Selected Projects

Epilepsy Documentary Project

• Epilepsy Documentary Project: The recording took place in May 2002 with maestro Priestman and the KUSO. The recording has been incorporated into a new promotional video and the documentary is scheduled to air later this year.Music, Modeling, and the Brain Kip and I are working on additional musical models of the brain. After brainstorming sessions with Dr. Osorio, we are beginning to create some new models that should be even more accurate than the one completed for the documentary. This is an exciting and hopefully fruitful partnership between the sciences and the arts, which I hope continues for a long period of time. Dr. Osorio has discussed developing a substantial grant to support the continued research of all parties involved in this project indefinitely. I look forward to working with him and the other members of the team toward this goal.

Books

• "Musical Understanding: Toward a More Effective Music Theory Pedagogy": I did not complete the project as planned during the sabbatical since some time sensitive opportunities with respect to the epilepsy project arose during the spring. I did reorganize the chapters, drafted the first few chapters and a book proposal to be submitted to Oxford University Press. Throughout the fall semester I drafted large sections of the remaining chapters and used them in my Music Theory Pedagogy (MTHC 830) seminar. During the spring I plan to polish the first three chapters and the book proposal and hope to have a contract within the year, which will provide a more specific timeline for completing the project.
• "Complex Systems and Music": I am continuing a study of complex systems as they relate to music. The sciences of complexity cut across many disciplinary boundaries including economics, anthropology, computer science, biology, physics, and artificial life. After writing computer simulations of Leonard Meyer’s theory of style change, many striking similarities with the work of other scholars studying complex adaptive systems. I am in the early stages of this large-scale project.

Articles

• “Music, the Brain, and Complex Adaptive Systems: Using Musical Metaphors and Models to Study Brain Functions” Currently being prepared for submission to Music Theory Online.
• “A Practical Model for Integrating Technology Throughout the Music Curriculum.” Currently under review by College Music Symposium. (production schedule backed up)
• “Relationships Between Learning Theories and Musical Understanding.” Solicited by the Journal of Music Theory Pedagogy. Currently under review by the editorial review board. (production schedule backed-up)
• “ Using Genetic Algorithms to Model Complex Musical Phenomena.” I am currently looking for another journal appropriate for the topic.