Editor’s Message
Dear MTO readers,
I am excited to present Music Theory Online Volume 18.2 in good time for summer reading and research. This is not a special issue, but there are a number of happenstance (or seemingly happenstance) connections between the articles. Two of the articles deal with timbre, one in “indie music” (My Bloody Valentine, Neutral Milk Hotel, and the Shins) and the other in twentieth-century instrumental music (Varèse, Stockhausen, Messiaen, Gubaidulina, and George Crumb). Two of the articles feature close readings of George Crumb’s electric string quartet Black Angels, one focusing on timbre and the other on tonal quotation/pastiche and form. And one article shows how the lighting in Scriabin’s Prometheus can be understood to perform a real-time analysis of the music.
Featured articles:
- David K. Blake (SUNY-Stony Brook), “Timbre as Differentiation in Indie Music”
- Anna M. Gawboy (Ohio State University) and Justin Townsend (Northeastern University), “Scriabin and the Possible”
- Blair Johnston (Indiana University), “Between Romanticism and Modernism and Postmodernism: George Crumb’s Black Angels”
- Rebecca Leydon (Oberlin College), “Clean as a Whistle: Timbral Trajectories and the Modern Musical Sublime”
I am also pleased to share four timely book reviews with thanks to Steven Rings, MTO reviews editor:
- Kyle Fyr reviews John Adams’s “Nixon in China”: Musical Analysis, Historical and Political Perspectives by Timothy Johnson (Ashgate, 2011).
- Dave Headlam reviews Berg’s “Wozzeck” by Patricia Hall (Oxford University Press, 2011).
- Mariusz Kozak reviews Intimate Voices: The Twentieth Century String Quartet, edited by Evan Jones (Rochester University Press, 2009).
- Gordon Sly reviews Harmony in Schubert by David Damschroder (Cambridge University Press, 2010).
The field of music theory continues to grow, and in addition to the conferences that we each attend, there are more and more—often of equal interest—that we are not able to attend. To help readers keep abreast of developments in the field, MTO is inaugurating the “conference report.” More than a list of papers, each report will identify trends and offer critical reflections on new work. The current issue presents an informative and engaging report by Heather Platt on the conference “Brahms in the New Century” (CUNY Graduate Center, March 2012). Platt expertly reviews papers and sessions on rhythm and meter; sonata forms; structure, text, and meaning; and performance of music by Brahms. We welcome suggestions for conference reports in upcoming issues (email mto-editor@societymusictheory.org).
The innovation of MTO webinars (live online meetings) will continue with this volume; look for dates, times and instructions forthcoming on the smt-announce list and the webinar page. In the webinars, authors introduce their papers and respond to questions and comments from readers. We especially welcome participation from scholars and students for whom attendance at SMT meetings may be difficult or financially prohibitive.
I would like to thank Karen Bottge, associate editor (University of Kentucky), for her many hours of work on this volume. Dr. Bottge corresponds with reviewers, provides wonderfully detailed copyediting, and collaborates with me to prepare and present the MTO webinars. The MTO editorial board provides careful, constructive, and timely reviews of submissions. Current board members are Kyle Adams (Indiana University), Mark Anson-Cartwright (Queens College, CUNY), Stephen Brown (Northern Arizona University), Dora A. Hanninen (University of Maryland), Gary S. Karpinski (University of Massachusetts Amherst), Jonathan Kochavi (Swarthmore College), Catherine Losada (CCM, University of Cincinnati), Nancy Rao (Rutgers University), Joti Rockwell (Pomona College), Stephen Rodgers (University of Oregon), and Leigh VanHandel (Michigan State University). Our managing editor, Brent Yorgason, provides expert leadership on formatting and all things technological. We are also grateful for the dedication and hard work of our editorial assistants: Sean Atkinson (UT Arlington), Sean Curtice (Wesleyan University), Michael McClimon (Indiana University), Carmel Raz (Yale University), and John Reef (Indiana University).
Comments in response to this issue’s articles may be submitted to the Editor for publication in the next issue. Also, please refer to our submission guidelines, if you are interested in submitting.
We host job listings and a dissertation index; please submit announcements for both to MTO.
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, as always, for your support of MTO - a Journal of the Society for Music Theory.
