoph Hohlfeld (1989). My paper focuses on their concept of "comma-free” modulation, which introduces a syntonic comma by modulating along the fifths axis, followed by a reciprocal modulation carefully "undoing" this comma.

Further developing this concept and extending it to the fifths and sevenths axes, the second part of my paper will focus on three core examples: Beethoven’s Sonata No. 20, John Coltrane’s “Giant Steps,” and Marcos Valle’s "Samba de Verão." By rendering these in strict JI and observing their Tonnetz implementation (presented as video clips), it becomes apparent that, in specific scenarios, JI may provide insights into the harmonic structures. In other words, this suggests that comma differences theoretically arising in JI may carry musical meaning. Even though the implied significance of JI would still be far from what JI apologists of the past claimed (e.g., Oettingen 1913, Vogel 1976), this perspective challenges the widely accepted ontology of today’s harmonic theories, which are either exclusively conceptualized in EQT pitch space or completely ignore aspects of the “acoustic exterior” (see Dahlhaus 1982).

In conclusion, I will briefly discuss how the given examples challenge the geometric interpretation of pitch space as a rigid geometric object, as is common in neo-Riemannian theories. As an alternative, I suggest the further exploration of elastic objects that can be dynamically permuted to be rather straight or circular to fit each passage of a composition.

In “A New Equidistant 12-Tone Temperament” (1959), the ethnomusicologist, composer, and music theorist Mieczyslaw Kolinski described a novel approach to piano tuning grounded in equal sevenfold division of the 3:2 just fifth. In support of this scheme, which employed semitones of ~100.28 cents each and therefore required that octaves be tuned slightly larger than 2:1, Kolinski invoked the deliberate use of "streched" octaves by piano tuners. But he also cited laboratory studies conducted by the psychologists and comparative musicologists Carl Stumpf, Max Meyer, Otto Abraham, and Erich von Hornbostel, who had concluded that experimental subjects preferred perfect fifths and octaves tuned slightly larger than pure.

While Kolinski’s proposal was based on a misunderstanding of the physics of non-ideal struck strings, it offers a fruitful starting point from which to examine a set of proposals made by Stumpf, Hornbostel, and their colleagues. These thinkers, whose work strongly influenced Kolinski's own, either qualified or rejected the familiar privileged role accorded to small-integer ratios and their approximations, asserting that appropriateness to melodic movement, rather than either just intonation or equal temperament, dictated the intonation used in unaccompanied singing, even in supposedly scale-bound European music (Abraham 1923); that scales or melodies might be structured by preference for equidistance between scale steps within the octave (Stumpf 1901) or by psychological universals governing the ratios between frequency ratios in melodic steps (Hornbostel 1927); and that appropriately trained research subjects could experience familiar interval qualities even if melodies were mapped onto a “micro-system” that reduced the size of all intervals to a quarter of their normal size (Werner 1926).

Considering these claims in conjunction reveals three important aspects of the Berlin School’s music-theoretical orientation. First, its laboratory practices constituted musical subjects that were intended to displace music theory’s received ideal listener. Second, its skepticism toward theories of pitch perception grounded solely in frequency ratios did not preclude a search for alternative musical universals. Third, its reduction of pitched sound to perceived fundamental frequencies at the expense of attention to the physical properties of instruments resulted in inconsistent and unworkable theoretical claims.

Solfège set theory extends previous transformational theories (Hook 2008, Rings 2011, Lam 2020) and leverages the complementary qualities of solfège and set theory to analyze recent diatonic-modal music. It shows that fixed-do, la-minor (re-dorian), and do-minor solfège map syllables to three independent dimensions of a tone (pitch, position, degree). The unification of solfège systems provides a framework for analysis and a ground truth for genuine dialogue on solfège pedagogy.

There are two orders of transpositions in solfège set theory. Movable solfège systems are first-order transpositions with intervals derived from the key or mode, but they are transpositions of syllables, not pitch. Second-order or unified solfège transpositions embed first-order transpositions and can be seen as a combination of Hook’s signature (or heptachordal) transformations and Rings’s formulation of scale degrees. The resultant three-dimensional structure is rich and complex. Unified solfège transpositions codify all permutations of solfège invariance and embed modulations. In doing so, they reaffirm the independence of the three solfège systems and redirect tactics in polarizing solfège debates to constructive use. I will focus primarily on three pivot transpositions (parallel inflection, Schubert inflection, and diatonic reinterpretation) in music by Takashi Yoshimatsu, John Williams, and others.

This study delves into the evolution of key behaviors in tonal music, charting a course from the 16th century, where keys possessed distinct identities and absolute-pitch associations, to the 20th century, where the concept of transpositional equivalence among scales became predominant. Through a blend of corpus, historical analyses, and close readings, the paper shows the shifting paradigms across European art music and popular genres. The research underscores the traditional pedagogical stance that views all major keys as interchangeable, a perspective substantiated by the uniform scale-degree distributions in 20th-century popular music as per the McGill-Billboard corpus. However, this uniformity contrasts starkly with the 16th-century Western European art music landscape, where key profiles were distinctly non-equivalent due to the modal scales' asymmetric alignment with the Renaissance gamut.

The paper tracks the gradual standardization of scales, highlighting a period around 1700 as a transitional phase wherein the twelve major keys were employed by composers, yet exhibited significant variance. This nuanced transition, marked by a gradual alignment with the circle of fifths, reveals that keys with fewer accidentals normalized sooner than those with multiple accidentals, which maintained their unique characteristics well into the 19th century.

Analytical vignettes demonstrate that certain key-specific behaviors, particularly in the 18th century, stemmed from composers' predilections for diatonic pitches, a trend that commenced in the 16th century but gradually diminished. Our investigation further explores the reasons behind the persistence of these unique key behaviors, considering various factors such as the historical development of flat and sharp signatures, cognitive biases towards familiar pitches, the ergonomic challenges posed by certain keys on specific instruments, the advent of equal temperament, and the increasing reliance on transpositional tools like the guitar capo and electronic production. Through this examination, the paper sheds light on the intricate evolution of tonal music's spatial framework, contributing valuable insights into the interplay between musical theory, practice, and cognitive perception. ​

This integrated special session takes on the issue of “listening trans”—a musical reformulation of “thinking trans”—within the field of music analysis.

Shaped by Sandy Stone’s “The Empire Strikes Back: A Posttranssexual Manifesto” (1987), trans studies has become a vibrant interdisciplinary field that finds its force in interrogating the structuring binaries of the gender clinic: wrong and right bodies, transsexual and transgender, medicalized and natural. Stone urges transsexuals to embrace the posttranssexual, and “to forgo passing, to be consciously ‘read,’ to read oneself aloud…to begin to write oneself into the discourses.” This session asks what it means to consciously listen and be listened to, and how transness might etch itself into the record of music theoretical discourse.

While queer musicology has been a well-established field for decades, music scholarship that categorizes itself explicitly within trans studies is far less common. In “Towards a Trans* Method in Musicology,” Dana Baitz (2018) speaks of her difficulties in navigating queer musicology because of its penchant for “transcending the body.” For Baitz, contrary to queer studies, trans studies should “[invest] in the body.” We respond to Baitz by investing in the body through expanded approaches to transvocality, considering non-sounding, authorial, unheard, para-, or non-human voices. What and how does an enfleshed voice that may or may not resemble the human have to sing, say, or breathe? And how might we listen to it/them?

Building on momentum generated by the “Transauralities: Thinking Trans in Music/Sound Studies” panel at the 2023 AMS/SMT meeting in Denver, this session consists of three papers which each offer some listening and analytical possibilities from within the breadth of trans lived experiences and positionalities. In doing so, the session attests to the importance of forging trans solidarity and coalition building both within SMT and music studies at large. Within an increasingly necropolitical climate wherein anti-trans and anti-queer legislation continue to be leveraged across the nation by those who represent us, particularly in Florida, where these measures are arguably most aggressive, “listening trans” becomes all the more urgent.

Despite the Romantic turn within the new Formenlehre, little attention has been paid to one of the most important forms in Romantic music: the rounded binary. The continued use of the rounded binary from the Classical period through the early Romanticism is certainly well known, but the changes that the form underwent at the hands of the Romantics have not been treated systematically. This paper begins to fill this gap by examining the transformation of the rounded binary in Robert Schumann’s character pieces, works which the composer saw as advancing “new forms” instead of simply imitating old models. I argue that an important way in which Schumann reinvented the rounded binary was by treating the recapitulation as a cadence to the contrasting middle, rather than as a self-contained part of the form, and that he accomplished this primarily by writing expository/recapitulatory sections that repeat an idea which combines initiating and cadential functions (what I call a basic⇔cadential idea). The analyses distinguish between two main variants of rounded binaries: those where the recapitulation functions as a cadence to an otherwise open-ended middle section, and those where the recapitulation repeats the middle section’s cadence, effectively functioning as a cadential extension to the contrasting middle. Within the type of rounded binaries where the recapitulation follows a open-ended middle section, I draw attention to an common subtype which I call the sentence/rounded-binary hybrid. In showing Schumann’s newfound use of the recapitulation as a cadence to the middle section, this paper illustrates the transformation of the rounded binary from a modular form-type that epitomized the classical ideals of balance and clarity into a more fluid one which expressed Romantic affinity for the boundless.

Since Lippmann’s (1969) seminal study on Bellinian melodies, most theoretical discussion on lyric form—a sixteen-bar structure found in bel canto opera— suffers from two limitations. First, by adhering to alphanumeric formulations (e.g., AABA, AABC) and rigid theoretical yardsticks, scholars have pathologized many melodies that, I argue, still operate within the norm. Second, other than to explicate misbehaving examples, the relationship that binds textual and musical forms has not been as widely acknowledged as it should. Building on a line of research explored by Moreen (1975), Pagannone (1996), Hepokoski (1997), and Duke (2021), I propose that, in primo ottocento opera, text organization determines the form of its musical setting. I suggest that the semantic and syntactic structures of operatic poetry in closed forms are paired with analogous formal functions in their musical realization. This results in the thematic types that Caplin (1998) calls small binary, small ternary, and sixteen-measure sentences, as well as minuet forms. Indeed, I contend that “lyric form” should be regarded as a covering term signaling a family resemblance between these types. By correlating text organization and musical structure, I present the lyric form as a set of dramatically motivated conventions for the organization of both music and text. I analyze several excerpts from Donizetti, Bellini, and Verdi to determine typical and atypical semantic distributions in operatic texts of different lengths, and I discuss how these distributions correspond to specific theme types and forms. By incorporating Caplin’s definitions of formal functions, I unmark pieces whose structure scholars have described as unusual. This economy of forms allows us to focus on other important aspects of these themes, like their nuanced elements of musical expressivity and the specifically Italian contributions that, as Lawrence (2020) suggests, would help us “properly understand the formal structures of… Chopin, Wagner, or Liszt.”

Recent theoretical studies of post-classical form have either broadened or refined paradigms of the new formenlehre—particularly, William Caplin’s formal functions (Caplin 1998, 2013). Several scholarly alterations to Caplin’s classical form include expanding theme type nomenclature (Richards 2016) and applying the theory to nineteenth and twentieth-century composers (Rodgers 2014, Pedneault-Deslauriers et al 2015, Vande Moortele 2017, Russell 2020). Furthermore, analyzing form in these centuries requires revising classical syntax to account for chromatic and modal harmony (Johnston 2014, Heetderks 2011, 2015), complicated by the general twentieth-century trend towards individualized cadential norms (Eng 2019). Composers analyzed in this milieu include Prokofiev, Milhaud, Poulenc, Copland, and Bartók.

One composer whose use of large- and small-scale form remains relatively understudied is Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873–1943). Particularly, his penchant for juxtaposed common-practice harmonic devices with equal-interval and modal idioms has been identified as a significant formal marker (Johnston 2014, Bakulina 2015). Analyzing form in Rachmaninoff’s preludes and etudes-tableaux—solo piano genres—layers the complexity, given those genres’ historical breadth.

In this paper I propose form-functional adaptations to Rachmaninoff’s complete preludes op. 23 and 32 and the etudes-tableaux op. 33 and 39, using several individual pieces as case studies. I argue that these works collectively show a fusion of form-functional norms from the small and large ternary, complicated by basic idea ambiguity, developmental melodic-motivic material, and modal/equal-interval harmonic idioms. First, I explore the large/small ternary distinction, basic idea/compound basic idea labels, and cadential specificity in the preludes op. 23 nos. 1 and 2, two highly contrasted early works. I then show how a modal and developmental basic idea provides explanatory power in a prelude with a particularly digressive contrasting middle (op. 32 no. 4). Additionally, I argue that the one piece in the corpus that does not recapitulate melodic material may still be analyzed as ternary when one considers the harmony (op. 33 no. 3). Finally, I demonstrate how a modal interpolation in op. 39 no. 7’s exposition protrudes from Rachmaninoff’s form-functional norms and provides intriguing clues to the etude’s tableau programmaticism.

Extending from Bushnell’s discussion (2014) on the nonlinear, polychronic tragic temporality in staged drama, I argue that the serial, minimalist, sonata-form first movement of Joe Hisaishi’s East Land Symphony is a musical-temporal metaphor for the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake. Unique ways of realizing and transforming the row reinforce unambiguously articulated thematic areas indicated by multiple congruous parameters such as tempo, meter, ostinati, motives, presence of general pauses, and completeness of linear row realizations. Bushnell’s “multi-dimensional tragic present” finds its musical equivalence in Hisaishi’s movement in four overlapping aspects: 1) the reimagining of the reversed recapitulation in a serial, minimalist fashion, the expressive effect of which is tragic (Jackson 1996); 2) the weakening of the themes in the recapitulation in length, textural-instrumental layers, presence of motives, and replacement of the transition; 3) the paradoxical “redemption” of the ineffective generic sonata structure (Darcy 1997) by the relatively more compelling extra-generic coda, which tragically destroys the themes by harking back to the materials of the development section instead of the exposition (Hatten 2006), and 4) the inability to realize the row and its related motives in their complete form toward the end of the movement. In stark contrast, the conceptually and temporally distant second movement furnishes complete linear statements of another row at its opening, stretching the polychronic tragic temporality to inter-movement levels. Through these temporal manipulations of sonata-serial expectations, Hisaishi creates a purely musical tragedy representing and memorializing the Great Earthquake.

Despite the broad analytical attention focused on Morton Feldman’s treatment of temporality in his late music, little work has explicitly addressed the constituent elements of his rhythmic language, nor the possible developments of these elements across a composition. Dora Hanninen (2004, 227) has noted that the challenge is predominantly “qualitative” (rather than quantitative, notwithstanding the large timescales of his late works), where near repetitions and minute, seemingly random adjustments result in a “superabundance of nuance that eludes conceptualization.”

In this paper, I propose an adaptation of beat-class set theory for the analysis of Feldman’s rhythmic materials in his compositions of the 1980s. Just as pitch-class set theory embraces a degree of abstraction from the musical surface in the pursuit of certain equivalences, the application of similar principles in the area of rhythm suggests the possibility of similar connections. As I demonstrate through analyses of Triadic Memories (1981), Piano and String Quartet (1984), and For Christian Wolff (1986), attending to the beat-class sets in Feldman’s music reveals patterns of continuity not captured through traditional metric or motivic analyses.

These analyses highlight how Feldman’s use of rhythm complements and accentuates procedures unfolding in pitch, timbral, and registral space. More importantly, this methodology offers a means of overcoming the “superabundance of nuance” Hanninen identifies in his music, a feature that has hitherto remained challenging for analysts. More generally, I seek to advocate for the application of beat-class set theory to a broader range of repertoire than the minimalism to which it has historically been confined.

Can a convention of ballet performance—the final series of turns en manège—give rise to a stock musical strategy? In this paper, I argue that the balletic convention of ending a solo variation with a series of turns gave rise to musical settings that accommodated those turns. I identify two major musical elements in these endings: first, an increase in tempo, and second, a strong duple metrical emphasis. The Sugar Plum Fairy variation from Act II of Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker, for example, closes with a rapid sequence of turns en manège (in a large circle). The accompanying music accelerates to match the dancer’s pace. It emphasizes the first and third beats of each measure, underscoring each of the dancer’s steps onto their supporting leg and subsequent piqués in each turn.

My findings here are based on choreomusical analyses of pas variations from Tchaikovsky’s three full-length ballets Sleeping Beauty, The Nutcracker, and Swan Lake, which all bear the artistic imprint of the choreographer Marius Petipa. I then extend my observations to several of Tchaikovsky’s works that were not composed for the ballet stage. In doing so, I show how the physicality of Petipa’s choreography may have influenced Tchaikovsky’s rhythmic decisions in his first and second piano concertos, Op. 23 (1875, rev. 1879 and 1888) and Op. 44 (1880), and how a subversion of this balletic expectation might have informed his opera Iolanta (1891).

In 1940, higher-education representatives codified a set of free-speech policies known as the Statements of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure. Key to this collection was the universal belief that instructors should have the freedom to discuss, both in the classroom and in publication, controversial issues germane to the topic at hand without fear of institutional retaliation. Indeed, the representatives viewed such controversial issues as central to the goals of higher education; in a comment added to the Statements in 1970, the representatives clarified that “[c]ontroversy is at the heart of the free academic inquiry which the entire statement is designed to foster.”

But despite this blanket philosophy, academics in today’s fraught cultural and political climates increasingly sense the erosion of these freedoms. They may regularly ask:

How do I teach potentially sensitive topics in the classroom, and how do I navigate topics that may elicit strong and often opposing reactions from students of all backgrounds?

How do I—or should I—apply and interview for a position in a climate I view as hostile or antithetical to my personal values?

I believe in the value of diversity statements; how do I apply to and work in a state or institution where such statements are banned?

How might I navigate the tenure process—a minefield already fraught with difficulties—when these sensitive topics add further complexity to the interpersonal dynamics?

This ninety-minute session aims to address these and related obstacles. The session will begin with introductory thoughts from an array of panelists before proceeding to a moderated panel discussion. Audience members will also have opportunities to voice individual concerns and questions and receive feedback. Attendees can expect to learn practical advice, often based on real-world experiences both in and outside of the academy, to inform their own practices. Attendees will also receive a brief guide to pertinent resources curated by the panelists. The aim of the session is to be non-political, and we aim to create an inclusive space for a broad audience where all participants, no matter their backgrounds or beliefs, will be respected, included, and feel they belong.

Mark Spicer’s “soul dominant” (2004, 2017) poses challenges to harmonic theories of popular music, as evidenced by the diverse array of chord symbols applied to the chord. Throughout the McGill Billboard Corpus transcriptions (Burgoyne 2011), various transpositions of five chord symbols identify—arguably—the same chord: “Fmaj/9,” “Gsus4(b7,9),” “G11,” “Dmin7/11,” and “Fmaj6/9.” Subtler differences arise in theoretical explanations of the chord. Tagg (2014) describes the chord as a “quartal harmony” and appends “11” to both Roman numerals and letter names of the chord’s bass. De Clercq (2019) classifies the chord as a “hybrid chord” (e.g., F/G) and appends “9sus4” to the Roman numeral of the chord’s bass. Temperley (2018) asserts that “V11 nearly always moves to I,” although data from a corpus study show that only a slight majority (54%) of V11 chords move to a chord with scale-degree 1 in the bass.

This paper tests and compares some prediction models designed to improve categorical outcome measures regarding whether a chord of the “soul dominant” quality will resolve to “tonic” (if only locally). I created a dataset (n = 2033) of eleventh chords across 153 songs in the McGill Billboard Corpus transcriptions, classifying the chords by their bass scale degree within the tonal context given by the transcription. For each chord, I recorded the root and bass of the previous and following chords, and, where possible, the beat-class (Cohn 1992) of the chord’s onset and offset within four-measure units of quadruple meter. This paper finds that eleventh chords approached by bass motion of a perfect fourth or perfect fifth are more than twice as likely to be followed by bass motion of a descending perfect fifth than eleventh chords approached by bass motion of any other interval (including perfect unisons). This paper also finds that eleventh chords with scale-degree 5 in the bass and a chord offset not on a weak beat are more than five times as likely to be followed by bass motion of a descending perfect fifth than eleventh chords that do not meet both of those criteria.

This study uses statistical analysis of chord data from the Sacred Harp 1991 Edition tunebook to confirm the historical narrative that scholars use to explain the book's stylistic differences. This stylistic journey can be distilled to an interplay between two distinct harmonic languages: functional tonality and dispersed harmony. Using metrics of chord completion, prevalence of IV chords versus ii chords, and voice distribution, a single-factor ANOVA with a Tukey-Kramer post-hoc test generated pairwise comparisons among nine Sacred Harp subgenres. The results suggest trends that match the historical narrative (p ≤ 0.005). Songs from Lowell Mason's "Better Music Movement" have a far greater proportion of complete I and V chords than any other subgenre. All other subgenres to varying degrees display features of dispersed harmony. The 18th-century British tradition from which the First New England School developed already shows elements of dispersed harmony, especially in the use of tonic triads with no third. The First New England School in America, however, clearly made a more intentional break with tradition by amplifying these harmonic differences. The early-19th-century frontier tunebooks simplified the compositional style, emphasizing the homophonic psalm-tune and folk-hymn styles and preferring pentatonic melodies. With the rise of Gospel Music within the shape-note singing tradition around the turn of the 20th century, even the Sacred Harp moved in the direction of conventional tonality, adding alto parts to its three-part songs, and preferring a more diatonic harmonic language. The Gospel sound had the largest imprint on the 1936 and 1960 Sacred Harp revisions, with composers contributing songs to the Sacred Harp containing clear Gospel-Music elements like secondary dominants and traditional I-IV-V-I cadence patterns. The 1991 revision represents a partial turning away from the more modern sounds of the earlier-20th-century Sacred Harp revisions.

Analyses which examine larger collections primarily emphasize pitch content. For example, Temperley (2011) analyzes scalar shifts through the circle of fifths. Recent analyses have, similarly, studied macroharmony, or the “total collection of notes heard over moderate spans of musical time” (Tymoczko 2010). Chiu (2021) and Harding (2021) use the discrete Fourier transform to analyze macroharmonic qualities, and Harrison (2018) suggests that particular macroharmonies convey tonal functions. Rather than focusing on the structural content of large collections, this paper proposes a method for analyzing them based purely on context and probability, drawing from natural language processing (NLP)—the intersection between linguistics and computer science. This paper 1) introduces its methodology for creating macroharmonic embeddings, 2) shows that embeddings capture stylistic nuance, and 3) uses embeddings to analyze Lili Boulanger’s “Parfois, je suis triste.”

Adrienne Fried Block’s (1998, 154–156) brief analysis of Amy Beach’s song “When Soul is Joined to Soul” (1905) argues that Beach uses distant harmonies to highlight the third line of each stanza, mapping the physical distance requested by lines such as “now leave a little space” onto tonal distance. This paper uses transformational theory to explore these separations in terms of voice-leading parsimony, locating parsimonious proximity within the diatonic distances identified by Block. Hearing the song’s distancing gestures as simultaneously expressing another kind of proximity allows for a rich new interpretation of the text: Beach’s song describes not separation, but rather a choreographed emotional dance of lovers circling around one another: The singer’s protestations are met by a musical “tether,” in the form of the common tone Gb/F#, representing the lover’s continued support. This interpretation of the first two verses is finally reinforced in the third, when the singer weaves earlier images together into affirmation and acceptance against the backdrop of an even more detailed tapestry of common tones. Viewed from this perspective, “When Soul is Joined to Soul” is not a simple case of text painting, but rather a sequence of pursuits and deferrals, as two different kinds of musical proximity exchange with one another. Learning to hear Beach’s art songs from diatonic and pantriadic perspectives simultaneously sheds new light upon this large and still under-studied repertoire, demonstrating how Beach’s chromaticism is both expressive and rigorously ordered.

Recent scholarship in mathematical representations of music has been moving away from the restrictions of transformations to work towards a universal definition of chordal and collection-based relationships. This work has led to the creation of generalized voice-leading spaces (Callender, Quinn, and Tymoczko 2008) and geometric representations (Tymoczko 2011) of chords. Several mathematical approaches to the measurement of generalized voice-leading spaces have been explored, with the most important to this paper being distance functions (Tymoczko 2009; Hook 2023). Furthermore, work into the application of transformational ideas onto abstract structures (Rings 2011) has led to the amalgamation of these two ideas. I propose to expand this field. By calculating distances between groups of chords to form models of distance, and then using those distances to generate an abstract mapping of any music, we can model function onto distances in voice-leading spaces. For all the analysis in this paper, calculations are performed on metrically equal voice leading space. This voice-leading space conserves octave equivalence and permutational equivalence to simplify the orchestral writing into identifiable chords. The advantage of using a voice-leading space is the ability to model all chords, not only major/minor triads as seen before with Neo-Riemannian operations. Euclidian distance is used for analysis which calculates the distance between two chords in the space the sum of the displacement between all voices. Aurally, larger distances between chords equate to higher chordal difference. By applying this abstraction onto pieces of music, we make a connection between musical function and chordal distance on metrically equal voice-leading spaces.

Functional orchestration typically refers to the role of a voice within the texture of an ensemble (e.g., foreground vs. background, melody vs. harmony, creating a figuration or surface texture, etc.). However, it can be easily extended into the harmonic and contrapuntal realms. As Daniel Harrison explains in Harmonic Function in Chromatic Music (1994), we may understand harmonic function to be primarily expressed by specific voice leading motions between functional scale degrees associated with the tonic, subdominant, and dominant triads (e.g., 7 – 1 is characteristic dominant-to-tonic functional motion). In orchestral contexts, voices are often doubled in octaves or at the unison. It follows, then, that certain functional voice leading progressions may be emphasized over others by orchestrational techniques. This paper formalizes the relationship between functional voice leading and timbre by presenting a new approach to harmonic functional analysis that is informed by orchestration. Focusing primarily on orchestral works by Sibelius and Prokofiev, I combine Harrison’s (1994) theory of harmonic function and Kevin Swinden’s (2005) extension of it with both modern and historical approaches to orchestration and its analysis to show how the function(s) of complex harmonies are elucidated and/or nuanced by their orchestration.

In addition to filling the gap in research that addresses the intersections between harmonic function and orchestration, this new approach has two primary outcomes. The first is analytical: as Swinden (2005: 253) points out, assigning a single function to a complex sonority may lead to an over-generalized reading of the harmony in context. Consequently, analyzing the orchestration of complex sonorities highlights the multifaceted functional nature of such harmonies. The second outcome is pedagogical: this approach provides a new and accessible way to incorporate timbre and orchestration into the classroom—as a direct extension of chord voicing—and requires students to scrutinize the role of each scale degree in a harmonic progression. This presentation will thus demonstrate the analytical and pedagogical advantages of considering orchestration as an elucidating element of harmonic function.

The descending tetrachord pattern can be found in multiple musical repertoires, yet its tonal function may differ depending on the stylistic context through which it is understood. Both the lament bass of Classical practice (Shea 2019, Caplin 2014) and walking schema of pop-rock (Doll 2017) suggest diatonic orientation in its stepwise descent from a minor tonic to a major dominant chord (i.e., i-bVII-bVI-V), but this approach conflicts with practitioner-centered theories of flamenco music (Hurtado Torres 2009, Granados 2004). The Andalusian cadence uses the same pattern but set within a flamenco-Phrygian modality that presents the final harmony as the unambiguous tonic (i.e., iv-bIII-bII-I). Other Ibero-American musics deploy similar descents where the progression’s first and last chords are equally weighted (Manuel 2002), paralleling recent research on tonal ambiguity and double-tonic complexes in popular music (Nobile 2020, Richards 2017). These different orientations create a fascinating dilemma for progressive flamenco artists, whose modernization efforts have brought the vernacular art form into dialogue with other global genres (Barrera Ramiréz 2018, Gerhardt 2002)—namely, how should the Andalusian cadence be understood when deployed in more international-reaching contexts? This question is perhaps most relevant to the Spanish flamenco-pop singer Rosalía, whose music freely crosses boundaries of genre (Manuel 2021, Alvarez-Cueva 2021).

In this paper, I present the Andalusian cadence as a schema prototype (Zambrano and Bauer 2023, Byros 2012, Gjerdingen 2007) and examine its use in flamenco-fusion music. Focusing on exemplars from Rosalía’s discography, I argue that her identity as an adaptable, genre-fluid artist enables her to deploy this flamenco progression through multiple tonal orientations. I theorize five categories of strategic types that map onto double-tonic or flamenco-Phrygian modes of listening. These types account for more than just a bass line and harmonic support—they incorporate melodic voice-leading, hypermetric stress, textural change, and various collostructions into an understanding of the schema’s function. Furthermore, I claim that the deployment of these strategies is never purely structural, which necessitates an understanding of each exemplar’s expressive motivations.

Jazz guitarist, pharmacist, and “super theoretician” Ted Dunbar (1937–1998) wrote four method books between 1975–1979. The first installment, A System of Tonal Convergence for Improvisors, Composers, and Arrangers (1975), was written as an extension of George Russell’s Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization (1953). In this presentation, I provide a general overview of Dunbar’s treatise and discuss how Dunbar expanded Russell’s theory in two ways.

The first involves his deployment of Russell’s chordmode substitutions within cadences, or what Dunbar calls “convergent zones.” Important to convergent zones is the resolution of the “mysterious tritone interval” in each of his scales. In addition to analyzing these scales, I will show that Dunbar’s focus on the tritone stems from his close reading of Paul Hindemith’s Craft of Musical Composition (1937 [1945]), which uses the tritone as its primary organizing principle in his theory of harmonic fluctuations. Dunbar’s convergent scales are summarized in his “circle of gravities” that contains twenty-four tritone-containing scales in motion toward the tonic. As a result, Dunbar’s treatise is a theoretical prototype of the “tritone substitution,” a term not yet labeled nor codified at the time of its publication.

The second expansion involves Dunbar’s faithful application of Russian mystic G.I. Gurdjieff’s teachings, known as The Fourth Way, into his own System. Russell’s connection to Gurdjieff’s methods has been well documented by the likes of Hannaford (2021), Bivins (2015), Monson (2007), and others. However, Dunbar draws on some different aspects of Gurdjieff’s philosophy—specifically the “Law of Octaves” which is depicted similarly to a neo-Platonic diatonic scale on a monochord. Like other occult representations of the monochord, each pitch (given solfege labels in Gurdjieff’s system) represents both a Pythagorean ratio, and a stage in the process of spiritual awakening. Traversing from the lowest vibration to highest is equal to physical matter becoming spiritual. Gurdjieff’s esoteric teachings aim to awaken the soul for the purposes of inner development.

Dunbar believed that the jazz soloist could unlock the full potential of their own individual voice through music’s sympathetic resonances. The chromatic freedom allotted by the tritone substitution opened the pathway to this spiritual system.

Beethoven’s late style, as noted by Adorno, is characterized by dissociation and fragmentation. This view is overly simplistic in its one-dimensional approach (Swinkin 2013), while lyricism is often neglected despite its frequent presence in Beethoven’s late works (Kerman et al., 1983).

While Cooper (2014) and Fontanelli (2019) have examined the genesis of the theme and multi-movement planning of Op. 127/II, this study fills a gap by adopting a multi-parametrical approach to lyricism, continuity, and contrast. It examines Beethoven's compositional approaches to hypermeter, rhythm, texture, register and part-writing strategy. A chronological analysis of score sketches, including the lesser-known A 51 sketches, illuminates the rich and multifaceted qualities of Beethoven’s late style.

In this case study, I argue that hypermeter serves as a stable current running through the inherent contrasts in meter, rhythm, tonality, and tempo. The hypermetrical structure, combined with imitative part-writing strategy, shifting textural density, rhythmic manipulation, and registral displacement, reveals Beethoven's aim to achieve lyricism, continuity, and contrast across the variations.

This movement encompasses a theme, four variations, a transition, the concluding variation, and a coda. The A 51 sketches (17r-18v) illustrate the intriguing details of variations 1 and 4 together. This preliminary sketch highlights:

• The meticulous part-writing strategy shaping hypermeter through the imitation between outer voices.
• The sophisticated transformation of the theme in later sketches of var. 1, and richness in texture and register.
• Evolving lyricism through rhythmic, registral and part-writing transformations.

The second variation is particularly exciting. The hypermetrical framework showcases alternating leadership between upper voices, enhancing lyricism and continuity through lively rhythmic and melodic exchanges. The creative process reveals Beethoven's aesthetic: initially, the second violin leads, but leadership gradually becomes shared, creating a balanced interplay, as seen in the sketches. Intricate texture and rhythmic richness amplify the sense of lyricism, culminating in a more expressive conclusion.

Ultimately, this study demonstrates how diverse parameters, such as hypermeter, texture, register and rhythm, embody distinct yet interconnected features within Beethoven's late style, including lyricism, continuity, and contrast. Adopting a multi-parametrical approach deepens our understanding of the multifaceted nature of Beethoven's late style, enriching a burgeoning field of Beethoven scholarship.

Despite jazz’s unique ability to engage with and assimilate diverse influences from across the world, it has largely resisted adopting aspects of atonal or twelve-tone music, especially in an improvised context. However, in recent years, some jazz improvisers have begun to develop a post-tonal approach to improvisation using Tone-Clock Theory (TCT), a harmonic system and chromatic “map” that is free of the restrictions typically associated with serial or twelve-tone music. Codified in 1982 by Dutch composer Peter Schat and later vastly expanded by New Zealand composer Jenny McLeod, TCT identifies twelve “chromatic tonalities” derived from the twelve possible atonal triads (Allen Forte’s trichordal set classes), which are labelled as “Hours” and organized around a circular clock face. Using a transpositional operation called ‘steering,’ these triadic sets can then be expanded to assemble a non-repeating twelve-tone harmonic field based on its interval-class, each with its own distinct ‘harmonic flavour.’

The inherent freedom of TCT has since attracted the attention of jazz improvisers, most notably American saxophonist John O’Gallagher, who has been instrumental in developing this approach and disseminating it through his book Twelve Tone Improvisations: A Method for Using Tone Rows in Jazz (Advance Music, 2013). O’Gallagher has also identified a similar trichord-based approach in the late work of John and Alice Coltrane on the recording Stellar Regions (1967), providing a direct link to jazz history. In my poster session, I will give a brief explanation of the foundational principles of TCT and, drawing from both O’Gallagher’s work and my own experience as a Tone-Clock improviser and composer, I will demonstrate some basic methods for practicing Tone-Clock techniques and applying them creatively to both improvisation and composition, showing how twelve-tone and atonal concepts can be used freely and musically in contemporary jazz.

Although vocal timbre has received significant analytical attention in recent years, including the development of systematic approaches to analysis by Heidemann (2016) and Malawey (2020) and hermeneutic interpretations of vocal timbre by Wallmark (2014) and Blake (2012), the interaction between vocal timbre and style has not been explored in the current literature. In this paper, I will demonstrate how vocal timbre can be used to understand an artist’s style, as well as track and anticipate future developments in style and changes in genre using an analytical methodology based primarily on Heidemann’s system of embodied analysis, supplemented by Malawey’s descriptive methodology. Two songs from Fall Out Boy’s first four studio albums and three songs from Patrick Stump’s solo album will be selected and separated into two categories, representative and characteristic, the former being songs that represent the overall sound of an album, the latter being songs with unique stylistic and timbral elements. Through the analysis of these selected songs, I will show Stump’s vocal transition from a stereotypical pop-punk singer to a soul-style vocalist. Finally, I will discuss the racial dynamic of Stump, a white man, adopting the musical and vocal styles of soul and funk, which are primarily black genres.

The relationship between the visual components of a film and the film score has often been described as one of music being subservient to picture, for example Gorbman’s concept of “inaudibility” (Gorbman 1987 and Buhler 2019). But what about situations in which music is primary, such as listening to a film’s or series’ soundtrack album after having watched the film or series? My paper will consider how remembering the image in the Netflix TV series Squid Game after having watched the film shapes the way one hears the soundtrack. In this paper, I argue that remembering the film can function as a visual sign (together with music) to invoke meanings in soundtracks.

I identify topics in both the quoted music and the original soundtracks by applying Raymond Monelle’s concepts of indexical and iconic topics (2006). Through these concepts, I demonstrate that topics in Squid Game evoke not only certain emotions but also make use of specific cultural aspects. The topics underlying the quoted music are interpreted differently from their original eighteenth-century conventions, as the musical meanings communicated through the clips in Squid Game have to do with specific elements of Korean culture. For example, the Haydn Trumpet Concerto played through a loudspeaker calls on the knowledge of a specific Korean game show, Jang-hak Quiz, to associate the music with the topic of competition. In similar ways, topics of childhood, identity, and threat are communicated through the soundtrack and memory of images. Through my investigation, I hope to more clearly describe the process of a listener comprehending a film’s soundtrack after having seen the film. This study will add a previously unexplored perspective to the discourse on the relationship between sound and image in film.

What would happen if students could consciously and strategically select in advance which assignments they want to complete and know with confidence the resultant final grade they will earn? According to in-the-trenches research, course designs that place power and responsibility in the hands of students contribute to more equitable approaches to education (Inoue 2019), result in higher levels of engagement (Mittell 2016), permit better feedback on assessments (Danielewicz and Elbow 2009), and decrease stress over grades and learning (Nilson 2016). The class design in this presentation features a first-year theory case study which provides students with opportunity for deeper learning, greater agency, and better intrinsic motivation via a “choose your own adventure” course design.

Throughout the semester students have several common baseline assignments to help ensure that minimal requirements are met, and they will select their remaining assignments from a library of options according to their needs and interests. All assignments are graded as satisfactory/unsatisfactory (with opportunity for revision and resubmission), which allows students a safe space to fail, learn, and try again. High-quality work is required to complete any assignment in the course, thus placing value on quality over quantity; students who choose to work towards a lower grade will simply complete fewer assignments. This flexible course design is also paired with a content focus on large-scale musical design concepts which are then applied to a diverse range of musics, thereby increasing relevance and engagement.

Students have responded positively to these class structures, stating in anonymous evaluations that the “course structure … was intricate, wonderfully fair, and gave us the space to forge our own paths” and that it was “actually focused on learning rather than getting assignments in.” From an instructor standpoint, quality of student work and levels of student engagement improved dramatically compared to traditional course structures, without creating unmanageable instructor workload. Most importantly, based on the level of work in students’ final projects and the extra effort visible in assignments throughout the semester, this approach created a course that gives students deeper motivation for their work through increased autonomy and power over their own learning.

Current analyses of hip-hop vocals tend to focus on elements other than pitch and phrase. According to Adams 2020, “it is not possible for hip-hop music to create phrases in the way that tonal (or even post-tonal) music does.” However, the increasingly popular genre of melodic rap complicates this observation. Since melodic rappers engage distinct pitches in their verses, descriptions of phrase should engage pitch. Komaniecki 2021 suggests “pitch plays an important role in the structure and delivery of rap flows.” It refers to sung verses as those performed “on a pitch or set of pitches in accordance with the tonic from the track’s backing beat.” Duinker 2021 presents five segmentation rules for defining phrase in flow. This paper introduces a sixth segmentation rule—pitch patterns—built on Komaniecki’s analysis to show how the use of distinctly pitched motives contribute to an idiomatic sense of phrase in melodic rap verses. This new rule allows for examination of grouping and displacement non-alignments of flow and beat layer based on pitch.

Universities and colleges aspire to equip students for leadership in their professions, and music students need leadership skills to navigate increasingly entrepreneurial careers. However, heavy curricular demands may prevent music students from undertaking formal leadership training. I argue that music theory and aural skills courses can provide scaffolded leadership opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students, and I outline several categories of activities to build students’ leadership skills. These activities harness the motivational power of self-determination theory as students embrace autonomy, pursue competence, and build a sense of belonging through peer learning and classroom leadership.

In this poster, I consider two questions: Which leadership competencies do music students need? And how can instructors help students acquire these competencies in the context of music theory and aural skills? I examine competencies addressed by the NASM Handbook and adopt Seemiller’s (2021) student leadership competencies, which provide faculty in disparate fields with a shared vocabulary for planning and assessment.

The active-learning approach I present here features brief class activities led by enrolled students of every achievement level. These activities serve the dual purpose of engaging students in disciplinary thinking and equipping them with transferable skills. Activity categories include explaining answers to homework exercises, teaching from provided resources, leading class activities, composing and performing new musical examples, participating in panel discussions, giving class presentations with related audience-engagement activities, and planning conference-style events and presenting scholarly work to audiences beyond the class. To illustrate, I share sample activities that I have designed and used successfully at several institutions.

Participating in leadership opportunities tailored to their levels of experience can increase students’ confidence in their ability to teach, lead ensembles, and communicate with classmates and future colleagues. Students often exhibit heightened focus and energy during leadership activities, and they describe leadership activities as “fun” and “empowering” in their verbal comments and course evaluations. Propelled by constructive peer pressure, students take responsibility for their learning as they hone their leadership skills in a supportive environment.

Many students today are highly engaged with styles of music that do not exist in notated form, creating a challenge for educators who want to help them see how this music is organized. Online resources such as Genius.com (which allows users to annotate song lyrics) and Hooktheory.com (which provides sophisticated tools for the analysis of harmony) have made it easier to study and interact with popular music. Another useful tool in the analysis of recorded music is Audio Timeliner, a free audio annotation program that can be used to create bubble diagrams representing musical form. Audio timelines can help students to visualize the formal organization of popular music (as well as other styles) without needing to understand musical notation.

This poster exhibit will outline some of the ways that Audio Timeliner may be used in the classroom for discussions, presentations, activities, and student projects. It will also demonstrate a new feature called Timeline Share, which is an online repository of audio timeline files that the larger community can draw on and contribute to. This resource will allow users to search for (and download) audio timelines in a variety of styles and genres. Two types of timelines are available: those featuring a completed analysis (for discussion and presentation), and partially-completed timeline templates to be filled in as a classroom activity or assigned as student projects. Students and teachers will also be able to upload their timelines to the repository to share with others.

Picture this: you are in an unfamiliar location, are presented with confusing notation, and are told you have a limited amount of time to understand what has been presented to you. You feel lost and don’t know where to start. Are you in an escape room or are you a young musician tasked with analyzing a piece of music? With over 3,000 locations in the United States, escape rooms are quickly becoming a popular way to spend a night out with friends. While they are certainly a fun experience (if you escape), they can also be an incredibly helpful and engaging teaching tool. The implementation of escape room activities in the classroom can improve teamwork, collaboration, communication, and problem-solving skills. Reflective of the world our students will enter, escape rooms allow teams to rely on each other, ask for help, and learn through trial and error. Traditional teachers and gamemasters in escape rooms have much in common: they oversee the design, the journey, and the possible results of their clients’ experiences. Just as teachers must structure their courses for optimal learning and reinforcement, gamemasters must create a room that sequences puzzles in a logical format and guides competitors to the various solutions. Music theory classrooms offer a unique scenario that allows for students and teachers to experience puzzles in multiple dimensions: physical and aural. Students not only are able to solve written music theory puzzles such as voice leading problems, harmonic analysis, error detection or phrase composition, but are able to use their ear training to dissect melodies and harmonies that they hear in the room. This poster not only provides data detailing the positive outcomes of implementing escape room games or puzzles in the classroom, but also acts as a resource for instructors. QR codes on the poster will guide instructors to links to download a complete escape room package, templates to insert their own course content, and guides on how to sequence their games for seamless experiences.

Juslin, et al. (2010) posit an affective entrainment hypothesis, linking entrainment processes and emotion induction via music. Other research extends this, observing the “empowering” effect (Leman, et al. 2017) and positive affect (Trost, et al. 2017) of isochronous entrainment. Non-isochronous and irregular meters have also inspired music theorists to develop potential psychological accounts of metric processing, sometimes with projected phenomenological effects (Horlacher 1995, 2001; London 2004; Mirka 2009; Sullivan 2023). Processual approaches to metric irregularity posit insightful explanations about how listeners might psychologically process such passages. But what are the affective or motional ramifications of such processing?

In the present project, I used Moustakas’s (1994) phenomenology methodology to investigate lived experience of metrically irregular moments in popular music, through 9 semi-structured interviews. Participants listened to 3 excerpts 4 times each, with guiding questions about affective responses, bodily engagement, and exploring additional ways to entrain. Excerpts included “The Ocean” by Led Zeppelin, “Go to Sleep” by Radiohead, and “Angel of Doubt” by The Punch Brothers.

Evidence extends, complicates, and refutes current theories. First, multiple participants invoked the metaphors of music as moving force and moving music (Johnson and Larson 2003), where their use of either metaphor correlated with their ability to entrain to the given passage. These findings suggest that entrainment may be a contributor to the types of metaphorical experiences listeners have. Second, some participants with similar metric interpretations reported inverse experiences of the metric irregularity. While it may be unsurprising that two listeners have unique experiences, such diversity is rarely accounted for in theoretical systems or their applications. Third, one participant, who heard multiple metric interpretations of “Go to Sleep” by Radiohead, preferred their “looser” experience of floating around the beats to their experience of isochronous entrainment, contradicting the “empowering effect of locking into the beat” (Leman, et al. 2017). Altogether, this study suggests that entrainment may affect felt metaphor, similar metric phenomena may produce diverse listening experiences, and entrainment may not necessarily be a positive experience. Findings from this study can inform music analysis, an epistemological shift from the inverse where music analysis postulates experiential implications.

This presentation develops a new theory of symphonic “Breakthrough” (Durchbruch) to recontextualize the role of “deformation” within fin-de-siècle modernism. Originally formulated in Adorno’s Mahler book, Breakthrough is a formal rupture which critically alters a work’s technical and expressive narratives. By undermining straightforward conceptions of a unified, hermetically sealed work, it resists a standardized account. Within Hepokoski’s discussions of Strauss’s Don Juan and Sibelius’s Fifth, Breakthrough is a “deformation” deployed by fin-de-siècle modernists to develop sonata form. Despite widespread adoption of Hepokoski and Darcy’s “Sonata Theory,” Breakthrough’s modernist tendencies remain underappreciated within the New Formenlehre. While subsequent authors like Harper-Scott and Tarrant examine a wider range of Breakthroughs, none substantially revise Hepokoski’s original conception. Breakthrough’s narrow grounding in Mahler, Strauss, and Sibelius is troubled by Romantic Formenlehre developments from Vande Moortele and Schmalfeldt, which normalize understanding of apparently “deformational” practices and necessitate further expansion of music theory’s evidential corpus. Critiquing deformation’s hermeneutic and socio-political baggage, Horton, Straus, and Wingfield further complicate its relationship to modernism and wider nineteenth-century practices, underscoring the challenges of fin-de-siècle form and the need for better theoretical frameworks. Breakthrough therefore engages deformation’s disciplinary relevance for theorizing modernist, fin-de-siècle form.

This presentation’s new theoretical framework demonstrates how Breakthrough’s irruptive effect is a critical technique for deconstructing fin-de-siècle sonata form. Grounded in a corpus study of nineteenth-century symphonic works, this model integrates Hepokoski’s original conception with theoretical discourses surrounding parageneric spaces, sonata typology, form-functional Becoming, and two-dimensional form. This approach demonstrates how Hepokoski’s 1860s generation uniquely deploys Breakthrough to complicate and critique traditional forms. Their diverse Breakthrough practices catalyze different types of multidimensionality (Mahler, Strauss), formal truncation (Glazunov) and compression (Sibelius), progressive, teleological trajectories (Nielsen), and cadential deferral and non-diatonic tonal relations (Elgar). These diverse modernist strategies destabilize structural foundations and challenge hermeneutic boundaries, thereby critiquing different aspects of the preceding symphonic tradition. By contextualizing its fin-de-siècle manifestations within broader nineteenth-century procedures, a multi-faceted account of Breakthrough’s deformational nature clarifies how modernist practices deconstruct sonata form. This presentation’s more robust framework therefore elucidates Breakthrough’s critical impulse and facilitates a deeper reconsideration of deformation and modernism within the New Formenlehre.

Scholarship on nineteenth-century sonata form makes no secret about Romantic-era composers working in dialogue with norms concretized by their predecessors (Richards 2013; Davis 2017; Osborne 2021). Such engagement with tradition encourages investigations regarding “how an evolution of musical ideas may override the tonal norms of sonata form in ways that produce satisfying results” (Brown 2013, 374). Emilie Mayer’s sonata strategies adeptly twist Type-3 norms, yielding idiosyncratic variations on traditional sonata form. Using Mayer’s solo sonatas as case studies, I explore approaches that she utilizes in S-Space that are fundamental to her formal aesthetic; strategies that exploit thematic- and closure-related differences between the exposition’s and recapitulation’s S-Space that generate friction against common complications within this action zone.

A unifying feature in Mayer’s approach to S-Space is her penchant for using what I call Compound S-Modules (CSM), where the S theme initially appears and reaches a cadence, departs to contrasting material, then returns to the same S theme, which now concludes with a different level of closure. Such a return to S is unusual, exploiting a harmonically-closed theme that typically yields to C-Space’s closing impulses (Caplin 1998; Hepokoski & Darcy 2006). For example, in Mayer’s D-minor Piano Sonata, expositional CSM-Space reaches an EEC (IAC: III), yet the recapitulation avoids closure during the CSM and departs to C rhetoric, eventually providing structural closure with a PAC: i only upon the coda’s arrival. Mayer’s C-minor Violin Sonata follows a different CSM trajectory. In the exposition, S reaches what appears to be an EEC with a PAC: v, followed by a C-Space PAC: VI. In the recapitulation, the analogous ESC falls on an unexpected PAC: natural-vii and then passes through what was C-Space to reach the ESC (PAC: i). This reinterprets our perception of expositional C-space, and now forms a CSM with the structural close.

While Mayer’s sonatas pay homage to traditional sonata-form guideposts, her S-Space strategies demonstrate an inclination to manipulate thematic development and closure norms. CSMs not only enable detailed descriptions for modular S-Space designs, but also give a first glance into Mayer’s large forms, which have received no analytical consideration to date.

Several studies in recent years have highlighted the specific characteristics of nineteenth-century sonata form (Schmalfeldt, 2011; Vande Moortele, 2013; Taylor, 2016; Horton, 2017; Davis, 2017; Hunt, 2020, among others). Romantic-era music introduced a heightened sensitivity to temporality, with concepts like "becoming" (Schmalfeldt), "functional transformation" (Horton), "atemporal interpolation" (Davis), "lyric form" (Hyland, 2023) and others refining our understanding of Romantic formal processes that challenge the unidirectional flow of sonata-form movements.

This research focuses on a related phenomenon termed "Retracted Tonal Areas" (RTAs). RTAs are thematic action spaces interpolated into one of the two main theme zones of the exposition, occupying a remote tonality, and eventually reverting to the previous key. Most often, RTAs emerge within the S-zone and "interrupt" the flow of the secondary key (SK). On rare occasions, they may occur within the P-zone.

In this paper, I discuss the RTA type that emerges at the beginning of the S-zone, a process labeled "Deferred SK Expositions" (DSK). In DSK situations, the TR establishes the target SK, yet the following S-theme opens in a foreign tonality. Following the thematic part of the RTA, the SK is reclaimed by a transitory passage. These passages do not modulate to further keys (as in most three-key expositions) and often lack energy gain, for which reason they are labeled "S-RT" (SK-retransition). This model differs from existing concepts such as "Modulating Subordinate Theme," "MC Declined," and "Trimodular Block." DSKs (and RTAs in general) do not progress linearly but rather highlight a circular tonal narrative. They specify a stable and satisfactory theme zone that suspends the expositional progression. Such situations sometimes encompass the entire S-zone and lead directly to the closing section.

Most studies on tonal expansions in early nineteenth-century sonata expositions focus on works by canonic composers, especially Schubert. In contrast, this research surveys sonata movements by a wide range of early Romantic composers whose works have generally been underexplored, such as Dussek, Reicha, Kuhlau, Pixis, Hummel, Spohr, and others. The paper will elaborate on various RTA subtypes and discuss specific DSK examples.

Despite increasing attention within music scholarship, East Asian pop has rarely been studied as music per se, instead receiving attention mostly from economic and sociological/anthropological perspectives. This panel proposes to remedy this gap by giving sustained analytic attention to East Asian pop. We argue that close study of the music can do more than just help to illuminate aspects of musical sound and structure: it can also counter misunderstandings and reveal interpretive angles that have previously been neglected.

For instance, this session's first paper analyzes J-pop songs that use Phrygian-type modal gestures but with different tonal—and cultural—connotations; it thus points a way toward a finer-grained understanding of such modal meanings in popular music more broadly. Similarly, the second paper discusses two J-pop vocal performances of the same song, showing how the singers mobilize a range of vocal types in the service of culturally-specific gendered expression; in doing so, it provides new tools and categories for the analysis of the popular singing voice in general. Finally, the third paper recontextualizes K-pop’s “Western sound,” decentering U.S. reception and instead using analyses of K-pop songs that “recompose” Western models to argue for the importance of songwriter/producer tastes and (East Asian) market forces as primary drivers of K-pop’s use of Western pop styles. In this case, analysis can help to counterbalance prevailing narratives surrounding K-pop by emphasizing the creative agency of its makers and regional consumers.

These papers show that not only have studies of East Asian pop suffered from neglect of music analysis, but analysis has suffered from the neglect of East Asian pop. Analysis of popular music has almost exclusively studied Anglo-American popular music, with an emphasis on rock and hip-hop. This narrow focus necessarily excludes techniques and materials used within the broader world of popular music. As these papers demonstrate, turning to East Asian pop can be an opportunity to explore practices of composition, performance, and listening that go beyond what has been broached in the scholarly literature to date.

Building on work by Robert Hatten (1994), Yonatin Malin (2010), Stephen Rumph (2012), and others, this paper proposes a theory of libretto reading anchored to the following proposition: unmarked poetic features are flexibly realized, while marked poetic elements elicit a specific set of musical responses. Such markedness correlations—conceptual lumps of multimedia material anchored to a marked feature in one component medium—serve as the theory’s basic unit of analysis, and are conceptualized as an associative chain moving from a marked poetic feature, through that feature’s marked effect or function, and arriving at an associated musical feature. The theory proposes that such markedness correlations were a core part of an opera composer’s musical vocabulary: as experienced composers flicked their eyes across a libretto, its marked elements catalyzed a chain of associations that, seemingly automatically, summoned a specific musical device to mind. Hence, the paper proposes a general theory of composer-libretto interactions, one that explains which compositional decisions were tightly constrained by poetic features and which were open to variation.

Marc Blitzstein’s 1937 musical The Cradle Will Rock had one of the most storied premieres in Broadway history, but what of its music? This talk analyzes three scenes from this WPA Federal Theatre Project show and discusses how musical choices reflect and intensify the meaning of the agitprop text. I examine:

• Musical topic and extramusical association in the “faculty room” scene, where our Brechtian oligarch (Mr. Mister), a university trustee, pressures the university President to conscript his students into military service for the sake of defending his factory;

• “Croon-Spoon,” which lampoons Mr. Mister’s adult children (Junior Mister and Sister Mister), who prat on about nothing of importance while their father works to imprison his union-organizing employees; and

• “The Cradle Will Rock” (title song), a revolutionary song sung by the head union organizer, and which upends tonal and formal norms in ways that seem at least as radical as its lyrics.

Film music scholars (e.g., Manvell and Huntley 1975, Gorbman 1987, Buhler and Neumeyer 2011), have theorized at length about the way music can fuse and shape images. Capuzzo (2004), Lehman (2013, 2018), and Murphy (2014a), among others, have productively applied and developed the process-based approach of David Lewin’s (1987) transformational theory, and specifically the Neo-Riemannian branch of this theory (Cohn 2004, 2012), to understand how harmonic progressions can contribute to the process. This paper presents a methodology, rooted in transformational theory, which combines the insights of Leonard Meyer (1956) and the approach of Steve Rings (2011), to understand interesting melodic and formal aspects of films. Through examples from associated films by Max Steiner, like Now Voyager, Casablanca, and Mildred Pierce, it presents a typology of melodic transformations that Steiner uses to thwart listener’s expectations in a way that shapes the underlying drama. It also illustrates how these transformations can bridge the ‘fantastical’ gap (Stilwell 2007) between the diegetic and non-diegetic as well as the real versus ideal (Altman 1987). Building on the piece-specific analytical work of Leinberger (1996, 2002, 2016), Daubney (2000), and Marks (2000), these findings interact in interesting ways with corpus-based studies of Steiner’s music (Yorgason and Lyon 2017, 2020), showing how these methodologies can inform one another. It also adds another potential tool to existing studies of smoothness and structure in multi-media (Motazedian 2023, Medina-Gray 2019).

In a diary entry from 1816, the nineteen-year-old Schubert noted that the success of a performance of his “Rastlose Liebe”—which had been received with “unbroken applause”—was due, not to his own setting of Goethe’s lyric, but to the inherent musicality of Goethe’s poetry. The conceit throws into relief the extent to which studies of the composer’s Goethe settings have tended to focus on Schubert’s musical doings, to the exclusion of what “music” is already there in the poem.

The current paper proposes, instead, to examine some of Schubert’s early Goethe settings with an eye toward elucidating the features of the poetry that Schubert may have found so musical. Following recent work by Hatten, Byrne Bodley, and Guez that explores the importance that the form of Goethe’s “Erster Verlust” had on Schubert’s setting, I seek to understand the ways that other poems set around the same time might have had similarly strong impacts on Schubert’s compositional choices. I argue that Goethe’s poetry was decisive on Schubert’s musical development—that Goethe, in effect, was the Deist God that set Schubert’s interest in form spinning.

My paper offers novel interpretations of both Goethe’s and Schubert’s “Rastlose Liebe.” But my paper’s central concern is of a higher order. It is not that the form of Schubert’s song mirrors the form of Goethe’s poem. It is that the hyper-individuality of Schubert’s form—its urwüchsigkeit, Clark and Taruskin would say, following Goethe and Herder—may itself be said to have been inspired by Goethe’s poetic practice. Schubert, I argue, learned to valorize such formal originality directly from Goethe’s poetry. The poet, on this reading, played a crucial role in Schubert’s musical education.

In this paper, I explore the phenomenon of intertextuality as it arises in listener experience and use creative (re)composition as a technique for investigating interactions among similar works. Building primarily upon Martín-Rodríguez’s (2023) “intertextually-based model of reading” and Klein’s (2005) “ecology of pieces,” I give an account of listener response that considers the ways in which one work may “color our access” to another (Williams 2006). Specifically, I aim to motivate that access creatively by composing new texts that inhabit the overlapping space between intertextual referents. In this endeavor, I build upon recent scholarship exploring the theoretical, analytical, and pedagogical benefits of recomposition (e.g., Rabinovitch 2023; O’Hara 2017; BaileyShea 2007; Hannaford 2019; Hoag 2013).

By way of demonstration, I first align similar sequential passages in three mazurkas in B: Chopin’s op. 56, no. 1; Scriabin’s op. 25, no. 8; and Saint-Saëns’s op. 66. I imagine the three works as forming an intertextual network, a web of musical texts through which a listener might hear one mazurka resonating in another. I then present an abstract analytical nexus of the network: an imagined middle space that mediates between intertextual nodes and blends their characteristics into one. I argue, however, that such a nexus hints at a realization not in analytical prose, but in analytical music. By (re)composing the nexus of these and other mazurkas (by Chopin, Michał Bergson, and William Albright), my project ultimately revisits Clayton and Rothstein’s (1991) definition of intertextuality as an “impersonal field of crossing texts.” With the exercises I demonstrate, my aim is to penetrate that field creatively, making the impersonal personal.

Amy Beach described her Piano Concerto in C# minor, op. 45 (1899) as a “veritable autobiography” (Beach 1918, 695), primarily because of how the work extensively reuses musical content from her own songs opp. 1 and 2 in each of its four movements. The “hidden narrative” achieved by bringing the songs together in the concerto has been understood as the composer’s declaration of personal and artistic freedom (Block 1998, 141). There is more to be revealed about the concerto’s design with the songs as a hermeneutic key: the rondo finale’s formal processes interweave thematic and tonal resolution with ordered retrieval of content from the song “Twilight,” op. 2, no. 1, a song with poetry that thematizes memory. The rondo juxtaposes two contrasting themes and resolves tensions by combining them harmoniously only after Beach’s last selected segment of the song appears as a repurposed episodic memory.

Early on in the rondo, a brief passage attempts to link the two themes in succession, which generates a dissonant local climax and virtuosic cadenza in response. This dramatic tension is ameliorated by the romantic duet in the C episode, interlacing cyclic patterns of song retrieval with closure in the rondo. The movement concludes by combining the head motives of the two themes in counterpoint as the climax of the concerto. Though cyclical connections in Romantic piano concerti are common, and recomposition itself is not a particularly novel feature, Beach strategically employs both to great effect in this powerful yet overlooked composition.

This panel highlights the work of Jacksonville-based queer, trans, Black, and Brown activists. One of our featured speakers is transdisciplinary artist, DJ, and producer GeeXella (Graciela Cain), who founded Duval Folx—a queer, accessible dance space in Jacksonville. Reflecting on their years of experience creating and organizing queer musical spaces, GeeXella will facilitate a workshop titled “Creating Spaces that Connect Community.” We are currently in conversation with other organizations that GeeXella and Duval Folx have recently partnered with about joining us for an extended conversation about organizing in Jacksonville. In collaboration with our guest speakers, our goal is to center local life-affirming practices that resist Florida's state-level violence against trans and queer folks, and how these practices relate to national and global struggles towards liberation.

What happens when folk music—a genre known for its constructions of authenticity—collides with collage, a compositional strategy whose hybridity destabilizes such constructions? This collision characterizes recent albums by indie-folk collective Bon Iver. The borrowed sonic materials of Bon Iver’s collages both distance the newer music from the band’s old style and coalesce into musical structures that are at once wholly coherent and richly intertextual. While collage has been extensively studied in twentieth-century art music (Burkholder 1995, Losada 2009) and in relation to explicitly intertextual popular music forms like mashups (Boone 2013), relatively little music-theoretical attention has been paid to it in other popular musics. This paper examines the multiple affordances of collage in Bon Iver’s 2016 album, 22, A Million. Centering the album’s fourth track, “33 GOD,” as a case study, I analyze how samples and quotations simultaneously underscore its formal trajectory and gesture toward a web of interrelated narrative and harmonic contexts.

In the first part of my analysis, I trace how samples and quotations interact with original material to form a coherent narrative and harmonic shape. Adapting Catherine Losada’s concept of harmonic saturation (Losada, 2009), I first examine how layers of borrowed material complement harmonic and semantic content present in Bon Iver’s newly composed music. I then zero in on the meaningful interactions in the song’s first section between sung verses and samples from Jim Ed Brown’s 1971 country hit, “Morning.” Finally, I consider borrowed materials in “33 GOD” in relation to their original contexts, analyzing how they radiate outward toward related harmonic areas and texts. Drawing upon Christine Boone’s definition of the paint palette mashup, I argue that the obscurity of the references invites the tracing of materials back to their sources—a challenge taken up in internet spaces like YouTube and Genius.com. “33 GOD” therefore both models a kind of intersubjectivity and becomes a site for collaborative encounter. This democratized aspect of Bon Iver’s music takes on an additional layer of meaning vis-à-vis frontman Justin Vernon’s pro-democracy activism. The new aesthetic signals a shift from solitary singer-songwriter to relational network.

Popular-music choruses have undergone enormous stylistic changes over the past several decades. Music scholarship has thoroughly explored many aspects of the chorus, including its historical emergence, its neighbors the pre-, post-, and dance chorus, its relatives “hooks” and “risers” and “drops,” and its harmonic, metric, and textural characteristics. Persistently, one defining feature of “chorus” is its repetition—often lyrically, melodically, harmonically, and texturally. However, the different choruses of a song often change slightly, adding variety and contrast to reprise. Perhaps because the chorus becomes more familiar with each reprise, the last chorus in particular often stands out with respect to the previous iterations. I begin by framing last choruses in terms of “bigger” or “smaller” paradigms. “Bigger” last choruses amplify the rhetoric using changes in key, register, melody, texture, meter, repetition, formal overlap, and/or timbre. “Smaller” last choruses, which are significantly less common, diminish the impact of the chorus using register, length, texture, timbre, and/or tempo. Taken alone, the “bigger” and “smaller” categories are relatively intuitive, colloquial, and descriptive. However, features from the two types can also be combined to produce other effects, categorized by how abruptly/gradually songs transition between “bigger” and “smaller” last choruses. Of these variants, the most common is the “drop-in” paradigm, where a “smaller” beginning abruptly leads to a “bigger” version on the second measure, line, half, or repetition of the chorus. Finally, I observe some historical and genre associations in how “bigger” and “smaller” last choruses are expressed. Far from being a detached set of descriptors, these paradigms are inextricably linked to genres, trends, and time periods: A last chorus made “bigger” primarily by modulation and infinite-fadeout repetition sounds more 1980s, while a drop-in last chorus that isolates the vocals before dropping the drums and instrumentals back in sounds more 2010s. In today’s nostalgia-saturated media landscape, artists can and do use last-chorus paradigms to evoke certain eras. As a result, highlighting the difference(s) between reprised sections within a single song can tell us just as much about style, rhetoric, and form as comparisons between sections, songs, genres, and decades.

Recent scholarship on Electronic Dance Music (EDM) has focused on rhythm and meter (Butler 2001; 2006), repetition (Garcia 2005), continuous processes (Smith 2021), the genre’s influence on pop music (Peres 2016; Barna 2020; Adams 2019; Nobile 2022; Osborn 2023), dynamic range processing (Brøvig-Hanssen, Sandvik, and Aareskjold-Drecker 2020), and form delineated by sonic processes (Butler 2006; Iler 2011; Osborn 2023). One topic has received considerably less attention: harmony.

In this paper, I explore how harmony contributes to formal structure in music composed and produced by Joel Zimmerman, an influential EDM artist known as deadmau5. I transcribe, analyze, and diagram music from deadmau5’s career including “Strobe” (2009), “Right This Second” (2010), “Aural Psynapse” (2011), “Saved” (2016), “Polaris” (2017), “10.8,” (2018), and other tracks. I find three kinds of harmonic loops—prolongational, progressive, and non-repeating—and detail how deadmau5 uses these loops with the kick drum to build his tracks. Finally, I develop a set of harmony-focused formal functions inspired by Caplin 2000 with deadmau5’s loop-based harmonic language that adapt Butler’s (2006) sonic-energy defined formal-functions and terminology.

Shamanism is more than a Korean local religion. Implied by the Chinese character for music, in which a shaman holds handbells, it remains as a repository for musical traditions as well as inspirations. Despite this significance, however, female shamans called mudang have received relatively less attention due to the marginalization and the ill-balanced interests among contemporary composers. Against this backdrop, Korean woman composer Unsuk Chin and her composition Gougalon (2009/2012) offer a noticeable case study. Using three keywords such as dance, trance, and glance, I discuss how Gougalon, Movement III recreates mudang’s fortune-telling ritual for intercultural creativity.

Each keyword, in my discussion, is illustrated as the antitheses to three tendencies common in Korean new music: effacing, stylizing, and idealizing. Shown in Sukhi Kang’s Buru (1976) for instance, effacing replaces shaman’s unpredictable bodily actions (or what Rao 2023 would call shaman’s “materiality”) with organized performances and sounds. Countering this tendency, Gougalon III features what I call dancing melodies, in which regularity (e.g., consistency of pc-set <E,F#,Bb>) is countered by phenomenality (e.g., close mapping between unstable rhythmic displacements and particular pitches). Realizing the “intercultural synthesis” (Everett 2021) of classic coherence and idiosyncratic phenomenality, Chin’s dancing melodies reflect shaman’s unpredictable body in rituals—i.e., the corporeality that previously inspired American pianist David Burge. Meanwhile, stylizing and idealizing denote the tendency to contain shaman’s rituals in certain structures (e.g., ternary form) and ideals (e.g., nationalism). Against this, Gougalon III features textural expansions where the opening xylophone solo becomes a trance leader for other instruments while leaving no sense of direction. Indeed, the entire movement is structured more with ruptures and accelerations than logics, as if emulating mudang’s skillful glance at and manipulation of her audience.

My discussion of dance, trance, and glance in Gougalon III does more than illuminating Chin’s approach to Korean shamans. It also demonstrates that shamanism can inspire contemporary composers without being reduced to the passive object. With this and other case studies in the future, I hope that music theorists will be encouraged to explore local cultures, examine intercultural creativity, and diversify today’s music theory discipline.

This proposal examines the metrical contrasts in Wang Amao’s alto board-fiddle composition, One Person’s Stage (2021). Wang’s piece is characterized by its fluid meter shifts, creating a malleable melody. Upon analyzing the premier rendition by soloist Hu Yu, notable metrical patterns emerge that differ from the score, influenced by phenomenal accents (Lerdahl/Jackendoff 1983 and Sullivan 2023) like dynamics and articulation. Such patterns obscure the intended metric pulse, as they deviate from the printed time signatures.

Indeed, while such discrepancies between perception and notation are not uncommon in musics after 1900 (or even earlier), this study probes the relationship between metrical perception and voice-leading structure in the Introduction (mm. 1–29). To identify the metrical structure as I perceive it, this proposal employs Sullivan’s projection theory and his metrical categorizations (2023), and uses results to investigate how the rhythmic contexts shape my understating of the interconnectedness among the structural pitches defined by their metrical hierarchy. Though scoring for a solo instrument, my findings reveal an implicit contrapuntal texture woven by two distinct voices separated not just by different registers but also by diverse metrical frameworks.

This study also confronts two additional crucial aspects—the composer’s intensions behind her metrical notation and the performer’s metrical entrainment. I showed my analysis to the composer and the premier performer, receiving distinct feedback from each. The composer contests my analysis, emphasizing rhythmic dynamism based on her commitment to the notated time signatures. Conversely, the performer’s counting resonates closely with my analysis, highlighting how the motivic sequences and progressions are articulated by various phenomenal accents. The interplay of metrical contrasts in Wang’s piece provides deep insights into the complex relationships between intention and artistry in music, as interpreted by the listener-analyst, performer, and composer.

Within the growing field of electroacoustic music analysis, the predominant focus is on sound-based music in which sound, as opposed to pitch, represents the basic element of musical expression (Landy 2007). Consequently, the investigations of live electroacoustic music and some of the “traditional” analytical preoccupations that the pitch-based musical repertoire implies, have been largely overlooked (Emmerson and Landy 2016). This paper contributes to the analytical comprehension of that underrepresented repertoire. Building on two “note-views” in electroacoustic music—the one that ignores and the other that acknowledges spectral components of a pitch (Smalley 1997)—I propose hearing the pitch and noise in an interchangeable continuum. As a case study of my approach, I discuss select works by Jasna Veličković, a composer known for her distinctive way of integrating the sound of the electromagnetic field into the compositional process and performance.

Relating to the practice of the American experimentalists and a “do-it-yourself” (DIY) paradigm in electroacoustic music, Veličković precomposes the electromagnetic sound by reappropriating obsolete discarded objects—power adapters, plasma lamps, and remote controllers—which she recycles into musical instruments triggered by induction coils or interacting in a mutual dialogue. The performer is required to play both with and against the resulting interference and make compositional decisions in real time. Introducing traditional instruments in the described process brings an additional level of complexity, as I will illustrate in my analysis of Veličković's two recent compositions—Underneath (2020) and Adapting (2021).

The two works are conceived as a perceptually provoking interplay between the composed possibilities for electromagnetic sound and the sound composed in the traditional sense. However, the sound result of the performers’ gestures only partly and in varying degrees fulfills the listener’s expectations––familiar pitches may emerge from the unfamiliar performer’s gestures, just as unfamiliar noise may arise from the familiar ones. Expanding on the model of the behavioral relationships between the gesture-bearing performer and the surrounding acousmatic context (Smalley 1997), I will show how in Underneath the mutual approximation and distancing of noise and pitch develop into a dramatic sound self-reflection, while in Adapting, the result is a delicate harmony of oppositions.

Inspired by Philip A. Ewell’s (2021) “Music Theory and the White Racial Frame,” we wanted to make a contribution to music theory that would hold space for the voices of minoritized scholars to be heard in music theory classrooms. Modeling Musical Analysis (forthcoming, OUP), edited by Kimberly Goddard Loeffert and John Peterson, is the result: a collection of essays written by minoritized scholars who model analytical essay writing that is both approachable for and attainable by undergraduate students. The premise of the collection draws on the work of multicultural children’s literature scholars Emily Style (1988) and Rudine Sims Bishop (1990). It creates mirrors and windows for students of music theory: they should see themselves reflected in the material and authorship as well as experience the opportunity to have new perspectives illuminated. This special poster session brings together 15 (of 28) authors from Modeling Musical Analysis. Each author’s poster displays a summary of their contribution to the book as well as suggestions for ways in which their chapter can be used in the classroom, a feature that is unique to this session and which is not included in the published volume. Each author has also prepared a 10-minute overview of their poster to informally deliver to session attendees as they view the posters. The editors' poster provides an overview of the book’s contents and genesis, its goals, and its relevance to the field. Our hope is that session attendees will leave knowing how they might share this new work of minoritized scholars in their classrooms, which may contribute to diversification of the field as more minoritized students see their identities reflected in the scholars whose work they learn.

Research on Peking opera (Pian 1975, Rao 2007, Wang 2022) has focused on the historical background, Chinese aesthetics, and music and philosophy. A few scholars have compared the structure of Peking opera with western musical form theory, while analyzing the melodies of Peking Opera according to the Chinese modal system. This presentation also compares Chinese folk music with western music theory but will focus on exploring new ways of understanding form and development through analyzing Chinese folk song. Also, I will discuss how the compositional techniques express the meaning of the lyrics in the context of the Chinese modal system.

I will use Lao-Sheng Er-Huang Yuan-Ban as an example and focus on its version of “period” structure in musical form and its musical development compared with Western music. Also, I will consider the ways that the lyrics motivate the melodic development, because of the pitched nature of Chinese pronunciation and the lyric structure. For musical form, there are two significant differences between western and Chinese musical context; first, in Western music, the restatement or varied repetition mostly refers to the consistency of melodic outline, rhythm and harmony, while in Peking Opera, restatement mainly refers to the consistency of the basic tune, central tone and sub-phrase structure. Second, the sequence of Chinese modes sometimes hints at what lyrics cannot express, through uncertain or hesitant changes in gong systems, based on a difference of one note. In addition, I find that whether the usual Chinese speaking tone is consistent with the melodic outline can help to reflect the inner emotions of the protagonists: if the melody diverges from the usual speaking tone, it represents complex and deep emotions. The rhyme of lyrics reflect musical form as well.

Peking Opera is typical Chinese folk music and it’s important to analyze it from the perspective of the Chinese modal system, as well as understanding its points of contact with Western formal theory. This will help us explore more possible varieties of musical language and their points of contact.

This study focuses on the modernist techniques used by Chinese American composers (Chen Yi, Bright Sheng, Tan Dun, and Zhou Long). It offers a reading of their use of post-tonal gestures as stylized portrayals of folk musical practices from the East.

With Western musical discourse well studied and appreciated by the middle-to-upper-class Chinese in the twentieth century, modern Chinese musical expressions and composition techniques have assimilated Western idioms. One example is using harmonic seconds and tritones to depict “ethnic colors” (Zeng and Tong 1982) in regional folk music; Chen Yi has also discussed interval class 1 as a signature sound in fiddling practice. The persistence of nearly-perfect intervals found in all composers in their Chinese-suggesting pieces could be traced to such a stylized effort in representing Chinese folk cultures and creating a modernist soundscape.

The four composers also use modernist approaches to “undo” state nationalist intervention in folk music from written sources. This allows them to create a less refined soundscape from the imagined “root” of Chinese culture. Anthologized folk songs published by the Chinese government tend to be metrically regularized and temper the regional flavors with simple, diatonic melodies. To recreate the indigenous flavor, Sheng, for example, distorts the notated rhythm through additive means and introduces embellishing notes to the transcribed melody, often using half steps or large leaps. Newly composed, atonal fragmented gestures used in tandem with folk song quotations also unite the composer’s ethnic sentiments with the nationalist culture. With the amateur music makers in rural communities being embraced as successors of Chinese ethnic cultures, the pitch and rhythm complexity and unpredictability may also be interpreted as imitating the folk practice's imprecise and spontaneous music-making processes.

Therefore, post-tonal gestures and compositional processes are as powerful as the direct quotation of Chinese folk music elements expressing composers’ ethnic heritage deemed lost to modernity. Using such strategies, Chinese American composers depict an imperfect, amateur, rural Chinese image that is perpetuated with its foreignness while being able to be blended into the modern, Western musical space.

The 1937 manifesto Kokutai no Hongi dictated the modern national mission: “to build up a new Japanese culture by adopting and sublimating Western cultures with our national entity as the basis, and to contribute spontaneously to the advancement of world culture” (Hall, ed. 1949, 183). Encapsulating the paradoxical joint projects of Japanism and Westernization, the text critiques “abstract thought” as the peril of “Western liberalism” and extols instead, “concrete creation” as a Japanese artistic practice—a distinction also found in musical discourse, which claimed composition in the realm of “creation” [創造/sōzō] rather than the homonymic “imagination” [想像/sōzō]. Curious, then, that a significant fraction of contemporary compositions were fantasy pieces, and that fantasy was theorized as one of three compositional types alongside the sonata and variation. Fantasy, to be clear, indexes a European art music category purporting a freedom of expression and fancifulness of thought that seems antithetical to the warring nation’s increasing regulations over the imagination and its expressions. How, then, did musical fantasy serve the national polity? How was musical fantasy conceived as a musical form in this adoptive phase of Western style composition as a “Japanese” art?

In this paper, I analyze Sōkichi Ozaki’s Phantasie und Fuge (1936) and the theories on fantasy penned by his teacher Saburō Moroi. Examined relative to the Kokutai and Alan Tansman’s theory of “the rhetoric of unspoken fascism,” I argue that musical fantasy upholds an imperial philosophy that similarly distingishes abstract from concrete form. As I demonstrate, Ozaki signals a formal topography using trite tonal conventions, deploying what he calls a “model form.” Form here functions as a fungible organizational and rhetorical device rather than an abstracted order of events, just as the Kokutai emphasizes “formal qualities” like repetition over “such matters as premises, transitions, or conclusions” (Tansman 2009, 152). Noting Moroi’s claim that the “fantasy type” lacks formal expectations, I conclude that musical fantasy becomes justified as concrete creation by appropriating, or sublimating, Germanic Formenlehre. Joining the conversation on German-Japanese musical relations and an anticolonial re-disciplining of comparative music theory, I show how sociocultural values and politics of fantasy inform compositional practice.

Of the many innovations that characterized mid-century modernist composition, arguably the most radical break from tradition came in the form of a panoply of new music notations. Seen early on in works from both American and European schools, these new techniques were used not only to encode ``extended'' instrumental gestures, but crucially to bring about new modes of indeterminate, improvisatory, or otherwise ``open'' play.

Owing to the many contexts in which it has historically been deployed, notation even in its most traditional form has resisted attempts to holistically theorize its use and function. Therefore, these ``neo-notations'' only complicated matters, raising new (and lending urgency to old) questions as to notation's role in literate music-making.

Having encountered these problems firsthand, several prominent composer-scholars leapt at the chance to take on these thorny new problems. Of particular note are two works penned at the height of the furore: Karlheinz Stockhausen's lecture series „Musik und Graphik: Kommentare zu neuen Partituren“ and György Ligeti's paper „Neue Notation -- Kommunikationsmittel oder Selbstweck?,“ both presented at Darmstadt in 1959 and 1965, respectively, which offer fascinatingly distinct takes on notation's changing form and function. However, while the former received welcome exegesis in a 2012 paper by David Gutkin, Ligeti's essay has gone woefully un-cited considering its incisiveness and continuing relevance, 60-plus years on, to now-common techniques among contemporary composers worldwide.

This paper draws particular attention to Ligeti's heretofore unacknowledged scholarship in order to critically contrast two composers' efforts to make sense of these new ``graphic'' notations---disentangling acts of composition from their accessory visual codes. To this end, the paper appraises the typological structures (implicit or explicit) through which each composer conceives of music's inscription, as well as the extent to which, for each, the graphic may be meaningfully emancipated from the acoustic.

Here, I argue that Ligeti's analysis significantly refines Stockhausen's, presenting a structure which obtains across both historical and contemporary music inscription. Further, I argue that once adequately formalized, Ligeti's well-articulated graphic/notation and connotative/denotative distinctions have the potential to serve as the foundation for a robust, holistic ``theory of notation(s)'' more generally.

Carlos Chávez’s music inhabits a complex relationship with modernism, which analysts have tried to capture using present-day tools such as pitch-class set theory (Bauer 2015; Burns 2016, 2023). In adopting these tools, however, analysts have overlooked Chávez’s own theories, which explain his modernism more fully. My paper combines current with historical theories to examine the first movement of Chávez’s Toccata for six percussionists, commissioned in 1940 by John Cage. By excavating Chávez’s theories of motive and of form, I re-evaluate the terms for analyzing marginalized modernist works.

Chávez’s theory of motive emerges from his 1937 book, Toward a New Music, where he argues that Mexico’s pre-Cortesian music was conditioned by its instruments, which in turn participated in a historical teleology toward instruments of the modern "West." Chávez applies this argument in his Toccata movement as he constructs two motives. Both motives produce complexity through a dialogue between an “Indian drum” and several “modern” instruments, first as they complicate the movement’s triple meter, and then as they hocket.

Chávez’s modernism is further illuminated by his sonata theory, detailed in his 1973 analysis of Beethoven’s “Waldstein” Sonata, mvt. i. Chávez’s analysis aligns with several aspects of current sonata theory, such as Caplin's. Yet instead of examining the cadences in Beethoven’s themes, Chávez examines five motives, whose permutations he tracks across the movement. Chávez mobilizes this same emphasis on motive in his Toccata, as he constructs, without harmonic signposts, a modernistic sonata form.

When Chávez finished his Toccata in 1943 and sent it to Cage, Cage replied that he could not “afford” to perform the work, “either financially or aesthetically.” Financially, the Toccata demanded expensive musicians capable of performing rolls, which Cage’s ensemble could not; and aesthetically, it grated against Cage’s modernism, then opposed to both conventional symphonic instruments and sonata form. In a 1974 interview in Mexico, Cage remembered his rejection of Chávez’s Toccata as one of his greatest social embarrassments. My analysis attempts to repair Cage's embarrassment: it attempts to restore Chávez’s popular Toccata to legibility within modernism, by attending closely to the theories Chávez himself expressed.

The collapse of the Soviet Union shattered utopian ideals. Not only did state communism dissolve, but also mourning for its victims was permanently forestalled. The populace remained haunted, decades after the fact, by Joseph Stalin’s Terror, in which millions of citizens were unaccountably “disappeared.” Late-Soviet society never acknowledged the loss or addressed the trauma.

Drawing on Jacques Derrida’s “hauntology,” the study of ghosts as present absences that exert control over the present, cultural historian Alexander Etkind writes of post-Soviet society, “The living and the undead develop an uneasy friendship that needs to be noticed, articulated, and recognized.” Closure is impossible without a proper burial; memories of the missing are a constant preoccupation.

The music of Sofia Gubaidulina (b. 1931) reflects a hauntological attitude in the post-Soviet context. Building on interdisciplinary research in spectrality studies, I characterize hauntology in music through defamiliarized timbres, distorted quotations, and disrupted temporality. I interpret Gubaidulina’s “shadow tuning,” wherein two groups are tuned a quarter-tone apart, as dramatizing an unshakeable desire for mourning.

Gubaidulina emigrated to Germany in 1992, immediately after the fall of the USSR. She developed shadow tuning in her earliest post-Soviet works: String Quartet No. 4 (1993), Music for Flute, Strings, and Percussion (1994), and Quaternion for four cellos (1996). The shadow metaphor is suggestive. Shadows follow a person wherever they go in an “uneasy friendship.” They cannot be exorcised; they must be lived with.

Hauntology provides a hermeneutic lens for analyzing shadow tuning as actualizing a lingering Soviet spectrality. As shown through musical analysis, shadow tuning affords distorted echoes, irreconciliable sound worlds, and liminal positioning. Gubaidulina’s music of the 1990s notices, articulates, and recognizes the ghostly presence that pervades post-Soviet spaces. Shadow tuning consecrates a site of ongoing mourning for losses that will never be restituted.

12:30pm Business meeting

Lightning Talks and Presentations

12:45pm Metrics on Chord Spaces Modulo Cardinality - James R. Hughes (Elizabethtown College)

1:00pm DOUTH2 - Nathan John Martin (University of Michigan)

1:15pm N-Dimensional Ski-hill Graphs - Kája Lill (University of St. Thomas-Houston)

1:30pm Families of set classes arising from a cellular automaton in mod-12 and other modular spaces - Evan Jones (Florida State University)

The prechorus section in pop-rock music has received significant analytical attention in recent years. It is now well established that this formal unit, regularly appearing in songs released since the mid-1960s, serves as a structural and expressive link from a song’s verse to its chorus. Despite the many elegant efforts to classify different types of prechorus in various genres, there remains little research into how the prechorus typically functions in R&B.

This paper will demonstrate that a typical section that appears between the verses and choruses in R&B songs at least during the early 1990s "New Jack Swing" era has a markedly different function from the corresponding section in pop-rock music. Tellingly, among R&B practitioners, this section is often referred to not as the “prechorus,” but as the “bridge.” I will argue that the use of the term “bridge” for this section within R&B practice is not only a terminological difference derived by chance by speakers in different musical communities; rather, the term “bridge” is wholly appropriate given the section’s typical formal function: to provide contrast from the surrounding formal units.

In the music of some artists (Boyz II Men, Shai, and latter-day emulators like Bruno Mars, etc.), this section typically features a contrasting harmonic progression (usually more chromatic than other sections) and the most emphatic vocal melody; for others (including Bel Biv DeVoe and TLC), contrast is provided through a change in textural density (adding or removing an instrumental layer) or vocal timbre—especially a shift between singing and rapping.

An OP is the standard term for the opening song/credits of an anime series. They are accompanied with animation, highlighting the anime’s main characters, hinting at plot arcs, featuring the names of the studio staff, and showing the overall themes and tone of the show. Since OPs are typically under two-minutes in length, it can be difficult to create a tight musical-visual narrative between the song and animation, all while fulfilling the other essential elements of an introduction. As such, many OPs do not tell a complete story at all. However, there are some OPs that do, built on an intricate counterpoint between the musical and visual elements.

My paper explores this idea, using the opening to KonoSuba (S1) as an exemplar. The OP to KonoSuba not only features a clear musical-visual story, but the song’s prechorus temporarily switches meter to 3/4, creating a marked shift in both the music and visuals of the OP. As I shall argue, the musical and visual interactions in the OP to KonoSuba not only demonstrate one such way of storytelling in anime OPs, but also offer a unique perspective on structuring film introductions more broadly.

Rarely do pop stars call explicit attention to their songs’ formal design. Taylor Swift, though, often announces which song in a concert is the first with a bridge, and critics and her fans have responded to this emphasis by creating numerous websites evaluating and ranking her songs’ bridges. The choruses, too, of her songs merit analytical attention. This paper examines two recent Swift songs, “the lakes” (2020) and “You’re on your Own, Kid” (2022), each of which has been released in two versions that differ in their approaches to the chorus section. I illustrate how the alternate versions of the two songs follow the conventions of verse, prechorus, and chorus sections. I then turn to the album version of each song to demonstrate how changes in production have altered its formal implications by adding to the chorus a prechorus-like sense of intensification and drive towards a climax. Attending to how Swift signals and subverts formal organization in her choruses also offers new insight into how the songs’ formal design adds depth to the meaning of their lyrics.

With respect to its lyrics, “the lakes” is formally conventional. The so-called “original version” of the song strongly projects its verse-chorus structure by thunderously emphasizing the chorus. By contrast, in the album version the chorus maintains a texture similar to that of the verse but gradually intensifies, recasting the entire section as a prechorus. Instead, the music deflates, returning to the verse and leaving listeners with a sense of denied potential that reinforces the lyrics’ elegiac tone. The lyrics of “You’re on your Own, Kid” suggest two verse-chorus units and an extended chorus. That concluding chorus, though, is greatly extended: as it loops, it intensifying character gradually overwrites its sense of being a chorus with that of being a prechorus, before finally syncing up with the ending of the previous choruses. The formal outlines of the chorus section have been preserved, but a new mid-chorus “prechorus” has been inserted within. Swift’s solo performance of the song, by contrast, attenuates the sense of prechorus intensification, and the audience’s singing subverts the song’s message.

Vincent d’Indy, co-founder of the Schola Cantorum and author of the influential Cours de composition musicale (1902–50), was one of the most prominent composers and music-theoretical thinkers in fin-de-siècle France. Studies of d’Indy’s music (Huebner 2004; Deruchie 2013; Saint Arroman 2019; Rovenko 2020) reference his theories but do not engage with his foundational idea of “order relationships.” In this paper, I introduce and extend d’Indy’s theory, developing order-space technologies to analyze non-functional harmonic progressions in “Harmonie” from Poème des montagnes, op. 15 (1881) and “Mirage,” op. 56 (1903). My paper reveals the importance of order-based thinking to both d’Indy’s music-theoretical method and his compositional approach. Beyond connecting d’Indy’s ideas to his music, this research broadens our understanding of interactions between music theory and compositional practice in fin-de-siècle France. It also encourages us to step outside the established paths of twentieth-century French music studies, to look beyond canonic figures, and to embrace new analytical methodologies.

If harmonies are indeed reflexes from the unconscious, as posited by Ernst Kurth, a compelling question emerges: How do music theories, products of our conscious intellect, interact with and interpret the expressive, often subconscious sonic experience of listening to music? While Kurth's theories are frequently discussed, mainly for their contributions to music theory, psychology, and philosophy, their practical use in music analysis remains less explored. Notable scholars like Patrick McCreless, Lee Rothfarb (1988, 1991), and Daphne Tan (2013) have provided pivotal translations and interpretations of Kurth’s seminal works. However, Kurth's writings, while original and perceptive, do not offer a definitive system for practical analysis. Building on these insights, this project articulates a structured analytical framework inspired by Kurth. This framework incorporates his concepts into a practical system balancing musical sensitivity and systematic rigor.

In Kurth’s theories, music is categorized into “inner” and “outer” content. Outer content is defined by tangible, quantifiable elements such as counterpoint, rhythm, and harmonic function. In contrast, inner content delves into musical energetics and subjective experiences, with harmony often portrayed through coloring techniques like shading and brightening. My methodology employs an illustrative system to effectively highlight these aspects in tandem. To demonstrate the practical application of this approach, I conduct a case study of Chopin's Op. 10 No. 6 and Op. 28 No. 9. By employing a Kurthian-inspired analysis and comparing it with Schenkerian interpretations, I aim to deepen our understanding of Chopin's musical landscape and showcase how a Kurthian approach explores emotional and sensory musical dimensions.

Despite their foundational importance, the psychoacoustic underpinnings of Cohn’s neo-Riemannian approaches to hyper-chromatic tonal music—by composers such as Richard Strauss, Alma Mahler-Werfel, and Florence Price—remain underexamined. For instance, Cohn writes: “tonal listeners process intervals…by accommodating their components to a single diatonic collection,” which “dictates that a semitone is heard as a change of degree (minor second), while…nine semitones express a major sixth rather than a diminished seventh” (2004; also Agmon 1986, Temperley 2001). Juxtaposing hexatonic-polar triads C+ and E+ thus creates a psychoacoustic paradox: the vertical ic3 between pc11 and pc8 implores a diatonic interpretation (major sixth, B/G#), while the linear motions C-B/G-Ab invoke a chromatic one (diminished seventh, B/Ab).

Hutchinson (2020/2022) explores functional connotations in similar relationships. Initially perceived as consonant, the ic3 between pc11 and pc8 behaves as a diminished seventh upon resolving to C/G, the intervallic progression retroactively signaling a scale-step context of 7/b6 resolving to 1/5. Perceived consonance becomes reconceived dissonance, an acoustic transfiguration which anchors the progression in tonal-functional linear processes.

Between these perspectives exists a compelling dialogue. Cohn’s approach foregrounds phenomenological experience (Lochhead 1980; Lewin 1986), problematizing diatonicism’s inability to correlate conflicting acoustic signals by preserving diatonic coherence at intra-chordal levels. Hutchinson (2023), conversely, suggests that function in highly chromatic music is perceptible only outside phenomenological time, sacrificing intra-chordal vertical diatonicism for inter-chordal linear coherence. While seemingly incompatible, both perspectives describe different temporal event-points in processes of listening to, and correlating, successions of harmonic relationships: phenomenological and retrospective. In such dialogues, “the ear is constantly constructing new contexts and revising old ones” (Lewin 2015).

Extending this dialogue, I argue that hyper-chromatic tonal syntaxes create situations wherein psychoacoustic signals processed in phenomenological time diverge from perceptions elicited by the same tones in retrospect, thereby creating a plurality of functional potentialities that prompt retrospective re-partitioning. Intra-chordal intervallic relationships initially perceived diatonically are sublimated into chromatic relationships to preserve inter-chordal linear-functional coherence. This hyper-chromatic tonality thus embodies characteristics of “processual” (Schmalfeldt 2011) behavior. Beyond merely exemplifying Weberian Mehrdeutigkeit (Saslaw 1990-1991), complex chromatic relationships invite exploration into re-conceiving perceived pitch relationships within the quintessential tonal vernacular.

In tap dancer Sam Weber’s signature routine, “Bach,” set to the final Presto movement of J.S. Bach’s “Italian” Concerto BWV 971, the choreography closely corresponds with the features of Bach’s composition, particularly concerning its ritornello form. Weber’s rhythms and steps amplify the function of the form’s various sections by drawing attention toward significant structural events and downplaying moments holding less structural import. Notably, he choreographically communicates his reading of formally ambiguous moments, providing clarificatory information that can guide the audience’s interpretation. I read Weber’s choreography as an act of translation, converting Bach’s musical details into analogous tapped versions.

Weber’s performance is thus an analysis, in the sense described by Olivia Lucas (2021) in her exploration of metal concert light shows: his performance transcribes Bach’s music into a “three-dimensional visual score” that provides an “interpretative layer” and “goes beyond coordination with musical events to communication of abstract ideas about the music” such as “musical gesture or rhythmic grouping” through cross-modal metaphor. However, an analysis is not an endpoint and itself requires a reader’s interpretation. As such, this paper not only interprets Weber’s tapped analysis of Bach but also performs a meta-analysis of this analysis of Weber.

I argue that examining how Weber exaggerates the formal functions of Bach’s composition in movement and sound implicitly uncovers how tap generates formal functions—a burgeoning but under-theorized topic in music theory research (Langille 2020; Leaman 2021; Gain 2022, 2023; Bilidas 2024). I posit that we can understand devices in Weber’s tap choreography through the baroque functions they translate, thus capitalizing on our comparatively more thorough understanding of ritornello form and common-practice musical functions (Fischer 1915; Dreyfus 1996; Caplin 2001). Accordingly, this meta-analytical approach reveals how tap choreography articulates formal boundaries, builds and releases tension, shapes and delimits phrases, manipulates motifs, and differentiates characteristic and conventional material.

In J.S. Bach’s concerto allegro movements, the material of the opening ritornello is restated in new combinations and is interspersed with new material. Using Bach’s Concerto BWV 1061/I as an exemplar, I examine ritornello form through the interaction between ritornello material and period organization. I break down each of the movement’s periods (i.e., relatively large, formal-cadence-delineated sections) into three phrase functions—initiating, medial, and concluding—that are primarily associated with prolongational, sequential and cadential harmonic progressions respectively. I show that this tripartite period model is sufficiently flexible for each phrase function to incorporate a harmonic progression type different from that with which it is primarily associated. This property allows ritornello material to recur in a phrase function different from that in which it originates. As I argue, a tripartite period model can justify the specific ordering and placement of later occurrences of ritornello material, an issue not adequately addressed by other analytical approaches to Bach’s ritornello form.

Despite J.S. Bach’s preeminence, a central subset of his oeuvre—the cantatas—remain little-studied among Anglo-American music theorists, while much German language scholarship has historically been dominated by conservative Lutheran interpretations (Lloyd 2007). As a step towards addressing this lacuna, the present study offers a narrative analysis of a particularly unusual aria from the cantata, Widerstehe doch der Sünde, BWV 54 (c. 1711-1715). The text of the eponymous opening aria, written by Georg Christian Lehm, instructs listeners to resist sin and temptation. The aria is harmonically and formally exceptional even amongst the Weimar cantatas (Crist 1988)—a fact frequently acknowledged but rarely explored in detail in the existing critical surveys of Bach’s cantata corpus which, for reasons of methodology or space, focus almost exclusively on text-painting and large-scale form (for instance Dürr 2006, Geck 2000, Petzolt 2004, but see Chafe 1991 and 2000). Yet scholars’ often contradictory assertions of madrigalisms are insufficiently flexible to account for either the aria’s formal processes or the spirit of the work, which emphasizes activity, struggle, and resistance (Widerstand). Drawing on Dreyfus’s (1997) metaphor of the ritornello as a machine and Monahan’s (2013) hierarchy of narrative agents, I explore the first two movements of the cantata to show how the instruments resist formal, harmonic, and stylistic convention as the solo alto instructs us to resist the temptation of sin.

In this 90-minute alternate-format session, Jonathan De Souza, Johanna Frymoyer, and Robert Hatten introduce three new theoretical perspectives on musical texture, as demonstrated through wide-ranging examples from Western art music (Baroque through modernism) and popular music (big band jazz, dance-pop). Comprised of three lightning talks and an interactive listening exercise, our session highlights three shared principles:

(1) Texture is temporal. We explore how texture occurs in musical time, occupying not only the vertical but also the horizontal domain (Frymoyer 2012; De Souza 2015; Hatten 2018). In the vertical, simultaneous domain, texture involves categories that guide the organization of co-occurring, and sometimes competing, parametric information or “streams.” In the horizontal, successive domain, texture encompasses dynamic processes characterized by stability and instability, contrast, and transformation (“textural developing variation”).

(2) Texture is emergent, interlaced with—yet also irreducible to—musical parameters such as pitch, rhythm, timbre, and dynamics (De Souza 2015). It elucidates shifting relationships among such parameters, especially as performers and listeners shuttle attention between streams of information. Attending to texture involves principles of auditory perceptual organization, yet it is also grounded in cognition and shaped by contingencies of stylistic, historical, generic and other kinds of musical knowledge. Categorization and typicality effects guide textural partitioning, allowing performers and listeners to assess the novelty or conventionality of sonic information curated by composers (Hatten 1994; Frymoyer 2012).

(3) Texture is relational. It is defined by relations among musical parts, which index relations among co-performers (De Souza 2018). More generally, texture can metaphorically represent social relationships, in which individuals assert their differences or come together as a collective. Moreover, composers, performers, and listeners can relate to texture in distinctive ways. All of this has implications for texture’s crucial role in musical expression (Hatten 2018).

Briefly, the session is divided into two parts. First, a 5-minute introduction followed by three 10-minute presentations (Frymoyer, Hatten, De Souza) demonstrating our individual approaches, followed by Q & A (45 minutes). Second, an audience-interactive, guided exploration of textural processes in a theme from Brahms’s First Symphony followed by the three presenters’ integrative assessment and a summative Q & A (45 minutes).

This session examines the current state of our discipline, five years after the plenary session at the 2019 Annual Meeting of the Society for Music Theory. At that session, Yayoi Uno Everett, Philip Ewell, Ellie M. Hisama, and Joseph N. Straus presented papers that called for us to re-examine our field by reconsidering its biases and methodological approaches. A few months later, three founding members of Project Spectrum (Clifton Boyd, Catrina Kim, and Lissa Reed) co-delivered the keynote of the 2020 MTSNYS conference, entitled: “After ‘Reframing Music Theory’: Doing the Work.”

Our session revisits this important work, and centers on the following questions: What substantive changes have happened since 2019? What changes still need to be made? What (new) issues have surfaced and what is being done to address them? How can we work together effectively to make music theory more equitable and diverse?

Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho (1952-2023) was one of the world’s most celebrated contemporary opera composers. Now, nearly a year since her passing, we propose a panel that expands on the notion of theatricality in her music by considering also her multimedia and instrumental works. The narrative we trace begins in the early Study for Life of 1980 and continues through her two string quartets and violin concerto to embrace the restaged version of Study for Life in 2021.The first presenter analyzes Kaija Saariaho’s violin concerto, Graal théâtre (1994) through a theoretical lens that engages music’s temporal nature as a form of theatricality. Viewing Graal théâtre through a theatrical lens links the internal temporality of the work with external signifiers, reflecting the multiplicities of modernism as well as its dialectical and self-reflexive character.

The second presenter draws on archival materials and personal interviews to show the significance of Saariaho's first stage work, Study for Life (1980), to her developing compositional practice. The paper explores how soprano, tape, and light are coordinated to critically engage with Eliot's modernist ideology and suggests that, by challenging the human-machine distinction, ultimately aligns with Donna Haraway's cyborg politics. The paper concludes by discussing the 2021 reconstruction's connection to the original work, drawing attention to some of Saariaho's enduring aesthetic priorities.

The third presenter considers the musical figures and gestures that create a hidden theatricality in Saariaho’s her two string quartets: Nymphéa (1987) and Terra Memoria (2007). Beginning with a geometrical view of the works’ harmonies, the author shows how certain geometric figures derive from chordal analysis. Geometric figures represented graphically by cylinders describe the harmonic chain of each piece within a total musical space. These figures are presented as characters of an inner theatre; the reaction between the chords leads to dramatic tension that is developed on a stage similar to by characters in an opera.

This panel discussion approaches the notion of the theatrical in ways that are yet unconsidered in Saariaho scholarship to show that “alternative theatricalities” permeate Saariaho’s broader oeuvre, revealing a lifelong concern for how her music engages with listeners.

Consider the following list of familiar experiences: the feeling of being complete, there, out of control, isolated, connected to the world, at one with life. These experiences comprise a distinct phenomenological category that philosopher Matthew Ratcliffe (2005, 2008) describes as “existential feelings.” For Ratcliffe, existential feelings are not emotions, nor are they the autonomous, asignifying “intensities” that some theorists (e.g., Massumi 1995) understand as affects, and yet they come to form a distinct category of experiences that describe familiar ways of “finding oneself in the world.”

This paper explores the relationship between existential feelings and musical experience. While research on musical emotion has undoubtedly been productive for addressing the complexities of how music expresses and arouses emotion, I argue that its overall emphasis on so-called “basic emotions” (Ekman 1972; Tomkins 2008) overlooks other less immediate and consciously recognizable forms of musical experience. By contrast, affect theory’s corporeal-materialist emphasis on autonomous “intensities” that lie outside the scope of signification and meaning undermines music-theoretical approaches seeking to account for cultural specificity (Garcia 2020).

Addressing these issues, my talk navigates the space between emotion and affect to explore the nature of a specific existential feeling in musical experience—namely, a heightened sense of what Heidegger (1962) called “mood,” an immersive and intersubjective sense of “being-in-the-world.” After describing its experiential characteristics, I employ Arnie Cox’s (2011, 2016) mimetic hypothesis and Mariusz Kozak’s (2020, 2021) notion of kinesthetic knowledge to propose an explanation for how music might afford such an experience; I explain here that culturally specific enactments of kinesthetic knowledge (e.g., headbanging in metal) place the body of the listener in dialogue with the broader socio-cultural milieu implied by the musical text, so as to blur the boundary between self and other. To illustrate this claim, I conclude with a case study that examines kinesthetic styles of movement and feeling inscribed within the Arab milieu of “ṭarab culture” (Danielson 1997; Racy 2003).

Via the concept of topic, music theorists have illustrated that supposedly autonomous, abstract music in fact carries extroversive significance through its use of conventionalized musical gestures. They have rarely, however, conducted detailed analyses of genres such as dance and church music, which were written in order to perform a concrete functional role; indeed, Monelle (2000) and Mirka (2014) theorize topic such that functional genres may furnish topics to be used elsewhere, but do not themselves signify through topics. Conceiving of topic in this way thus paradoxically reinscribes the binary of functional and contemplative music and with it the aesthetic hierarchies of the canon, with contemplative genres on top. Examining functional genres in terms of topic not only corrects this imbalance, but just as importantly allows us to refine our conceptualization of topic itself and to explore further the ways in which it interacts with structural parameters—an interaction Agawu (1991) calls “play.”

I argue that Joseph Haydn’s Nelsonmesse (a work designed not to stand on its own but to complement the Catholic liturgy) demonstrates that Ratner’s (1980) characterization of imitative, contrapuntal writing as “learned style” is misleading—but that this shortcoming can be remedied by another of Ratner’s ideas: the distinction between type and style. I reframe the topic more broadly as one of “Learnedness,” which can manifest not just as a style but also as a type. Ratner applied the label type only to dances and marches, not to learned genres; the concept of the topical type, moreover, has largely been disregarded in topical scholarship since Ratner. I develop Ratner’s concept, provisionally defining types as invocations of a topic that carry not just semantic but also formal associations. Those formal associations, however, in turn allow types to have extroversive signification different from that of styles, for they interact with such parameters as structure, listener expectation, and other topics in ways different from that of topical styles, precisely because of their formal commitments. The concept of the topical type, therefore, allows us to examine another dimension of play between extroversive and introversive signification.

Much Italian music composed during the Fascist and post-WWII era has a political angle, whether it uses openly politically engaged texts or makes a more abstract aesthetic statement aligned with a particular political outlook. While studies focusing on music and politics in the works of the most outspoken politically committed Italian composers such as Dallapiccola and Nono abound, this paper presents a unified procedure to tease out the multiple layers of political meaning in contemporary Italian music from this period at large. The proposed analytical strategy, which has not been applied to this repertoire before, builds on Manabe (2015, forthcoming) and Turino (2008), and unfolds in two steps. First, I analyze the music through the lens of the second trichotomy of Peircean semiotics (Peirce 1955). That is, I identify the music’s icons (musical features that “resemble” things from the outside world or human experience), indices (musical features associated with particular extra-musical conditions because both are experienced together in real life), and symbols (musical features whose meaning is more abstractly linguistically defined). And second, I determine the political attribute(s) of each icon, index, and symbol, as applicable, to compare and distinguish how the compositions carry political messages. My examples are from works associated with pre-WWII fascist and post-WWII anti-fascist ideologies.

Elsa Olivieri Sangiacomo’s music aligns itself, through its emphatically neo-romantic style, with the fascist aesthetics laid out in the 1932 “Manifesto of Italian Musicians for the [Continuing] Tradition of Nineteenth-Century Romantic Art.” I illuminate the symbolism of her style in “Cantare Campagnolo” (1939) on her own poetry.

Postwar communist Giacomo Manzoni’s 1956 setting of William Waring Cuney’s “Grave” portraying inner-city African Americans uses immediately comprehensible politically charged icons (e.g., “weeping” gestures) and indices (e.g., “fear”-invoking polyrhythms as subtext to the poem). The political meaning is defined by the text, but also resides in the work’s serialism, which in postwar Italy was an unambiguous symbol of anti-fascism (Samuel 2020).

Bruno Maderna’s Four Letters (1953), I, combines politically charged icons and indices with an unequivocally anti-fascist symbolism: the entire rhythmic and pitch structure is serially derived from a Partisan song melody (Verzina 2003).

Genres in popular music, particularly post-2000s popular music, are constellations of components that may or may not be active on any given track. As constellations, they can easily be represented visually by webs of interconnected components known as Genre Experience Maps (GEMs). GEMs allow the analyst to convey not only what they feel are the fundamental components that make up a given track, but also how these components are related to and/or support one another. Component nodes can be color-coded to highlight a variety of relationships ranging from extramural to simply conveying which category the component hails from.

The punk and emo genres are two that are intertwined and which serve as fertile ground for exploring the overlap of component constellations because of their Bloomian relationship. Even though emo can be viewed in this light, as reacting to its punk parent predecessor and trying to carve out its own musical space, it has its own musical features that distinguish it from punk. This paper focuses on the two genres, showing how the constellations of the two are intertwined despite their individualities and opposite component presentation.

To facilitate this type of examination, I created Meta-Categorical Frameworks (MCFs) and Genre Experience Maps (GEMs) that approaches the music from the listener’s perspective. These are based on previous work by Thomas Johnson on tonality as topic in post-tonal music. The main purpose of the tool is to allow the listener to track not only what components they hear as propagating the genre of the song, but also allow them to visually depict musical associations they uncover as associational lines connecting nodes and/or color-coding the component nodes themselves.

A corpus study of 50 songs is employed to support the claims of the MCFs and GEMs for punk and emo. Once this foundation is established, a brief examination of AFI’s “Torch Song,” and “Sacrilege” from their 2009 album Crash Love serves as a culmination of these findings, demonstrating how different combinations of components results in the emphasis of different genre characteristics.

Beneath the surface-level performance of feminism, autonomy, and empowerment in Reggaetón lies a perpetuation of misogynistic stereotypes that hyper-sexualize women and offer little in terms of agency (Díaz Ferndández, 2021). In fact, Reggaetón artists engage in performative inclusion by adapting their products to current social norms without altering their music or lyrics, profiting off the sexualization of women (Meave Ávila, 2023). Karol G and Young Miko appear to empower narratives of sexual freedom for women, with their musical performances acting as feminist commentary on the limits of women in the genre. While scholars have explored how Bad Bunny purplewashes his music (Hoban, 2021; Robles Murillo, 2021), there's been limited analysis of female artists regarding this topic. In this paper, I analyze how women are represented or sexualized in lyrics, visual cues, and vocal timbre to explore the nuances between feminism, sexuality, socio-cultural power dynamics, and purplewashing in a genre that is incredibly popular and influential today. As Mulvey (1973) points out, women’s appearances in film are heavily coded with eroticism and their bodies serve the purpose of engaging the heterosexual male gaze, all of which are heavily influenced by a society that values patriarchal power. Similarly, in order for women to be successful in male-dominated fields they must adhere to a male-dominated agenda (Davies, 2001). This paper acts as critical commentary on commodification of women’s bodies, exploring the notion that “sex sells.” Using a decolonial lens, I shed light on how colonial values of capitalism, sexuality, and women inflluence current artists in the genre. This highlights the gendered political climate of Reggaetón, emphasizing the dichotomy between sex-positive self empowerment and purplewashing for financial gain in a capitalist market.

James Yancey (J Dilla) was an innovator in hip hop production in the 90s & 00s. He was a virtuoso sampler and master of “microchopping” famous songs to create instrumental loops. Notably, when chopping and stitching, he incubated an organic rhythmic style in his beats that was unshackled from the constraints of the quantized metric grid: “What Dilla created was a third path of rhythm, juxtaposing [swing and straight] time-feels, even and uneven simultaneously, creating a new, pleasurable, disorienting rhythmic friction and a new time-feel: Dilla Time” (Charnas & Peretz 2022, p. xii). Dilla’s creative sampling process results in the deliberate juxtaposition of layers that express different rhythmic profiles, consistently looping individual elements that independently and collectively resist the metric grid.

This project has two parts: First, I systematically analyze the rhythmic details of a corpus of Dilla tracks to precisely detail what is going on within and between rhythmic layers. I use AI stem separation on 38 tracks from Dilla’s Another Batch (1998) to isolate each instrumental component, then I use music information retrieval techniques to detect onsets times. By visualizing these, we may discover, for example, that: Within each bar, there are locations where instrument layers coalesce and locations where they pull apart; across bars, there are (in)consistencies in repetition within instrumental layers. Through this analysis, the multiplicitous details of Dilla’s “feel” can be codified and thereby providing novel insight into how such “loose” playing can afford a consistent metric experience and enhancing our ability to recreate this effect in our own performances and compositions.

The second part of this project is translating this analytic work and making it musically meaningful and experientially accessible through using the language of the musicians and fans. I talk about the rhythmic construction in terms like “laid back” and “loose,” replicating the language of musicians and valorizing the rhythmic craft of experts instead of describing the performance in relation to strict temporal grids (as terms like “late” or “off” do). This project’s combination of precise analytic work with emic, musical descriptions enables the music to be spoken of accurately and artistically.

Part of a larger study-in-progress on radical queer Black composer-improviser Cecil Taylor’s relationship with jazz standards, this paper focuses on Taylor’s 1960 recording of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein’s “This Nearly Was Mine” (from South Pacific, 1949). It stages Taylor’s rendition as a superimposition of four dynamic encounters. The first encounter is with jazz and American popular song syntax, which forms one of what I will call “syntactic surfaces” in Taylor’s interpretation. Following imperatives in recent African philosophies of art (e.g. Diagne 2011), I will suggest that Taylor’s is a music of manifold, interpenetrating, “proto-geometric” surfaces (Stover 2024), and that meaning is found in the conjunctions where surface topographies bend toward one another. The second encounter is with the song’s (absent) lyrics about dreams, love, and paradise always just slipping away. Taylor’s interpretation queers textual and intertextual codes that flow from the original song and its musical-theater origins, playing with fluid notions like the expressive valences of musical sound and noise (Glissant 1976) to do so. The third encounter is with Taylor’s bandmates—bassist Buell Neidlinger and drummer Denis Charles—whose fragile interactive dialogue maps precarious pathways through the song’s harmonic and melodic structure. And the fourth encounter involves Taylor’s own relation with jazz history, Blackness, and the emergence of what would become his ‘mature’ improvisational style. Many commentators describe an epistemic break between early and mature Taylor (marked by a several-year gap in recorded output), but I argue that the ideas Taylor was working out during this period were essential for the directions he would embark on beginning with his celebratred 1966 album Unit Structures and continuing for nearly five decades.

Jazz standards are inherently flexible prototypes. This fact is reflected in how melodies are rhythmically depicted in fakebook lead sheets: Instead of detailed rhythms, many standards are deliberately notated using simplified rhythms. When jazz musicians perform these melodies, they bring them to life with a variety of expressive transformations. These transformations fall under two distinct categories depending on their relations to both the ontological prototype of the melody and the prevailing metric hierarchy. The first of these, expressive timing, involves displacements of onsets that are so small—usually in the order of milliseconds—that they do not constitute a change in metric-hierarchic position; they fall below the level of syntax. Conversely, thematic transformation often involves displacing notes to a different metric position. Put simply, thematic transformation would conventionally warrant a change in notation; expressive timing would not. More often than not, jazz improvisers simultaneously incorporate both kinds of transformations in their performances of standard melodies, resulting in utterances that bear little resemblance to their lead-sheet representations.

In this paper, I contend that expressive timing and thematic transformation are interrelated improvisational processes that are carefully coordinated in performances of jazz standards to produce dialogical play between the two categories. I begin by demonstrating the abstract differences between thematic transformation and expressive timing before exploring the various ways that these two techniques combine in several analytic vignettes. Next, I connect these techniques to recent work on jazz ontology and referents, arguing that the ambiguous relationships between these transformational categories is the result of the ontological flexibility of jazz tune melodies. Finally, I reflect on the aesthetic ramifications of this categorical ambiguity, observing that both techniques serve complementary strategic purposes and therefore become involved in an ongoing give-and-take as the improvisational process unfolds. While the stylistic scope of this study is limited to jazz, its implications are easily extensible to other repertories where melodies are performed flexibly.

The last game show to employ an in-studio organist was the syndicated Beat the Clock (1969–74), for which legendary jazz musician Dick Hyman provided all music and sound effects. Hyman, then, had the task of constructing and improvising music that could accompany events of varying lengths, including different stunts, host banter, and opening and closing credits. I argue that the improvised organ music for Beat the Clock employs harmonic and formal ambiguity to fill varying lengths of time as required by gameplay. These techniques include the open-ended vamp, variations in repetition, and formal disruptions. The open-ended vamp avoids closure or typical harmonic structure to allow it to end at any time, such as one 1972 improvisation, which ends in a half cadence before looping back to the beginning. Variations in repetition facilite flexibility by loosening rigid expectations: a vamp that at first appears only to have two chords morphs into a longer, more complex progression on its third playing, and these two forms of the vamp alternate. Formal disruptions occur frequently in the theme song depending on the episode for which it is used; measures are added, subtracted, and modified at will to accommodate varying lengths of closing credits. The overall effect is a remarkable union of music and show, one that can only be achieved by these techniques.

Practical piano treatises (C.P.E. Bach, 1753/1762; Clementi, 1802; Czerny, 1851) from the 18^th and 19^th centuries typically illustrate just one version of the minor scale: melodic. And yet, popular programs such as ABRSM require students to perform both harmonic and melodic minor in the 650,000+ exams administered in 93+ countries each year. Practicing harmonic minor is at odds with the music-theoretical notion that it is a collection that comprises minor-mode Roman numerals, and is not something that happens often melodically within the repertoire (Piston, 1959, p.11). For example, Clendinning and Marvin (2021, p.98) write that in minor, “rising lines are usually associated with the raised forms of ^6 and ^7."

This project illustrates the ways that minor scales were described in practical manuals and composition treatises of the past 300+ years, and ultimately posits that Hanon’s piano manual (1873) was the first to include harmonic minor alongside melodic for daily practice. We then question whether the elevation of harmonic minor to scale practice by Hanon is substantiated in the repertoire. To date, no empirical study has investigated the prevalence of minor scales in Western Classical music, despite claims surrounding their frequency by influential music theory texts. In response, we leveraged the Yale-Classical-Archives-Corpus (White & Quinn, 2016) to extract the following scale-degree patterns occurring contiguously in the highest voice within minor-mode excerpts: ↓6-↓7-1, ↓6-↑7-1, ↑6-↑7-1, and ↑6-↓7-1, and these patterns in reverse. A total of 18,939 approaches to/from ^1 were identified. We quantified the frequency of minor-scale excerpts in the literature and determined whether this distribution differs across musical eras and/or composers, finding that when in a minor key and approaching ^1 stepwise from below, composers use melodic minor 58% of the time, followed by natural, dorian, then harmonic. We observed a significant decrease in the use of melodic minor across the 300 years of compositions within the corpus; and yet it is natural minor, not harmonic, that increases in usage. This research provides the first systematic study of minor-mode scale frequency in Western Classical repertoire and combines data-driven and musicological approaches to understanding scale pedagogy across centuries.

This poster presentation showcases the results of two semesters of a modified music theory curriculum that uses a modular course organization and applies a standards-based grading system adapted from (Johnson, 2015). Following several models, the updated music theory curriculum utilizes a one- or two-semester foundation sequence (depending on results of a placement exam) before allowing students to choose among style-specific analysis courses. This poster summarizes tools, strategies, and challenges across three courses, offered during either the Fall 2023 or Spring 2024 semesters: “Analysis of Baroque and Classical Music,” “Analysis of Romantic Era Music,” and “Analysis of Music after 1900.”

Rather than traditional textbooks, the curriculum relies on inexpensive and open-source materials. These courses also actively work to include diverse examples from their respective eras. This poster details a variety of teaching tools, including videos, open-source textbooks, and music notation software used in the courses. I also list various materials that were considered but not incorporated into the curriculum.

Strategies employed in this curriculum revision include an elimination of graded homework, in-class time devoted to skill building, and a focus on growth throughout the semester. Instead of high-stakes exams, these courses use proficiencies targeted at specific skills. Students were allowed to attempt each proficiency up to three times, with the highest grade counting toward the course average. Learning objectives for each course are grouped into three categories: ear training, analysis, and composition.

Challenges highlighted on this poster include time constraints, as all courses incorporated both analysis and ear training, lack of external incentives (i.e. no graded homework), and prerequisite knowledge gaps due to the modular approach. As this curriculum update is a working model, prospective changes for the 2024-2025 academic year are included, and feedback from viewers is encouraged.

This poster presents two lesson plans for written theory that engage students in guided active listening without reference to musical notation. In the first lesson, “What do you hear?” (WDYH), students listen to a variety of pieces and identify musical components of interest that they hear. Inspired by a sentence in Roig-Francolí 2020, WDYH draws on students’ pre-existing (albeit likely unarticulated) knowledge and helps them start to develop a music-theoretical vocabulary. Importantly, all the compositions in the WDYH lesson lack any harmonic progression, forcing students to attend to elements that often suffer neglect in theory curricula, including rhythm, melodic construction, timbre, instrumentation, dynamics, and register. The examples are carefully chosen to represent a diversity of musical creators and styles. For homework, students post a paragraph to a class blog, choosing two of the compositions and comparing the use of one musical element. This focused but low-stakes writing (Rogers 2018) for a quasi-public audience gives students a chance to express their thoughts in prose; even students weak in fundamentals can display excellent insights into the music.

The Structural Harmony Listening Worksheet (SHLW) pivots to harmony. The SHLW introduces the centrality of tonic and dominant in common-practice and related styles through a variant of harmonic singing (Gonzales 2020). Students listen to a piece while following a lyric chart and physically singing the tonic or dominant triad as directed. (An alternative is offered for students unable to sing the chords.) The first example deliberately includes some chromaticism, thereby demonstrating to students their own ability to hear the structural tonic and dominant even in a more complicated context. By actively examining the interaction of tonic and dominant with lyrics, melody, and hypermeter, students discover that these harmonies occupy the most important positions in each phrase. To follow up, instructors can use the same music to preview conclusive and inconclusive cadences and the T-P-D-T phrase model.

In 2023, Florida Senate Bill 266 curtailed programs that include the teaching of “critical race theory, gender studies, or intersectionality or any derivative major of these belief systems, that is, any major that engenders beliefs in those concepts...” (Florida SB266, lines 98-101.) The same bill also demanded that all state universities in Florida include “post-tenure review,” a Sword of Damocles that hangs over tenured faculty members’ heads should they dare to broach censored topics. (Untenured faculty are already under threat.) The situation in K–12 public schools is even worse. House Bill 4, the so-called “don’t say gay” bill limits not only programs but even raising queerness as a topic in class.

These bills limit academic freedom, but they do so in ways that are vague, difficult to interpret, and (thankfully) difficult to litigate. The power of these laws lies in their ability to frighten teachers into censoring themselves in an effort limit their own culpability and protect their jobs. Students, however, are the ones who will suffer an impoverished education if their teachers cannot or will not foster discussions of a wide range of classroom topics.

Interestingly, while these new laws apparently limit the actions of and the curricula designed by teachers, faculty, and administrators, no one has tried to limit our students’ constitutionally protected rights to free speech. So how can we get students to take the lead?

This poster presents a variety of music—both vocal and purely instrumental—that raises historical political issues, including labor struggles, queer rights, antisemitism, racism, suffrage, and childbirth. In addition to a variety of analytical prompts related to these works, I include a simple short essay question: “what is the current relevance of this composition?” This question does not stake an agenda; it invites comparison of music that portrays historical moments to our present time. And it fosters student discussions of topics that teachers themselves might not be permitted to raise directly. I hope to help teachers cultivate open exchanges of ideas without imperiling their jobs.

In his pioneering work, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Paolo Freire distinguishes between “anti-dialogical” and “dialogical” pedagogy. In dialogical pedagogy, students and teachers work cooperatively to form new knowledge. Anti-dialogical pedagogies view students as empty vessels to be filled with information. Many of the traditional venues of public music theory (such as program notes, pre-concert lectures, etc.)—even if well intentioned—are potentially anti-dialogical because they do not provide an opportunity for the audience to ask questions.

One approach to dialogical, community-engaged public music theory is songwriting. This poster focuses on a songwriting class I taught at a senior citizen center. In week one, the students learned about the role repetition plays in musical forms, specifically, the twelve-bar blues. In week two, I introduced the concept of SRDC (statement-restatement-departure-conclusion) and we began writing our own song, through improvisation and collaboration. In week 3, we learned more about the close relationship between rhythm, meter, and text. In week 4, we performed and recorded our song. One of the seniors purchased everyone a kazoo, so we added a verse where we all played our kazoos.

This poster will be valuable to SMT members who are interested in community-engaged public music theory in their own communities. It will give local educators ideas about songwriting units in their own courses. And it will show other community members an example of what public music theory can be.

Music theorists have devoted significant attention to curricular reform in recent years, focusing on comprehensive issues such as creativity (Campbell 2014), accessibility (Johnson 2020), and diversity (Ewell 2020), as well as more practical ones, including new technological tools (McCandless and McIntyre 2017), student agency (Peebles 2019), and recruitment and retention (Lavengood 2019). Despite the burgeoning and important work in this area, data-driven approaches remain limited.

To understand which music theoretical skills are most valuable to musicians, we surveyed professionals in a variety of fields. Participants self-identified their professional areas and were branched into two tracks: professional musicians (defined broadly) or teachers of music theory. Participants rated how often they use specific skills and tools that are regularly taught in American undergraduate music curricula using a Likert scale. Instructors were further asked to indicate whether that skill was used primarily when teaching. Participants also listed skills they use regularly that were not covered in their formal music education. Our goal was to identify which music theory skills are most important for music professionals and whether they learned them in their undergraduate music theory sequence.

This poster shares key findings from our survey, outlining significant discrepancies between the skills and content many curricula teach and those professional musicians use. Our work brings crucial information to conversations about curricular design. It offers insights into comparative skill-usage and identifies needs where musicians are relying on self-taught skills. It enables institutions to be strategic about updating their curricula, facilitating both an outcomes-oriented approach to design and strategic decisions about time-allocation. Informed alignment of curricula with target skills is crucial in notoriously credit-heavy music degrees. Our data may not represent any given institution perfectly and we acknowledge that career preparation alone should not determine curricular design. We feel strongly, however, that our data about the relative value of skills offers a perspective that has been lacking in pedagogy research and one that must be part of curricular reform discussions going forward.

For high school students learning music theory for the first time, the subject, with its idiosyncratic symbols, terminology, and ways of thinking, can feel intimidating. Moreover, while the aural skills classroom has a long history of embodied pedagogy, from the early 20^th century to the present day (Jaques-Dalcroze 1915; Urista 2016), written theory classes frequently overlook embodied experience. Though numerous theory pedagogues have attempted to break this cerebral mold, most such approaches either require a complete teaching overhaul (Bannan 2010; Gutierrez 2019) or focus on collegiate subject matter (Gingerich 1991; Ripley 2016). Such approaches can therefore be difficult to apply in secondary education settings, especially given music educator burnout (Scheib 2004; Varona 2018).

To address the unique needs of secondary educators, this poster presentation introduces hands-on theory teaching tools called movable tile boards. These tools share two essential components: (1) a physical or digital space, and (2) a set of tiles that can be manipulated within that space. The space might be a desktop, grid, or keyboard image, while the tiles could represent notes, solfège syllables, or other theoretical objects. These tools facilitate embodiment via touch (Hrach 2021), and in the spirit of Lang’s “small teaching” principles (2016), their application does not require complete reimagining of a course. The poster will illustrate multiple examples of movable tile boards and their potential uses in the high school theory classroom, including an adaptation of Wells’s (2022) “Piano Gameboard”; a keyboard-free chromatic tile board; and a South Indian rāga board suitable for demonstrating classical raga construction and characteristic embellishments (gamakas). These tools have broad potential applications in secondary music education settings, from elective music theory and world music classes to International Baccalaureate® (IB) Music and Advanced Placement® (AP) Music Theory courses. To assist educators wishing to incorporate movable tile boards into their own classes, the poster will include QR codes linking attendees to handouts, templates, and relevant tech tools.

What music do you like to listen to and why? When you listen to music, what do you usually pay attention to? Does your answer to these questions change? How might your personal listening habits be shaped by your community and surroundings?

Are the above questions even considered music theory or music analysis? If so, how might they fit into your classroom, and why might you include them?

Recently, there has been an important trend in music theory pedagogy discussions towards inclusive pedagogy, with attempts to expand the music we teach in the classroom to include more than the traditional Western Art Music canon (WAM). Even if one feels these are laudable goals, they can present challenges and uncertainties. Some educators attempt to check required Diversity and Inclusion boxes and expand the repertoire studied by choosing pieces to use in a regular music theory curriculum to teach WAM concepts (what Attas describes as the “plug-and-play model,” 2019).

Part of inclusive pedagogy can include expanding what we teach students music analysis is, which can better facilitate inclusion of broader repertoire. While it can be tied to reinforcing traditional musical analytical elements, analyzing one’s listening habits, attention strategies, musical preferences, and experiential journey through a given listening experience is a way towards more inclusive musical analysis.

This poster facilitates a discussion of the pedagogical strategy of analyzing listening habits as a form of music analysis, in which student-generated playlists form the repertoire. Courses are designed to give students the space to explore questions about their personal listening habits and preferences and to critically analyze their own listening and musical consumption, considering how their individual and societal backgrounds combine with various musical elements to create listening experiences. Elements from the strategy can be used in a college-level music theory course, or modified to fit a K-12 classroom.

Especially in the post-pandemic landscape, engaging students has become increasingly challenging. Encouraging students to discuss their personal music diversifies classroom repertoire and contributes to intrinsic motivation, lessening the incentive for students to turn to generative AI to complete their assignments.

Beethoven’s late style, as noted by Adorno, is characterized by dissociation and fragmentation. This view is overly simplistic in its one-dimensional approach (Swinkin 2013), while lyricism is often neglected despite its frequent presence in Beethoven’s late works (Kerman et al., 1983).

While Cooper (2014) and Fontanelli (2019) have examined the genesis of the theme and multi-movement planning of Op. 127/II, this study fills a gap by adopting a multi-parametrical approach to lyricism, continuity, and contrast. It examines Beethoven's compositional approaches to hypermeter, rhythm, texture, register and part-writing strategy. A chronological analysis of score sketches, including the lesser-known A 51 sketches, illuminates the rich and multifaceted qualities of Beethoven’s late style.

In this case study, I argue that hypermeter serves as a stable current running through the inherent contrasts in meter, rhythm, tonality, and tempo. The hypermetrical structure, combined with imitative part-writing strategy, shifting textural density, rhythmic manipulation, and registral displacement, reveals Beethoven's aim to achieve lyricism, continuity, and contrast across the variations.

This movement encompasses a theme, four variations, a transition, the concluding variation, and a coda. The A 51 sketches (17r-18v) illustrate the intriguing details of variations 1 and 4 together. This preliminary sketch highlights:

• The meticulous part-writing strategy shaping hypermeter through the imitation between outer voices.
• The sophisticated transformation of the theme in later sketches of var. 1, and richness in texture and register.
• Evolving lyricism through rhythmic, registral and part-writing transformations.

The second variation is particularly exciting. The hypermetrical framework showcases alternating leadership between upper voices, enhancing lyricism and continuity through lively rhythmic and melodic exchanges. The creative process reveals Beethoven's aesthetic: initially, the second violin leads, but leadership gradually becomes shared, creating a balanced interplay, as seen in the sketches. Intricate texture and rhythmic richness amplify the sense of lyricism, culminating in a more expressive conclusion.

Ultimately, this study demonstrates how diverse parameters, such as hypermeter, texture, register and rhythm, embody distinct yet interconnected features within Beethoven's late style, including lyricism, continuity, and contrast. Adopting a multi-parametrical approach deepens our understanding of the multifaceted nature of Beethoven's late style, enriching a burgeoning field of Beethoven scholarship.

Despite jazz’s unique ability to engage with and assimilate diverse influences from across the world, it has largely resisted adopting aspects of atonal or twelve-tone music, especially in an improvised context. However, in recent years, some jazz improvisers have begun to develop a post-tonal approach to improvisation using Tone-Clock Theory (TCT), a harmonic system and chromatic “map” that is free of the restrictions typically associated with serial or twelve-tone music. Codified in 1982 by Dutch composer Peter Schat and later vastly expanded by New Zealand composer Jenny McLeod, TCT identifies twelve “chromatic tonalities” derived from the twelve possible atonal triads (Allen Forte’s trichordal set classes), which are labelled as “Hours” and organized around a circular clock face. Using a transpositional operation called ‘steering,’ these triadic sets can then be expanded to assemble a non-repeating twelve-tone harmonic field based on its interval-class, each with its own distinct ‘harmonic flavour.’

The inherent freedom of TCT has since attracted the attention of jazz improvisers, most notably American saxophonist John O’Gallagher, who has been instrumental in developing this approach and disseminating it through his book Twelve Tone Improvisations: A Method for Using Tone Rows in Jazz (Advance Music, 2013). O’Gallagher has also identified a similar trichord-based approach in the late work of John and Alice Coltrane on the recording Stellar Regions (1967), providing a direct link to jazz history. In my poster session, I will give a brief explanation of the foundational principles of TCT and, drawing from both O’Gallagher’s work and my own experience as a Tone-Clock improviser and composer, I will demonstrate some basic methods for practicing Tone-Clock techniques and applying them creatively to both improvisation and composition, showing how twelve-tone and atonal concepts can be used freely and musically in contemporary jazz.

Although vocal timbre has received significant analytical attention in recent years, including the development of systematic approaches to analysis by Heidemann (2016) and Malawey (2020) and hermeneutic interpretations of vocal timbre by Wallmark (2014) and Blake (2012), the interaction between vocal timbre and style has not been explored in the current literature. In this paper, I will demonstrate how vocal timbre can be used to understand an artist’s style, as well as track and anticipate future developments in style and changes in genre using an analytical methodology based primarily on Heidemann’s system of embodied analysis, supplemented by Malawey’s descriptive methodology. Two songs from Fall Out Boy’s first four studio albums and three songs from Patrick Stump’s solo album will be selected and separated into two categories, representative and characteristic, the former being songs that represent the overall sound of an album, the latter being songs with unique stylistic and timbral elements. Through the analysis of these selected songs, I will show Stump’s vocal transition from a stereotypical pop-punk singer to a soul-style vocalist. Finally, I will discuss the racial dynamic of Stump, a white man, adopting the musical and vocal styles of soul and funk, which are primarily black genres.

The relationship between the visual components of a film and the film score has often been described as one of music being subservient to picture, for example Gorbman’s concept of “inaudibility” (Gorbman 1987 and Buhler 2019). But what about situations in which music is primary, such as listening to a film’s or series’ soundtrack album after having watched the film or series? My paper will consider how remembering the image in the Netflix TV series Squid Game after having watched the film shapes the way one hears the soundtrack. In this paper, I argue that remembering the film can function as a visual sign (together with music) to invoke meanings in soundtracks.

I identify topics in both the quoted music and the original soundtracks by applying Raymond Monelle’s concepts of indexical and iconic topics (2006). Through these concepts, I demonstrate that topics in Squid Game evoke not only certain emotions but also make use of specific cultural aspects. The topics underlying the quoted music are interpreted differently from their original eighteenth-century conventions, as the musical meanings communicated through the clips in Squid Game have to do with specific elements of Korean culture. For example, the Haydn Trumpet Concerto played through a loudspeaker calls on the knowledge of a specific Korean game show, Jang-hak Quiz, to associate the music with the topic of competition. In similar ways, topics of childhood, identity, and threat are communicated through the soundtrack and memory of images. Through my investigation, I hope to more clearly describe the process of a listener comprehending a film’s soundtrack after having seen the film. This study will add a previously unexplored perspective to the discourse on the relationship between sound and image in film.

What would happen if students could consciously and strategically select in advance which assignments they want to complete and know with confidence the resultant final grade they will earn? According to in-the-trenches research, course designs that place power and responsibility in the hands of students contribute to more equitable approaches to education (Inoue 2019), result in higher levels of engagement (Mittell 2016), permit better feedback on assessments (Danielewicz and Elbow 2009), and decrease stress over grades and learning (Nilson 2016). The class design in this presentation features a first-year theory case study which provides students with opportunity for deeper learning, greater agency, and better intrinsic motivation via a “choose your own adventure” course design.

Throughout the semester students have several common baseline assignments to help ensure that minimal requirements are met, and they will select their remaining assignments from a library of options according to their needs and interests. All assignments are graded as satisfactory/unsatisfactory (with opportunity for revision and resubmission), which allows students a safe space to fail, learn, and try again. High-quality work is required to complete any assignment in the course, thus placing value on quality over quantity; students who choose to work towards a lower grade will simply complete fewer assignments. This flexible course design is also paired with a content focus on large-scale musical design concepts which are then applied to a diverse range of musics, thereby increasing relevance and engagement.

Students have responded positively to these class structures, stating in anonymous evaluations that the “course structure … was intricate, wonderfully fair, and gave us the space to forge our own paths” and that it was “actually focused on learning rather than getting assignments in.” From an instructor standpoint, quality of student work and levels of student engagement improved dramatically compared to traditional course structures, without creating unmanageable instructor workload. Most importantly, based on the level of work in students’ final projects and the extra effort visible in assignments throughout the semester, this approach created a course that gives students deeper motivation for their work through increased autonomy and power over their own learning.

Current analyses of hip-hop vocals tend to focus on elements other than pitch and phrase. According to Adams 2020, “it is not possible for hip-hop music to create phrases in the way that tonal (or even post-tonal) music does.” However, the increasingly popular genre of melodic rap complicates this observation. Since melodic rappers engage distinct pitches in their verses, descriptions of phrase should engage pitch. Komaniecki 2021 suggests “pitch plays an important role in the structure and delivery of rap flows.” It refers to sung verses as those performed “on a pitch or set of pitches in accordance with the tonic from the track’s backing beat.” Duinker 2021 presents five segmentation rules for defining phrase in flow. This paper introduces a sixth segmentation rule—pitch patterns—built on Komaniecki’s analysis to show how the use of distinctly pitched motives contribute to an idiomatic sense of phrase in melodic rap verses. This new rule allows for examination of grouping and displacement non-alignments of flow and beat layer based on pitch.

Universities and colleges aspire to equip students for leadership in their professions, and music students need leadership skills to navigate increasingly entrepreneurial careers. However, heavy curricular demands may prevent music students from undertaking formal leadership training. I argue that music theory and aural skills courses can provide scaffolded leadership opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students, and I outline several categories of activities to build students’ leadership skills. These activities harness the motivational power of self-determination theory as students embrace autonomy, pursue competence, and build a sense of belonging through peer learning and classroom leadership.

In this poster, I consider two questions: Which leadership competencies do music students need? And how can instructors help students acquire these competencies in the context of music theory and aural skills? I examine competencies addressed by the NASM Handbook and adopt Seemiller’s (2021) student leadership competencies, which provide faculty in disparate fields with a shared vocabulary for planning and assessment.

The active-learning approach I present here features brief class activities led by enrolled students of every achievement level. These activities serve the dual purpose of engaging students in disciplinary thinking and equipping them with transferable skills. Activity categories include explaining answers to homework exercises, teaching from provided resources, leading class activities, composing and performing new musical examples, participating in panel discussions, giving class presentations with related audience-engagement activities, and planning conference-style events and presenting scholarly work to audiences beyond the class. To illustrate, I share sample activities that I have designed and used successfully at several institutions.

Participating in leadership opportunities tailored to their levels of experience can increase students’ confidence in their ability to teach, lead ensembles, and communicate with classmates and future colleagues. Students often exhibit heightened focus and energy during leadership activities, and they describe leadership activities as “fun” and “empowering” in their verbal comments and course evaluations. Propelled by constructive peer pressure, students take responsibility for their learning as they hone their leadership skills in a supportive environment.

Many students today are highly engaged with styles of music that do not exist in notated form, creating a challenge for educators who want to help them see how this music is organized. Online resources such as Genius.com (which allows users to annotate song lyrics) and Hooktheory.com (which provides sophisticated tools for the analysis of harmony) have made it easier to study and interact with popular music. Another useful tool in the analysis of recorded music is Audio Timeliner, a free audio annotation program that can be used to create bubble diagrams representing musical form. Audio timelines can help students to visualize the formal organization of popular music (as well as other styles) without needing to understand musical notation.

This poster exhibit will outline some of the ways that Audio Timeliner may be used in the classroom for discussions, presentations, activities, and student projects. It will also demonstrate a new feature called Timeline Share, which is an online repository of audio timeline files that the larger community can draw on and contribute to. This resource will allow users to search for (and download) audio timelines in a variety of styles and genres. Two types of timelines are available: those featuring a completed analysis (for discussion and presentation), and partially-completed timeline templates to be filled in as a classroom activity or assigned as student projects. Students and teachers will also be able to upload their timelines to the repository to share with others.

Picture this: you are in an unfamiliar location, are presented with confusing notation, and are told you have a limited amount of time to understand what has been presented to you. You feel lost and don’t know where to start. Are you in an escape room or are you a young musician tasked with analyzing a piece of music? With over 3,000 locations in the United States, escape rooms are quickly becoming a popular way to spend a night out with friends. While they are certainly a fun experience (if you escape), they can also be an incredibly helpful and engaging teaching tool. The implementation of escape room activities in the classroom can improve teamwork, collaboration, communication, and problem-solving skills. Reflective of the world our students will enter, escape rooms allow teams to rely on each other, ask for help, and learn through trial and error. Traditional teachers and gamemasters in escape rooms have much in common: they oversee the design, the journey, and the possible results of their clients’ experiences. Just as teachers must structure their courses for optimal learning and reinforcement, gamemasters must create a room that sequences puzzles in a logical format and guides competitors to the various solutions. Music theory classrooms offer a unique scenario that allows for students and teachers to experience puzzles in multiple dimensions: physical and aural. Students not only are able to solve written music theory puzzles such as voice leading problems, harmonic analysis, error detection or phrase composition, but are able to use their ear training to dissect melodies and harmonies that they hear in the room. This poster not only provides data detailing the positive outcomes of implementing escape room games or puzzles in the classroom, but also acts as a resource for instructors. QR codes on the poster will guide instructors to links to download a complete escape room package, templates to insert their own course content, and guides on how to sequence their games for seamless experiences.

Juslin, et al. (2010) posit an affective entrainment hypothesis, linking entrainment processes and emotion induction via music. Other research extends this, observing the “empowering” effect (Leman, et al. 2017) and positive affect (Trost, et al. 2017) of isochronous entrainment. Non-isochronous and irregular meters have also inspired music theorists to develop potential psychological accounts of metric processing, sometimes with projected phenomenological effects (Horlacher 1995, 2001; London 2004; Mirka 2009; Sullivan 2023). Processual approaches to metric irregularity posit insightful explanations about how listeners might psychologically process such passages. But what are the affective or motional ramifications of such processing?

In the present project, I used Moustakas’s (1994) phenomenology methodology to investigate lived experience of metrically irregular moments in popular music, through 9 semi-structured interviews. Participants listened to 3 excerpts 4 times each, with guiding questions about affective responses, bodily engagement, and exploring additional ways to entrain. Excerpts included “The Ocean” by Led Zeppelin, “Go to Sleep” by Radiohead, and “Angel of Doubt” by The Punch Brothers.

Evidence extends, complicates, and refutes current theories. First, multiple participants invoked the metaphors of music as moving force and moving music (Johnson and Larson 2003), where their use of either metaphor correlated with their ability to entrain to the given passage. These findings suggest that entrainment may be a contributor to the types of metaphorical experiences listeners have. Second, some participants with similar metric interpretations reported inverse experiences of the metric irregularity. While it may be unsurprising that two listeners have unique experiences, such diversity is rarely accounted for in theoretical systems or their applications. Third, one participant, who heard multiple metric interpretations of “Go to Sleep” by Radiohead, preferred their “looser” experience of floating around the beats to their experience of isochronous entrainment, contradicting the “empowering effect of locking into the beat” (Leman, et al. 2017). Altogether, this study suggests that entrainment may affect felt metaphor, similar metric phenomena may produce diverse listening experiences, and entrainment may not necessarily be a positive experience. Findings from this study can inform music analysis, an epistemological shift from the inverse where music analysis postulates experiential implications.

This paper will provide insights into Shostakovich’s tonal language by showing how his use of the SLIDE relation is a harmonic outgrowth of the “lowered” modality that has long been associated with his melodic style. The SLIDE relation (known since the 1950s by Russian theorists as the “common-third” relation) is perhaps as characteristic of Shostakovich’s tonal language as his lowered modality. This paper will combine perspectives from both Russian and American music theory to attempt an integration of SLIDE and lowered diatonic modality—and thereby the harmonic and melodic dimensions—in Shostakovich’s music. Particular emphasis will be given to how the lowered degrees of Shostakovich’s modes afford numerous opportunities for SLIDE to emerge in tonal-functional contexts (e.g., as an altered Tonic, Dominant, or Subdominant function), and how SLIDE and lowered modality mutually contribute to the expressive dynamics of Shostakovich’s music.

Although George Russell’s Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization (1953, 4th ed. 2001) is well-known among jazz musicians and pedagogues, it has made relatively little impact in academic music theory circles. Only recently has Marc Hannaford advocated for wider study of Russell’s seventy-year-old text, highlighting Russell’s groundbreaking analyses of jazz and impressionist music. This paper has a different focus. I aim to use LCCOTO as an analytical methodology in a genre for which it at first appears entirely unsuited: twelve-tone music of the early twentieth century. This idea is not entirely out of left field, as Russell himself writes that LCCOTO can apply to “even the most radical twelve-tone (atonal) music” (2001: 39). By verifying Russell’s claim, I demonstrate that LCCOTO can and should be considered a foundational music theoretical system, of comparable power and scope to theories like Schenkerism, set theory, transformational theory, etc.

As a case study, I consider Anton Webern’s Piano Variations, op. 27/1, which engages LCCOTO’s more chromatic constructs (Outgoing Modal Tonics, African-American Blues Scales, and Lydian Chromatic Scales) in a thoroughgoing manner. I use a Monte Carlo simulation to consider hypothetical revoicings of the pitch classes in Webern’s twelve-tone row, demonstrating that Webern’s degree of adherence to Tonal Gravity is only reproduced by the computer 0.31% of the time. This yields to a discussion of Tonal Gravity and twelve-tone music more generally, in which I use other computational methodologies to evaluate LCCOTO’s compatibility across all hypothetical tone rows and within a digital corpus of tone rows in the repertoire.

Finally, drawing from Philip Ewell’s pointed critiques of music theory’s white racial frame, I reflect on our field’s longtime rejection of LCCOTO. I contend that academic music theorists have not neglected Russell’s work for formalist reasons, but rather because woven into LCCOTO’s formalist innovations is a revolutionary philosophy that challenges dominant ideas about what music theory itself is and can be. To conclude, I provide a handful of personal meditations on how LCCOTO has transformed my relationship with my discipline.

Joseph Schillinger’s (1895-1943) pioneering work, The Schillinger System of Musical Composition, introduces an innovative approach to composing with the Fibonacci sequence (i.e., 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, etc.). Schillinger directly derives melodic material from Fibonacci numbers by converting them into pitch and pitch class intervals measured in semitones between consecutive notes, a departure from the sequence’s more common role in structuring proportions (see Howat, Madden, Powell, among others). Over the last century, Schillinger’s methodology has been modelled—knowingly and unknowingly—by music theorists and composers (Haek, Bourgeois, Krenek, Staniland, Walker, among others). This talk aims to explore these Fibonacci applications, analyze their commonalities, and propose other possibilities of incorporating the Fibonacci series into music composition.

The presentation will begin by outlining Schillinger’s approaches to linking Fibonacci numbers to pitch and pitch class space. This includes two significant mappings: unilateral symmetry and bilateral symmetry. The unilateral series maps the Fibonacci numbers in a unidirectional ascending order in both pitch and pitch class space. Schillinger also proposes forming melodies through bilateral symmetry—mimicking the 90° rotations of a golden spiral. In this approach, the Fibonacci-derived intervals alternate between ascending and descending intervallic motion from a fixed pitch. As will be demonstrated, extensions and minor modifications to Schillinger’s bilateral and unilateral symmetry represent the primary ways composers integrate the Fibonacci sequence—as a generator of pitch—into their compositions. These, along with other modifications to Schillinger’s approach, will showcase the remarkable possibilities of composing with bilateral and unilateral symmetry.

Doom metal songs—in addition to having trudging riffs, distorted timbres, and despairing lyrics—often feature gradual or ambiguous changes in tempo. Our presentation argues that these tempo changes play a central role in listeners’ bodily response, because they achieve many of the same effects of groove described by other authors by manipulating listeners’ temporal expectation and attention, and by combining explicit beat with perceptual complexity.

Our presentation identifies two primary effects of tempo manipulation. Ambiguous tempo changes are created when a gradual tempo change creates metric layers that are both faster and slower than before. Elongated beats occur when a final beat in a cycle is stretched in a way that is metrically ambiguous. We suggest that the rhythmic effects of groove combined with temporal disorientation help reinforce the combination of embodied presence and acceptance of weakness that are central to the style.

In marching arts activities, performers execute musical and choreographic tasks while marching on a football field. The visual component of this activity is not secondary, and closely relates to the musical performance. Sara Bowden (2020) describes how marching musicians embody meter, arguing “the performers’ awareness and consistent replication of embodied meter is not only a very human approach to making music on the move but also an essential pedagogical orientation for marching ensemble.” I expand on these ideas, focusing specifically on rhythmic and technical idiosyncrasies of the drumline, and demonstrate how performers rely on an embodied understanding of their movements and the music in order to achieve an accurate performance.

Rudiments, the rhythmic and sticking patterns that act as building blocks in drumline music, generate rhythmic groupings that can align or conflict with the meter of the music. Like Rachel Gain’s (2022) “embodied choreographic syncopation," these conflicting sticking patterns are felt by the drummers, and this feeling is exaggerated by the fact that these hand movements are also misaligned with the drummer’s feet, which step on the beat. Using Krebs’ (1999) method for analyzing metric dissonances alongside visual demonstration, I illustrate two ways these “sticking syncopations” might arise. First, drummers often perform rhythms or accents that are displaced from the beat. Second, rudiments or sticking patterns can convey a grouping structure that conflicts with the beat, producing a polyrhythmic pattern between the hands and the feet.

I engage directly with drumline practitioners through interviews and fieldwork to more deeply understand the physical movements and feelings of the performer. Instructors often advise drummers to “feel” the timing of their hands in relation to their feet. While there appears to be at times a metric disconnect between the feet and the hands, a drummer’s performance is made possible through their awareness of this embodied syncopation, and use their feet as a stable metric ground from which they interpret rhythmic figures in their hands, a figure-ground cognitive process (Pressing et al. 1996). More broadly, this work centers the practitioner in the analytical process and considers their bodies, movements, and understanding.

Rhythmic complexity research has often used syncopation as a proxy for perceived complexity (PC). While syncopation does contribute to perceived complexity, a recent study [Author 2021] identified other rhythmic characteristics interacting with syncopation to create perceived complexity: tempo, the presence or absence of a metrical pulse, density (the number of onsets in a rhythmic pattern [Eerola et al., 2006]), and durational variability (measured using the nPVI, Patel and Daniele 2003). They found that PC ratings increased as tempo increased, indicating a strong and overlooked effect of tempo. The presence of a metrical pulse decreased PC ratings, suggesting its presence helps moderate other characteristics of rhythmic complexity. In addition, there was a strong tempo-dependent positive correlation between PC and both syncopation and density.

To further explore the relationship of density and syncopation in PC, a large (n=481) study collected PC ratings of rhythmic stimuli varying systematically in density, syncopation, and variability, presented with or without a metrical pulse in six different tempos (64, 75, 90, 113, 150, and 180 bpm). Results confirmed earlier findings, and indicated a complicated relationship between PC and the factors of tempo, context, density, variability, and syncopation. Increases in rhythmic variability led to a decrease in PC at faster tempos, but an increase at slower tempos. The tempo-dependent shift in correlation strength between PC and density and syncopation was clarified; density’s effect on PC decreases at slower tempos, whereas syncopation’s effect remains relatively constant across tempos. The strength of density’s correlation is also dependent on the presence or absence of a metrical pulse; with no pulse present, density is more strongly correlated than syncopation for the four tempos of 180, 150, 113, and 90 bpm, while with a pulse density is more strongly correlated only for the two fastest tempos.

The results of this study demonstrate that while syncopation plays an important role in rhythmic complexity, the two are not equivalent; instead, rhythmic complexity involves a tempo- and context-dependent interaction of multiple factors. This adds to our understanding of perceived complexity and indicates the importance of considering these factors from a perception, production, or analytical perspective.

At the 2023 Meeting of the Society for Music Theory in Denver, CO, we explored the foundation of feminist scholarship and the movement toward “feminist” models of analysis in music scholarship, and we discussed the shift toward topics and analytical styles that were once considered “taboo” or “lesser than” other methods of analysis. This year’s session sponsored by the Committee on Feminist Issues and Gender Equity will continue that discussion. After hearing our three presenters, we will engage in dialog and open discussion related to our overall theme and the music introduced in the presentations.

Robert Gjerdingen (2007, 60) traces the emergence and dissemination of the Prinner—one of the most important of Galant schemata—to the central figure of Arcangelo Corelli, and specifically to the Violin Sonatas, Op. 5. Less attention has been paid from this perspective to the composer’s Trio Sonatas, Opp. 1–4, a larger collection also rich with the patterns that informed the Galant style, though the elaborations featured in the earlier three-part, imitative texture were often simplified in the slightly less contrapuntal textures of the later style. More specifically, Corelli’s signature use of upper-voice 2-3 suspension chains in the Trio Sonatas reveals interesting connections to several standard Galant schemata, especially a contrapuntal variant of the Prinner in which each of its four stages is embellished with suspensions whose resolutions feature clever contrapuntal mechanics and harmonic interpolations (e.g., ii-V). Corelli’s remarkably consistent use of this contrapuntal Prinner (and other related schemata) in this collection indicates a deliberate and established practice by a composer with widespread influence on subsequent eighteenth-century music. This research thus broadens our understanding of an important precursor to the Galant style—a fertile ground in which a group of similar scale-degree patterns and intervallic progressions arose out of the possible harmonizations of suspension chains (Harrison 2003). It further points to underlying structural similarities between the Prinner and other contrapuntal schemata that also accommodate a 2-3 upper-voice suspension chain: the Romanesca, Tonicized Descending Thirds, and the Down3-Up2 pattern. Like the standard Galant schemata, these three-voice patterns appear in a variety of formal positions but differ from the former in their added rhythmic complexity (two metric events within each schema stage and quicker complementary diminution). Though Corelli’s Prinner may not have continued directly into the works of subsequent composers, its basic contrapuntal mechanics offered a crucial model for the embedding of dissonance in contrapuntal harmonizations favored by Bach, Handel, and Mozart (Holtmeier 2007 and 2011, Sanguinetti 2012, Byros 2017, IJzerman 2018, Menke 2020, Braunschweig 2023, Martin 2023). It also suggests a more complex model of how schemata interrelate and share certain characteristic features.

A variant of Gjerdingen’s Prinner schema (2007), the “modulating Prinner” (hereafter “MP”), can serve as a generator of musical form when it is used in or as a sonata-form transition. Byros (2012) cites examples of this in instrumental works by Mozart, while Martin (2016) extends the discussion to operatic sonata-forms. The paradigmatic model descends stepwise from ^4 in the subordinate key (re-interpreted from the home-key ^1) to scale degree ^1, often with the leading tone (#^7) introduced en route in an upper voice in order to highlight the modulation Based on a corpus study of arias by Haydn and Mozart, this study examines a wide variety of MP’s that initiate (or participate in) a sonata-form transition section, as well as some of the harmonic nuances that arise, particularly in some of the variants.

At one extreme of an MP is a brief, one-bar link that follows the main theme’s concluding PAC and leads directly to the subordinate theme. This unit, too small to be a “transition,” takes on de facto transition function in the absence of any other similar candidates. At the other extreme lies a full MP transition (MPT), lasting between two and four bars and initiating the Transition section proper; the continuation phrase that follows concludes with a converging half cadence (Martin and Pednault-Deslauriers 2015). Variants of this full version add an extra stage – inserting #^7 between the bass ^2 and ^1 or leaping down from ^2 to ^5 before moving to ^1.

This study will also explore variants of the MP transition between these two extremes—they omit, insert and/or replace some of the four stages of the standard MP. Most often, ^#7 replaces ^2 in the bass of the third stage, creating an inverted Fenaroli schema. There are also rarer examples that add, replace, and/or omit one or more of the stages, for example replacing the second stage with #^1 (tonicizing ^2/ii). Finally, there are a handful of “abandoned” MP’s, where the bass takes a “U-turn” after moving from ^4 to ^3 and instead moves back up by step to ^5 for the V:HC.

In 1989, Peter van der Merwe suggested that what later came to be called the “melodic-harmonic divorce” originated in late 19th-century “light” classical (i.e. bourgeois vernacular) music, such as that of Johann Strauss II and John Philip Sousa. In his influential 2007 article on the melodic-harmonic divorce, David Temperley explicitly rejects this hypothesis, saying that the case for divorces in this repertoire is “doubtful, or at least not yet proven.” He explains away any seeming divorces as actually the result of an expansion in harmonic vocabulary, allowing for tonic add-six chords and dominant ninth chords. In this paper, I renew and expand van der Merwe's case, demonstrating that the varieties of unresolved non-chord tones in the late 19th-century Viennese waltz and march repertoire are much more diverse than the literature suggests—including free use of ^1 over V7, ^2 and ^4 over I, and ^7 over ii6—and are best explained in terms of melodic independence rather than harmonic extension.

In this paper, I identify four melodic features that give rise to divorces in this repertoire:

(1) Melodies harmonized in parallel thirds, even in cases where the resulting underthirds are non-chordal notes.

(2) Incomplete and delayed descents that end on ^7, ^6, ^4, or ^2 over tonic.

(3) The permissibility of writing any diatonic stepwise-descending melodic sequence over a ii6 - cadential 6/4 - V7 - I progression.

(4) Repeating an idea over changing chords, with only one of the chords fitting the notes of the melody

I conclude by affirming the value of a two-way exchange: in which concepts from 20th-century popular music analysis are fruitfully applied to 19th-century vernacular classical music, and close analysis of 19th-century vernacular classical music is used to inform our understanding of the origins and bedrock principles of 20th-century popular music.

Drawing on Taoist and Buddhist philosophies, the session panelists examine aspects of musical gesture, time, and symbolism in music by three generations of East Asian composers, namely, Isang Yun, Toshio Hosokawa, and Charles Kwong. Yun articulated the significance of Taoism, notably, the interrelated forces of yin and yang, in his construction of Hauptton (main tone) and Hauptklang (main chord). Taking cues from Yun, Hosokawa translates the yin/yang polarity into the oppositions between shadow and light and sound and silence in his musical poetics. Charles Kwong, a student of Hosokawa, in turn, creates “collective experiential situations,” aimed toward further breaking down the barrier between sound and silence by engaging with the materiality of sound for its own sake.

In lieu of treating pitch, rhythm, and timbre as isolated parameters, we examine sonic gesture by its collective shape or gestalt, uncovering its role in shaping our interpretation of each work at the material, experiential, and symbolic registers. Jung-Min Lee analyzes Yun’s Images (1968) by investigating the fluidity of Yun’s Haupttöne based on its association with calligraphy and images of the Korean fresco and identifying gesture types that symbolize the yin and yang polarity along with the music’s serial construction. Building on Yun’s concepts, Yayoi Uno Everett offers a proto-taxonomy of sonic gestures in Hosokawa’s Voiceless Voice in Hiroshima (2001), which demonstrates oppositions between shadow and light and silence and sound. Benjamin Schweitzer analyzes the breath rhythm of shō (mouth organ) in Hosokawa’s Utsurohi (1986) as a key element in articulating the concept of “circular time.” Building on Yun’s and Hosokawa’s ideas, Joon Park analyzes Kwong’s “The Forest Also Gazes into You” (2019/20) and argues that the composers’ view on music echoes the Classical Chinese notion of flowing Tao and growing De.

Moving past the binary of East and West, our presentations engage in an intercultural dialogue, which involves a dynamic process of constructing meaning based on the intersecting subject positions of composer, performer, and listener/analyst. We aim toward interpreting cultural exchanges based on the reciprocity of musical traditions rather than on their differences. Christian Utz will serve as our respondent.

In 1911-12, Scriabin composed piano sonatas six and seven, the first large-scale post-Prometheus attempts at wresting sonata form from moorings of traditional tonality. Though important scholarship has emerged since Cheong first identified Scriabin’s octatonic “referents”, I believe the minute workings of his octatonic techniques are still underappreciated. A preoccupation with cycles along the ic3 axes underpinned Scriabin’s approach to local harmonic motion, and the relationship of these octatonic-derived axes to each other enabled his repurposing of sonata allegro form. The proof-of-concept work for using these techniques as an approach to sonata form was Scriabin’s Poème-Nocturne (op.61), composed concurrently. By comparing the Poème-Nocturne and the sixth and seventh sonatas, we witness a remarkably unique technique in evolution. I also introduce a notation for harmony in Scriabin’s most octatonic music, charting movement between the three octatonic “keys”, as well as individual referents within, at both chord and phrase levels.

Scriabin’s penchant for rotating harmonies along ic3 and ic4 axes of transposition was rooted in old Russian harmonic tricks. In his most octatonic works, adherence to a single strict orthographic form of each transposition (a “referent”) afforded him at least four discrete spellings of each octatonic zone. In the Poème-Nocturne, sixth sonata, and seventh sonata, these zones function similarly to keys, allowing Scriabin to reconcile a new harmonic vocabulary with the traditional harmonic departure and return of sonata form. Chord progressions within those octatonic zones shows Scriabin at his most impressive. Scriabin either satisfies or thwarts expectation of mediant cycle completion in remarkably subtle ways: a harmonic alchemy in which chords of repeating pitch classes spiral, sidle, and shapeshift. This paper attempts to elucidate those techniques in detail, further elucidating Scriabin’s eccentric creativity, and the precision of his most constructivist music.

Most scholarship focused on Xenakis centers around the composer and his work with mathematics. This also applies to published analyses of his compositions for percussion, including Okho (1989) for three djembes. Tom De Cock’s analysis of Okho presents Xenakis’s sketches that employ sieve sequences for structuring rhythm, continuing the research initiated by scholars such as James Harley, Nouritza Matossian, Dimitrios Exarchos, and Anne-Sylvie Barthel-Calvet.

While there are abundant discussions regarding Xenakis and mathematics, his parallel interest in classical Greek literature has rarely been addressed, even though his fascination with classical antiquity is referenced in numerous interviews and publications. There has not yet been an investigation of how his literary interest intersects with his compositions in structural terms. Scholarly examination of classical Greco-Roman literature reveals a frequently used rhetorical structure prevalent among well-known authors. Known as chiasmus, this structure emphasizes the centermost clause surrounded by parallel clauses stated in reverse order.

An analysis of Okho through symmetrical structures unveils a cohesive narrative centered on the contrast of stability and chaos, achieved through the construction and deconstruction of palindromes and chiasmi. These processes evolve over time; smaller chiasmi initially embedded within a single bar expand into larger multi-measure structures constructed through Fibonacci sequences. Finally, the chiastic structure is systematically diminished and dismantled as the piece approaches its conclusion.

The once elusive connection between Xenakis’s mathematical processes and Greek literature comes to light through the intersection of rhythmic sieves with palindromic and chiastic structures. By seamlessly integrating sieves into his chiastic structures, Xenakis effectively forges a link between mathematics and literature, harmonizing the worlds of modernity and classical antiquity.

The Nigerian composer Akin Euba (1935-2020) is known for coining the term “African Pianism,” as well as creating solo piano works that define that style. According to Euba (2005), African Pianism is “a style of keyboard composition and performance that is influenced by African traditional practices (as found, for example, in the music of drums, xylophones, and ‘thumb pianos’).” Scholars such as David Bolaji (2019) and Bode Omojola (2001) have associated the rhythmic elements of African Pianism with African drum ensemble traditions (for Euba, Yoruba drumming tradition is central). Pitch elements, on the other hand, have been associated with Western art music, and considered less crucial to defining the style. For this reason, existing analyses of Euba’s piano music focus on tracking its rhythmic motives as they recur in different juxtapositions, and as they create polyrhythmic patterns with each other or with the frequent ostinati. Comments about pitch are usually limited to mentioning that the piece is “atonal” or based on a twelve-tone row.

My presentation, then, aims to add to the analytic discourse about Euba’s piano music by doing a closer reading of a piece’s pitch language, showing how it parallels and enhances the rhythmic language. I chose the first movement of Scenes from Traditional Life, which Kofi Agawu (2005) suggested as a model for African Pianism. A pitch-class set analysis of this piece reveals that motives recur and juxtapose in various combinations not only at pitch, but also as set classes. Moving the analysis to this higher level of abstraction reveals numerous interlocking patterns that project the work’s form, which I understand as ABA’, as well as giving it harmonic continuity.

Euba’s harmonic approach has features in common with “block” structure in Stravinsky works such as the Rite of Spring—but it is more likely that his inspiration came not from Stravinsky, but from the musical language of the Yoruba people. In this way, Euba successfully captures the African identity in music.

Recent theories of formal functions and Galant schemata have sharpened our understanding of music of the long eighteenth century yet often remain relatively separate avenues of inquiry. I place these theories in dialogue by exploring their relationship within a specific repertoire and formal type, namely Haydn’s symphonies and the formal type William Caplin defines as either small ternary or minuet form depending upon its dimension and structural context, with small ternary being a theme shape that can function within a larger form while minuet form encompasses a complete structure such as a minuet or trio. Both forms are three-component designs consisting in an exposition, a contrasting middle, and a recapitulation. Haydn’s more than 100 symphonies provide a large corpus of these forms and his instantiations of them display a wide variety of compositional strategies for navigating the contrasting middle and hinging the gap between the end of the exposition and the onset of the recapitulation. Specific schemata adapted or defined by Robert Gjerdingen and other scholars are common elements in these strategies. My talk examines how schemata, singly and in combination, help blaze various formal and tonal pathways through the contrasting middle and facilitate the realization of its essential functions. I focus on how sentential structures operate within the contrasting middle—either as traditional sentence themes or as transitional or retransitional sentences—and how various schemata participate in the presentation or continuation modules of these sentence types. After defining the eight formal and tonal pathways to be discussed, I present a representative example or two for each pathway to illustrate some of the ways schemata might serve to shape them. These are not the only pathways nor the only uses of schemata in Haydn’s contrasting middles, yet examination of these pathways and the interconnection of schemata and formal functions within them brings these theoretical domains into closer communion.

This presentation aims to refine our understanding of classical medial-caesura practise. The ‘two-part exposition’, first proposed by Hepokoski and Darcy (1997) and then formalized in Elements of Sonata Theory (2006), relies on the structural cadence which organizes the medial caesura, usually a half-close in V or I. Exposing such structural cadences to Robert O. Gjerdingen’s theory of galant style (2007), however, casts illuminating new light on late-eighteenth-century repertoires and invites us to reorient our approach to the medial-caesura moment. Drawing on a corpus of 154 first-movement expositions from the symphonies of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven, relatively few of the medial caesurae register as genuine half-cadences (see Table 1). The ‘half-close medial caesura’ in fact features a range of cadential options, most commonly the ‘converging’ cadence and the clausula vera, which are often buttressed or furnished with a variety of galant schemata. The most common of the MC-associated schemata, the Ponte, closely corresponds with the form-functional ‘standing on the dominant’ (Caplin, 1998) and the Sonata-Theoretical ‘dominant lock’ (Hepokoski and Darcy, 2006). While this schema is the most common elaboration of these structural cadences, the Quiescenza on V of V became increasingly fashionable in the later part of the eighteenth century, and other schemata including the Prinner and even the Fenaroli (notable for its lack of closural effect) were also used. The presentation organizes the corpus into classes of medial caesura practise, and ultimately demonstrates that the half cadence is used in a minority of cases, with the clausala vera and the converging cadence both represented more strongly in the repertoire.

The application of schema theory to medial caesura practise changes the way we understand both theories, and results in a sort of negative dialectical relationship between on the one hand the kind of large-scale structural listening that became prevalent during the twentieth century and on the other hand an attentiveness to the subtle nuances of tonicization, schematic activity, and historically informed listening that has been approaching a state of maturity in the last two decades.

According to William Caplin’s theory of Classical formal functions, sonata form development sections are organized around a phrase-structural device called the “core”: a themelike unit comprising a large-scale model that is sequenced at least once (1998, 144). Joseph Haydn’s sonata forms pose a challenge to the core-centric assumption of this theory. As Caplin readily admits, “Haydn, in general, constructs his development sections without a core” (155). What formal techniques, then, are utilized in Haydn’s developments? Based on an extensive analysis of the 84 sonata-form movements from his keyboard sonatas, I have found that 60% of Haydn’s developments are structured like loose-knit expositions. Exposition-like developments allude to the intrinsic formal qualities of the central inter-thematic functions of an exposition.

This paper presents a close study of three types of exposition-like development: complete, incomplete, and continuous. A complete exposition-like development articulates a PAC in the principal development key at the end of an ST-like unit. An incomplete exposition-like development attains a medial half cadence (HC) or dominant arrival (DA) in the principal development key after a TR-like unit but does not achieve a PAC. Often, an apparent ST-like unit becomes a retransition (ST-like⇒RT). The final development type, continuous exposition-like, involves a single tonal motion from the development’s first key to the home key. Developments of this type allude to the inter-thematic functions of an exposition; however, no development key is confirmed cadentially.

In the paper, I offer two case studies of each development type. The examples highlight differences between types and within types. Regarding the former, I show how cadential evasion was a primary device Haydn used to dramatize the conceptual boundary between types. Concerning the latter, I spotlight three distinguishing devices in detail: formal fusion, MT-like unit deletion, and retrospective reinterpretation (Schmalfeldt 2011). I conclude with questions for further research on exposition-like developments in Haydn’s oeuvre and beyond.

During the 1990s, bands began to mix the experimental nature of progressive rock with the idioms of metal, creating a new subgenre: progressive metal. With this came an increase in the use of forms outside of compound AABA (Covach 2005), which has been the most heavily employed song form in Western popular music since the mid-1960s (Temperley 2018, Chapter 8). The most prominent of these new forms was the Terminally Climactic Form, or TCF (Osborn 2010 and 2013). However, other forms rose to prominence alongside TCF which have garnered little scholarly research. Seeking to codify these underexplored forms, I began a corpus study consisting of all songs (excluding covers and instrumental works) within the post-1990 studio albums of five progressive metal bands. While compiling this 446-song corpus, six distinct formal structures emerged. The third largest of these follows the structure of TCF but ends without climaxing due to the terminal material’s inability to supplant the chorus.

I argue that these forms presenting new terminal material that fails to supersede the chorus should be considered a form divergent from TCF I have labeled Terminally Anti-Climactic (TAC). This label, together with TCF, allows analyses to easily illustrate similarities and differences in the function of terminal material between songs. To demonstrate this utility, I compare the structures of “Who is Gonna Be the One” by Ukrainian metal band Jinjer and “Sugar” by Armenian/American metal band System of a Down, showing how tempo, instrumentation, distortion, and energy can be used as both climactic and anti-climactic devices depending on context. I also discuss the statistical prevalence of TCFs and TACs within this corpus, showing the existence of the TAC form and its common use within the genre. Through the demonstration of this form’s analytical uses, I establish the utility this form brings to the analysis of progressive metal songs that forgo the climactic chorus rotation and provide a tool capable of accounting for similar terminal material structures within popular music more generally.

The recapitulation of musical material throughout a song can be an effective songwriting technique. Sometimes musical material is repeated but after a certain juncture in the song, it never comes back, effectively dividing the song into two or more parts. Such formal structures are defined in this paper to be mutually exclusive part forms (MEPFs). The focus of this paper is on heavy metal songs that exhibit this form, from Black Sabbath in 1970 and into the twenty-first century. In determining the formal structure, the analyses presented in this paper consider many musical elements, including harmony, lyrics, melody, rhythm, tempo, and timbre. Some songs mark the beginning of a new part with a significant musical event, such as a sustained chord or a change in tempo. Other songs obfuscate new sections by retaining the tempo or key. Also included are heavy metal songs that closely resemble this form but are not ideal examples of mutually exclusive form because material returns in a later part. This chapter shows how MEPFs relate to compound AABA forms, terminally climactic forms (TCFs), and through-composed forms. In some cases, alternate interpretations of the analyses are provided to offer a better understanding of the music.

This paper includes analyses of songs by metal bands such as Anthrax, Avenged Sevenfold, Black Sabbath, Fates Warning, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Megadeth, Mercyful Fate, Metallica, Pantera, and Slayer. Tables summarizing these analyses illuminate how these bands either make the separations between the song parts very clear or obfuscate the transition from one song part to another. Songs with a MEPF have unifying factors, likely so that the song does not sound like separate songs arbitrarily combined as one. Unifying factors such as key, tempo, and lyrical content contribute to a song’s cohesion. To conclude, a question is posed for research: were these songs originally separate songs that were then joined together in the compositional process?

Analyzing the formal structure of heavy metal compositions in the rock theoretical and analytical literature relies on riff identification, but the literature broadly and imprecisely defines riffs. Broad definitions create analytical problems, especially when riffs function as the generative material of formal structure. While many scholars define riffs as repeating guitar patterns with distinct melodic/rhythmic identities, they never discusses the distinct melodic/rhythmic properties that parse the music into discrete riffs. Repetition appears to be sole the property defining riffs for many scholars. Moreover, they often claim heavy metal compositions consists of repeating and replaceable modules with no integration between the modules because repeating riffs modules are autonomous. In this paper, I present a structural and functional riff definition based on Schoenberg’s Grundgestalt concept that establishes a basis for alternative interpretations of formal design in heavy metal compositions. In other words, Grundgestalt- or Generative-riffs function as basic shapes that influences the development of a composition. In many heavy metal compositions, Riff transformations related to the generative-riff will reveal integrated formal designs creating a unified process of developing variations not autonomous riff modules.

This paper explores the intricate relationship between textual prosody and musical meter in Taylor Swift’s diverse discography. While scholars have included some of Swift’s songs in their overall work on prosodic dissonance (e.g., Eron 2020 and BaileyShea 2021), more comprehensive studies are needed to address this tension across her repertoire. This paper spans Swift’s various stylistic periods, examining notable examples from her albums and showcasing instances of prosodic dissonance. The paper delves into Swift’s experimentation with different genres, asserting that this artistic endeavor significantly influences her approach to creating and performing prosodic dissonance. Additionally, Swift’s ability to work within different styles is clarified by how well the prosodic dissonance fits into her songs. Two prominent examples, “Blank Space” and “Karma,” illustrate the application of Eron’s Stress Discrepancy Rule (SDR), which essentially states that a musical event sounds dissonant when a strong syllable is placed in a metrically weak position or vice versa. The exploration extends to Swift’s use of thick textures and clever rhythmic patterns in two songs with highly distinct styles like “Teardrops on My Guitar” and “...Ready For It?” (the former a pop-country style and the latter an electropop/synthpop style) to understand their impact on prosodic dissonance. The paper concludes by introducing an addendum to the SDR, proposing that recurring or parallel phenomenal accents can mitigate the effect of odd prosody-meter placements; in Swift’s music, these phenomena are ascending melodic intervals. Examining specific examples from Swift’s output, such as the outros to “The Other Side of the Door” and “Cardigan” and the prechorus to “Look What You Made Me Do,” the paper underscores Swift’s consistent technique of using phenomenal accents to normalize prosodic dissonance. Additionally, this repetition in her music usually illustrates a list or series of events, which enhances Swift’s storytelling. While acknowledging the need for more comprehensive research, this study explores Taylor Swift’s lyrical and melodic sensitivity as manifested through prosodic dissonance in her music. This research and analysis ultimately provides a model for analysis of songs by artists that Swift has influenced, such as Olivia Rodrigo and Billie Eilish.

Sign language covers involve live and recorded performances of aural music that occur simultaneously with a sign language performance. Several distinct musical voices circulate in sign language cover songs: the voice(s) in the original piece of music, the voice(s) of the interpreter(s), and captions. These voices circulate in different modalities, and may be perceived visually, aurally, and/or through touch. Questions of identity and authenticity arise when analyzing any translated music, but as a kind of music-making that is directly tied to a musical performance in a different modality, sign language covers are especially fruitful for analysis. What does it mean to have musical voices performing simultaneously in two modalities? How do we make sense of this multiplicity, and how do sign language performers negotiate their own voice and identity in relation to others’ voices?

This paper argues that sign language covers, especially those distributed and consumed through social media, act as a uniquely powerful locus for exploring aspects of musical and linguistic identity. Specifically, I explore captioning, vocal imitation, video editing techniques, and linguistic multiplicity as important elements of vocal plurality in sign language covers. Using Malawey’s sheet of characteristics of aural covers as a model, I begin by summarizing the characteristics of a sign language cover song. Throughout a series of analytical case studies, I draw upon these characteristics in order to compare sign language covers to their originals, and to explore how sign language cover artists manipulate these musical characteristics in order to navigate questions of identity and authenticity in their covers.

In analyzing vocal plurality in sign language cover songs, I showcase the unique opportunities for multiplicity inherent in signing voices, and ultimately, in all vocality.

Most English-language texts constitute a line of verse, often made up of a syntactic unit such as a clause, which are set to a musical phrase of, say, two to four measures (BaileyShea 2021). Setting Japanese texts to Western-style music is challenging, as Japanese morphemes are so multisyllabic that it is difficult to complete a subject-verb clause in two-to-four measures. It takes fifteen morae to say “I love you” in grammatically correct Japanese, so that a literal translation of the Beatles’ “Michelle” could take as many as 15 morae. Such difficulties perpetuated the myth that Western music couldn’t be sung in Japanese. How, then, did Japanese songwriters adjust their music to a metered, riff-defined genre such as rock?

This paper explores the myths and realities of Japanese songwriting by examining the work of seminal Japanese rock band Happy End (1969–1973). In the great Japanese rock debate featured in New Music Magazine (1970), Happy End argued with fellow band Flower Travelin’ Band (FTB) as to whether rock could be written in Japanese. The FTB camp criticized Happy End’s song, “Haru yo koi” (Come, Spring, 1970) as awkward, as it takes eleven measures—a half-minute—to complete a single clause.

Happy End’s second album, Kazemachi Roman (Romance of the Wind City, 1971)—an ode to a disappearing Tokyo in the face of urban renewal—showed a maturation of their text-setting skills. In “Kaze o atsumete” (Gather the Wind), Hosono Haruomi retains interest during Matsumoto’s 60-morae-long sentence by withholding a strong cadence until the end of that sentence, marking the beginning of the chorus; his meandering harmonic progression parallels the linguistic sentence extensions and captures the image of someone ambling about the city, stumbling upon an unexpected vista. In “Haikara hakuchi” (Stylish Idiot), Ōtaki’s habit of lengthening phrase endings is marshaled to highlight the wordplay in the title. Through subtle text setting, Happy End demonstrates not only that Japanese can indeed constitute a rock lyric but also that the combination of Japanese words and music can encapsulate an ephemeral moment in Tokyo’s ever-changing cityscape.

We present a concert of compositions by SMT members, performed by SMT members (Cynthia Folio, flute; Nathan Lam, clarinet; Paul Miller, violin; Evan Jones, cello; Robert Wells, piano). We (Cliff Callender and David Temperley, co-chairs of the SMT Composition Interest Group) invited submissions and judged them ourselves, choosing seven pieces.

The pieces represent a diverse set of composers and a wide range of theoretical and aesthetic approaches. Dmitri Tymoczko’s Swells explores hierarchical generalization of transposition and inversion—the idea that “any notes can act like a scale, with analogous motion occurring in multiple nested collections.” Jane Kozhevnikova’s In Silence is programmatic and autobiographical, based on a three-note motive reflecting the composer’s Russian background. Stephen Guerra’s Laerciando explores extensions of the Brazilian choro style. Richard Drehoff’s If there is a dead thing still rotting is for solo flute, and focuses on multiphonics. Scott Murphy’s Pancanonic Fugue in A minor addresses a theoretical issue in Baroque fugal practice. Victoria Malawey’s Being is a set of short character pieces (“a reflection on the human life cycle”), exploring various kinds of extended tonality. And Daniel Jenkins’s The Spinning Wheel is serial, with rhythmic influences of jazz and rock. Each composer will give a brief spoken presentation about their piece.

Many scholars have recently shown a keen interest in analyzing music created by Black women, yet Dorothy Rudd Moore’s (1940-2022) music is understudied, evidenced both by the lack of published scholarship and professional recordings of her music. Weary Blues (1972)—a single-movement chamber piece for baritone voice, cello, and piano—adapts Langston Hughes’ 1925 poem “The Weary Blues.” My analysis suggests that Moore refuses Eurocentric analytic approaches to theories of tonality by employing a music vernacular that blurs the distinction between classical and jazz compositional styles. This liminal space between classical and jazz idioms becomes easier to understand when viewed through the lens of Black literary theories of migration narrative (Griffin 1995) and worrying the line (Wall 2005).

This paper weaves together music analyses with theories of Black literature to demonstrate how interdisciplinary dialogue furthers both the field of music theory and literary studies. For example, Moore does not use any exact repetitions within the piece, which presents a unique analytic frustration. However, when viewed through Wall’s legacy, Moore’s modified repetitions within Weary Blues present themselves as instances of a longstanding Black artistic tradition of worrying the line, which occurs when singers and writers slightly alter repeated lines of text to emphasize, clarify, or subvert its original meaning. This often happens within blues poetry to represent the improvisational nature of blues music in a written form (Wall 2005). By “the line,” I refer not to the text of the poem, but specifically to the motives, scales, and harmonies used within the composition. I then expand upon Griffin’s work on migration narratives, which explores changes that literary figures undergo during northward migration post emancipation. I introduce a concept called migration tonality to address Moore’s adaptation of a type of pitch centricity rather than a strictly tonal or atonal vernacular within the piece. This delightful tonal language demonstrates how Moore further worries the lineage of (a)tonal compositions. Ultimately, I demonstrate that incorporations of interdisciplinary theories greatly enhance the types of music available for analysis, and that the field of music theory can increase the richness of extant theories outside of the field.

This presentation explores the impact of Elizabeth Cotten’s left-handed guitar technique on chord voicings, motive, and texture in her music. Cotten played a right-handed guitar upside down, picking with her left hand and fretting with her right hand. Cotten developed a unique style of playing based on the reversed relationship between her hands and the order of the strings on the guitar, which required her to reconfigure the chord fingerings and strumming and picking patterns she used. I show that Cotten prioritizes ergonomic principles in her approach to fretting, reconfiguring chord voicings to allow her right wrist to maintain a more neutral wrist position and transposing hand shapes around the fretboard to facilitate minimal movement at the level of the individual finger. This prioritization of ergonomics facilitates characteristic melodic figures that are recognizable throughout her work. I also demonstrate examples of novel textural patterns in Cotten’s work that are facilitated by her inverted picking technique. I analyze how Cotten's fretting and picking techniques dynamically interact to create motives and textures in her song “Washington Blues.” I demonstrate specific ways that Cotten’s music-making relies on active negotiations between her physical capabilities and limitations, as well as more abstract musical concerns such as rhythm, melody, and phrasing. By focusing on the embodied experience of composing with an instrument, this project contributes to the growing corpus of analytic work that emphasizes music as a dynamic, embodied performance.

Embodied musicology has shown that many musical concepts, such as metaphors of musical space and motion, benefit from being understood in embodied terms. However, these metaphors often feel abstract and analytically irrelevant to music theorists. Dance has the potential to illuminate these ideas because it visualizes phenomena, such as movement across physical space, that are often considered as merely metaphorical in musical discourse. Drawing on examples in the aesthetics, philosophy, technique, and choreography in ballet and modern dance, this paper explores how dance helps us revisit conventional understandings of important metaphors in western art music, especially those that are difficult to comprehend if we think of music as only a notational artefact. For instance, what did musical phenomenologists such as Rudolf Bode and Victor Zuckerkandl mean when they wrote that rhythm and meter constitute a flow of force, and that even rests are filled with force and energy? How do we understand the concept of transition in music, when there is no physical need for one note to prepare for the next? Applying research in dance kinesthetics, I show how it takes a careful balancing of forces in different directions for a dancer to “hold” a pose. As such, there is no true stillness in dance. Moreover, transitions are physically necessary in dance, because dancers cannot jump from one place to another without travelling through the space in between. Analyses of dance-music interactions in specific choreographies demonstrate how understanding such metaphors from the perspective of dance can lead us to understand the music differently. By using dance to show what an embodied perspective of music looks and feels like, this paper uses the rising discipline of choreomusicology to illuminate core concepts in the established discipline of musicology, thereby challenging us to re-think conventional concepts in music from a novel perspective.

In recent years, there has been an increase in analyzing tap dance through its rhythmic intricacies, bodily elements, and interaction with jazz musicians (Robbins and Wells 2019; Bilidas 2019; Leaman 2021a; Gain 2022). Extending into the domain of form, Brenna Langille (2020) analyzed tap dance at the phrase level demonstrating how tap’s own sense of phrasing interacts with jazz phrase structure. Rachel Gain (2023) explored how tap dance choreography can seek to clarify passages of formal ambiguity in Bach’s music. Building on this scholarship, my paper examines tap dance’s sense of form at the sectional level and its interaction with post-millennial popular music. Being receptive to both the norms of formal sections in popular music (Stephenson 2002; Everett 2009; Summach 2011; Temperley 2018; Nobile 2022) and tap dance’s own internal form created through step difficulty and rhythmic accumulation (Valis Hill 2010), choreographers negotiate between the different formal trajectories of each discipline, simultaneously serving the role of composer and analyst as they add a percussive layer to pre-recorded music. I analyze various choreographies, demonstrating how departures from popular music norms often are in tandem with a preference for tap dance’s formal trajectory, whereas places of formal alignment are uncharacteristic of tap dance form.

Climactic gestures are a commonality between music and dance, serving as clear formal signposts for the audience as well as moments of emotional intensity (Bhogal 2008; Lee 2018, 2020; Touizrar 2020; Touizrar, Garay, and Thompson 2023). Despite their significance in both domains, the relatedness of musical and danced climaxes in choreographic scenes remains underexplored.

This presentation examines how the interaction of choreography with music emphasizes the climactic moments in ballet scenes, using the Lever du jour scene from Maurice Ravel’s symphonie chorégraphique Daphnis et Chloé as its primary analytical example. While Michel Fokine’s original choreography is now lost, several choreographers have reimagined the ballet, including Frederick Ashton (1951, London), Jean-Christophe Maillot (2010, Monaco), and Benjamin Millepied (2014, Paris).

I use three analytical approaches: 1) score-based analysis that describes the introduction and elimination of instruments and rhythmic content, 2) audio analysis that accounts for sound intensity and timbral descriptors (spectral centroid and spectral flux), and 3) choreographic analysis (performance videos) that adapts existing choreomusical notation systems to transcribe and analyze choreographies (Goodchild and McAdams 2018; Leaman 2016; Peeters et al. 2011).

A productive tension is established between the music and the choreography: the climactic gestures analyzed in the score, audio, and choreography do not simply align with and reinforce each other; instead, each domain suggests an interpretation of the other, sometimes requiring a revision of an initial interpretation. The choreographer thus shares control with the composer and the orchestra over how the trajectory of the scene is ultimately understood.

The score, audio, and choreography must be analyzed in conjunction to fully understand the effect of climaxes in a choreographed scene. With this specific case study of Lever du jour, I show that ballet choreography may emphasize or contradict the strength of climaxes as established through the musical content.

While the “boast” is one of the most recognizable topics in rap lyrics, Shai Linne (commonly known as Shai)—a Christian pastor and rapper—aims to leverage his hip-hop upbringing to exalt Christ alone through teaching the doctrines of Reformed Theology (Linne 2021). As part of a small but vibrant “Reformed hip-hop” circle, Shai is peerless in his theological depth and didactic intensity. His singular focus on teaching Calvinism not only challenges Zanfagna (2015 and 2017)’s cultural analysis of “holy hip-hop,” but it also transcends Krim (2000)’s system of rap genres and topics.

In this paper, I explore the previously uncharted territory of flow in Reformed hip-hop, focusing on Shai’s selected output as representatives. Performing the function of what Vanhoozer and Stachan (2020) call “Pastor as Public Theologian,” Shai negotiates three overlapping spaces: artistic, evangelistic, and sermonic. With a few notable exceptions, Shai’s songs are generally more “old-school” than “new-school” (Krims 2000, Adams 2009). This is not surprising, given that the purpose of Shai the preacher is to teach theology and promote doxology with utmost clarity. I argue, however, that this overall simplicity conceals elements of new-school complexity that enrich his flow and engender intricate text-music connections.

Analysis of “Solus Christus,” “Memoirs,” and “Turn it Off”—chosen from his first and last albums—shows Shai’s resourceful use of flow to communicate textual and theological meanings. In “Solus Christus,” while regularity and density of multi-syllable rhymes reflect the profundity of Reformed theology, flow change from the hook to the verses delineates the different personas of the fervent evangelist and the authoritative theologian. In the autobiographical “Memoirs,” Shai juxtaposes “old-school” and “new-school” approaches to contrast between his affection for his mother and estrangement from his father. From his last album Still Jesus, “Turn it Off” employs a gradual “crescendo” in rhyme length, density, and metrical malleability in the last verse, bringing the evangelist’s plea to an artistic and theological climax in his impassioned boast about Christ. For Shai, flow is a tool not for braggadocio, but for communicating truth, beauty, and hope.

Although concerns for religious ritual, just governance, and musical harmony form a unifying whole within traditional Chinese thought, sustained scholarly inquiry into the possible import of these themes for surviving music repertory remains a critical need. One promising place of entry is found in the work of late sinologist, Rao Zongyi, for whom the piece “Shenren Chang” (神人畅) typifies a genre that celebrates the link between transcendental forces and terrestrial political concerns (2022). His claim is confirmed by Song Dynasty scholar Zhu Changwen (1041-1098), whose definitive Qin History also cites “Shenren Chang” while collating the associated origin myths. That is, legendary founding emperors of China encountered divine apparitions while playing qin and subsequently received guidance on benevolent governance for ecological and societal harmony. Gathering the scant scholarly literature, this presentation first analyzes the extant version of “Shenren Chang” for its sacred programmatic evocations.

Verbal descriptions of the piece’s sacred valences by its modern revivalist, qin master Ding Chengyun, are first consulted. His interpretations, usually with citation of historical music theory, are substantiated through a subsequent study of texts such as the ancient timbral “Theory of Three Sounds” (Sansheng Lun). My informed analysis sees an initial ethereal descent given in a heptatonic pitch collection played in harmonics resembling “heaven.” A pentatonic section follows with open-string and slide techniques that accord respectively with “earth” and “human” categories. The gathering momentum of the two sections ultimately converge into a climatic melodic repetition across timbral contrasts, which illustrate the kind of harmonious interaction between divinity and humanity narrated in the myth.

Moreover, the surprising verbatim echo of various “Shenren Chang” motifs in the only other extant “Chang” piece, “Nanfeng Chang” (南风畅), strongly suggests a compositional consciousness of genre, which is further corroborated by the two pieces’ proximate imperial myths. This striking correspondence encourages a concluding exploration into possibly concentric musical and narrative relationships shared by these two pieces that then ripple into other related thematic pieces across neighboring manuscripts and time periods. The result points toward the retrieval of a neglected sacred-political genre that reshapes our understanding of thematic expression in ancient Chinese music.

Ashkenazic Jewish liturgical music of the mid-20^th-century United States sounded tensions of the cultural encounter between prosperous, earlier Western European immigrants and impoverished, recent Eastern European immigrants. It also sounded the tensions of acculturation (or, assimilationism) between both groups and the surrounding Christian hegemony. Western European Jews had brought 19^th-century reformations with them, including congregational hymnody, organ music, and Church-originated major/minor tonality. Eastern European Jews included most members of the so-called “Golden Age of Cantors,” chazzans (cantors) who practiced the modal (rather than tonal), unmetered, unaccompanied liturgical recitative of pre-Emancipation Jewish worship. Chazzan David Kusevitsky (1911–1985), a Belarussian immigrant, embodied the encounter of these traditions. “L’eil Boruch” is an organ-accompanied recitative recorded in 1951. This presentation documents audible tensions between Kusevitsky’s cantorial tradition and the acculturation embodied in the accompaniment’s projection of the Western minor tonality and metric periodicity.

In two passages, the organ enacts a B♭m:PAC, but the voice avoids the determinative A♮, reserving that pitch for v°-I cadences in the F ahava raba mode. In two other passages, the organ’s metric regularity signals a shift towards more acculturated congregational singing, in contrast to the unaccompanied, heterophonic, individualistic texture of older and more Eastern European Jewish worship.

Kusevitsky’s performance is now a relic of a past era. Even the metered congregational singing suggested in passages of “L’eil Boruch” has been replaced by the sounds of the American and Israeli folk revivals of the 1960s in “mainline” North American Jewish congregations. In Kusevitsky and other chazzans of his generation, we hear the acculturation of mid-century American Jews as it happened in their places of worship. By documenting this process, I hope to bring the sounds of the mid-century synagogue into the abounding theories of Jewish acculturation and assimilation in the United States.

All of Henryk Mikołaj Górecki’s music shares a few key threads, despite being written over a six-decade period and in a myriad of styles, ranging from Polish sonorism to repetitive tonality. By viewing musical aspects that remained the same, as opposed to those that changed, much can be learned about a composer’s stylistic evolution. When filming a documentary about the Third Symphony, Górecki insisted on filming in Auschwitz, saying “my symphony is not about Auschwitz…But look around you. Feel the emptiness.” This paper introduces the term “micro-schemata,” applies it to the first theoretical corpus study of Górecki’s oeuvre, and musically illustrates Górecki’s “emptiness.” Micro-schemata are defined as stock musical concepts, distinct but flexible, the goal of which is to serve as a long-term reminder across a composer’s career, after Bob Snyder’s “frameworks for memory.” 90.3% of Górecki’s works with available scores—including all major works—utilize the micro-schemata outlined in this study; less than 10% do not. Each micro-schema can be viewed in a progression spanning the composer’s three main stylistic periods: the “geometric period”, romantic modality, and tonal sparsity. However, we can instead secure our viewpoint in the micro-schemata, considering them as an axle, and the style in which they are used as rotations about the axle. The micro-schemata remain constant while the context changes. The smallest aspects of the piece are suddenly the largest things occurring, and their surroundings take the role of the minuscule; we can “feel the emptiness” revolving about the axle.

Many have documented the elegant way that the Euclidean algorithm models musical structures. However, the algorithm only generates structures whose IOIs (inter-onset intervals) differ by 1. But when the Euclidean algorithm is applied recursively p times, it can model many more phenomena. Musically, what is interesting to this approach is that higher-order Euclidean sets progressively generate less symmetrical structures with more IOI variation. Many musical structures (such as the harmonic minor scale, Steve Reich’s Clapping Music, and the the gahu timeline) are symmetrical to varying degrees. The results this paper generates are relevant because they provide new insight into the larger music-theoretic project that considers the geometric properties of rhythm and pitch sets.

This project employs a Max/MSP patch which intuitively illustrates the methodology through a very easy-to-use graphical user interface. Parallel to this visual approach, programs written in C++ organize data into n-ary trees, making analysis much more efficient.

This paper lays groundwork for the first generalized model of Wechsel cycles. A Wechsel cycle is a cycle of consonant triads generated by two alternating transformations, W_m and W_n.

To date, transformational theory has focused on only a small number of Wechsel cycles, the most famous being the PL (hexatonic) and the PR (octatonic), both of which involve maximal common-tone retention and parsimonious voice-leading (Cohn 2012, Hook 2022). More recent research has made rigorous the concept of a contextual inversion (of which a Wechsel is an example), especially of trichords beyond those only in T/I class (037) (Straus 2011, Visconti 2018, Yust 2019). Furthermore, theorists have begun to attend to lesser-known Wechsel cycles, such as those involving Weitzmann regions (Rings 2011) or alternating mediant (M) and SLIDE transformations (Segall 2017). Yet, there exists no concerted study of the properties of all possible Wechsel cycles, and the conditions under which those properties emerge. The purpose of this paper is make progress towards such a study.

The paper has three parts. Part I reviews the definition of a Wechsel and studies its properties. Drawing on methods of Hook 2022, I recount the Wechsel-axis theorem, which specifies the location, in pitch-class space, of the axis of inversion involved in any Wechsel of any consonant triad. I then introduce a new procedure called Wechsel inversion in which the index of a Wechsel exchanges with its mod 12 complement (W_n ↔ W_12–n). Part II constructs a taxonomy of Wechsel cycles. I propose that there are 33 Wechsel-cycle classes, each of which contains four cycles related by retrograde, cycle inversion, cycle retrograde inversion, or identity transformations. I also explain how the length of any cycle varies with the indices of its generators. Finally, Part III explores examples of Wechsel cycles in two pieces by Debussy: Reverie (1890) and Le Chevelure (1897).

This paper has two takeaways: (1) a rich theoretical context for further research on triadic transformations; and (2) an invitation to reflect further on the uniqueness and properties of the structures that those transformations engender.

The innovation in this paper introduces an extra-linear, tri-level reorganization of the fifth-related blocks within the traditional Tonnetz model to illuminate the complementary and inversional tonal structures found in the song "Pure Imagination" by Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley in the film "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" (1971); the paper develops the mathematical concepts of tiles and tiling in the Tonnetz to expand on the music-theoretic techniques proposed by Candace Brower (2008). Brower’s Escherian-style paradoxes of pitch space are a nod to Wonka himself.

The musical "Tile of Imagination," an I-shaped Tonnetz tile proposed in this paper, constructs an enharmonically conformed Tonnetz space that preserves more music-theoretic information related to tonality, arguably the original purpose of a tonnetz, than the standard parallelogram tiles currently used in the literature. Hook (2022) discusses the standard tile, and his discussion provides the tools for challenging its current shape. The I-shaped tile is constructed so that the tile boundaries acquire music-theoretic meaning: in particular, tonal function. The proposed Tonnetz tile is monohedral, monomorphic and enantiomorphic while still preserving the well-known toroidal topology of the Tonnetz. The geometric model, for example, grounds the diatonic part with five flats (for Wonka, the world of pure imagination) in the collection with no accidentals (the real world). This paper explains through the geometry of convex and concave shapes how the I-shaped tile systematically changes tonal function of pitches and chords in the text-setting of "Pure Imagination." The inversional symmetry and axis of symmetry appearing within the tile itself provides some new insights into another analytic technique, long associated with studies of Bartók, with the song "Pure Imagination" illustrating how pitch-class inversion can be used tonally rather than atonally as a compositional technique to layer Wonka’s true intentions in the music. This paper continues the work of Lehman (2018) in showing how harmony in film, and especially chromaticism, evokes the qualities of cinematic wonder. The I-shaped tile associated with the opening of Mozart's overture to The Marriage of Figaro (K. 492) serves as your musical combination to unlock this world of pure imagination.

While the unique gamut of the Musica and Scolica enchiriadis is highly systematic and self-consistent, it proves an imperfect fit for the polyphony notated in the treatises themselves. The authors variously ignore, amend, conceal, explain by way of miracle, or simply omit passages of noncongruence between theory and practice. This article seeks to address two well-known deficiencies with the enchiriadis gamut: its infamous lack of octave equivalency and the absence of common pitches in practice. Drawing upon musical examples from the treatises, I will show how contemporaneous polyphonic practice involved palpable tension between theory, practice, and musical notation. I will then expand the enchiriadis gamut into a Tonnetz that solves its practical problems while maintaining its theoretical strengths. Yet for its size and scope, this pitch space is firmly rooted in medieval pitch modelling, merely extending 9^th-c. methods to their logical conclusion.

In this talk, I analyze Rameau’s recourse to the sense of touch, specifically the theorist’s notion of a “mechanics of the fingers” (“mécanique des doigts”). Specifically, I track how Rameau filters the theoretical abstraction of the fundamental bass through the physical action of the fingers in two of the theorist’s publications, the Dissertation sur les différentes méthodes d'accompagnement (1732) and the Code de musique pratique (1760). Briefly stated, Rameau defines his mécanique des doigts as a system for realizing thoroughbass expediently, based on the distribution of the fingers within chords on the keyboard, and without the need for memorizing figures or reading music.

In the Dissertation, Rameau emphasizes the mécanique des doigts as a physical response to the acoustical properties of sound despite its ostensible relationship to touch. As Hayes (1974) asserts, Rameau’s ideal keyboardist continually modulates between sensory impressions propagated to the ear and the fingers. Feeling and bon goût notwithstanding, the fingers are automated by a natural progression of the fundamental bass. In the Code, as Christensen (1993) observes, Rameau adopts a more empiricist outlook. This time, Rameau’s keyboardist senses the relationship between the fundamental bass and the motion of the fingers based on repeated experience. In both treatises, Rameau’s mécanique des doigts is secondary to hearing. Why, then, invoke the physical attributes of keyboard practice at all?

I argue that Rameau deploys the mécanique des doigts as a flexible means of subtending the universalizing properties of the fundamental bass and assuring its legibility across the shifting philosophical terrain of the French Enlightenment. In the Dissertation, Rameau’s mécanique des doigts is linked to sound’s “occult,” acoustical properties, emblematized by the fundamental bass. More crucially, it joins touching and hearing in a mechanistic, Cartesian paradigm. The fundamental bass is thus counterpoised between eighteenth-century speculative music theory and the physical demands of a vibrant tradition of accompaniment. By the publication of the Code in 1760, with Descartes’s theories readily adapted to new epistemologies of sensation and experience, Rameau recapitulates his mechanical method of touch as uniquely responsive to matters of sense and taste.

This paper explains how the five-course guitar functioned as an “instrument of music theory” (Rehding 2016) in seventeenth-century Iberia. During this period, Iberian music theory was characterized by a great “theoretical rift” separating the writings produced by church musicians from those produced by secular musicians who were predominantly guitar players (Gallardo 2012). While the former group’s treatises emphasize “conservative” topics such as plainchant and modal theory, the latter group produced “progressive” works including some of the earliest theoretical conceptions of the triad as an independent entity, and some rules for the accompaniment of melodies anticipating some of the principles of bajo continuo.

Through the study of pedagogical texts by Amat (1596), Velasco (1640), Sanz (1674), and De Huete (1702) this paper explores several of their most original explicit and implicit theoretical ideas. These include the tenets of alfabeto notation, the theoretical emancipation of the triad through the punto concept, a rule-of-thumb system for the harmonic realization of a bassline, and highly refined understandings of tonal space and chordal inversion condensed in Velasco’s musical circles and Sanz’s laberinto.

This heterogenous group of composers/performers/theorists—possibly influenced by Cartesian rationalism—demonstrate a profound interest in sophisticated topographical representations of tonal space using figures of circles. Some of these figures are practical solutions to some of the necessities of their emerging theoretical systems such as early attempts at a generalized theory of transposition. Others are original examples of speculative theoretical constructs such as intervallic cycles, and prototypical scale harmonizations. Ultimately, these new geometries of tonal space anticipate other more celebrated circular representations (such as those by Johann David Heinichen and Johann Mattheson) by several decades and arguably demonstrate a rarely discussed form of transnational intellectual dialogue between the Iberian Peninsula and other European nations in matters of harmonic syntax at the turn of the eighteenth century.

In this paper I investigate sonorities (Fuller, 1986; Hartt, 2010)—precursors to chords—in Renaissance polyphony through the dual lenses of theory and practice. With the aid of a small corpus and close analytical readings, I outline a system for quantitatively comparing sonorities, identify which sonorities composers prefer over others, and explore divergences between sonority theory and compositional practice. Music theorists active in the sixteenth century became preoccupied with taxonomizing multi-voice sonorities, evincing a shift toward theorizing textures, or multiple voice parts simultaneously (Bergquist, 1964). In practice, such sonorities are products of the modal-contrapuntal frameworks that generate them, but their intervallic structure bears intrinsic textural information that can be quantified and compared in several ways. Pitch locus is calculated by the mean of the distances between the lowest-sounding voice and each other voice. Tightness is calculated by the mean of the intervallic distance between each pair of voices. And Evenness is calculated by the standard deviation of intervallic distances between each pair of adjacent voices. Together, these measurements generate holistic quantitative profiles of a sonority based on its spacing and the pitch space it occupies.

I use this system to analyze a corpus of polyphonic works for four, five, and six voices as a preliminary exploration of how perfect sonorities (Fuller, 1986)—those containing only thirds, fifths, and octaves (and octave transpositions) above the lowest sounding note—were used to conclude sections of works, hence, final sonorities. My preliminary corpus work suggests that only a handful of possible final sonorities are used with any frequency, regardless of the lowest-sounding pitch used and despite composers having many available voicing options. This observation underpins the broader, oft-observed divergence between music theory and practice in the sixteenth century. I use the analytical framework presented here to identify relationships between voicing structure, lowest-sounding pitch, form, and text setting. This forms the basis for my broader research on aesthetic and perceptual qualities of final sonorities, adding to general scholarship on chordal perception and affect. As such, researching sonorities in Renaissance polyphony via their voicing arrangement speaks to their structural importance and affective power in this repertoire.

Zhu Zaiyu 朱載堉 formulated twelve-tone equal temperament mathematically in 1584, independently of contemporaneous European scholars such as Simon Stevin. As Rehding (2022) demonstrates, the coincidence of the Chinese and European inventions of equal temperament affords a multicultural perspective for studying the global history of music theory. However, both Rehding (2020, pt. III; 2022, n. 10) and Martin (2022, 178) acknowledge that the lack of translations of primary sources poses a major obstacle to studying Zhu’s theories. To overcome this linguistic obstacle, I suggest that contemporary scholarship from the Sinosphere warrants further examination.

This paper reviews the secondary literature from Sinophone scholarship and provides my translations of selected passages that offer fresh insights into Zhu’s work. First, I discuss how Chinese scholars have evaluated the mathematical-theoretical basis of Zhu’s calculations (Li and Zhu 1985; Dai 1986; Xu 1994). These evaluations concern how Zhu arrived at the value of the twelfth root of 2 by combining the principle of geometric sequence and the Chinese gougu 勾股 theorem, equivalent to the Pythagorean theorem in the West. These sources elucidate Zhu’s detailed calculations, which refine the current understanding of Zhu’s mathematical thinking in Anglophone academia (Needham 1962, 212–28; Rehding 2022).

Second, I discuss practical musical issues surrounding Zhu’s invention of twelve-tone equal temperament. I consider the relevance of his invention to practical musical contexts of his time. As Rehding (2020, pt. IV) asks, “what problem exactly did Zhu Zaiyu’s temperament solve in the context of Ming-dynasty yayue [雅樂, i.e., court music]?” I answer this question by referring to discussions in the secondary literature (Huang 1986; Guo 1993; Miao 1996), which identify the problem of xuangong 旋宮—roughly translatable to “modulation”—as the primary motivation behind Zhu’s invention. Moreover, I argue that Zhu used the sheng 笙 as a “music-theoretical instrument” for his formulation of twelve-tone equal temperament (Rehding 2016; 2022). Mechanical features of the sheng allow Zhu to use it as an instrument to test the precision of his new temperament and replace traditional tuning instruments such as the qin 琴 zither and the lü 律 pitch pipes (Sun 1987; Guo 1994).

The blurry boundary between speech and song has long been a recurring topic of interest in various fields of music study (List 1963; Patel 2008; Deutsch, Henthorn, and Lapidis 2011). In recent decades, pitch correction—using Auto-Tune, for example—has emerged as one means through which music creators can variously transform speech into song (Rings 2019; Flore 2021) and, through heavy use of this tool, signify android or cyborg personas (Stras 2016). What happens, however, when pitch correction, a tool designed for and familiar in music-production contexts, is instead applied in contexts that are framed as speech?

In this paper, I closely examine the pitch-corrected sounds that represent the ostensibly speaking voices of two prominent characters in well-received video games: GLaDOS, the initially benign but ultimately murderous AI character in Portal (Valve 2007), and Fi, the helpful spirit inside the player’s character’s sword in The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (Nintendo 2011). In the case of both characters, free non-metric rhythms and plain conversational language cast this type of audio overall as speech rather than song. And in both cases, correction to discrete pitches in standard equal-tempered tuning is one of multiple processing effects that help to audibly frame these two characters as machine-like. At the same time, I argue that the predominant use of discrete pitches makes this audio both unique and curiously musical, and this quasi-musicality opens space for novel meanings with respect to these characters, their game worlds, and players’ experiences. I focus on pitch in my analysis of GLaDOS’s and Fi’s speech sounds. I consider these sounds’ overall pitch content, the melodic framework of particular lines of dialogue, and comparisons between the pitch content of these speech sounds and the game’s other music and sound effects.

Composers of video games from the 1980s and 1990s often used musical cues to communicate information to the player, using stock musical signifiers to differentiate cue types. Scholars have proposed classifications for cues based on the context in which they are used; William Gibbons, in his discussion of Japanese role-playing games, divides music into location-based cues and game-state cues, depending on whether the music is primarily associated with a particular place (e.g., a town or a dungeon) or with a particular type of gameplay sequence (e.g., a battle). Julianne Grasso provides two additional categories related to Gibbons’ second type: event-triggered musical cues, which are linked with in-game occurrences (such as non-interactive story sequences), and task-triggered musical cues, which are associated with something the player is required to do (such as music for puzzle-solving sections).

In this paper, I propose another cue type: progress-based cues, which primarily communicate a sense of beginning, middle, or end relative to the game’s overall structure. I argue that the stylistic markers used by game composers in the 1980s and 1990s often correlate with the temporal location of a cue—sometimes in correlation with location-based or game-state aspects, but often independent of geography or gameplay context. Musical strategies for opening areas include the use of a heroic affect, combining features such as compound meter, ostinato on a single pitch, and ascending arpeggios in the melodic line. The music for mid-game areas often demonstrates ambiguous or static harmony and frequent repetition of small musical units. Late-game music may employ a number of features, including the Phrygian mode (or simply ↓2) and a paradigm I call the Mountain King schema, which is frequently associated with villains and dangerous situations in games, film, and television.

The notion of progress-based cues provides another dimension through which to view the relationship between musical style and gameplay function. Considering when a given track occurs, in addition to where, can offer new insights into the hermeneutic interpretation of video game music, further informing the analysis of individual cues or entire video game soundtracks.

Mashups are seldom discussed analytically in the scholarly discourse of music theory, and when they are mentioned, it is often in terms of comedy or parody. Neil Cicierega’s Mouth albums – a quartet of albums drawing heavily on Smash Mouth’s “All-Star” – transgress their surface-level parodic boundaries and contain unique intertextual relationships to pop music and internet culture that need to be unpacked. In this presentation, I will give a brief background of Cicierega’s colorful relationship with the internet, discuss how his third album (Mouth Moods) sidesteps purely parodic interpretations, and provide an inroad to how Cicierega's humor and recontextualization work together to achieve a unified artistic product.

This presentation aims to shed light on Cicierega’s multi-layered approach to sampling and referentiality, and to broaden the lens through which we examine mashups. First, I will demonstrate how Cicierega creates intertextual connections between his first two albums and Mouth Moods in mosaic mashups – tracks composed of many short samples. He recasts and reuses earlier material to not only deepen the referential connections to popular and internet culture, but also to include self-referentiality as an artistic device. This deviates from the intent of established mosaic mashup artists like DJ Earworm, as Cicierega uses this process to establish a sense of thematic unity within the context of the albums.

Next, I will examine a selection of A+B mashups – the most common kind, usually created by taking vocals from one song and the accompaniment from another – and analyze how diametrically opposed genres can create and resolve musical-lyrical dissonance. This examination will include discussion of how Cicierega’s approach to A+B mashups differs from mashup artists like Girl Talk, both in its comedic effect and its intertextuality. I will then argue that the synthesis of these elements in the album Mouth Moods represents an artistic product separate from the goals of most mashups, and suggest a closer examination of intertextual relationships in other instances of sample-based music.

In solidarity with the Jacksonville community, Florida, and the southeast region, this 90-minute alternative format session will include demonstration and analysis of the Gullah-Geechee Ring Shout Tradition, a notable music and movement practice found throughout the Gullah-Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor that spans from Florida to North Carolina.

Performances of the Ring Shout Tradition often include reenactments of violence (e.g., whipping) as well as celebration of emancipation, as in the McIntosh County Shouters’ signature song “Jubilee.” The historical narrative told through Ring Shout performance strongly contradicts the Florida State Board of Education’s new history standard espousing the benefits of slavery. The tradition also faces economic marginalization by tourist-driven gentrification of Sea Island communities. The session will present initial findings from a Research-Practice Partnership between two Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and three Black Arts Organizations established in 2023 designed to sustain an important American cultural tradition. The three parts of the 90-minute Alternative Session will be:

(1) a demonstration and explanation of the performance practice by a scholar-practitioner.

(2) a paper presentation on the history and practice of transcribing music of the Sea Islands.

(3) a paper presentation analyzing the melodic and rhythmic features of core repertoire.

Each part will be 20-minutes (totaling 60-minutes) and allowing 20 to 30 minutes for discussion at the end. The session will progress from performance to transcription to analysis so that the audience may think critically about this process. We will encourage ideation of alternative approaches during the discussion portion of the session.

This paper investigates the multifarious recontextualizations of scale degree b7 in Lili Boulanger’s song cycle, Clairières dans le ciel (1914), revealing how they contribute to a structural narrative from start to finish. In particular, early melodic instances of the subtonic pitch at the beginning of the songs catalyze more severe harmonic appearances later and determine the key of the final song. The persistence and intensification of scale degree b7 across the cycle not only serves to unite the overall form but shapes the meaning of Francis Jammes’ text, resulting in a more satisfying reading of love lost. Because the subtonic usually appears as the pitch D in an E major context, absolute pitch becomes as important for Boulanger as it does for Debussy (DeVoto 2018). I adapt ideas from Almén (2008) and Stein (1983) and their ideas of musical narrative and subdominant expansion, respectively, to show how scale degree b7 1) generates a structural narrative and 2) functions beyond a V⁷/IV role. Unpacking the presence of scale degree b7 in this song cycle sheds light on other contemporary French composers who employ the subtonic at structural moments in the form (such as Duparc, Fauré, and Debussy).

Lili Boulanger’s 1914 song cycle Clairières dans le ciel carries the dedication “Au Maître Gabriel Fauré.” Given that Boulanger never studied directly with Fauré either privately or at the Conservatoire, the dedication could be read as a sign of her affection or esteem towards Fauré (a close family friend), rather than as a recognition of his influence on her compositional style. An examination of the techniques Boulanger used in Clairières dans le ciel, however, reveals numerous correspondences with Fauré’s use of motivic, harmonic, and formal processes in his song cycles, most notably La bonne chanson, Op. 61 (1894), and La chanson d’Ève, Op. 95 (1910). This paper argues that Boulanger’s song cycle reflects the compositional influence of its dedicatee Fauré to a degree not remarked upon in previous scholarship.

Stephen Rumph has written that “[t]he most novel feature of La bonne chanson, and Fauré’s singular contribution to the song-cycle genre, is the involved system of leitmotivs.” A comparison of Clairières dans le ciel with La bonne chanson reveals that not only did Boulanger adopt Fauré’s practice of using malleable motives to achieve structural unity in her cycle, she adopted some of Fauré’s actual motives themselves (most notably the "Mathilde," "Lydia," and "birdsong" motives). Clairières dans le ciel is thus suffused with intertextual references to La bonne chanson. Boulanger's cycle also replicates harmonic processes used in Fauré’s La chanson d’Ève, specifically the sequential transposition of motivic material through series of major and minor thirds.

Existing scholarship on Clairières dans le ciel has focused mostly on its complex web of motivic relationships, but less has been said about the work's close connection with Fauré’s song cycles. As we mark the centenary of Fauré’s death, this paper re-evaluates his influence on Boulanger by examining the many intertextual connections between their song cycles.

Recent perceptual research addresses how timbre can function as a structuring force in music (McAdams, 2019), and scholars are developing new methods for timbral analysis. Yet, relatively few studies apply such methods in order to critically evaluate ways in which timbre structures musical experience in particular pieces, limiting our understanding of how timbre functions in common practice. Here, I use spectrogram analysis, functional layer analysis (Moore, 2012; Lavengood, 2020), timbral motivic analysis (Reymore, 2021), and orchestral grouping effects (McAdams, Goodchild, & Soden, 2022) to investigate timbre as a primary parameter in the 2019 hyperpop album 1000 gecs by the duo 100 gecs. I argue that complex orchestration is the principal mechanism for organizing musical experience and generating meaning in the album. Yet, even as timbre affords enormous constructive possibilities musically, it also deconstructs culturally- and historically-embedded conceptions of genre, gender, and the artist-audience relationship.

I begin with two readings to demonstrate how timbre fuels formal processes. In “ringtone” (Figure 1), shifting orchestration both reinforces formal sections and scaffolds nested phrase structures. Timbral motives interact with the lyrical narrative, first reinforcing and then undermining the text. “I Need Help Immediately” is an eccentric timbral pastiche, mostly without key or meter; yet, formal analysis guided by principles of auditory scene analysis reveals a surprisingly regular pattern of mid- and large-level hierarchical structures (Fig. 2). I then discuss how timbre deconstructs socially-circumscribed distinctions within genre, gender, and artist-audience relationships through the unapologetic integration of diverse timbral signifiers, electronic manipulations of the voice, and open-source release of the album stems.

This work demonstrates how timbre can be critical for structure and meaning in a contemporary popular music practice, aiming to maximize the potential of timbrally-focused analysis by assimilating acoustic, perceptual, music theoretical, and musicological methods. Such integrative approaches can be productively adapted in analysis of music across styles and historical periods.

Despite having won a Pulitzer Prize, David Lang–a founding member of Bang on a Can along with Julia Wolfe and Michael Gordon–is a composer whose works seldom appear in the analytical literature. This paper undertakes an analysis of David Lang's I fought the law (1998), a post-minimalist process piece written for small ensemble. In his paper discussing issues with formalist analysis of process music--a form of minimalism in which musical surfaces are determined by underlying, regular processes--Ian Quinn (2016) writes, "if we are to get anywhere, we will need to fantasize." In this paper, I undertake such an analytical fantasy by incorporating the processes described in my formalist analysis into a hermeneutic analysis, layering different interpretive considerations into one another. These considerations include the musical processes themselves, the work's paratextual and intertextual relationships, and readings of power dynamics expressed by musical agents, performers, the composer, and listeners. This hermeneutic process, while idiosyncratic, draws on methodologies and practices described by Monahan (2013), Gopinath (2005), and Hepokoski (2014). The result is an interpretive reading of I fought the law as engendering layers of oppressive relationships, which I relate to a police state enacting violence on its citizens--a relationship suggested by the work's title and para-/intertexts. Through this analytical interpretation, I hope to demonstrate a viable analytical potential for Quinn's call to fantasy as well as draw attention moments of the analyst's agnecy in the creation of such a fantasy.

One might expect scientific investigations of music cognition to produce explanations independent of their cultural and historical situation. Alternatively, scientific work may be contingent: the situation of the music scientist influences their work. In this paper, I consider two interrelated types of this influence.

First, technological context influences which musical cognitive processes scientists study. Drawing from contextualist theories of cognition—which take the stance that the mind’s structure (musical or otherwise) is akin to a set of affordances to be applied to the tasks of the day, rather than a set of fixed, modular capacities—I argue that musicians do not just apply cognitive processes within technological context, but rather interaction with technology can define the processes that are then then studied scientifically. I support this argument with examples from music-theoretical scholarship describing human-technology musical interactions.

Second, experimenters must operationalize musical phenomena to do experimental work, that is, design laboratory-measurable proxy tasks for otherwise complex and polysemous acts. I focus on studies of improvisation because of the instructive difficulty in delimiting its processes. Notably, such operationalizations are not in fact neutral proxies for improvisation tout court. Instead, the tasks (which do not always align with each other) are influenced by the experimenters’ theorizations of improvisation. Accordingly, whatever scientific explanation is formed from experimental findings inherits (or sustains) the contingency that influenced the choice of task.

Finally, I synthesize these two forms of contingency to comment on the character of scientific explanations about musical processes, and argue that an embrace of contingency will better integrate scientific and humanistic aspects of music studies. Contingent scientific findings are still explanatory despite their respective influences, but should not be confused for ahistorical and acultural truths. Scientists might have created explanations of different processes had the context been different. Also, by acknowledging contingency, we validate the priority of humanistic scholarship that provides the scientist with phenomena to study in the first place (e.g., by describing human-technology interactions, or theorizing definitions of activities like improvisation). Finally, contingency invites a certain humility for cognitive scientific studies given the indeterminacy of some future musical mind, with unforeseen context.

While empirical investigation of rhythm’s interaction with other musical parameters dates back to the turn of the 20th century (Bolton, 1894; Woodrow, 1911), the role of timbre in rhythm remains underexplored. Previous research has demonstrated that rhythm perception is affected by changes in timbre (Wessel, 1979), and identified timbral changes as causes of accentuation (Lerdahl and Jackendoff, 1983; Fraisse, 1982). Singh’s (1997) findings suggest that changes in spectral complexity can significantly influence the perception of rhythm and meter, emphasizing the multifaceted role of timbre in shaping meter. Repeating timbral patterns, exemplified in Erickson’s New Loops for Instruments, create musical units and establish metrical structure (McAdams, 2013). While London (2012) conceptualizes meter as an attentional process, the ways in which attention to timbre informs rhythm and meter invite further investigation. This paper begins that investigation by exploring the role of brightness as a perceptual cue in rhythm perception, specifically examining its influence on grouping (identifying which sound is first or last) and prominence (identifying accented sounds) within binary sequences.
Guided by Wagner’s (2022) theoretical framework, which proposes four distinct ways to parse an alternating, binary sequence, this study observes the influence of timbral brightness on grouping and prominence perception. Thirty listeners heard twelve binary sequences, each comprising nine baseline and nine manipulated tones, with brightness levels systematically varied across six increasing levels, using Wood’s (2015) methodology. Sequences were concatenated in two formats: baseline-then-manipulated or vice versa. After each sequence, the listeners answered three multiple-choice questions.
Our findings show that relative brightness is a good cue for finality and prominence in binary groups. A greater percentage of listeners reported that sequences that ended with the brighter tone also ended flush with the end of a binary group. The responses further emphasized that sequences featuring timbral changes often conveyed a binary grouping with final stress (xX). These results highlight timbre’s impact on rhythmic perception, indicating that relative brightness serves as a reliable cue for finality and prominence. They offer a timbral explanation for the backbeat schema that proliferates popular music. Conversely, they may also be the result of exposure to backbeat influenced music.