Thursday, February 19
The Contours of Timbre in Rebecca Saunders’s “Fury II”*
Ash Mach (Eastman School of Music)
Rebecca Saunders describes her own music as having a “distinctive and intensely striking sonic language” that explores the “sculptural and spatial properties of sound.” Previous analyses used semantic descriptors to make sense of her sound world, but verge on painting sound materials as static rather than dynamic processes. Using Saunders’s double bass concerto Fury II as a case study, this paper introduces a methodology that puts orchestration in conversation with acoustic correlates of timbre, allowing us to hear the relationships between differing sound components. To demonstrate timbre and orchestration’s change over time, I adopt tools from contour theory to serve as the common analytical language across dimensions.
I first propose nine sound piece-specific descriptors based on type of attack, presence of pitch, or break in sound. I use these descriptors to create “pitch saturation” and “length of attack” graphs based on the number of onsets of each sound type, demonstrating the timbral prominence of each descriptor in a given section. Using contour segment vectors (CSEGs) and comparison matrices to analyze the contour of each graph, I argue that each timbral descriptor operates in independence, despite sharing identical vectors. I then build upon the orchestration analysis by plotting two spectral descriptors: spectral crest and spectral centroid. Based on their opposing contours, I argue that Saunders creates the perception of a brighter timbre by adding high frequencies and unpitched noise. Overall, this paper offers a new perspective on listening to and analyzing Fury II by using contour analysis to show change in timbral parameters over time.
The Neo-Phrygian Quartet: Beethoven’s Op. 131*
Jonathon Crompton (Columbia University)
Mode in late Beethoven has been understood as occurring primarily through mode-signifying scale degrees coloring the major or minor keys (Biamonte, 2001; Tuttle, 2016; Grajter, 2020). But this may overlook older forms of modal behavior predicated on mode-signifying half steps in relation to a final. Some of Op. 131’s more enigmatic harmonic features—the ambiguous closes of the tonic-key bookend movements, wherein tonic major emerges as V/iv, and the fugue’s subdominant rather than dominant answers—cannot neatly be summarized as modal inflections of a key. Instead, this paper argues that, in the above, Beethoven employs two Phrygian conventions, which historically emblematize the mode’s signal half steps, as they had absorbed into Baroque tonal practice.
First, Phrygian Points of Imitation: through an examination of J.C.F. Fischer’s mi fugue in his Ariadne Musica, I show that explicitly Phrygian fugues could feature subdominant answers in which the tonic subject’s 5–b6 is transposed to 1–b2. Second, Phrygian Tonal Closes: through exploring historical surveys of the change from modes to keys, I highlight the emblematic Phrygian half steps in the Phrygian Tonal Closes bvii–I and iv–I. I explore these closes in Bach’s chorale setting of a Phrygian hymn, and suggest, again, their origins in mode-signifying half steps.Having surveyed the above historical antecedents, I return to Op. 131 to demonstrate how these Baroque Phrygian strategies parallel key moments in the Quartet, suggesting an expanded view of his modal thinking, beyond harmonic and melodic inflections or major or minor keys, to include modally-idiomatic Points of Imitation and Cadences.
The Breakdown’s Shifting Form and Function in 21st Century Metal*
Carle J. Wirshba (Rutgers University)
While verse–chorus form has remained the dominant structural model for over a century, recent popular genres have introduced new formal units whose primary function is not auditory but kinesthetic. In electronic dance music, this role is filled by the drop or core (Butler 2006), and in contemporary pop by the dance-chorus (Barna 2020); in twenty-first-century metal, it is filled by the breakdown. Originally serving as a contrasting bridge section, the breakdown has evolved into a structurally significant unit capable of reshaping song form itself (Gamble 2019; Smialek2015). This paper explores how modern metal bands employ the breakdown as a permanent addition to the verse–chorus paradigm (Nobile 2020), arguing that its movement-orientedfunction increasingly competes with—and in some cases replaces—the traditional chorus.
Drawing on examples from bands such as August Burns Red, Wage War, A Day to Remember, and Bring Me the Horizon, I identify three formal capacities of the breakdown: its ability to replace traditional formal units, to flip their functions, and to create novel forms antithetical to the verse–chorus cycle. I term this latter structure breakdown form, in which songs are organized around forward momentum toward the breakdown rather than chorus repetition. Ultimately, the breakdown shifts attention away from performers and toward collective dance participation in the form of moshing and mass entrainment (Hudson 2021; 5.1.2). By situating the breakdown alongside EDM and pop dance-oriented structures, this work highlights a broader trend in popular music toward movement-focused formal design.
Friday, February 20
Sound, Motion, and Meaning: Rethinking the Role of Space in Multipercussion Music*
Madeleine Howey (Concordia College)
Multipercussion repertoire poses a challenge for purely score-centered analysis because musical structure in the genre is realized through performer-mediated spatial configurations that are rarely fixed in notation. This paper proposes an approach to multipercussion analysis that treats instrument setup and bodily gesture as analytically meaningful factors shaping rhythm, texture, and perceived musical time.
Building on Ben Duinker’s (2021) framework for negotiating impossible percussion challenges and Mark Berry’s (2009) performer-specific approach to setup design, I argue that multipercussion setups function as structural elements of the music, comparable in analytical importance to motivic development. After situating this approach through brief examples by Xenakis, Ishii, and Campana, the paper focuses on Michio Kitazume’s Side by Side to illustrate its core analytical claims.
Using comparative video analysis of four recorded performances, I show how variation in instrument layout leads performers to realize the same passages in meaningfully different ways. Even when players assign the same patterns to the same hands, their setups require traveling along different physical paths, producing subtle but audible differences in timing, accentuation, and motivic emphasis. Performers also adopt distinct sticking strategies that redistribute musical material between the hands, reshaping the perceived rhythmic grouping of key passages.
I argue that these performance-dependent realizations bring structural features of the music that are inaccessible through notation alone into the forefront. By incorporating spatial and gestural variables into analytical discourse, this paper accounts for variability in multipercussion performance practice without collapsing into purely descriptive commentary.
They Lost the Time: Disability and Empowerment in Gaelynn Lea’s “Lost in the Woods”*
Austin Wilson (Florida State University)
Explorations of the musical culture of disability usually involve at least one of three discussions: how disability is represented in music (Cizmic 2006; Straus 2006, 2011, 2021), how disability informs performance (Groemer 2016, Honisch 2009, Jensen-Moulton 2009, Lubet 2010), or how disability affects the listening and viewing experience of music (Bakan 2019; Glennie, Gilman, and Kim 2019). Far less frequently discussed in music theory is music created by artists with disabilities. While much progress has been made (e.g., Howe (2016), Maler (2024), Tatar (2023)), theoretical conversations still rarely include compositions by musicians with disabilities of the type to which Joseph Straus (2011, 15; 2018, ix) refers as “mobility impairment.”
I analyze “Lost in the Woods” (2018) by Gaelynn Lea to show how an artist with a mobility impairment expresses Disability Pride (Carmel 2020) through her music. Specifically, I show how phrase rhythm manipulations, visuals, choreography, and formal deviations coordinate to emphasize Lea’s message that disability is neither a social stigma nor source of pity but rather a form of empowerment.
This analysis contributes more broadly to conversations about diversity in music theory, a discipline in which disability is often overlooked in diversity initiatives—particularly in pedagogy. After discussing sociocultural and pragmatic factors that may contribute to this shortcoming, I conclude by offering a (nascent) list of works by composers with disabilities and briefly demonstrating pedagogical applications of a sample of these works.
Keyboard Distance: An Analytical Tool for Bridging Transformational Theory and Embodied Performance in Piano Music*
Zekai Liu (Eastman School of Music)
Transformational theory has long provided powerful models for understanding abstract pitch relations in music. While De Souza (2017), Frederick (2024), and Momii (2020) have begun integrating the physicality of performance into analytical models, the unique spatial and ergonomic constraints of the piano keyboard have yet to be systematically formalized within transformational theory. This paper addresses this critical gap by introducing Keyboard Distance (KD), an analytical tool that describes and calculates the gestural topography of keyboard music—the physical paths a performer’s hands travel. The KD quantifies physical distance on the keyboard. It defines the space between adjacent white keys as 1 unit, all other distances are measured proportionally according to the standard keyboard layout. By bridging the gap between abstract transformational theory and embodied performance practice, KD does not merely add a new analytical parameter; it argues for a more holistic understanding of musical structure where the physical interface of the instrument is recognized as a fundamental generative force. This model integrates the discourse on instrument-specific transformation theory, arguing that the physical design of the keyboard is not a separate concern but is fundamental to the music itself; that is, by prioritizing the performer’s embodied experience, especially the topography and the nature of black/white keys, KD offers a new perspective for understanding how composers exploit the instrument’s unique transformation space, affirming the piano’s distinct identity within musical transformation studies.
Are Type-2 Structures Real?: A Conceptual Resurrection in 20th-century Sonata Forms*
Heyner Rodriguez Solis (University of Arizona)
Although Elements of Sonata Theory has proved to be a revolutionary work, some of its conceptual postulates have provoked backlash. These criticisms have been especially prominent in the use of binary structures (Type 2). Instead, analysts such as Horton 2018 and VandeMoortele 2017 subsume these designs under the Sonata-Allegro structure (Type 3).
Choosing what type to label a sonata is not a trivial matter; it is a conscious decision to frame shared qualities within a broader tradition that excludes other works, a process characterized as a dialogue (Hepokoski 2021). Stressing differences of closure and reprise in separate parameters characterizes the distinction between structures: Type 2s uncouple tonal and thematic reprises, weakening this double return, whereas Type 3s do not.
I will detail how using Type-3 structures in works with independent multi-parametrical closures delays the placement of the recapitulation and ignore the dislocation between thematic and tonal restatements. I will use Prokofiev and Sibelius’s respective First symphonies to show that Type-2 structures better describe these formal processes. I will also demonstrate that not every Type-2 sonata must prepare the eventual return of any missing material to create a reversed
recapitulation. Furthermore, contrary to traditional understanding, I will show how Type 2s are not limited to an underlying birotational frame, as 20th-century sonata trajectories usually exhibit multiple rotations. A more nuanced description of ambiguous structures is enabled through the combination of rotations, formal functions, and degrees of closure and reprise.
Form as Topic? Reframing Formal Deformation in Haydn’s Piano Trio in Eb Major, Hob.XV:30*
Joey Grunkemeyer (Indiana University)
Haydn’s Piano Trio in Eb Major, Hob.XV:30 contains a number of formal and topical surprises. Hepokoski and Darcy’s Sonata Theory and Caplin’s theory of formal functions both contain several exceptions that account for the originality of this movement. However, the application of Burstein’s neo-Kochian analytical framework, alongside a sensitive labeling of musical topics produces an analysis much closer to the surface of the work. I argue that Haydn topicalizes form itself through his usage of a historically nuanced, Galant approach to sonata form. My methodology consists of a tripart comparison of Sonata Theory, form-function theory, and neo-Kochian theory, alongside an analysis of musical topics.
The first movement is characterized by its loose knit first theme, two-part transition, and two second themes, which are topically painted with gavottes, contradances, ombra, and marches. Sonata Theory dramatizes the two-part transition as a formal deformation and the form function approach is left confused by the loose-knit main theme and tightly knit transition. The double half-cadence structure is normative in the Galant, neo-Kochian approach, erasing the supposed issues. I argue that Haydn is topicalizing this Galant approach to sonata form. In a sense, this is a reference for learned connoisseurs of chamber music to take in. Most interestingly, Haydn removes the second half cadence in the recapitulation, effectively “modernizing” this sonata form. Without this historically nuanced approach to form as topic, one might portray this quirk as some dramatic deformation or loosening of the structure, when in fact it seems to be a subtle wink to those in the know. This large, abstract topic serves as a frame within which Haydn presents a more moment-to-moment topical drama of ombra-tinged high styles and rustically content low styles. The result is a varied musical surface that uses deeper structure for the purpose of expressive discourse.
From Rondo to Quasi-Sine Curve: Formal Approaches in Gyimah Labi’s “Earthbeats”*
Hang Ki Choi (CUNY Graduate Center)
African Pianism — a repertoire that treats the piano as an African percussive instrument — contains innovative formal designs. The form is seemingly modular, yet its sectional boundaries are obscured by pervasive fragmentation and unexpected melodic trajectories. A striking example is Gyimah Labi’s “Earthbeats,” in which the piece begins as a rondo. Yet, the first episode returns insistently; themes from the refrain and episodes coalesce to create hybrid sections.
In Labi’s treatise, Theoretical Issues in African Music, he proposes that a well-designed form should display what he calls a quasi-sine curve—a continuous line with multiple climaxes and jolts in its curve. Taking my cue from the composer, I examine whether mapping “Earthbeats” as a quasi-sine curve may better elucidate its formal structure.
To graph changes of musical intensity, the horizontal axis denotes musical time. The bumps on the curve capture moments of unexpectedness, such as the use of silences and sudden thematic shifts. The vertical axis displays the degree of intensity, determined by parameters associated with tension (Farbood 2012), such as pitch contour, dynamics, and texture.
Through plotting “Earthbeats” as a curve, the hybrid sections that challenged the rondo model create a culmination towards the highest climax. The first episode’s multiple returns form low points that balance adjacent high-intensity sections. Accordingly, refrain–episode alternations serve not only as a thematic-formal device, but also create a quasi-sine curve that provides continuity across sectional boundaries.
Generative Rhythms in Jazz Improvisation
Sean R. Smither (The Juilliard School & Yale University)
Generative rhythms—rhythms that serve as a basis for other rhythms, whether through embellishment, simplification, or transformation—are common in musics of the African diaspora. As Christopher Washburne has argued, clave and related Afro-Carribean rhythmic topoi became incorporated into the rhythmic vocabulary of early jazz through the influence of Caribbean musics in New Orleans in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries; traces of their influence may be found in a wide variety of compositions, arrangements, and improvisations throughout jazz history.
In this paper, I argue that a variety of rhythmic topoi may similarly serve as generative templates for excerpts of melodic jazz improvisations, even—and perhaps especially—when no underlying time line is present. While structurally similar to time lines, generative rhythms are not expected to be present throughout an entire performance or formal section; instead, they represent momentary scaffolds that serve to create rhythmic interest while simultaneously reducing the cognitive burden of improvisation and opening attentional resources for other improvisational activities, particularly group interaction. I present two brief analytical case studies, both of which are anchored by clave patterns: trumpeter Ray Nance’s solo on “Take the ‘A’ Train” and alto saxophonist Patrick Bartley’s solo on “After You’ve Gone.” By focusing on how different factors—including harmonic, melodic, and formal concerns—interface with generative rhythms to create musical utterances, these rhythms serve as a foundation for investigating the ways in which musical knowledge is synthesized by jazz musicians during the improvisational process.
“Chords” versus “Sounds”: Determinacy, Fluidity, and Subset-Implication in Jazz Scalar Systems
Rich Pellegrin (University of Florida)
In jazz pedagogy, two scalar collections have a comprehensive labeling system for their modes: major (diatonic) and ascending melodic-minor (acoustic). This presentation explores how diatonic and acoustic collections differ in their specificity (determinacy). Acoustic collections have a high degree of determinacy that contrasts with the low determinacy of diatonic collections. The ambiguity of diatonic collections makes them fluid and easily reinterpreted, whereas acoustic collections are highly specific and resist reinterpretation. This assertion is corroborated by examining: 1) statements by musicians associated with 1960s modal jazz, 2) contemporary jazz pedagogy, 3) enumerative pitch-class set analysis, and 4) my own solo improvisational practice, documented on two critically-reviewed albums. The diatonic collection’s lower determinacy is also considered in relations to theories of “overdetermination” (Tymoczko 2011, Cohn 1997).
A Corpus-Assisted Study on the Harmonic Transitions and Formal Functions of Beat-Switches in Rap, 1994-2025
Aaron D’Zurilla (Independent Scholar)
Essential to the genre of rap is the curation of “the beat” which, in the context of hip-hop production, describes the intersection of instrumental timbre and groove. Therefore, the term and phenomenon of the “beat-switch” describes the sudden change of texture and/or instrumentation in the middle of a track, often accompanied by sudden a change of harmony. What this creates is a number of song forms outside the typical verse-chorus paradigm, alongside several possible harmonic changes between sections.
In this paper, I define the harmonic transitions and formal functions of rap beat-switches through proposing several categorizations and case studies for each. These categorizations are supported by a corpus study of 12 artist discographies spanning 1994-2025, totaling 2,568 tracks. From this initial sampling, 353 tracks were identified as having beat-switches. These 353 tracks were then organized into the four major and seven sub-categories of formal function. The present study is informed by several previous works in popular music form and harmony, such as Guy Capuzzo’s application of Neo-Riemannian Operations in rock analysis (2004) and sectional tonality in rock (2009), as well as Nathan Cobb’s recent article on compound AAB forms (2025). This corpus-assisted study provides models for further research into the phenomena of formal and harmonic interactions in rap music, helping to codify beat-switches as an integral part of modern formal analysis in popular music studies.
Analyzing Jacob Collier: A Transformational Approach*
Albert D. Wheeler III (Florida State University)
Over the past decade, British Grammy award-winning composer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist Jacob Collier has pushed the boundaries of modern music, attracting the attention of jazz luminaries such as Herbie Hancock and Quincy Jones. Recently, music theorists such as Falotico (2021), Bandy (2025), and Baker (2025) have analyzed Collier’s jazz harmonic language and highlighted his role as a public music theorist both on the stage and online. Outside of this scholarship, Collier has been analyzed by composers on YouTube, who focus on his use of microtonality, rhythmic displacement, and recording techniques, thereby “breaking the boundaries” of popular music.
In this paper, I take a transformational approach to analyzing harmony in Collier’s cover of “Hallelujah” by Leonard Cohen. I begin by discussing Collier’s schema for covers, which is preceded by a simple introduction to familiarize listeners with the original work. Second, I analyze the cover’s climax by representing the triadic relationships using standard neo-Riemannian operations and tracing the voice leading on a Tonnetz (Jones 2007). Lastly, I visually represent the voice leading of the climax using a Uniform Triadic Transformation (UTT) (Hook 2002). Revealed is a chain using < -, 5, 10> which creates three independent cycles. I form an octagonal space, labeling them Alpha, Beta, and Gamma.
What’s the Point (of Alignment)? Embellished and Disguised Rhythmic Displacement in the Early Discography of Michelle Branch*
Brian Junttila (Florida State University)
From Renaissance polyphony to Rock n’ Roll and R&B, displacement dissonance is ubiquitous, appearing in a variety of musical genres. This kind of temporal dissonance involves stratification of rhythmic layers that have the same cardinality but become displaced and often takes the form of syncopation. Rhythmic displacement dissonances occurring below beat-level (e.g. repeated off-beat eighths) have received significant attention as they appear in common practice genres. Importantly, however, analysis of rhythmic displacement dissonances in popular music of the late 20th– and 21st-centuries seem to focus on only the surface-level, simple syncopations as they appear between points of alignment. I propose a methodology to define and connect apparently distinct or non-apparent rhythmic displacements by analyzing the rhythmic and prosodic properties of vocal passages in Michelle Branch’s pop-rock music. I label relatively unclear displacements as embellished or disguised and further define phenomenological features to support this reading, including rhythmic embellishments, metric strength, melismas, and prosodic characteristics. Now classified, I organize the displacements into a scale by relative discernability. In the case of rhythmic displacement, “discernability” refers to the listener’s ability to pinpoint the displacement as the cause for a perceptibly stratified vocal layer, drawing from Mirka’s (2009) discussion of metric ambiguity or vagueness. By elucidating these hidden manifestations of displacements and connecting them with others, we can draw conclusions about the meaning of the music in conjunction with the lyrics, pitch, texture, and form.
Saturday, February 21
¿Nueva Salsa? Formal Hybridization of Salsa in the Digital Age*
Tori Vilches (Indiana University)
Recent artists are reimagining salsa’s foundational two-part form,
reflecting the influence of popular music and contemporary modes of listening. Flores (2016), Washburne (2008), and Manuel (2016) have defined salsa’s traditional formal sections as a large two-part form consisting of the son (the sung theme consisting of verse and refrain) and montuno (larger section consisting of smaller sections with improvisatory singing, call and response in the smaller montuno, and instrumental breaks. Artists are now
creating hybridized forms in salsa that are indicative of popular
musical influence.
In this paper, I show the ways salsa has begun to adapt to the
current global music market, or perhaps, how the global music
market has begun to incorporate salsa’s sonorous qualities. I
provide a case study of four songs to show the various ways
artists are approaching the formal hybridization of salsa in the
digital age. I demonstrate how the sonic qualities of the traditional montuno section (loud, lively brass, choir, expressive solo singing) take on the rhetorical function of a pop chorus (Adams 2019). I propose that the hybridization of salsa’s sounds with verse/chorus form appeals to broader (ie: not Latino) audience, enables accessible listening for shorter attention spans, and reflects a shift in market values for consumption purposes. Most songs are significantly shorter than traditional salsa, which indicates marketability for popular music listeners and those with short attention spans. Shorter lengths also indicate the mode of consumption – salsa has shifted from a public, lengthy listen to a digital, individualized capital commodity.
¡Conversa, Conversa!’: A Parametric Analysis of Participant Interaction in Salsa Dura*
Irén Hangen Vázquez (McGill University)
In this presentation, I focus on understanding participant, i.e. performer and audience, interaction in live performances of salsa dura, a style of salsa music that was created and popularized in the 1970s in New York City. I take inspiration from jazz scholarship on improvisation and interaction (Monson 1996, Berliner 1994), as well as ethnomusicological research on salsa (Washburne 1998, 2008; Waxer 2002), to form a holistic and culturally situated analytical method. I analyze three songs from performances by established salsa bands––Don Perignon Y La Puertorriqueña, the Spanish Harlem Orchestra, and the Fania All Stars––and consider how performers and audience members create music and interact within a framework of musical conversation. My examples show a range of musical and social interactions: how ensemble musicians dance and move in relation to a song’s form; how the ensemble responds sonically and physically to support improvised solos; and how the identities of participants can subtly disrupt a groove, reinforcing elements of cultural and musical fusion that are key to salsa. I supplement this original analysis with interviews conducted in the spring of 2025 with professional salsa musicians. Through these analyses, I seek to provide a theoretical framework for salsa as a participatory genre that creates communal musical experiences through the process of performance. I show that audience members are part of the expression of this music and that interactions between participants are key to salsa’s identity, affirming the importance of musical analyses of salsa that take into account cultural context and performance traditions.
Reconsidering the Period: Eight-Measure Periods in Nineteenth-Century Waltzes*
Tanja Knežević (University of North Texas)
This paper examines a recurring yet largely overlooked theme-type in nineteenth-century waltzes, which I term the “waltz period.” Building on William Caplin’s (1998) form-functional theory and taking the theme from Strauss Sr.’s Frohsinns Salven, Op. 163, No. 5 as a point of departure, I show how the waltz period diverges from the typical period in its grouping structure and harmonic progression. Instead of dividing into a basic idea and a contrasting/cadential idea, the antecedent comprises a two-measure basic idea followed by two one-measure fragments, through which a cadence emerges. Harmonically, the antecedent phrase frequently employs progressions characteristic of sentence presentation, raising questions about whether a cadence in measure four is present at all. Upon restatement of the basic idea in the consequent phrase, however, the V-I progression that closes the antecedent is retrospectively heard as cadential, illustrating Janet Schmalfeldt’s notion of formal “becoming.” Although the consequent phrase in the waltz period frequently repeats the antecedent’s exact harmonies and cadence–a feature that sits uneasily within Caplin’s definition of the period– the seacond cadence is stronger due to the tonic note placement on the downbeat in both the melody and the bass. Far from anomalous, the eight-measure waltz period appears in Schubert’s, Chopin’s, and Clara Schumann’s waltzesas well. Building on recent extensions of Caplin’s form-functional theory, this study broadens the discussion of nineteenth-century phrase structure by examining waltz themes that challenge eighteenth- and nineteenth-century formal paradigms and invites a reconsideration of the waltz’s role in broader compositional practice.
Force, and Containment in Michael Hersch’s one day may become menace*
Jacob Wilkinson (Indiana University)
The instrumental music of Michael Hersch, though dramatically evocative, is difficult to interpret owing to its lack of a concrete program. The image of a child and its caretaker recurs throughout the movement titles of Hersch’s piano cycle one day may become menace (2016) along with music serving a function of consolation, offering the listener respite from the predominantly violent developments that surround it. Joona Taipale discusses how music can serve a function of consolation by imitating the movement patterns of an attuned caretaker. Robert Hatten uses Boethius’ Consolation of Philosophy, in which Boethius allegorically stages a process of self-consolation, as a model of the self-reflective subjectivity represented in Western art music. However, Hersch’s music does not solely provide consolation, nor does it stage a successful process of self-consolation. I argue our understanding of consolation in Hersch and Western art music in general can be enriched through application of psychoanalytic theory modeling the relationship between infants and caretakers.
I draw on Steve Larson’s “musical forces” as well as two embodied metaphors from psychoanalysis, Donald Winnicott’s “holding” and Wilfred Bion’s “containment,” to model the dynamic interaction of two virtual agents, analogous to caretaker and infant, in the second “Lullaby” of Hersch’s menace. These agents represent two sides of a single virtual subjectivity engaged in a process of self-consolation that ends in failure. By representing a subjectivity unable to console itself, the movement forces the listener into the position of the consoler, reversing Taipale’s and Hatten’s models of music-as-(self)-consoler.
Music-Evoked Kinesthetic Imagery: a novel framework for studying imagined self-motion during music listening*
Karen Electra Christianson (Princeton University)
The role of the body in shaping musical meaning has been a key area of inquiry from the perspective of both performer (Cusick 1994) and listener (Mead 1999). Many scholars agree that listeners interpret motion in music based on their own embodied experiences, but the nature of the relationship between music and motion is debated. Clarke (2005) argues for a perceptual relationship involving self-motion, which is empirically supported by Kozak’s (2015) analysis of listeners’ physical gestures reflecting musical structure. However, Clarke’s corollary claim that this self-motion can be illusory remains underexplored.
This paper introduces Music-Evoked Kinesthetic Imagery (MEKI) as a framework to guide the systematic study of imagined self-motion in listeners. Furthermore, the first characterization of MEKI will be presented from a survey of 621 participants who rated their agreement with statements about MEKI and freely reflected on their experiences. 93% of participants reported that they experience MEKI during everyday listening. Self-motion was more prevalent than imagining another person or object moving, indicating the primacy of the listener’s own body. Factor analysis on the statement ratings revealed three themes: kinesthetic self-motion, dance, and music-afforded motion. Free responses reflected these themes and highlighted that imagined movements vary by genre and musical features. These results show that MEKI is a prevalent way of engaging with music and provide empirical support for Clarke’s illusory self-motion. The MEKI framework facilitates comparison between musical features and internal sensations of movement, thus extending Kozak’s analysis of listeners’ real gestures to those that are imagined.
What Do Brahms’s Kenner Know (and How Do They Know It)?
John Y. Lawrence (University of Chicago)
Many pieces by Johannes Brahms possess instances of hidden rhythmic or contrapuntal complexity that purportedly exist to reward a discerning subset of the pieces’ consumers: Kenner (connoisseurs) as opposed to Liebhaber (amateurs). Leon Botstein proposes that these were part of an approach to musical communication that emphasized high aural “literacy.” However, this paper suggests that some of these features of Brahms’s works cannot be communicated through sound alone. As such, Brahms’s Kenner cannot merely listen to his music; they have to read his scores as well.
I examine the differences between three musical modalities—textual (what is written in the score), oral (what performers play), and aural (what listeners hear)—in four passages by Brahms. Each presents a different case in which there is something visible on the page that is inaudible in performance, either due to decisions characteristically made by performers or due to inherent features of the composition that make a particular “mishearing” likely.
These examples yield a few major conclusions: Textual, oral, and aural modalities are not merely different ways of knowing the same phenomena; rather, the actual phenomena being known vary across modalities. Some musical properties that are usually treated as fixed by the score are actually matters of listener perception. The kind of aurally hyperliterate Kenner described by Brahms’s devotees is ultimately mythical. The result is an impossible ideal of music-listening that we have an obligation to puncture if we wish to avoid misrepresenting human cognition and perpetuating late nineteenth-century Austro-German fantasies.
Toward Spiral Infinity: Harmonic Space, Ratio, and Perception in Catherine Lamb’s Divisio Spiralis
Zhishu Chang (Peabody Institute)
Catherine Lamb’s Divisio Spiralis (2019), written for JACK Quartet, represents a culmination of Lamb’s sustained engagement with just intonation and perceptual harmonicity. The work draws on Erv Wilson’s logarithmic spiral model of the overtone series, reconceiving harmonic space as an expanding continuum shaped by relations between prime and composite numbers. Lamb translates this geometry into a compositional field in which pitch, timbre, and beating phenomena are inseparable.
The piece deploys a 29-limit tonal palette distributed across four instruments as distinct resonating chambers, each tuned through individualized scordatura beginning from a sub-audible 10-Hz fundamental. Meterless notation, the absence of dynamic markings, and differentiated notehead types foreground relational listening over metric coordination, articulating melodic agency, harmonic alignment, and resonance. As frequencies gradually descend and harmonicity widens over the course of the hour-long work, musical change emerges not through sectional syntax but through internal interactions within an evolving harmonic field.
This paper analyzes how shifting just-intonation ratios reorganize timbral consonance and dissonance and structure the listener’s experience. Drawing on James Tenney’s theory of perceptual form, it argues that Divisio Spiralis traverses perceptual thresholds between elements, clang-like spectral aggregates, and evolving harmonic fields, revealing harmony as a multidimensional perceptual continuum in which spiral form emerges from resonance itself.
Diatonic Dodecaphony?: William Alwyn’s Tonal Tone Rows in the Symphony No. 4 (1959)
Ryan Krell (CCM – The University of Cincinnati)
This presentation presents a model for neo-tonal analysis using preliminary findings from William Alwyn’s Symphony No. 4 (1959). The work paradoxically combines an eight-against-four row partition with a musical language that sounds unmistakably diatonic, if not tonal. Its octachord includes two diatonic collections as subsets, and its tetrachord features four consecutive perfect fifths. While the work’s “rows” bring certain serial presuppositions to the fore, Alwyn uses the scales as looser partitions of the aggregate, segmenting musical motives from scalar subsets. Building on previous theories of neo-tonal music, I contend that the Fourth Symphony’s point of contact with post-tonality is the tonal effacement of its segments. I develop five techniques of tonal cloaking: underdetermination, overdetermination, layering, juxtaposition, and duplicity, techniques that take the absence of heard scale degrees as their core tenet. My methodology captures these techniques using Steven Rings’s scale-degree/pitch class ordered duple nomenclature (in tonally clear spans) folded into more versatile association networks, where a motive’s non-tonal criteria (e.g. rhythm, ordered pitch interval) are captured. Specific focus on underdetermination, juxtaposition, and layering across the symphony sheds light on which subset vies for and achieves perceptual prominence, bolstering previous studies framing the work as a “battle” between octachord and tetrachord. In addition to giving greater analytical clarity to the “neo” in this neo-tonal symphony, the methodology presented can elucidate crucial dramatic features in neo-tonal compositions beyond Alwyn.
A Study of Schemata in Anime Songs
Matthew Poon (University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire)
This exploratory study of anime songs—or “anisons”—considers intersections of melody, harmony, and formal functions, using a corpus of opening and ending themes from anime series of the past two decades. I am specifically interested in cataloguing schemata: that is, harmonic-melodic patterns that communicate intrinsic formal functions within a given style. For example, one oft-discussed harmonic progression is the Ōdō Shinkō or “royal road” (IV–V–iii–vi). Alongside other similar progressions, the royal road often supports initiating functions—i.e., the beginnings of verses or choruses—and can be followed by a number of continuation-like patterns. Such patterns include the V6/vi–vi deceptive resolution, with its ♯– bass motion, as well as the “sublimated” ♯–♮ bass line (Samarotto 2004). Both often herald concluding idea(s) within the chorus; in other words, they mark the local end of a large-scale ending function. Other schemata include directional tonality, which often—but not always—involves the verse and chorus being separated by a third; the prominent use of suspensions in initiating functions; and the deployment of modal mixture in bridge sections (the latter with a particular focus on ♭). Extending work by Nazaré (2023) and Ramage (2023), I discuss these schemata as a catalogue of techniques that contribute to anison’s unique style and that form a toolkit from which songwriters can draw and vary.
Well-Worn Grooves: Selective Attention, Boredom, and the Musical Rewards of Excessive Familiarity
Ryan Galik (Eastman School of Music)
This paper investigates the intersection of two disparate views—empirical research on music perception and technoculturally mediated twenty-first-century listening techniques—on the issue of selective attention in highly familiar, potentially boring, music listening experiences. In the former category, I survey literature that details expectation-based listening pleasure (Cheung et al. 2019; Gold et al. 2019; Huron 2006) alongside research on repetition (Margulis 2014; Deutsch 2019), information theory (Meyer 1957; Temperley 2014, 2019), and the relationship between familiarity and liking (Madison & Schiölde 2017; Osborn 2017). In the latter category, I consider broader viewpoints on contemporary listening habits concerned with emotional regulation (DeNora 2000; Huron 2005), ubiquitous music (Kassabian 2013; Szabo 2018), and the influence of streaming platforms (Drott 2024). The synthesis of these perspectives suggests that listeners frequently attend to excessively familiar recordings, but that their listening techniques develop to sustain interest by attending to subtler musical features as more prominent ones are habituated, what I call “autotelic listening.”
Similarly to Richard Beaudoin (2024), I study what “noise” lies dormant in contemporary recordings—squeaky piano pedals, inhalations, incorrect notes—and how these elements nevertheless provide rewarding musical experiences. However, in line with Friedrich Kittler (1986), I argue that contemporary recording/playback media and musical expression operate in mutually influential feedback loops whereby media-afforded “noises” transform into implied musical subjects. After outlining these two perspectives and the utilities of such “noises,” I offer three analytical vignettes that illustrate this dynamic relationship in works by William Basinski, Colin Stetson, and Eric Wubbels.
Unexpected Sources of Interpretive Similarity and Variety: A Quantitative Study of 23 Performances of Bach’s Fourth Cello Suite Prelude
Clare Monfredo (Hunter College)
Performers of classical music face two contradictory imperatives set by 19th-century Werktreue ideology: first, to faithfully realize a composer’s intentions through studying notated scores, and second, to interpret their music in an original manner that achieves some form of self-expression. Accordingly, certain aspects of performances appear to adhere to score notations (e.g. pitches) while others are left to the performer’s discretion (e.g. changes in tone). Traditionally, both performers and scholars have identified “musical shape”—specifically variations in tempo and dynamics—as the primary vehicle for individual interpretation, overlooking other critical performance dimensions like timbre.
In this paper, I will present original research that challenges the assumption that shaping distinguishes individual interpretations and finds other sources of interpretive variety. I report findings from quantitative and qualitative analyses of tempo, loudness, and timbre in twenty-three 21st-century recordings of Bach’s Fourth Cello Suite Prelude. From these analyses, I find that individual performances are distinguished by what I call static performance choices – choices consistently employed throughout a piece. In contrast, tempo and dynamic shaping are strikingly similar among performances.
In characterizing how tempo, timbre, and shaping vary (or do not) between these recordings, this study shows that interpretations do not arise from adherence to notated scores and suggests they are rather the consequence of a widely taught and enforced performance practice tradition. Here, performers are encouraged to “sound” differently, but “shape” similarly. In this way, this study begins to delineate how contemporary performance practice simultaneously permits and restricts interpretive musical choice.