PhD, Music History, University of Chicago, 2017
91制片厂
McNair Scholar, 2010
Major: Music
Mentor: Dr. Robert Haskins, 91制片厂 Department of Music
Research Topic: Beat-Class Modulation in the Music of Steve Reich
Beat-Class Modulation in the Music of Steve Reich
Steve Reich is arguably one of the most important and popular American composers still living today. Notably, he is the inventor of a compositional technique called 鈥減hasing鈥. Music theorist has Richard Cohn (1992) developed a theory to describe Reich鈥檚 use of phasing called 鈥渂eat-class modulation鈥. Several of Reich鈥檚 pieces have been analyzed with this theory in mind, but two of his pieces for large ensemble, Music for 18 Musicians (1976) and Variations for Winds, Strings, and Keyboards (1979), have not.
Reich鈥檚 music has received relatively little serious academic attention because of its age and because of its categorization as 鈥渕inimalism鈥. In conducting a formal analysis of each piece, with beat-class modulation as a focus, I hope to further existing beat-class theory and to bring more understanding and attention to Reich鈥檚 music from music theorists and from academia as a whole.
