ARTICLES & BOOK CHAPTERS
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Modeling Musical Analysis, ed. Kim Loeffert and John Peterson (Oxford University Press, 2025)
Abstract
Music theory has recently seen burgeoning efforts to make the field more inclusive and diverse. One prominent response involves a concerted effort to collect musical examples by historically marginalized composers for use in the classroom. Less has been done, however, on behalf of the scholars whose work is taught in our classrooms. This collection addresses this concern: scholarship taught in the music theory classroom is often dominated by one particular cultural reality, and this collection is a step toward changing that paradigm by bringing together short essays written by marginalized scholars who model analytical writing for students using a variety of music theories and genres from diverse regions of the world, including for example China, India, Japan, North and South America, and Turkey. The essays represent current music analytical trends in a substantial breadth of genres, including ballet, chamber music, film music, jazz, musical theater, opera, oratorio, orchestral music, popular music, video game music, and vocal music. Modeling Musical Analysis marks an important step in making the field of music theory, the classroom, and the study of music in general more inclusive by amplifying the representation of, and substantive contributions made by, scholars of color. |
Theory and Practice, 46 (2021), 125–129.
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Society for Music Theory: Videocast Journal, 7.5 (2021).
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HAYDN: The Online Journal of the Haydn Society of North America, 10.2 (Fall 2020), 1–17.
Abstract
Recent approaches to Formenlehre tend to prioritize music of the late eighteenth century, and by extension that of Beethoven and Mozart. These approaches are based on assumptions of a sonata form with a normative underlying structure of two clearly articulated themes corresponding to the two key areas found in expositions. Adaptations of this approach for the undergraduate theory classroom have led to distortions of understanding of sonata form’s origins, and of Haydn’s place with respect to the history and development of the form in particular. Understood in many respects as unique, Haydn’s tendency toward the use of continuous expositions is often explained away as musical wit, that somehow the listener is being tricked. However, Haydn began his career at a time when sonata form was beginning to emerge as a genre. The form in part resulted in the use of borrowing techniques from the operatic stage to enliven the forms of instrumental music for the entertainment of a rising middle class of amateur keyboardists and musical societies. Haydn, for his part, was active during the 1750s as a private teacher who composed numerous works for his students to perform. This paper explores the pedagogical application of analysis of Haydn’s early keyboard sonatas in C major, Hob. XVI: 1 and 3, through an investigation of their stylistic predecessor in the da capo aria.
Recent approaches to Formenlehre tend to prioritize music of the late eighteenth century, and by extension that of Beethoven and Mozart. These approaches are based on assumptions of a sonata form with a normative underlying structure of two clearly articulated themes corresponding to the two key areas found in expositions. Adaptations of this approach for the undergraduate theory classroom have led to distortions of understanding of sonata form’s origins, and of Haydn’s place with respect to the history and development of the form in particular. Understood in many respects as unique, Haydn’s tendency toward the use of continuous expositions is often explained away as musical wit, that somehow the listener is being tricked. However, Haydn began his career at a time when sonata form was beginning to emerge as a genre. The form in part resulted in the use of borrowing techniques from the operatic stage to enliven the forms of instrumental music for the entertainment of a rising middle class of amateur keyboardists and musical societies. Haydn, for his part, was active during the 1750s as a private teacher who composed numerous works for his students to perform. This paper explores the pedagogical application of analysis of Haydn’s early keyboard sonatas in C major, Hob. XVI: 1 and 3, through an investigation of their stylistic predecessor in the da capo aria.
Using Turkish "Aksak" Rhythms to Teach Asymmetrical Meter
Engaging Students, 8 (2020)
Abstract
Ear training courses often treat the topic of asymmetrical meter (5, 7 beats) as uncommon in Western music. This causes musical examples in the subject to be less idiomatic than those which deal with more "normative" meters, in 2, 3, and 4 beats. Turkish music, on the other hand, often organizes beats asymmetrically, a feature known as aksak or "limping." This paper discusses strategies for incorporating both Turkish musical examples and pedagogical practices in aural skills class in order to teach the topic of asymmetrical meter.
Ear training courses often treat the topic of asymmetrical meter (5, 7 beats) as uncommon in Western music. This causes musical examples in the subject to be less idiomatic than those which deal with more "normative" meters, in 2, 3, and 4 beats. Turkish music, on the other hand, often organizes beats asymmetrically, a feature known as aksak or "limping." This paper discusses strategies for incorporating both Turkish musical examples and pedagogical practices in aural skills class in order to teach the topic of asymmetrical meter.
Newsletter of the Mozart Society of America, 22/2 (Fall 2018), 7–11.
Abstract
In the decades following Edward Said’s Orientalism, most musicological discussion of Mozart’s “Turkish” music—ranging from smaller works such as the rondo “alla turca” to larger ones like Die Entführung aus dem Serail--has focused on its “otherization” of the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman Empire has traditionally played the role of historical foil to that of the Hapsburgs, with the sieges of Vienna placing the Turk on the periphery of Europe and granting it the image of ever-looming, militaristic menace. Although not successful in battle, the Ottomans did succeed in conquering the psyche of the Viennese, as studies of musical topics have demonstrated the way in which the Turkish march had become part of the eighteenth-century composer’s lexicon. Current studies in Ottoman history, however, have begun to nuance this understanding, presenting a more complex relationship between the two empires, one based on close economic and diplomatic ties between the imperial capitals of Vienna and Istanbul. Taking the cue from this most recent approach, I argue that Mozart’s own understanding and portrayal of the Turk should be reassessed. In order to do this, I reconsider the Turkish musical elements of Die Entführung—the overture, the janissary choruses, and the numbers featuring Osmin—stepping away from orientalist interpretations and examining them from the perspectives of cultural exchange and public diplomacy.
In the decades following Edward Said’s Orientalism, most musicological discussion of Mozart’s “Turkish” music—ranging from smaller works such as the rondo “alla turca” to larger ones like Die Entführung aus dem Serail--has focused on its “otherization” of the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman Empire has traditionally played the role of historical foil to that of the Hapsburgs, with the sieges of Vienna placing the Turk on the periphery of Europe and granting it the image of ever-looming, militaristic menace. Although not successful in battle, the Ottomans did succeed in conquering the psyche of the Viennese, as studies of musical topics have demonstrated the way in which the Turkish march had become part of the eighteenth-century composer’s lexicon. Current studies in Ottoman history, however, have begun to nuance this understanding, presenting a more complex relationship between the two empires, one based on close economic and diplomatic ties between the imperial capitals of Vienna and Istanbul. Taking the cue from this most recent approach, I argue that Mozart’s own understanding and portrayal of the Turk should be reassessed. In order to do this, I reconsider the Turkish musical elements of Die Entführung—the overture, the janissary choruses, and the numbers featuring Osmin—stepping away from orientalist interpretations and examining them from the perspectives of cultural exchange and public diplomacy.
Journal of Music Theory Pedagogy Online, 7 (2017)
Abstract
Robert Gjerdingen’s 2007 study, Music in the Galant Style, offers today’s music theory teachers the possibility of using idiomatic voice-leading progressions from the eighteenth-century in the modern theory classroom. One aspect that Gjerdingen does not cover, however, is how musicians from the period were taught form. Eighteenth-century theorists, like Heinrich Christoph Koch, are explicit in detailing the relationship of smaller forms like dances and songs to larger forms like sonatas, arias, and concertos; the latter are said to grow out of the former by means of expanding musical periods. In volume two of Koch’s Versuch einer Anleitung zur Composition (1793), the theorist features a series beginner’s exercises in the smaller forms intended to lead to larger compositions. Inspired by both Gjerdingen’s study and Koch’s treatise, this article argues for a historical approach to music theory pedagogy, chronicling the classroom experience of a second-semester theory course that featured a series of galant-style composition assignments. The result was a method to teaching music theory whereby students acquired the ability to compose original works in an eighteenth-century style.
Robert Gjerdingen’s 2007 study, Music in the Galant Style, offers today’s music theory teachers the possibility of using idiomatic voice-leading progressions from the eighteenth-century in the modern theory classroom. One aspect that Gjerdingen does not cover, however, is how musicians from the period were taught form. Eighteenth-century theorists, like Heinrich Christoph Koch, are explicit in detailing the relationship of smaller forms like dances and songs to larger forms like sonatas, arias, and concertos; the latter are said to grow out of the former by means of expanding musical periods. In volume two of Koch’s Versuch einer Anleitung zur Composition (1793), the theorist features a series beginner’s exercises in the smaller forms intended to lead to larger compositions. Inspired by both Gjerdingen’s study and Koch’s treatise, this article argues for a historical approach to music theory pedagogy, chronicling the classroom experience of a second-semester theory course that featured a series of galant-style composition assignments. The result was a method to teaching music theory whereby students acquired the ability to compose original works in an eighteenth-century style.
Rast Journal of Musicology, 4:1 (2016): 1100–1110.
Abstract
In the early years of the Turkish Republic, music was a central topic in the cultural reforms that aimed to guide Turkey in the modernism that defined the first half of the twentieth century. Several issues were involved, including the “change of civilizations” from an Ottoman and Eastern identity to becoming more like a Western European nation-state. This was a period that saw the establishment of Western-style music conservatories and the employment of musicologists to help establish a national classical music based on Turkish folk elements. At the same time, media outlets such as radio helped to shape and disseminate a national folk musical style. While such state-sponsored elements exerted their influence over Turkish music, private music making and cultural exchange with the West also played an important role in shaping a new Ottoman style that was based on continuing tradition from the fallen empire. All of these elements worked together to form a rich and complex fabric of musical identity during the early days of the Turkish Republic.
In the early years of the Turkish Republic, music was a central topic in the cultural reforms that aimed to guide Turkey in the modernism that defined the first half of the twentieth century. Several issues were involved, including the “change of civilizations” from an Ottoman and Eastern identity to becoming more like a Western European nation-state. This was a period that saw the establishment of Western-style music conservatories and the employment of musicologists to help establish a national classical music based on Turkish folk elements. At the same time, media outlets such as radio helped to shape and disseminate a national folk musical style. While such state-sponsored elements exerted their influence over Turkish music, private music making and cultural exchange with the West also played an important role in shaping a new Ottoman style that was based on continuing tradition from the fallen empire. All of these elements worked together to form a rich and complex fabric of musical identity during the early days of the Turkish Republic.
HAYDN: Online Journal of the Haydn Society of North America, 4.1 (2014)
Abstract
Haydn’s early string quartets have been receiving more scholarly attention than previously within the last decade. Whether they treat these works as part of larger discussions of the entire ouvre of Haydn’s quartets, or as the focus of studies in their own right, scholars have recently been willing to break from the traditional focus on quartets beginning from Op. 33 and allow for deeper engagement with the early quartets on terms more broadly conceived. This study aims to add to the growing body of knowledge on Opp. 9 and 17 by demonstrating how the first movements of Op. 9 no. 1 in C major, Op. 17 no. 2 in F major and Op. 17 no. 6 in D major each employ the minor mode at analogous moments in the exposition, with a disruptive effect on both the harmonic progression and the emotional register of the music. The impact of these modal digressions is analyzed, as they lead to climactic moments of fixation on a dissonant sonority. This momentarily freezes all four voices of the ensemble in a chromatic harmony that lends an expressive, at times even eccentric, character to the tonal drama. Thus important musical moments are uncovered, which have mostly gone unnoticed due to a general lack of emphasis of the early quartets as serious works. This approach opens up new avenues to understanding of the harmonic and expressive capability of Haydn’s approach to sonata form.
Haydn’s early string quartets have been receiving more scholarly attention than previously within the last decade. Whether they treat these works as part of larger discussions of the entire ouvre of Haydn’s quartets, or as the focus of studies in their own right, scholars have recently been willing to break from the traditional focus on quartets beginning from Op. 33 and allow for deeper engagement with the early quartets on terms more broadly conceived. This study aims to add to the growing body of knowledge on Opp. 9 and 17 by demonstrating how the first movements of Op. 9 no. 1 in C major, Op. 17 no. 2 in F major and Op. 17 no. 6 in D major each employ the minor mode at analogous moments in the exposition, with a disruptive effect on both the harmonic progression and the emotional register of the music. The impact of these modal digressions is analyzed, as they lead to climactic moments of fixation on a dissonant sonority. This momentarily freezes all four voices of the ensemble in a chromatic harmony that lends an expressive, at times even eccentric, character to the tonal drama. Thus important musical moments are uncovered, which have mostly gone unnoticed due to a general lack of emphasis of the early quartets as serious works. This approach opens up new avenues to understanding of the harmonic and expressive capability of Haydn’s approach to sonata form.
PRESENTATIONS & LECTURES
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Integrating Global & Popular Music into the Theory Curriculum
Auralila and Musition Special Session
Society for Music Theory Annual Meeting Nov 8, 2024 |
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Prolongation in Turkish Classical Music
Society for Music Theory Annual Meeting
Nov 8, 2024 |
"'A Beautiful Voice from the Heavens': Pitch-Centered Analysis of Turkish Makam Using Cantemir's Edvar (c. 1700)"
Society for Music Theory Annual Meeting
Nov 6, 2021
Nov 6, 2021
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Nihkil Hogan, "The Learn Partimento Podcast"
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"'Learning the True Fundamentals from Herr Porpora:' Joseph Haydn and Partimento Practice in the 1750s"
Penn State University
Musicology Colloquium March 18, 2021 |
"Stifling Sameness: Hardships of Immigration, Parenthood, and Being Non-White Contingent Faculty."
"Stories from the Frontlines"
Committee on Race and Ethnicity Special Panel
Society for Music Theory/American Musicological Society Joint Meeting
November 7–8, 14–15, 2020
Committee on Race and Ethnicity Special Panel
Society for Music Theory/American Musicological Society Joint Meeting
November 7–8, 14–15, 2020
"C. P. E. Bach, Joseph Haydn, and Galant Schemata as Formal Rhetoric."
"New Perspectives on Haydn and C. P. E. Bach"
Pre-Conference, Annual Meeting of the American Musicological Society
Boston
October 30–31, 2019
Pre-Conference, Annual Meeting of the American Musicological Society
Boston
October 30–31, 2019
"Mozart's Turkish Tattoo: Die Entführung aus dem Serail and Turkish Music in Eighteenth-Century Vienna."
"Mozart and Modernity"
Biennial Meeting of the Mozart Society of America
University of Western Ontario
October 19, 2017
Biennial Meeting of the Mozart Society of America
University of Western Ontario
October 19, 2017
"Historical Pedagogy and Performance Practice in the Classroom: Incorporating Voice-Leading Partimenti in the Music Theory Sequence."
"Historical Performance: Theory, Practice, and Interdisciplinarity"
Historical Performance Institute
Jacobs School of Music, Indiana University
May 20, 2017
Historical Performance Institute
Jacobs School of Music, Indiana University
May 20, 2017
“Burning in Love: Hidden Metaphors of Divine Love in Classical Turkish Music.”
Annual Meeting of the Society of Ethnomusicology
Washington D.C.
November 10-13, 2016.
Washington D.C.
November 10-13, 2016.
“The Art of Makam: Characteristic Melodies in Turkish Art Music.”
World Music Analysis Interest Group
Society for Music Theory Annual Meeting
November, 2016.
Society for Music Theory Annual Meeting
November, 2016.
“Teaching 18th-Century Music Theory Through Composition.”
History, Analysis, Pedagogy: Musical Analysis Conference
University of Nottingham
July 15, 2016
University of Nottingham
July 15, 2016
“The Parallel Minor and Playing with Sonority in Haydn’s Early String Quartets.”
Biennial Meeting of the Society of Eighteenth-Century Music
Moravian College
February 20, 2014
Moravian College
February 20, 2014
“Nationalism, the West, and the Ottoman Musical Legacy in Modern Turkey.”
Cornell Musicology Colloquium Series
Cornell University
February 28, 2013.
Cornell University
February 28, 2013.
“Late Style and Mannerism in Brahms’s String Quintet in G Major, Op. 111.”
Cultural Counterpoints: Nineteenth-Century Music and Literature
Fordham University
October 2011
Fordham University
October 2011