This page lists conference activity, publications, and other accomplishments of students and faculty in the music theory department from fall 2015 through spring 2016. See this page for more recent accomplishments.
Spring 2016
Blustein presents in Sheffield, UK
On May 10, PhD candidate Nathan Beary Blustein presented his paper "'Playwriting in Song': 'Reprise Types' in Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd" at the conference "'Putting It Together': Investigating Sources for Musical Theatre Research" at the University of Sheffield in the UK.
IU theorists active at MTMW
Despite an inconvenient schedule that conflicted with IU's final exams, several students in the music theory department were able to attend the twenty-seventh annual conference of Music Theory Midwest at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, Arkansas, on May 6–7.
Those presenting papers at the conference included the following:
PhD candidate Devin Chaloux presented "Liszt's Two Versions of His Requiem and the Revisionist's Case for a Double-Tonic Complex."
PhD candidate Chelsey Hamm presented "Charles Ives's 'Democratic' Treatment of Dissonances."
MM student Lauren Wilson presented "Babbitt's Soli e Duettini for Two Guitars: Dialogue with Oneself."
Papers were also presented by IU alumni Bruno Alcalde (MM 2012), MichaelBaker (PhD 2007), Jonathan Guez (MM 2008), Justin Lavacek (PhD 2011), Nathaniel Mitchell (MM 2015), Abigail Shupe (MM 2009), and Brent Yorgason (PhD 2009), and sessions were chaired by alumni Melissa Hoag (PhD 2008) and Stan Kleppinger (PhD 2006).
In the recent MTMW elections, Professor Blair Johnston was elected to a two-year term as Area II Representative to the MTMW Executive Board, succeeding Professor Daphne Tan in that position. Devin Chaloux continues his term as Student Representative to the board, representing Areas II and IV.
Sherrill defends dissertation
On April 29, Paul Sherrill successfully defended his dissertation, "The Metastasian Da Capo Aria: Moral Philosophy, Characteristic Actions, and Dialogic Form," advised by Professor Roman Ivanovitch. Congratulations, Dr. Sherrill!
Mead presents at Eastman
On April 29, Professor Andrew Mead presented a talk titled "A Game of Tones: The Sense of Play in the Music of Milton Babbitt" at the Eastman School of Music. At a concert connected to the talk, Professor Mead's Six Concert Etudes for solo alto saxophone were performed.
Roush presents at RMSMT
On April 23, PhD candidate Katrina Roush presented her paper "Analysis of Subjective Listening Experiences: Attention and Affordances" at a joint conference of the Rocky Mountain Society for Music Theory, the Rocky Mountain Chapter of the American Musicological Society, and the Southwest Chapter of the Society for Ethnomusicology at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Samarotto completes lecture tour
Between mid-March and mid-April, Professor Frank Samarotto traveled to three other universities for lectures and classes. He visited the University of Alabama as Endowed Chair in Theory and Composition, giving two lectures—one on Brahms and Ptolemy, the other on the Beatles and infinity—and teaching classes in counterpoint, form, and Schenkerian analysis. He also lectured and taught at Temple University in Philadelphia and at the University of North Texas.
Duke wins Wennerstrom AI Fellowship
The theory department is pleased to announced that PhD student Craig Duke is the 2016 winner of the Wennerstrom Music Theory Associate Instructor Fellowship.
Bauchat presents at MTSE/SCSMT
On April 1, PhD student Nikolas Bauchat presented his paper "Tonal Deception in Verdi's Macbeth II" at a joint conference of Music Theory Southeast and the South Central Society for Music Theory at Kennesaw State University in Kennesaw, Georgia.
Ivanovitch accompanies student quartet to Beethoven-Haus
During IU's spring break in mid-March, Professor Roman Ivanovitch traveled to Germany with violin professor Alex Kerr and a JSoM student quartet for a week-long residency at the Beethoven-Haus in Bonn, culminating in a concert of Beethoven, Mozart, and Mendelssohn (repeated the next day in Berlin). While in Bonn, the group engaged in intensive seminars and conversations with the scholars, editors, and librarians at the Beethoven-Haus, on topics related to their concert program, involving autograph manuscripts, editorial methodology, score analysis, and original-instrument practices. Professor Ivanovitch led a session on Mozart's Quartet in G Major, K. 387.
Taycher wins award at medieval symposium
PhD student Ryan Taycher's paper "De fundamento discanti" received an award for the best paper presented at the Ninth Annual Medieval Graduate Student Symposium. The symposium, sponsored by AVISTA, the Association Villard de Honnecourt for the Interdisciplinary Study of Technology, Science, and Art, took place at the University of North Texas on March 3–4. The winning paper was selected by keynote speaker Nicola Coldstream.
Congratulations, Ryan!
Mead article published in new Carter journal
Professor Andrew Mead's article "Fuzzy Edges: Notes on Musical Interaction in the Music of Elliott Carter" appears in the inaugural issue of the journal Elliott Carter Studies Online.
GTA presents annual symposium
The Graduate Theory Association presented its 22nd Annual Symposium of Research in Music Theory on February 19–20. GTA President Calvin Peck and more than fifteen other graduate students were involved in planning, chairing sessions, hospitality, technological assistance, and publicity for the symposium.
Keynote speaker William Rothstein (Graduate Center and Queens College, City University of New York) led a pre-conference workshop on "Deriving Imaginary Continuo from Eighteenth-Century Solo Instrumental Music" and delivered the keynote address, titled "Vogler, Meyerbeer, and the Chromatic Scale."
Other speakers at the symposium included several IU students and faculty members:
Professor Frank Samarotto delivered a featured presentation titled "Corelli, Counterpoint, and the Cambrian Explosion."
Professor Kyle Adams delivered a featured presentation titled "How Did Chromaticism Become an 'Ism'?"
MM student Jinny Park presented "1 + 1 = 1: Pärtian Symbolic Dualism in Te Deum."
PhD student David Geary presented "Interru ... Musical-Dramatic Impositions in Verdi's Ernani."
Tan article published in Theoria
Professor Daphne Tan's article "Beyond Energetics: Gestalt Psychology in Ernst Kurth's Musikpsychologie" has been published in Volume 22 of Theoria.
Johnston speaks at CCM
On January 29, Professor Blair Johnston presented a talk "Orchestrational Scenarios in the Music of Sibelius" at the University of Cincinnati's College-Conservatory of Music, as a part of CCM's Joseph and Frances Jones Poetker Thinking About Music Lecture Series.
Mead presents at IWU
Professor Andrew Mead visited another Bloomington on January 25, giving a presentation about his own music to composition students at Illinois Wesleyan University.
Fall 2015
Wennerstrom honored on retirement
The Department of Music Theory congratulates Mary Wennerstrom on the occasion of her retirement in December 2015. Professor Wennerstrom joined the IU faculty in 1964, chaired the theory department from 1979 to 2002, and served the Jacobs School of Music as Associate Dean for Instruction from 2002 until her retirement. She also served extended terms as Treasurer of the Society for Music Theory and Editor of the Journal of Music Theory Pedagogy. A reception honoring Dean Wennerstrom was held in the Musical Arts Center lobby on December 11.
McClimon defends dissertation
On December 9, Michael McClimon successfully defended his dissertation, "A Transformational Approach to Jazz Harmony," advised by Professor Julian Hook. Congratulations, Dr. McClimon!
Kielian-Gilbert chapter published in Oxford Handbook
Professor Marianne Kielian-Gilbert's chapter "Disabled Moves: Disturbing/Activating Differences of Identity, Multi-Dimensional Music Listening" appears in The Oxford Handbook of Music and Disability Studies, edited by Blake Howe, Stephanie Jensen-Moulton, Neil Lerner, and Joseph Straus, and published by Oxford University Press in November 2015.
Professor Kielian-Gilbert is also the author of a chapter "Listening in Film: Music/Film Temporality, Materiality and Memory" in The Oxford Handbook of Film Music Studies, edited by David Neumeyer. This handbook, first published in 2013, was released in paperback in 2015.
Hook, Mead contribute to special issue of JMM
A special issue of the Journal of Mathematics and Music (volume 9, no. 2, 2015) on the subject of "Tone Rows and Tropes" features a long article of that title by Harald Fripertinger and Peter Lackner. Guest editors for the special issue were Professor Julian Hook and Robert Peck of Louisiana State University; the editors contributed a short introduction to the issue. Two other scholars, including Professor Andrew Mead, contributed response papers to the main article.
Horlacher presents in Portugal
Professor Gretchen Horlacher presented two papers and led a class during a visit to Portugal on November 5–6:
A lecture, "Movement and Music in Dance: A Neoclassical Collaboration for Orpheus" at the Institute of Ethnomusicology, a part of the Center for Music and Dance at Nova Universidade, Lisbon
A lecture, "Filling the Gap: Stravinsky's Compositional Method" at the Center for the Investigation of Science and Technology in the Arts at Universidade Católica Portuguesa, Porto
Also at Universidade Católica, a class, "Where Does Meter Come From: Teaching Students How to Count in Post-Tonal Music"
IU theorists active at SMT conference
The IU theory department was very well represented at the annual meeting of the Society for Music Theory in St. Louis, Missouri, on October 29–November 1, with at least eight faculty, 30 current graduate students, and numerous alumni in attendance.
Faculty and students who presented at the conference included the following:
Professor Kyle Adams presented "Palestrina, Zarlino, and the Cadence."
PhD student Nathan Beary Blustein presented "Stepwise Modulation as a Dramatic Device for Tonic Return in Musical Theater Songs."
PhD candidate Devin Chaloux presented "Phrygian Expectations and Denials."
Professor Julian Hook presented "Enharmonic Equivalence as an Equivalence Relation."
Professor Roman Ivanovitch introduced the conference's keynote speaker, Kofi Agawu of Princeton University. Professor Ivanovitch is also a contributor to the Oxford Handbook of Topic Theory, edited by Danuta Mirka, which was named the winner of a Citation of Special Merit at the SMT Awards ceremony.
PhD candidate Jason Jedlicka presented "Theatrical Time through Audio Technology: Steve Reich and Beryl Korot's Three Tales" (in the meeting of the Film and Multimedia Interest Group).
Professor Marianne Kielian-Gilbert presented "Resisting/Embracing Variability: A Music-Theoretic Aesthetics of Queering and Acts of Unbecoming."
PhD candidate Michael McClimon presented "Reconceptualizing the Lydian Chromatic Concept: George Russell as Historical Theorist."
Professor Andrew Mead chaired a session titled "Serialism."
Proferssor Frank Samarotto presented "Subdominant(s), Lower-Fifth Dividers, and Inversion in Schenkerian Theory."
PhD candidate Paul Sherrill presented "Susanna's 'Dei vieni.'"
Professor Daphne Tan presented "Kurth's Dynamic Dualism, or Three Responses to Riemann."
Many alumni of the department also presented at the conference, including recent alumni Danny Arthurs (PhD 2011), Timothy Chenette (PhD 2013), Diego Cubero (PhD 2014), Melissa Hoag (PhD 2008), Nathaniel Mitchell (MM 2015), Garrett Michaelsen (PhD 2013), Mitchell Ohriner (PhD 2011), and Simon Prosser (MM 2012).
GTA presents annual recital
On October 23, the annual Graduate Theory Association Fall Recital took place in Auer Hall. Performers included theory graduate students Nikolas Bauchat (piano), Matthew Boyle (piano), Nicole DiPaolo (piano), Thomas Craig Duke (voice), Leah Frederick (viola), Gabrielle Gaudreault (voice), John Heilig (alto and tenor saxophones), Katelyn Kozinski (violin and composer), Nathan Lam (organ and clarinet), Jinny Park (cello), Rogerio Shieh (Baroque cello), and Jessica Sommer (oboe); and Professor Julian Hook (piano).
Tan book review published in MTO
Professor Daphne Tan's review of Eric Clarke's Ways of Listening: An Ecological Approach to the Perception of Musical Meaning appears in Volume 21, No. 3 of Music Theory Online.
Mead presents at Reger Festival
On September 26, Professor Andrew Mead presented a paper "Slipping Off to Bayreuth: Max Reger's Not So Secret Tryst with Wagner" at the Max Reger Festival, sponsored by the Max Reger Foundation of America in partnership with the Jacobs School of Music. Professor Blair Johnston chaired the paper session.
Jedlicka presents paper in Finland
On September 25, PhD candidate Jason Jedlicka presented his paper "Theatrical Time through Audio Technology: Steve Reich and Beryl Korot's Three Tales" at Minimalism Unbounded!, the Fifth International Conference on Minimalist Music, held at the University of Turku and the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, Finland.
DiPaolo article published
In September, PhD student Nicole DiPaolo's article "Variations as Thematic and Structural Analysis: A Closer Look at Mozart's K331" was published in Volume 4, No. 1 of the Malaysian Music Journal.
New students welcomed
In August 2015, the music theory department welcomed new students into our MM and PhD programs.
New MM students:
Emily Barbosa (Cambridge, Ontario). Emily completed her BMus in music theory and music education at Wilfrid Laurier University. Her interests include formal analysis (especially sonata theory), expressionism, and folk music. She also enjoys crocheting, watching cooking shows, and walking around barefoot.
Chelsea Brinda (Orlando, FL). A vocalist and pianist, Chelsea received bachelor's degrees in music theory and music education from the University of Florida. Her interests include German Lieder, the history of music theory, music theory pedagogy, and post-tonal theory. In her spare time she can often be found crocheting or sewing with her cat by her side.
Lauren Wilson (Brighton, MI). Lauren holds a bachelor's degree in guitar performance from Oakland University in Michigan. Among her interests are atonality, serialism, form, and expanding scholarship in the Classical guitar repertoire. Outside of music, Lauren enjoys running, traveling, and her cat, Florence.
New PhD students:
Leah Frederick (Manassas, VA). Leah holds a BMA in viola performance and a BS in mathematics from Penn State University. Her musical interests include Beethoven's string quartets, Classical form, performance and analysis, and transformational theory. She also enjoys cooking, running, and playing chamber music.
David Geary (Rochester, NY). David holds bachelor's degrees in music theory and music education from Ithaca College and an MA in music theory pedagogy from the Eastman School of Music, where he received a prize for excellence in teaching. His interests include nineteenth-century Italian opera, Schenkerian analysis, and music theory pedagogy.
Robert Komaniecki (Minneapolis, MN). Robert received a BA in music and and MA in music theory from the University of Minnesota. His primary interests are popular music and music theory pedagogy. He also enjoys science fiction novels, running, and singing bass in chamber choruses.
Stephen Komer (Chesterfield, MI). A squash player and coin collector, Stephen received a BM in piano performance from Oakland University (Rochester, MI) and an MM in music theory from IU. His interests include Renaissance and Baroque music and Schenkerian analysis.
Sarah Mahnken (Schleswig, IA). Sarah received a BA in music from Concordia University in Seward, NE and an MM in music theory from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, where she wrote a thesis on scalar and collectional relationships in Shostakovich's Op. 87 fugues. Her other interests include scale theory, modes, and pitch centricity.
Zachary Zinser (San Diego, CA). Zack received a BM in piano and an MM in music theory from IU. His interests include pedagogy, Schenkerian analysis, tonal center preferences and associations in the early eighteenth century, pitch organization in popular music, and keyboard music of Chopin, Rachmaninoff, and Satie.