This paper argues that the music of Americans artist Tyler Childers continues a tradition of “crookedness” in old-time country and bluegrass music in novel ways, effectively 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, 2009), Rockwell (2011), and Mitchell (2021) on crookedness (the dropping/adding of beats, or even measures), phrase rhythm (Rothstein 1989, Attas 2021), and prosody (BaileyShea 2021), demonstrating how Childers’ use of poetic techniques in a crooked context can impart meaning to listeners. Here, showing how the meter, harmony, phrase rhythm, and prosody choose to work together or against each other ultimately conveys meaning to listeners. Childers’ affective and artful combination of crookedness and prosody produces music that elicits visceral emotions from listeners, telling stories of struggle and vulnerability through hard times and heartbreak.

[to come]

Recent studies on rhyme in musical theater repertoire (e.g. Plotkin 2023) only include perfect rhyme within their scopes. This is understandable as perfect rhyme is normative in musicals, in part due to the writings and practice of Stephen Sondheim. However, several recent musicals suggest that the appearance of imperfect rhymes is an intentional and expressive decision. This paper proposes a theoretical framework to account for the motivations behind these deliberate uses of imperfect rhyme.

When discussing word choice in lyric writing, a binary categorization of “rhymes”/“does not rhyme” is too limiting since imperfect rhymes do appear in the repertoire—e.g. Anaïs Mitchell’s Hadestown (2019). Approaches, such as Plotkin’s, which exclude imperfect rhymes are unable to account for these satisfying uses of imperfect rhyme.

By borrowing phonological notation from linguistics, I first show how imperfect rhymes can exist on a spectrum of “perfectness.” Whereas Plotkin’s phenomenological approach considers preferences for where a rhyme will occur, I suggest a linguistic approach to consider preferences for how it will occur.

I then argue that a lyricist’s approach to imperfect rhyme depends on their expressive priorities. My framework organizes these potential priorities on a spectrum from sound- based to meaning-based, inspired by the primary sub-fields of linguistics. This model can explain why Mitchell, who frequently prioritizes nuanced meaning, will be quicker to abandon the perfect rhyme than Sondheim, who tends towards the sound-based features. I then use this model to analyze the contrasting lyrical tendencies in other Tony Award winning shows from the 2010s.

[to come]

A fascinating departure from Sonata Theory (Hepokoski and Darcy 2006) norms occurs in Florence Price’s Symphony No. 3 in C minor, i (1938), and her String Quartet No. 2 in A minor, i (1935), in which the subordinate themes are presented untransposed in the recapitulation, despite the harmonic syntax of the S-space’s return to the expected home key. This act challenges our expectations of the melodic voice and harmonic underpinning journeying together. The strength and resolve of a melodic voice unwilling to be constrained parallels the migratory events in Price’s own biography—her travel to the New England Conservatory as a teenager, her return to her Little Rock home in service of racial uplift, and the eventual move to Chicago as part of the Great Migration.

Price’s corpus of sonata form works are all in minor keys; many of these works include melodies crafted from pentatonic pitch collections. This, paired with the normative trajectory of S-themes set in the relative major key, allows for the implementation of a double-tonic to form (Bailey 1985). Ravel’s chamber music written in sonata form (Heinzelmann 2011; Beavers 2016) is a potential historic precedent of the untransposed subordinate theme. Feminist analysis (Citron, Curtis, McClary) will show how we might see Price’s gender and race identity composed into her sonata forms.

[to come]

Lili Boulanger’s 1914 song cycle Clairières dans le ciel (hereafter “Clairières”) carries the dedication “Au Maître Gabriel Fauré.” Given that Boulanger never studied directly with Fauré either privately or at the Paris Conservatoire, the dedication could be read as a sign of her affection or esteem towards Fauré, rather than as a recognition of his influence on her compositional style. An examination of the techniques Boulanger used in Clairières, 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.

As Stephen Rumph (2020, 93) has written, “[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 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, including the “Mathilde,” “Lydia,” and “birdsong” motives. Boulanger’s work also shares harmonic correspondences with Fauré’s later cycle La chanson d’Ève, most notably in their shared use of minor- and major-third cycles and octatonic collections. As we mark the centenary of Fauré’s death, this paper re-evaluates his influence on Boulanger by examining the many intertextual connections between Clairières and Fauré’s song cycles.

Amy Beach described her Piano Concerto in C# minor, op. 45 (1899) as a “veritable biography” primarily because of how the work extensively reuses musical content from her own songs opp. 1 and 2 in each of its four movements (Beach 1918). 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). 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 musical 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 is itself not a particularly novel feature, Beach strategically employs both to great effect in this powerful yet overlooked composition.

In my paper, I discuss perspectives from the fields of curricular theory, critical pedagogy, and Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SOTL), and how they can be applied to both newly developed and existing theory curricula in order to increase student engagement and relevancy. To demonstrate, I use examples from a theory course for non-music majors I taught during the Spring 2024 semester. I also will discuss possible implementations of STEM concepts into such a course, or a hypothetical course in a music major’s curriculum.

SOTL concepts I will discuss include metacognition, or being aware of one’s own thought processes; spacing, or adding a delay before recalling information after learning it; and retrieval practice, or frequent formative testing intended to teach rather than to just evaluate. These techniques from SOTL research promote effective learning, enabling students to draw connections between their prior musical backgrounds and newer musical or STEM concepts.

As I actively implemented some of these strategies in the classroom this semester; this presentation will include student feedback collected on surveys regarding their self-perceptions of their learning and their experiences in the class, my own observations of student interactions with the material, and samples of student assignments. Attendees will leave with a collection of resources for integrating SOTL and interdisciplinary research perspectives into their music theory classrooms. I aim to spark conversation around further possibilities for undergraduate curricula and the opportunities afforded by them to ensure better outcomes for our students.

[to come]

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 Fernández, 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.” I shed light on the gendered political climate of Reggaetón, emphasizing the dichotomy between sex-positive self empowerment and purplewashing.

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), and Hepokoski (1997), 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. By correlating text organization and musical structure, I present the lyric form as a set of dramatically motivated conventions for music and text. 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.”

In 2013, the musicologist Nicholas Mathew invited modern listeners to rehear Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with ears attuned to the conventions of Italian opera. The operas Mathew had in mind were those by Rossini, a composer whose works were paired with Beethoven’s in both concert programs and critical discourse during the early decades of the nineteenth century (Mathew 2013, Walton 2007). This presentation responds to Mathew’s call. It develops a close reading of one passage from the finale of the Ninth, its concluding prestissimo, by engaging with it as an operatic stretta.

This framing invites hearing sections of the alla turca-inflected prestissimo in dialogue with a musical convention associated with Rossini’s act-ending rhetoric: the cadenza felicità schema (Jacobson 2022, Boyle 2020, Pagannone 1997). In its most typical form, the felicità contains three cadential phrases of increasingly shorter length. The initial, longer stage was characterized by loud orchestration, shrill timbres, and chromatic harmonies. Nineteenth-century listeners recognized these as applause-securing ploys, sometimes mockingly calling the felicità a Bettelcadenz (begging cadence). Beethoven’s finale modifies the felicità by presenting only a series of paired phrases that resemble its first section, with subsequent modules introducing increasingly agitated musical features. 

The earliest critical accounts of the Ninth indicate a lukewarm audience reception. Perhaps Beethoven’s unorthodox modifications bewildered the audiences of its earliest performances by disrupting the interactive script of the felicità. Beethoven’s altered felicità consequently offers a case study for how schemata mediate social, affective, and musical experiences.

In Lines and Lyrics (2021), Matt BaileyShea outlines several criteria one might use, consciously or unconsciously, to transcribe the lyrics of popular song as poetry. He invites us to consider the case of someone tasked with anthologizing the lyrics of a dead songwriter who has left no sanctioned version of their lyrics. This thought exercise turns out to be analytically useful: BaileyShea’s criteria, which implicate both textual and musical features, are the very same factors involved in expressive interactions between lineation, syntax, and melodic grouping across a wide range of musical styles.

I consider a related scenario: how might one reconstruct an art song’s poem when no authoritative version is available? As a case study, I consider Gian Carlo Menotti’s “The Hero” (1952), whose text was written by Robert Horan. Horan figured prominently in Menotti’s and Samuel Barber’s lives during the 1940s as a close romantic, domestic, artistic, and professional partner (Pollack 2023). Yet, no original version of Horan’s poem survives. We are left to reconstruct it ourselves, relying on the structure of Horan’s words and Menotti’s music.

I approach the issue from the perspective of cognitive poetics, whereby the emerging lineation of a poem in mental performance is constrained by gestalt principles, limitations of memory, and other aspects of human cognition (Grosser 2017; Tsur 2008). Following Lerdahl and Jackendoff (1983), I reformulate these constraints and BaileyShea’s criteria as preference rules, which I then use to consider a variety of possible lineations for “The Hero.”

Percussion compositions are often scored for many instruments played by a single performer over a short span of time. This type of instrumentation, known as a multipercussion setup, requires the percussionist to think critically about both the physical space created by their instruments and the resulting soundscape. This presents both logistical challenges and opportunities for musical innovation and individual expression.

I begin this paper by outlining the most important logistical and musical factors percussionists consider when devising a multipercussion setup. I then demonstrate how these can either highlight or obscure aspects of musical form in two pieces. In Kevin Volans’s She Who Sleeps with a Small Blanket (1985), performers’ decisions to adhere to (or diverge from) the suggested instrument layout and sticking patterns provided in the score result in different sets of contrapuntal lines and, correspondingly, a different understanding of the musical material. In David Lang’s “The Anvil Chorus” (1991), the timbres and pitches of the instruments chosen by three different performers lend the work different characters and tonal implications. These analyses draw on the work of performer-analysts including Mark Berry (2009) and Ben Duinker (2021) and show how these decisions influence – and are influenced by – musical form. I conclude that the connections between physical space, timbre and musical structure are important to percussion music more broadly, and that the control percussionists have over them creates opportunities to convey musical meaning in their performances.

Recently, “gesture” has become an influential analytical category. Significant research contributions are by Naomi Cumming (2000) and Robert Hatten (2004). For them, “gesture” encompasses two senses: physical gestures of performers and virtual gestures of “music” construed as an agent or persona. The relationship between physical and virtual gestures is explored, but not clarified, by Cumming and Hatten: thus, I aim at elucidating it by comparing the “gestures of performer” (GOP) with the “gestures of music” (GOM) in Jacqueline du Pré’s video recording of Edward Elgar’s Cello Concerto.

To this end, I raise three methodological issues related to (1) identifying GOMs, (2) identifying GOPs, and (3) describing their interaction. Then, I propose a set of solutions. To identify groups, I apply Lerdahl and Jackendoff’s (1983) Grouping Preference Rules and, following Hatten (2018), I refer to Larson’s (2012) musical forces to find groups likely to be “heard as” GOMs. Still, Larson’s forces—being restricted to pitch and rhythm—are not sufficient to identify GOMs: therefore, I propose dynamics and articulation as further criteria. To identify GOPs, I consider how different bodily parts participate in producing sound: movements of the parts most distant from those directly involved in sound production will likely be “seen as” GOPs. Finally, convergence between GOMs and GOPs occurs when the latter intensify the former, whereas divergence may occur if the gestural potential of a GOM is not realized by a GOP or if a GOP highlights a group which otherwise would not be perceived as a GOM.

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 Kurth’s insights, this project articulates an analytical framework inspired by his theories. 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. 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.

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.

[to come]

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. The punk and emo genres are two that are intertwined and as a result can 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, it has its own musical features that distinguish it from punk. This paper focuses on the two genres, showing how the constellations

To facilitate this type of examination, I created Meta-Categorical Frameworks (MCFs) and Genre Experience Maps (GEMs) that approach 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 is employed to support the claims of the MCFs and GEMs for punk and emo. Then an examination of AFI’s “Torch Song,” and “Sacrilege” from their 2009 album Crash Love demonstrates how different combinations of components results in the emphasis of different genre characteristics.

What happens when folk music—a genre known for its constructions of authenticity—collides with collage, a compositional strategy whose overt hybridity destabilizes such constructions? This collision characterizes recent output by indie-folk collective Bon Iver, distinguishing it from the band’s earlier music. Yet collage does much more than distance new sound from old. My 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. I then zero in on the meaningful interactions 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 (Boone 2013), 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.

Through the creation of a typology of quote-types in jazz improvisation, the field of musical borrowing set forth by J. Peter Burkholder is married with jazz analysis. This typology employs an either-or criteria to create four binary categories with distinct labels. These four criteria are then combined to create a quote-type, sixteen of which are allotted by this typological method. The four assessments of type are (1) Autogenous/External, (2) Traditional/Divergent, (3) Familiar/Niche, and (4) Composition/Improvisation. The first criterion differs between solos originating from source material composed by the improviser or someone else. The traditional/divergent criterion distinguishes between a quotation that exists within the genre of an improvisation or divergent from said tradition. Familiar and niche labels refer to the expected reference that the audience has with the performed quotation. The final criterion juxtaposes source material stemming from composed and improvised material. Since each of the eight labels are distinct in their starting letter, the quote-types consist of the acronym of their four binary criteria (i.e. an ETFC quote-type is an external/traditional/familiar/composition quotation). Upon a detailed discussion of these criteria and quote-types, my paper then offers contributions to the extramusical meaning that these improvisational choices evoke. This discussion of quotational impact highlights the applied use-value of my offered typology. I posit that this typology of musical borrowing in jazz improvisation will provide an additional layer of depth to discussion of quotation in jazz improvisation while simultaneously bolstering the field of musical borrowing.

The oldest native instrument of China, the guqin is a seven-string plucked monophonic instrument known for its ornamented melodies and nuanced performing style. Despite long-time associations with the literati, guqin musical forms remain undertheorized as discussions tend to be metaphorical rather than analytical. Moreover, the native notational system jianzipu is essentially a tablature that indirectly communicates pitches via fingerings and articulations without rhythmic or phrasing details.

Contextualized by perspectives on performance practice, organology, and Chinese culture, this paper proposes a hierarchical framework for understanding guqin’s phrase structure. Named “the Repetition Scheme,” it explicates three interconnected aspects of phrases: components, boundaries, and transformations. Extending from ancient and contemporary sources, I classify guqin’s playing techniques as basic articulations (individual playing techniques that activate a string), compound articulations (customary combinations of basic articulations), and elaborative gestures (left-hand slidings after basic articulations that modify the sound). These techniques are congruous with the timbral qualities, kinesthetic energy levels, and pitch content they generate.

Invoking the Chinese philosophical and literary idea of “harmony,” I propose that the reiteration of pitch classes realized contrastingly in musical parameters such as articulation, register, timbre, and ornamentation is the fundamental organizing and developing principle both within and between phrases in guqin music. In addition, phrases can be complicated by transformations such as elision and internal expansion. I hope this framework can assist the dapu process of many uninterpreted ancient scores and the idiomatic composition of new pieces for the guqin while illuminating programmatic titles commonly associated with guqin pieces.

[to come]

Corelli’s signature use of upper-voice 2-3 suspension chains in the Opp. 1–4 Trio Sonatas reveals interesting connections to several standard Galant schemata (as defined in Gjerdingen 2007)— especially a contrapuntal variant of the Prinner in which each of its four stages in embellished with suspended 9ths whose resolutions feature clever contrapuntal mechanics and harmonic interpolations (e.g., ii-V). Corelli’s widespread 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 arose out of the possible harmonizations of contrapuntal 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 standard Down3-Up2 pattern. Like the standard Galant schemata, these three-voice patterns appear in a variety of tonal and 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, Sanguinetti 2012, IJzerman 2018, Menke 2020, Braunschweig 2023).

The soundtrack of recent fantasy video game Baldur’s Gate 3 (2023) features a surprising amount of motivic cohesion, with several works on its soundtrack developing musical material presented initially in its Main Theme music. While such a deployment is typically associated with techniques of leitmotif, in this case there is no obvious connection to a particular character or situation beyond the overarching narrative of the game. However, online discussions about the game indicate that the musical theme once had a leitmotivic association in the game’s early beta release that was removed in its final version.

As a result, the player hears what might be termed a disembodied leitmotif: the recurring thematic material undergoes a similar process of accumulative meaning and development as one might expect for a leitmotif through techniques of motivic fragmentation and recombination. However, obvious narrative meaning for the theme is not initially established, instead requiring the player to infer this meaning through later in-game experiences.

This presentation will examine eleven tracks from the game that develop material from the Main Theme, identifying three key techniques through which motives are combined with new material. Previous scholarship from ludomusicology examining methods for thematic development in the music of video games and musico-narrative associations will provide both methodology and context. The analysis will then reference previous scholarship in leitmotif in film and video game to contextualize the theme’s role in accumulating meaning and depicting the emotional underscore.

[to come]

In the final scene of HBO’s House of the Dragon, the 2022 prequel to Game of Thrones, protagonist Rhaenyra Targaryen learns that her son Lucerys has been slain while riding his dragon. The scene’s musical cue, which I term “Lucerys’ Death,” expands this event’s narrative and temporal impacts by weaving together distinct leitmotivs to combine their meanings. Through leitmotivic (Bribitzer-Stull 2015), tropological (Hatten 2004, 2014), and agential (Cumming 2000, Monahan 2013, Klorman 2015, Hatten 2018) lenses of analysis, I unpack how the cue capitalizes on those meanings to express apotheosis and how that expression reflects Rhaenyra’s unraveling. 

“Lucerys’ Death” is constructed of four interwoven themes: Girlhood, Destiny, Daenerys, and Title. Girlhood is Rhaenyra’s youthful leitmotiv, associated with Rhaenyra’s childhood friendships and innocence. Destiny, Rhaenyra’s mature leitmotiv, musically grows out of Girlhood and connotes Rhaenyra’s complicated future and fate. Daenerys is Daenerys Targaryen’s leitmotiv, imported from Game of Thrones, and represents Rhaenyra’s and Daenerys’ shared ambitions and flaws. Title is the title theme shared by Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon and serves to elevate local events to more global importance (Broad 2020). In “Lucerys’ Death,” these four leitmotivs agentially trope with each other to express Rhaenyra’s internal conflict, inescapable fate, and catalytic role in the narrative. When Rhaenyra hears of Lucerys’ death, and viewers hear the music that characterizes it, the diegesis perches on an axial tipping point, the gravity of which is only fully realized through an interpretation of the music’s thematic entanglement.

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 and embrace new analytical methodologies.

Elliott Carter’s Fifth Quartet marks the beginning of his late-late style, in which harmony, rhythm, and counterpoint are simplified. Existing scholarship demonstrates that in this piece, Carter employs flexibility in the use of long-range polyrhythms as well as a concise harmonic language based on the all-interval tetrachords, the all-trichord hexachord, and unions of these set-classes. However, other musical dimensions such as register and voicing receive less attention, and as such, this study focuses on chord spacing trends in the Fifth Quartet, with special emphasis on the Adagio sereno and Capriccioso movements. A computer program written for this project segments the score of the quartet by sonority, extracting features for each chord such as chord spacing contour and chord spacing index. These metrics indicate how pitches are distributed vertically within a chord, and where pitches in a chord might be closer together or farther apart in register. This makes it possible to compare all the chords in the piece and notice local and global trends in pitch distribution within chords. The data show that in both movements, as well as in the Fifth Quartet as a whole, Carter chooses to emphasize relatively balanced pitch distribution and balanced chord spacing. In particular, although extremes in spacing choices add occasional drama to the musical narrative, balance is maintained by complementary extremes which restore overall equilibrium.

Ted Dunbar’s System of Tonal Convergence (1975) is influenced by George Russell’s Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization (1953 [2001]). Dunbar extends Russell’s theory toward cadences in jazz improvisation. More specifically, Dunbar’s treatise seems to be the earliest written attempt to theorize the “tritone substitution” before its formalization within academic jazz institutions.

Drawing on gravitational metaphors from Russell, Dunbar conceptualizes the dominant seventh chord as a convergent zone where an improvisor may use any of his twenty-four scalar substitutes to resolve towards a tonic. Important to convergent zones is the resolution of the “mysterious tritone interval” in each of his scales. I argue that Dunbar’s focus on the tritone stems from Paul Hindemith’s Craft of Musical Composition, which uses the tritone as its primary organizing principle. Not only does Dunbar quote Hindemith at length at the beginning of this treatise, but it is also cited in his bibliography in his follow-up book in 1976. Ultimately, Dunbar conceptualizes the tritone substitution as a negotiation between Russell’s “chordmodes” and Hindemith’s chord-group categories.

While Dan DiPiero (2023) draws a straight line between Russell’s chordmodes and its full appropriation as a white-masculine technology at the Berklee School of Music, Dunbar’s treatise puts pause on this claim and shows how Russell’s theory had multiple avenues of reception before its complete inauguration into mainstream academic institutions. Dunbar’s System is one such avenue, which bridges both regulative and speculative dimensions by weaving esoteric numerology from mid-century mystics with Russell’s and Hindemith’s theories.

[to come]

Most descriptions of gospel invariably rely on lyrics due to a common theme that espouses religious ideals borne of, and inspired by, Biblical text. However, absent textual references or attendant congregational experiences, can we as analysts and listeners still describe the music as “gospel?” In this talk, I argue that some hallmarks of the gospel tradition exist in ways that do not depend on a devotional context, and that there are explicit practices that not only define gospel within the style, but also become markers of it in other styles. In particular, I identify the genre’s preoccupation with the subdominant in what I refer to as gospel’s “plagality” by exploring the expansion of plagal progressions into what I call “gospel shout schemata.” I then demonstrate how these features can function as topics when used outside of gospel music or church settings.

The clavinet is inextricably linked to Stevie Wonder; beginning in 1967, Wonder modified this instrument—an electric version of the clavichord—to shape his aesthetic vision. Featuring heavily in works such as Talking Book (1972) Wonder’s innovative adjustments and treatment of the clavinet transformed it into a marker of funk music. In this presentation, I first propose the concept of “sonic trademark” to connect the clavinet and Stevie Wonder, before turning to Lauryn Hill’s song, “Every Ghetto, Every City” (1998); my analysis aims to elucidate Hill’s use of the clavinet as a signal towards Black identity and collective memory.

Theories from Julian Henriques and Mark Campbell illuminate how the “sonic” of “sonic trademark” goes beyond imagining sounds in their commodified form and instead, prioritizes sound and music in relation to Afrodiasporic people and the sociocultural relationships developed around and through music. “Every Ghetto, Every City” features two clavinets, which are emphasized in different spaces of the mix: one in the left, and one in the right played with a wah pedal. My analysis investigates how the clavinets are utilized throughout the form of the song and considers the implications of their appearances; the left clavinet is played almost entirely throughout the song, while the right clavinet enters and exits. Examining the song beyond salient musical features, I explore how Hill uses the clavinets to foreground Black identity, experience, and collective memory and to largely signify Afro-diasporic musical practices.

Pop-rock music from the last two decades of the twentieth century is timbrally defined by its heavy use of the Yamaha DX7 E. PIANO 1 and distorted electric guitar (Cateforis 2011; Lavengood 2019, 2020), producing an identifiable sonic signature. Over time, these sounds have faded with the rise of new digital processing tools and techniques that yield alternate timbres. Today’s avid listeners of popular music, however, might sense a return to the musical past. The current study examines how and why today’s pop music harkens back to the ‘80s and ‘90s while still retaining its identity in the current pop sphere.

In this paper I provide a framework that allows us to examine the “what,” “how,” and “why” behind the current resurgence of ‘80s and ‘90s sonorities. First, I share the results of a corpus study that examines the use of these two distinct timbres over time, finding a marked increase in their use over the past 10 years. Then, I engage two promising theories for reconciling old and new sounds in contemporary pop both structurally and psychologically: musical hybridity (Alcalde 2022) and the (cascading) reminiscence bump (Krumhansl and Zupnick 2013; Rathbone, O’Connor, and Moulin 2017). Finally, I turn to the top hits for a closer examination of recent song releases that feature the DX7’s E. PIANO 1 and/or distorted guitar timbres, suggesting that artists and producers may be motivated by feelings of nostalgia from their own past musical experiences or that of their projected audience.

Through the 2010s, the social media site, Tumblr, fostered an inclusive environment for young, queer identities to take part in fan culture activities, surrounding various musical works. With the use of dystopian soundscapes and aesthetics, many of these albums reflected themes of identity, queerness, love, and sex. Given that the audience of the platform heavily-consisted of queer youth, such topics offered a sense of hopeful self-recognition for their listeners. Several albums were noted for their presence on the platform, which I coin as “Tumblr Albums.” Most notable for their massive fan following, queer coded aesthetics, and dystopian soundscapes, these albums include: Halsey's Badlands (2015), Lorde’s Pure Heroine (2013), Melanie Martinez’s Cry Baby (2015), Troye Sivan’s Blue Neighborhood (2015), and twenty one pilots’s Blurryface (2015). This paper builds on ideas of temporality as discussed by Elizabeth Freeman (2010), Jack Halberstam (2003), and Bill Solomon (2023) in order to assert my understanding of queered temporalities as they manifest in these Tumblr Albums. In this paper, I conduct case studies of two tracks from these albums: “Ribs” (Pure Heroine) and “Heaven” (Blue Neighborhood). In tracking the formal structures as they adhere to and diverge from those discussed by Brad Osborn (2013) and Drew Nobile (2011, 2020), I recognize sonic and timbral markers that drive the works. In the context of each album as a whole, I argue that these formal structures enhance a queered experience, therefore highlighting the queer sonic worlds within these Tumblr Albums.