Writing

Jazz Theory

Music Theory & Criticism

Claude Vivier’s Zipangu
This analysis of the string ensemble piece Zipangu, by the late Canadian composer Claude Vivier, shows how a seemingly rhapsodic piece is tightly controlled in both its pitch and rhythmic material.

Aesthetics

Mistaking Music: Boundary Conditions of the Aesthetic
A discussion of aesthetics stemming from the provocative premise of mistakes in music. Nelson Goodman’s Ways of Worldmaking serves as a launching point for a consideration of epistemology and the art object. Following this are some specific topics: music as an analog system; cultural roadblocks; authorial intent and score-reading.

Notes Toward a Personal Aesthetic
Notes on the development of aesthetics and style for young composers, who must steer a path between inherently conservative training and the challenge of modern styles. Ends with a discussion that seeks to discredit the “music as expression” idea.

Enter Madmen: Score-reading with Igor
A look at the score to Enter Madmen by Edwin London with Stravinsky’s Poetics as a frame of reference.

Computer Music

Fractal Paradigms for Musical Composition
An examination of uses of fractal ideas in my music, principally self-similarity and chaotic orbits. Presented at MGSA colloquium, University of Toronto, 1994.

The Orbit Gallery
A reference of stochastic and fractal orbits, complete with MIDI examples.