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 20^th– and 21^st-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.

Submission Procedures and Deadline

• The deadline for submitting proposals passed at close of day on Nov. 14, 2025.
• The submission form asks for:
  • Author information—your name (as you’d like it to appear on the program), email address, and institutional affiliation (if applicable)
  • Title of your presentation
  • Whether you propose a short work-in-progress presentation (ten minutes) or a standard presentation (20 minutes). 
  • Whether you have student status and should be considered for the Dorothy Payne Award for best student paper. For the purposes of this award, student status ends with the receipt of a terminal degree or employment in a full-time position. Previous winners of the Dorothy Payne Award are not eligible. Papers co-authored with a faculty member are not eligible.
  • Demographic information (optional).
• Deadline for submissions (revised): 11:59 PM on November 14, 2025
• Proposal authors will be notified of the committee’s decision by January 12, 2026. (Update on 1/13/26: Please note that all proposers should by now have received an email indicating the Committee’s decision. If you have not received such an email, please get in touch with the Committee chair using the email link below.)

Rules for Proposals

• New research: The Program Committee invites proposals on any topic related to music theory, as long as the work has not been published in peer-reviewed publications (print or electronic) and has not been presented at an annual conference of the SMT, AMS, CMS, SEM, or SAM.
• Works-in-progress: The Program Committee especially invites proposals for non-standard 10-minute presentations.
• Anonymity: No information that identifies the author(s) or their institutional affiliation should appear in the proposal or abstract (including the filename).
• Word limit: Proposals should not exceed 500 words. The committee acknowledges that proposals for 10-minute presentations may not need the full 500 words.
• Formatting: Proposals should be double-spaced in a 12-point font, followed by up to four pages of supplementary materials (not included in the word limit).
• Supplementary materials: Successful proposals typically include appended supplementary materials (such as musical examples, diagrams, hyperlinks, and selected bibliography) as necessary to substantiate an argument, demonstrate results, or clarify the proposal’s relationship to prior scholarship.
  • The examples may include text annotations.
  • Texts that are themselves analytical objects, such as quotations from treatises, archival documents, or translations, are also acceptable.
  • Any text in the supplementary examples and captions should serve only to illuminate arguments already present in the 500-word proposal and should not introduce new examples, explanations, or evidence.
  • Supplementary materials must not exceed four pages.
• File type: Proposals must be submitted as a single PDF document.
• Number of proposals: Please note that no more than two proposals per person will be considered, with the understanding that only one, if any, will be accepted. Co-authored talks will count as a second proposal.
• Membership of MTSMA: Those who present at the conference must be members in good standing of MTSMA

Keynote Speaker and Workshop Leader

Dr. Kimberly Goddard Loeffert and Dr. John Peterson will jointly give the keynote address. All conference attendees are encouraged to attend.  

Program Committee

• Eugene Montague, chair (George Washington University)
• Jennifer Campbell (University of Kentucky)
• Mark Micchelli (West Virginia University)
• Judith Ofcarcik (James Madison University)
• Michael Puri (University of Virginia)
• Kristen Wallentinsen (Rutgers University)

L’étrangeté du son: Deconstructed Voices in Gérard Grisey’s Student Works

Nathan Cobb (Shenandoah University)

Gérard Grisey is widely recognized as an early innovator of French spectralism, a practice closely linked with emerging research in psychoacoustics and spectrographic analysis (Cagney 2024). Less well-known is how Grisey’s interest in acoustics was partly spurred by his study of phonetics and interest in composing for the human voice. This paper examines unpublished student works and reference books from Grisey’s personal library at the Paul Sacher Foundation to complicate the narrative that spectralism developed primarily from a scientific engagement with the acoustic properties of sound (Grisey 1982). It suggests that the human voice was central to Grisey’s early compositional work, both theoretically, as a frame for acoustic principles, and aesthetically, as a source of affective resonance, especially in non- linguistic contexts.

Of the twelve works Grisey composed after enrolling at the Paris Conservatoire in 1965, seven include vocal parts. This paper focuses on Répons (1969), in which Grisey explores the liminal perceptual space between transitional vowel phonemes, as well as his annotated copy of Bertil Malmberg’s La phonétique (1973), which reveals a relatively rudimentary understanding of acoustics that influenced his later, more systematic approach in works like Les Chants de l’Amour (1982–84). By tracing Grisey’s early fascination with the human voice, this paper uncovers a novel facet of the spectral aesthetic (Morrison 2022), in which composers explore the boundaries of humanism by pushing on the limits of vocal mimesis––defining the human through the exploration of the incomprehensible, the extra-human, the “étrangeté du son” (Grisey 1993).

Twelve-Tone as Topic: Satire, Politics, and Postwar American Concert Music

Jacob Eichhorn (Eastman School of Music)

Johnson (2017) argues that tonality becomes topic in early modernist concert music. Building upon his claim and the scholarship on twentieth-century musical topics (Frymoyer 2017; Donaldson 2021), I argue that twelve-tone technique becomes topic in postwar American concert music. Tonalist composers—Barber, Fine, Piston, Wilder, Bernstein—deploy twelve-tone melody amidst a tonal landscape for the purpose of topical signification. In this paper, I use two of Bernstein’s staged works—Candide (1956/74) and West Side Story (1957)—as case studies, and I provide an adaptation of Mirka’s semiotic model (2014), which accounts for the topic’s markedness within a new context and an emergent social meaning (Figure 1). I posit that Bernstein implements a set of overlapping similarities (Wittgenstein 1953), which coalesce into an iconic association and communicate reference to a Schoenbergian melodic sensibility. Bernstein’s “Quiet” and “Cool” are emblematic of serial procedures implemented by American tonalists, who (1) often treat the twelve-tone series as motivic (not harmonic) source material, (2) rarely transform the series by anything more than transposition, and (3) maintain an overarching tonality despite the serial chromatic procedure. Ultimately, the twelve-tone topic points to a shift in political and cultural sentiment toward nationalist music during the Cold War: Hubbs (2000) observes at the midcentury a “bursting of Coplandian tonality and ascent of university-based complexity music…[due to] a new positioning of serial composition as emblematic of artistic freedom” (169). 

George Russell and the Metaphysics of Spacetime

Mark Micchelli (University of Pittsburgh)

The fourth and final edition of George Russell’s magnum opus The Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization has a markedly different focus than previous editions: to foster each reader’s “intellectual brilliance, intuitive perception, emotional fire, and spiritual depth” (2001: 98). According to LCCOTO’s lead editorial assistant Andy Wasserman, this development can be traced to Russell’s engagement with the esoteric spiritualist tradition known as the “Fourth Way,” specifically as represented in texts by G. I. Gurdjieff, P. D. Ouspensky, and Maurice Nicoll. This paper investigates the relationships between these spiritualist texts and Russell’s musical and music-theoretical output, highlighting an influence on Russell’s work largely ignored by previous scholars.

Russell was particularly influenced by Nicoll’s Living Time and the Integration of the Life (1952), which conceptualizes time as a multidimensional unity. In addition to “passing time”—i.e., time as conventionally understood—Nicoll argued that time contained two further dimensions: the “eternal present” and “unity.” Using excerpts from Russell’s albums Living Time (1972), Vertical Form VI (1981), It’s About Time (1997), I illustrate how Russell represents the “eternal present” via multilayered, polytonal compositions in which instrumental groups simultaneously perform unrelated grooves in unrelated keys, with musical material recurring in different guises throughout different movements. I also draw parallels between “unity” as used in Fourth Way cosmology and “unity” as used in Russell’s chord-scale theory, demonstrating how Russell’s preferred way of analyzing chords arises from his multidimensional conception of time.

A Rosary of Tears: Tonal Indeterminacy in the Music of Frank Sinatra

Cameron J Gwynn (Florida State University)

Efficient voice-leading is one of the fundamental tenets of both jazz composition and neo-Riemannian analysis. Jazz composers and performers often employ voicings that maximize voice-leading efficiency, prioritizing and even substituting harmonies that minimize movement between voices. In this paper, I describe moments of tonal indeterminacy in the introductions and key changes of jazz-orchestral arrangements through a Neo-Riemannian lens, connecting transformational labels to the aural experience of these moments and considering their musical effect in context.

Drawing from four songs recorded by Frank Sinatra, I demonstrate how the arrangers used moments of tonal uncertainty to enhance each song’s overall meaning and affect. I first analyze key changes in Nelson Riddle’s arrangement of Eubie Blake’s “Memories of You” and in Billy May’s 1958 arrangement of Karl Suessdorf and John Blackburn’s “Moonlight in Vermont.” Then, I consider similar techniques in two song introductions: Nelson Riddle’s 1957 arrangement of David Raksin’s “Laura,” and his 1958 arrangement of Jimmy Van Heusen and Sammy Cahn’s “Only the Lonely.” To address extended harmonies in these passages, I use a few approaches to transformational analysis: 1) Triadic analysis across multiple independently functioning harmonic lines, 2) Triadic analysis of concurrent transformations, and 3) General analysis of higher cardinality chords following Douthett and Steinbach (1998).

Through these analyses, I demonstrate how some jazz-orchestral arrangers have used passages of tonal indeterminacy to reflect lyrical content. Transformational analysis provides further insight into how these effects are created and may be applied to a larger body of jazz-orchestral arrangements.

Hearing Hybridity: Jason Moran’s version of Brahms’s intermezzo op. 118, no. 2

Jonathon Crompton (Columbia University)

Occasionally, jazz musicians interact with classical music, enacting a form of musical hybridism. But the challenges of characterizing this hybridity in music theoretic terms are manifold. Which properties of the music might be heard as common to both worlds, and which as not? How might we describe features of the music through two stylistic-conceptual lenses?

This paper proposes an approach for analyses of genre hybridity. Inspired by philosophy concerning concepts in music perception, especially the work of Mark DeBellis (1995) and Christopher Peacocke (1992), I unpack relevant concepts from each genre, showing how they touch. I take as a case study for this approach Jason Moran’s version of Brahms’s intermezzo op. 118, no. 2, through two analytic vignettes centered on sites of potential multi-genre valency.

The first centers on the intermezzo’s harmony in mm. 31–34, containing Brahms’s use of the “D–F#–A–B chord,” repeated by Moran into an anthem-like solo section. The chord has properties in common with Rameau’s ‘chord of the larger sixth’ and with jazz’s tonic-sixth-chord concept. I unpack both these concepts and demonstrate how Brahms’s use of the chord, while not quite exemplifying either concept, is ripe for an intervention from a jazz perspective.

The second unpacks the concept of a voice exchange. Moran, in his improvised introduction, opts not to employ any voice exchanges, but enacts genre hybridity by employing one of the voice exchange’s sub-concepts: the stepwise third. I show the parallels between his Brahms’ use of stepwise thirds and Moran’s, evincing Moran’s canny sensitivity to the original in his enacting of hybridity.

Semiosis is Always an Option: Categorical Music Experience in Untitled Goose Game

Martin Ross (University of Western Ontario)

In Untitled Goose Game (House House 2019, henceforth UGG), one plays as a goose who journeys through a small English village to obtain a grand prize, all the while disrupting the everyday lives of the town’s inhabitants. Dan Golding’s score adapts several of Claude Debussy’s Préludes into fragments triggered by the goose’s interaction with humans. Golding’s “dynamic music” (2021) represents the actions taken to form interpretive events, but the types of events will vary based on the interpretive subject.

 In this paper, I examine how Charles Sanders Peirce’s categorical phaneron—firstness, secondness, and thirdness (CP 8.327–331)—are realized through acts of semiosis in UGG. The qualities in each musical fragment—including dynamics, tempo, and articulation—correspond to every type of action taken, rendering the score an indication of the player’s agency. The player thus creates their own “score” based on intentional actions. A player unfamiliar with the Préludes is likely to intuit the musical qualities as they are initially presented. A player familiar with the Préludes can additionally understand the Debussy fragments and their potential to be adapted to their experiences. Both players recognize the score’s correspondence to their actions.

 The unfamiliar represents Peirce’s categorial “firstness” and the familiar his “thirdness.” Players’ actions and their respective musical representations are grounded in Peirce’s “secondness” (Ibid.). What makes UGG unique is that while the music is grounded in Debussy, the score is dynamic, and serves as the culmination of singularities actualized by the player representing the hijinks of the feathered protagonist.

Music’s Role in Signifying the Progression of Difficulty in Survival Rogue-like and Sandbox Adventure Games

Brian Junttila (Florida State University)

In survival roguelike and sandbox video games, players progress quasi-linearly to achieve a goal imposed by the game or themselves. Regions become more difficult upon advancing, necessitating accompanying changes in musical design to relay this shift to the player. Many authors have elucidated signifiers for individual environments, like the winter topic (Lavengood & Williams 2023), soaring topic (Atkinson 2019), and god-slayer trope (Yee 2020), which assist in connecting similar areas of disparate games through musical meaning. Musical signifiers that connect a diverse world of topics within a single game, however, have received little attention. This presentation argues that the progression of difficulty in these games is associated with changes of signification in environmental music, and when soundtracks are compared between games, signifiers form a larger topic of increasing musical difficulty. To show this, each track from a selection of games (incl. Minecraft (2011), Stardew Valley (2016), and Core Keeper (2024)) is assigned a rating of 1-5 correlating to its mechanical difficulty. Upon analyzing all tracks in a single rating, a set of signifiers forms, helpful for comparing different ratings. To elucidate those signifiers, I adopt Frymoyer’s (2017) hierarchy of characteristics that states certain signifiers are essential, frequent, stylistically particular, or idiosyncratic. Additions, subtractions, or other changes of musical features between ratings receive the most focus as signifiers of increasing musical difficulty. Notably, timbre and texture manifest as the core features in changing difficulty. This knowledge grants the player the ability to know how the music is embracing the game’s progression.  

Analyzing Fan Authorship in Vocaloid Music

Brandon Qi

In the past two decades, the Japanese popular music scene saw the meteoric rise of Vocaloid music, a vocal synthesis database and software used by originally amateur musicians. One Vocaloid in particular, Hatsune Miku, has come to lend her voice to over 100,000 songs, many of which have garnered tens of millions of views across different international video-streaming platforms. In this paper, I examine how Vocaloid music and its community aspects allow for a distinct form of fan-authorship and a multifaceted conception of the musical text, and propose an analytical model that addresses these concerns by evaluating the entire cyberspace within which a Vocaloid song presides.

 Drawing from Jenkins (2006), Auslander (2006), Zaborowski (2016, 2019), and Yamada (2017), I begin by framing the socio-cultural context around Vocaloid music and fandom, focusing on the net-culture of nijisousaku (“secondary creation”) and the unique level of authorship it affords fans at different levels of Vocaloid community. I then argue for the importance of considering these kinds of fan-authorship in the analysis of Vocaloid music. Through my case study of the 2021 Hatsune Miku song “kamippoina” (“God-ish”) by Vocaloid producer PinocchioP, I propose three nested forms of fan-authorship: the producer-as-author, the cover-artist-as-author, and finally the commenter-as-author. Through evaluation of lyrical content, form, timbre, and the unique style of audiovisual danmaku (“barrage subtitling”) commenting on the Japanese video-sharing platform Nico Nico Douga, I illustrate the variety of methods through which members of the Vocaloid community perform authoring activities.

Screaming forms and formal screaming, Timbral Transformations in Extreme Metal Verse-Choruses

Avinoam Foonberg (University of Cincinnati, College-Conservatory of Music)

As defined by Hillier (2020), extreme metal music is noted for its proliferation of sub-genres, use of harsh vocals, and extreme guitar distortion and downtuning. While metal studies often use pitch and rhythm to describe extreme metal musical forms, they often highlight timbral elements for their semiotic, emotional, aesthetic, and paratextual contributions (Smialek 2015, Myannet 2016, Hillier 2018, Hillier 2020, Hudson 2021). Although these contributions are significant, they only reveal a portion of timbre’s function in extreme metal genres. Confining timbre to these focal points overshadows the relationship between harsh vocal techniques and distorted sounds with verse-chorus teleology and energetic build-up. 

This paper argues that in addition to timbre’s aesthetic and paratextual contributions, extreme metal music incorporates harsh vocals, distortions, and hyper-realism to shape and manipulate verse-chorus structures. It identifies such influences on verse-chorus structures by comparing timbral transformations (McAdams, Godchild, and Soden 2021) in extreme metal songs using Izotope RX9 “music rebalance” rendering within the formal trajectory of the verse-chorus cycles (Nobile 2020). It uses this analytical framework to analyze examples of metal bands using timbral transformations to establish and undermine verse-chorus structures. Consequently, extreme metal manipulation of timbre presents salient examples of timbral transformations that inform the listener about the music’s formal unfolding and energetic build-up. By reconsidering timbre’s role in extreme metal genres, this paper provides opportunities to enrich our understanding of timbre in genre and musical form.  

The Arrested Ending: Exploring Death Through Silence in Popular Music

Brittney Pflanz (Florida State University) 

Popular music is no stranger to the topic of death. From death metal to emo, various popular youth-focused genres have made space for discussions surrounding the idea of mortality (Partridge 2015). Popular music’s main interaction with the idea of death is expressed through lyrics and instruments that are associated with themes of violence and rebellion (Partridge 2015). However, aspects beyond lyrical content and instrumentation can communicate death to a listener. In this paper, I argue that a formal device I will refer to as an “arrested ending” is used in popular music as an auditory indicator of the death of a narrator. 

The arrested ending is a two-part device defined by a musical preparation phase that is marked by a build in energy through changes in harmony, rhythm, texture, and timbre before abrupt silence, which terminates the song early. In addition to representing biological death, this device also serves to indicate a death of a narrative identity (Tomasini 2017). Its use spans a multitude of genres, cultures and musical eras, and has precedent in other forms of media such as film and written literature. I position the arrested ending in the context of other terminal forms already identified in popular music (Osborn 2013, Simonds 2024) as a separate, but not mutually exclusive, terminal device before exploring the device in the three songs “Reckless Driving” (Lizzy McAlpine and Ben Kessler), “Snow Angel” (Reneé Rapp), and “Omerta” (Katatonia) that serve as examples of the different ways the arrested ending manifests in pop music.

A new quantitative approach to headbanging at the frontiers of groove

Calder Hannan (Columbia University)

Progressive and extreme metal is unique for its confluence of heady, self-consciously complex rhythms with groove-based embodied audience participation. This paper presents a novel quantitative method for analyzing movement to this music in order to tease out these ostensibly contradictory shaping forces, drawing on recent research in embodied cognition, meter and rhythm. Using animation and computer vision, I analyze the headbanging motions of fans to a section of Car Bomb’s song “Lights Out.” I argue for the potential of this new quantitative approach, which benefits from both the rigor of lab-based motion capture methods and the ecological validity by being applicable to actual concerts. I conclude, from the data, that ruptures in a steady tactus, rather than promoting a confused stasis, actually enhance audience members’ kinetic response to the tactus. 

Analyzing Counterpoint in Josquin’s Extended and Unaccompanied Strict Canons

David Geary (Wake Forest University)

In historical treatises and modern scholarship, Renaissance strict canons are recognized as having an underlying contrapuntal structure. But while these sources provide the justification and a foundation for analyzing the contrapuntal structure of strict canons, there has yet to be a systematic description of the analytical process, including how to discern the rhythmic value of a canon’s unit and how to approach passages where more than one pitch can seemingly function as part of the underlying counterpoint. These and other analytical questions arise in the ten extended and unaccompanied strict canons in Josquin des Prez’s masses, and this paper concludes with an analysis of the “Pleni sunt celi” from his Missa Hercules Dux Ferrarie. Before the analysis, I first review the mechanics of strict canons by summarizing Francisco de Montaños’ section on canons in his Arte de musica theorica y pratica (1592). Then, I outline the process for and many of the variables associated with analyzing a canon’s contrapuntal structure. This overview aims to ground my analytical decisions for the “Pleni sunt celi” and to serve as a model for analyzing the contrapuntal structure of other Renaissance strict canons.

Theorizing Dynamics Added to Baroque Slow Movements by Twentieth-Century Editors

Jenine Brown (Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University)

Baroque slow movements such as the largo are especially ripe for the study of musical expression, given their loose-knit structure and irregular hypermetric phrasing. Yet, specific rationale for shaping musical phrases in these movements remains at the level of intuition, often passed from teacher to pupil. Motivated by scholars who have argued that dynamics are fundamental to musical meaning and structure, this project shares a study of marked dynamics in these movements. Of course, interpretive markings such as dynamics are not present in Baroque manuscripts, but we can learn from studying dynamic markings present in early twentieth-century editions.

To facilitate an understanding of phrasing in slow movements, this project operationalized the question as to what governed editorial dynamic markings by gathering well-known largos that are staples in violin pedagogical books, identifying editions most encountered by intermediate/advanced students. This research ultimately puts forth a theory of dynamic markings added to Baroque largo movements by twentieth-century editors.

Analysis reveals that in all of these works, the peak dynamic occurs in the final few measures and never occurs on structural tonic/dominant. Instead, it coincides with the pre-dominant arrival. In the absence of a regular hypermeter, this peak helps to cue that the final cadence is imminent, employing the pre-dominant to signal cadential function (Caplin 1998). Following this peak dynamic on the pre-dominant, all movements end with a diminuendo into the final tonic harmony. This project has implications for violin pedagogy and suggests further avenues for theoretical scholarship that dialogues with performance practice.

How much does it “Hurt”? Assessing Listener Perception of Similarity Across Musical Covers

Richard Drehoff Jr. (Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University)

Musical similarity has been thoroughly discussed throughout the literature, often beginning with an examination of musical structure within a single work. When studies or analyses do focus on different sonic realizations of a common musical impulse, these typically occur as comparisons of performances of a single Western classical composition, variation, moment, or arrangement; even when non-classical works are studied, very rarely are approaches and sonorities considered outside of a single musical practice. In an increasingly post-genre contemporary musical community, relatively little empirical research has been conducted on the perceptual role of musical variables in our understandings of approaches by artists across genre. Using a variety of renditions of Trent Reznor’s “Hurt,” first released on Nine Inch Nails’ The Downward Spiral (1994) and rekindled in 2002 by Johnny Cash on American IV: The Man Comes Around, this study explores which elements listeners prioritize when determining similarity between musical excerpts. Through the manipulation of and the cross-pollination across audio stems from covers by artists of a diverse set of genres, identities, and musical approaches, listeners rate similarity across chimeric combinations of excerpts from multiple versions of the song. In particular, we analyze the impacts of key, harmony, vocal timbre, tempo, melody, and instrumentation upon our perception of sonic proximity.

Listening To See: Voice and Agency in Jeremy Dutcher’s “Sakomawit”

Judith Ofcarcik (James Madison University)

Jeremy Dutcher’s song “Sakomawit” from the album Wolastoqiyik Lintuwakonawa raises complex issues of voice, agency and authorship. Throughout the album Dutcher, a Wolastoqiyik member of the Tobique First Nation, and producer BUFFLO sample wax-cylinder recordings of Maliseet songs held in a Canadian archive. Theories of agency can address components of voice, but they also seek to situate agency outside of an actual human performer/composer. This can simplify the analytical process, especially when artists collaborate (as is often the case in popular music), but what of situations in which it feels important to highlight the actual people involved beyond simply acknowledging their authorship? In this presentation, I explore three primary voices–-the sample, Dutcher, and BUFFLO–and trace how they emerge and interact throughout the piece. By “voice” I refer to the sounding presence of a real or imagined source, similar but not identical to agents and personas. Analyzing voice allows us to better see the actual creators and acknowledge their work, rather than attributing it to an imaginary actor. This re-insertion of the actual, historical creator as an intentional participant in the creative process is particularly important when creators belong to populations that are often overlooked or suppressed. Alongside this analysis, I explore how to ethically incorporate my own (white settler colonial) voice by following the guidelines suggested by Hardman (2022), privileging the Indigenous voices who created the song, engaging in self-reflection, and presenting my analysis graphically. This last is accomplished through a crankie box, a novel way of engaging listeners.

Accommodations

Hotel Gettysburg

1 Lincoln Square
Gettysburg, PA 17325

The Hotel Gettysburg is close to campus in the center of town. This hotel is recommended for those who wish to walk to and from the conference.

Hampton Inn Gettysburg

1280 York Road
Gettysburg, PA 17325

Meeting attendees can book rooms at the Hampton Inn Gettysburg. Parking is free.

Travel

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Driving

Gettysburg College is roughly 45 minutes from Harrisburg, 75 minutes from Baltimore, and 90 minutes from Washington, D.C.

If you’re driving in from Washington or Virginia, take route 15 to the PA 97 exit (Baltimore St, by the outlet mall), then go north through the rotary at the center of town and turn left at the first traffic light, which is Water Street. Water Street turns into an access drive that will take you to the parking lot.

For those approaching campus from the south, please note that Washington Street is closed a few blocks from campus. 

Gettysburg College buildings do not have official street addresses. Using the campus address, 300 North Washington St., will take you somewhere near the northern edge of campus.

• For Schmucker Hall: use 210 N Washington St
• For parking: use 142 Constitution Avenue

Please park on campus. Most unmetered parking spaces in the city of Gettysburg (including the street parking next to Schmucker Hall) are restricted to two hours for those without resident permits, even on weekends.

Air

Recommended airports are Harrisburg (MDT) and Baltimore (BWI). Dulles International Airport (IAD) is also available. A shuttle is available to campus.

Rail

Amtrak offers services to downtown Harrisburg (via the Keystone Service from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh and the Pennsylvanian from NYC – Pittsburgh) and BWI Airport (Acela and Northeast Regional). A shuttle is available to campus.

Shuttle to campus

Gettysburg College operates shuttle services to and from regional transportation centers, stopping three to four times a day at the following hubs:

• Harrisburg (MDT) Airport and Amtrak Stations: $35 one way
• BWI airport and Amtrak station: $40 one way
• Dulles International Airport (IAD) and Shady Grove Metro: $45 one way

Conference attendees may read more about these services, including pickup times, here. Shuttles may be booked as “Alumni and Guest Travel” at this page.

Carpool

Local arrangements chair William O’Hara is available to help coordinate carpools and/or roommates among conference attendees. Contact him at wohara (at) gettysburg (dot) edu to indicate your interest.

Program Committee

• Rosa Abrahams, chair (Ursinus College)
• Stefan Greenfield-Casas (University of Richmond)
• Kimberly Goddard Loeffert (Virginia Tech)
• Edward Latham (Temple University)
• Fred Maus (University of Virginia)

Local Arrangements

Chelsey Hamm (Christopher Newport University)