Thursday, February 19
Online
6:30-8:00pm New Analytical Paradigms
Chair: TBD
The Contours of Timbre in Rebecca Saunders’s “Fury II”*
Ash Mach (Eastman School of Music)
The Neo-Phrygian Quartet: Beethoven’s Op. 131*
Jonathon Crompton (Columbia University)
The Breakdown’s Shifting Form and Function in 21st Century Metal*
Carle J. Wirshba (Rutgers University)
Friday, February 20
Online
12:30pm Welcome & Opening Remarks
1:00-2:30pm Spaces and Bodies
Chair: TBD
Sound, Motion, and Meaning: Rethinking the Role of Space in Multipercussion Music*
Madeleine Howey (Concordia College)
They Lost the Time: Disability and Empowerment in Gaelynn Lea’s “Lost in the Woods”*
Austin Wilson (Florida State University)
Keyboard Distance: An Analytical Tool for Bridging Transformational Theory and Embodied Performance in Piano Music*
Zekai Liu (Eastman School of Music)
2:45-4:15pm Form Across the Centuries
Chair: TBD
Are Type 2 Sonatas Real?: A Conceptual Resurrection in 20th-century Sonata Forms*
Heyner Rodriguez Solis (University of Arizona)
Form as Topic? Reframing Formal Deformation in Haydn’s Piano Trio in Eb Major, Hob.XV:30*
Joey Grunkemeyer (Indiana University)
From Rondo to Quasi-Sine Curve: Formal Approaches in Gyimah Labi’s “Earthbeats”*
Hang Ki Choi (CUNY Graduate Center)
4:30-5:00pm Short Papers 1: Jazz Rhythms and Chords
Chair: Mark Micchelli (West Virginia University)
Generative Rhythms in Jazz Improvisation
Sean R. Smither (The Juilliard School & Yale University)
“Chords” versus “Sounds”: Determinacy, Fluidity, and Subset-Implication in Jazz Scalar Systems
Rich Pellegrin (University of Florida)
5:15-6:45pm Rap, Jazz, and Pop Analysis
Chair: TBD
A Corpus-Assisted Study on the Harmonic Transitions and Formal Functions of Beat-Switches in Rap, 1994-2025
Aaron D’Zurilla (Independent Scholar)
Analyzing Jacob Collier: A Transformational Approach*
Albert D. Wheeler III (Florida State University)
What’s the Point (of Alignment)? Embellished and Disguised Rhythmic Displacement in the Early Discography of Michelle Branch*
Brian Junttila (Florida State University)
7:00pm Social Activity
Saturday, February 21
8:00-8:50am Executive Board Meeting
9:00-10:30am Dance and Form
Chair: TBD
¿Nueva Salsa? Formal Hybridization of Salsa in the Digital Age*
Tori Vilches (Indiana University)
¡Conversa, Conversa!’: A Parametric Analysis of Participant Interaction in Salsa Dura*
Irén Hangen Vázquez (McGill University)
Reconsidering the Period: Eight-Measure Periods in Nineteenth-Century Waltzes*
Tanja Knežević (University of North Texas)
10:45am-12:15pm Dreaming and Knowing
Chair: TBD
Dreams, Force, and Containment in the music of Michael Hersch*
Jacob Wilkinson (Indiana University)
Music-Evoked Kinesthetic Imagery: a novel framework for studying imagined self-motion during music listening*
Karen Electra Christianson (Princeton University)
What Do Brahms’s Kenner Know (and How Do They Know It)?
John Y. Lawrence (University of Chicago)
12:30-1:00pm Lunch
1:00-2:00pm MTSMA Business Meeting
All conference attendees and presenters are MTSMA members and are warmly invited to attend. The winner of the 2026 Dorothy Payne Award will be announced at this meeting
2:15-3:45pm Keynote Address & Workshop
Changing Landscapes in Music Theory Pedagogy
Kimberly Goddard Loeffert (Virginia Tech)
John Peterson (James Madison University)
4:00-4:45pm Short Papers 2: Intersections of Novelties and Traditions
Chair: TBD
Toward Spiral Infinity: Harmonic Space, Ratio, and Perception in Catherine Lamb’s Divisio Spiralis
Zhishu Chang (Peabody Institute)
Diatonic Dodecaphony?: William Alwyn’s Tonal Tone Rows in the Symphony No. 4 (1959)
Ryan Krell (CCM – The University of Cincinnati)
A Study of Schemata in Anime Songs
Matthew Poon (University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire)
5:00-6:00pm Performance and Interpretation
Chair: TBD
Well-Worn Grooves: Selective Attention, Boredom, and the Musical Rewards of Excessive Familiarity
Ryan Galik (Eastman School of Music)
Unexpected Sources of Interpretive Similarity and Variety: A Quantitative Study of 23 Performances of Bach’s Fourth Cello Suite Prelude
Clare Monfredo (Hunter College)
* denotes eligibility for the Dorothy Payne Award for Best Student Paper