Jazz Theory
- Quartal Harmony: Dyads
- Quartal Harmony: Trichords
- Quartal Harmony: Tetrachords
- Drop-2 Chords Fun Facts
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.