Editor's Message

1. Delayed Release

MTO subscribers will have noticed that volume 3.5 is tardy by a little over one month. Issues are generally released around the 20th of alternate months, starting in January. The present issue was planned for September, but the release was postponed due to unanticipated complications in preparing the multimedia articles during August. An unusually chaotic beginning to the fall academic term forced me, regrettably, to delay further so that I am able to publish the long-awaited issue only now. I assure readers that its content will more than compensate for the late release.

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2. Multimedia and MTO

As announced a few months ago, this issue features multimedia articles about multimedia authoring. The three informative presentations, created by Ann McNamee (Swarthmore College), Dave Headlam (Eastman School), and coauthors Alexander Brinkman and Elizabeth West Marvin (Eastman School), familiarize readers with the possibilities of multimedia, as well as guide them through the steps of applying multimedia techniques to scholarly research projects for publication on the Web (McNamee), and to pedagogical objectives (Headlam, Brinkman/Marvin). Each presentation discusses the tools necessary for creating multimedia works, and explains in detail how to begin using those tools. Our goal is to inspire readers to think about and, hopefully, to explore the potential of multimedia by trying their hand at it. "Aller Anfang ist schwer" advises a German saying (roughly, the first step is always tough). Viewing a well-designed, well-executed multimedia presentation, with text, graphics, sound, and film clips, can easily intimidate. However, after seeing the potential of the techniques as demonstrated in this issue, and after reading the instructive discussions about the basic procedures of multimedia authoring, we hope that some of you will be stimulated to further investigate the prospects for music-theoretical scholarship, and take the plunge into what promises to be an exciting new era in scholarly publishing.

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3. Jobs Well Done

After SMT's annual meeting, held in Phoenix this year (Nov. 6-9), there are changes in staffing. Dave Headlam rotates off of the MTO Co-editorial Board, Robert Judd steps down as MTO Manager, and Brian Alegant finishes his term as Reviews Editor. I want to thank all of them for their assistance in helping MTO mature as an electronic publication. Those of you who follow SMT networking will soon hear more from Headlam because he has been appointed to a new and, for the promotion of multimedia authoring in music theory, important post. His article in this issue gives a glimpse of what is to come. An announcement will follow soon about his new role, in which we wish him much success.

Judd (University of Pennsylvania) has been involved with SMT Networking from the very beginning, particularly in the early days when MTO was initiated as a pilot project. He published commentaries in its first issues (0.2, 0.3), as well as an article (0.8). Among other valuable contributions, he designed the layout of the MTO home page, created the template that gives the HTML version of our articles their uniform look, and wrote our guide for new Web users. Bob was recently appointed Executive Director of the American Musicological Society. His obligations in that capacity, along with increased family commitments, prevent him from continuing as MTO Manager and as (year-long!) "interim" mto-talk Manager. Many thanks to Bob for helping literally to shape and to establish MTO as a respected scholarly journal. His and Headlam's successors will be announced in the next issue.

As if losing two valued members of the MTO staff weren't enough, yet a third is leaving the team, Reviews Editor Brian Alegant (Oberlin). Over the past years Brian has done a tremendous job in commissioning, editing, and delivering excellent reviews of a wide variety of books. Producing one review for six annual issues is difficult enough, and Brian often produced two. MTO readers have benefitted greatly from the energy, diligence, and care that he has put into his work. Thanks to Brian for exemplary service. The announcement of a new Reviews Editor will follow soon.

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Lee A. Rothfarb, General Editor
Music Theory Online
University of California, Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara, CA 93106-6070
U.S.A.

mto-editor@societymusictheory.org
voice: (805) 893-7527 (with voice mail)
fax: (805) 893-7194