Editor’s Message

In our third volume of 2005, we present a contribution to neo-Riemannian group theory and two articles that draw analytical observations from actions of musical performance.

Lori Burns provides an analytic approach to the study of vocal gesture in performances by Billie Holiday, showing how Holiday’s distinctive vocal expressive strategies relate to the formative influences of Bessie Smith and Louis Armstrong in “Feeling the Style: Vocal Gesture and Musical Expression in Billie Holiday, Bessie Smith, and Louis Armstrong.”

In "Generalized Contextual Groups," Thomas Fiore and Ramon Satyendra describe the properties of a neo-Riemannian-type group, treating ordered pc segments as the objects transformed. Analytical illustrations are drawn from Hindemith’s Ludus Tonalis Fugue in E.

Daphne Leong and David Korevaar describe elements of a performer’s intuitive interpretive process in “The Performer’s Voice: Performance and Analysis in Ravel’s Concerto pour la main gauche.” Drawing from personal experiences in performing the work as well as historical recordings, the authors explore how performance considerations can inform an understanding of musical structure and meaning.

The issue also includes listings of recently completed dissertations, calls for papers, and conference announcements.

Submissions to MTO are welcome at any time. We encourage readers to post their reactions to this issue’s articles and review. The mto-talk email list is available to MTO subscribers (subscription is free) for online discussion of any MTO-related topic. To post to mto-talk, simply send an email message to mto-talk@societymusictheory.org . Longer responses may be submitted to the Editor for publication in the Commentary section of the next issue.

All MTO volumes dating back to our first issue in 1993 can be accessed from the contents page at http://www.mtosmt.org/issues/issues.html.

Thank you for your support of MTO!


Timothy Koozin, Editor
Music Theory Online
Moores School of Music
University of Houston
Houston, TX 77204
U.S.A.

mto-editor@societymusictheory.org

Updated 03 July 2013
Brent Yorgason

SMT