Maximal evenness was first introduced in the music theory domain by John Clough and Jack Douthett. Later, the concept was explored by others such as Dmitri Tymoczko and Richard Cohn. Although maximal evenness was first explored with respect to pitch-classes, the concept can be understood in the rhythmic domain. An explanation of voice-leading space can be found here to create a conceptual foundation before departing to the implications of maximal evenness on rhythm. This thesis will then explore the concept further by exploring music from Steve Reich and György Ligeti to demonstrate the applicability and deeper understanding of the concept.

I present strategies and methods for teaching fundamentals of music theory in the context of the private music studio through a variety of techniques and research. Beginning with a background in educational psychology, examples of behaviorist and cognitive teaching models are presented, and how each applies to teaching music is explained. Two detailed examples of actual lessons are presented, coupled with musical examples, to describe both the process and the concepts that can be presented. A qualitative experiment based upon the learning styles of three music students and the effect of different teaching styles when teaching the same concept is presented and discussed in detail.

Contemporary music analysts have generally downplayed the relevance of composer intent, a dismissal which ignores the potential for an enhanced expressive context afforded by composers' own assessments and also contributes to the silencing of already othered voices, such as in the case of queer and trans composers. Allowing the trans composer a voice in the reading of their work affirms the integral part of the trans experience that is self-determination. Over time, this project to tell trans stories evolved into a series of vignette-like analyses of trans composers’ works in which I use a methodology that incorporates the voices of living composers while building on and modifying the work of music theorists and queer theorists, and moving queer musicology towards a new trans musicology that includes non-binary genders. This thesis demonstrates my theoretical framework using interviews of six transgender composers to supplement my analyses of their works. By analyzing the work with the added context of the composer’s statements about their own music, my analyses paint more nuanced and complete pictures of the work that reinvest music analysis with the trans voice behind the composition.

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In this dissertation, I present the score for the opera Ganymede 5 – Act I and the research paper on Kate Soper’s opera Here be Sirens. Ganymede 5 was first written in the summer of 2019 and premiered at the Philadelphia Fringe Festival on 18 September 2019 by ENAensemble at the Plays and Players Studio Theatre. Following this production, the creative team (myself, the librettist Aleksandar Hut Kono, the director Rose Freeman, and our producers Nicole Renna and Anaïs Naharro-Murphy) met and decided that the opera’s first act was dramaturgically unsalvageable. Working with Aleksandar, Rose, and my composition advisor Andrea Clearfield, I set about rewriting the first act. This new act, with an entirely new libretto, new plot, and a larger orchestra is included here in full score. In the paper, I present three approaches to understanding Kate Soper’s 2014 opera Here be Sirens. In the first chapter, I develop an analytical model using Jacques Lacan’s theory of the mirror stage as a scheme to map the evolution of the sirens Polyxo and Peitho. I argue that their evolutionary arcs together form one complete cycle of the mirror stage, where Peitho begins the opera immediately before the mirror stage and finishes well in the middle, while Polyxo starts in the middle of the mirror stage and is ultimately able to exist via sublimation. With this mapping in hand, elements of the musical and dramaturgical unfolding are contextualized, and most importantly, the relationship between speaking and singing is understood. In the second chapter, I look at the diegetic/nondiegetic orientation of the opera’s musical discourse, the narratological registers within which the opera unfolds, and the role eclectic musical styles play in the plot and in the perception and meaning of time. Together, these three windows into the work illuminate a complex, dynamic set of interactions that generate an astonishingly novel but immediately accessible opera. In the third chapter, I present the transcript of an interview I conducted with Kate Soper where we discuss a variety of topics, from the symbolic meaning of spoken language to the practical considerations of using an onstage piano played by the singers. I annotate in footnotes parts of the interview that deal directly with other parts of the analysis, and specifically those parts where Soper’s statements contradict my own analytical conclusions. The last chapter is a brief, rhapsodic consideration of this work as an analyst and composer. It first presents some paths forward for future research using the tools developed and wielded in this analysis. It then moves on to the way my own compositional dispositions framed my analysis and how they are vital to understanding what is included and what is left out of this work. Soper’s compositional voice deserves consideration on a composer-to-composer level, as it challenges some of the prevailing value-systems around contemporary music. To that end, I reconsider my analysis as if it were a composition lesson, looking at what questions – such as those around technique – are not worth asking from a compositional or analytical perspective. / Music Composition / Accompanied by one .pdf score: Ganymedes 5: An Opera in 3 Acts

The British Museum, Additional Manuscript 4918, provides an interesting insight into the sociology as well as the music of the Baroque period. This treatise was written by an unknown "music-lover," who was not a musician by profession. All that is definitely known about his identity are the initials A.D.V. that appear on the title page. The manuscript is dated 1702. In method and design this work represents the transitional character of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Because the author was not a professional musician, it is important to consider the sociological aspects which influenced the writing of a treatise of this sort. A study of the development of Baroque musical treatises indicates a direct parallel with the social and political temperament of the time.

The purpose of this study is to provide a practical English translation of Vincenzo Galilei's significant treatise on ancient and modern music (1581). In spite of the important place this work holds in the history of music, it has never before been made available in its entirety in any language other than the original Italian. This volume includes chapters 4-6, with an index and bibliography for the entire dissertation.

This dissertation argues for the importance of prioritizing the student experience in music theory discourse, both in teaching practice and content. To achieve this, a student centered curriculum and methodology are proposed, using learning objectives that align with student experiences. The concept of music literacy is defined as the sum of undergraduate music theory experience. Bloom's Taxonomy is proposed as a means of delivery to ensure a student centered experience. The methodology and curriculum are based on the principles of student centered learning with an emphasis on personalized instruction and collaborative learning. The use of Bloom's Taxonomy as a framework for instruction and assessment ensures that learning objectives are aligned with student experiences. This approach aims to promote student success, enhance the relevancy of undergraduate music theory for contemporary students, and facilitate interdisciplinary learning from cognate disciplines. The dissertation concludes by highlighting the importance of prioritizing the student experience in music theory discourse and suggests further research to explore the potential of student centered learning in music theory education. / Music Theory

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This dissertation synthesizes critical theories of identity with music theoretical analysis to explore how listeners use popular music as a means of identity construction. Focusing on Radiohead’s 2016 album A Moon Shaped Pool, the dissertation investigates the various sociological and musical frameworks that illuminate how the songs interact with listener expectations in the process of interpretation. Work on popular music and personal expression is already present in sociology, anthropology, musicology, and other disciplines, though that work rarely engages the close readings of musical processes that I employ in the dissertation. Richard Middleton (Studying Popular Music) and Tia DeNora (Music in Everyday Life), for example, apply a wide variety of methodologies toward identifying the complexities of identity and popular music. For the dissertation, though, I focus primarily on how Judith Butler’s conception of interpellation in Giving an Account of Oneself can be used as a model for how musical conventions and listener expectations impact the types of identity positions available to listeners. For Butler, interpellation refers to how frameworks of social norms force subjects to adhere to specific identity positions. This dissertation will explore both the social and musical conventions that allow for nuanced and critical interpretations of popular songs. Although many theorists have probed Radiohead’s music, this dissertation synthesizes robust analytical approaches with hermeneutics in order to explore how Radiohead’s music signifies, both in the context of their acoustic components and with regard to how this music impacts the construction of listener identities. Radiohead’s music is apt for these analyses because it often straddles the line between convention and surprise, opening several avenues for critical and musical scrutiny. I also argue that listeners interact with this music as if the songs are agents themselves––they have powerful emotional and physical effects on us. / Music Composition