The music theory area provides instruction in music theory and aural skills for music majors and minors in a progressive curriculum that meets the needs of our diversifying undergraduate population. We also offer Bachelor and Master of Music degrees in Music Theory, as well as a Doctoral Minor in Music Theory for Ph.D. and D.M.A. students.
Our undergraduate core curriculum includes two semesters of music theory and aural skills designed to serve students in Bachelor of Music, Bachelor of Arts in Music, and Bachelor of Science in Music Industry Studies degrees. The curriculum provides opportunities for students to engage with a variety of musical genres and analytical approaches. Students in Bachelor of Music and Bachelor of Arts degrees also complete two additional semesters of aural skills and two upper division music theory electives designed to allow students to delve deeper into particular repertoires, genres, or analytical approaches. Recent undergraduate elective courses in music theory have included Analysis for Conducting, Analysis and Performance, Analysis of Tonal Music, Composing with Models, Form and Analysis, Orchestration, Popular Music Analysis, Soundtracks and Scoring, and Twentieth-Century Techniques and Materials.
The area provides a great variety of courses for our large population of graduate students, including Analysis and Performance, Analysis of Popular Music, Contemporary Experimental Music, Contrapuntal Techniques, Music Cognition, Music & Modernism, Music & Repetition, Public Music Theory, Schenkerian Analysis, Style and Technique Since 1900, Survey of Analytical Techniques, Tonality in the Twentieth Century, and Transcription & Analysis. In addition, recent topics courses in The Counterpoint of J. S. Bach, Debussy and Ravel, Lutoslawski, Music and Mathematics, and Tuning Theory.
Students profit from frequent visits by guests theorists, musicologists and composers. Recent guests have included theorists Katherine Baber, Greg Barnett, Guy Capuzzo, Maureen Carr, Daniel Harrison, Kyle Gann, Dave Headlam, Rebecca Jemain, Luis Jure, Edward Klorman, Stephen Laitz, Joel Lester, Lisa Margulis, Elizabeth West Marvin, Andrew McGraw, Robert D. Morris, Severine Neff, Deborah Rifkin, Steven Rings, Daniel Shanahan, Joseph N. Straus and Dmitri Tymoczko.
All music theory related inquires, including about pursuing a music theory degree, should be directed to music theory area coordinator, J. Daniel Jenkins.
Reginald Bain has composed a wide variety of instrumental and vocal music that has been performed by leading artists across the U.S. and Europe. He has written extensively for the theatre and is an accomplished electro-acoustic composer whose works employ unique tuning systems, algorithmic approaches, and musical sonification techniques.
Fang Man’s music has been performed worldwide by notable orchestras and ensembles such as the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra New Music Group, Camerata Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Mannheimer Philharmoniker, Basel Sinfonietta, American Composers Orchestra, Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, National Orchestre de Lorraine, Minnesota Orchestra, Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra, Aldeburgh Symphony Orchestra, Peabody Symphony Orchestra, Baldwin-Wallace Symphony Orchestra, USC Wind Ensemble, Prism Saxophone Quartet, Dolce Suono Ensemble, Ensemble UnitedBerlin, Cassatt String Quartet, Music from China, among others.
Matthew Fink coordinates the first two semesters of the music theory and aural skills curriculum and teaches upper division undergraduate and graduate theory courses. His research focuses on making music theory accessible through universal design principles and a constant renewal of literature in coursework. Other areas of interest are composition and audio production.
David Garner writes chamber, orchestral, electroacoustic and vocal works, often drawing on other music as a point of departure, from Beethoven to bluegrass. A frequent source of inspiration is the music of the American South. He is especially interested in aspects of performance surrounding the tunes themselves including style, technique, tuning, timbre, instrumentation and improvisation.
J. Daniel Jenkins’s research focuses on the music and theoretical thought of Arnold Schoenberg, the music of Elliott Carter, public music theory and music theory pedagogy. Jenkins is editor of two books, “Schoenberg’s Program Notes and Analyses” and “The Oxford Handbook of Public Music Theory,” both from Oxford University Press. Jenkins’s teaching awards include the Michael J. Mungo Undergraduate Teaching Award and the Garnet Apple Award for Innovative Teaching. He received the Wilson Wyatt Alumni Award from the University of Louisville School of Music in 2024.
Composer John Fitz Rogers' music has been performed around the world in leading venues and by ensembles and festivals like Carnegie Hall, Bang on a Can Marathon, Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, among others. He has received many commissions, fellowships and awards, including those from ASCAP, the American Composers Forum and numerous others.
Emily Schwitzgebel’s current research interrogates the cognitive and communicative constraints of post-millennial pop listening, positing that structural and societal aspects of music are fundamentally intertwined and consistently updated to constrain the listening experience. Altogether, she highlights the influences of texture, timbre, and machine learning algorithms on listeners’ expectations. This work and other work has been recognized at such conferences as the national meetings of the Society for Music Theory and the Society for Music Perception and Cognition, as well as at international and regional music conferences, and has appeared in Music Theory Online and Music Perception Journals.