Selected Research

Research Publications

• “Metric Cubes in Some Music of Brahms” Journal of Music Theory, forthcoming
• “Closing Panel: Credo/Credimus,” Credo: The Arts as Expressions of Belief, forthcoming
• “The Tritone Within: Interpreting Harmony in Elliot Goldenthal’s Score for Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within,” In Drawn to Sound: Animation Film Music and Sonicity, edited by Janet Halfyard (London: Equinox Publishing, forthcoming)
• “On Metre in the Rondo of Brahms’s Op. 25,” Music Analysis 26/3 (October 2007): 323-353.
• “A Model of Melodic Expectation in Some Neo-Romantic Music of Penderecki,” Perspectives of New Music 25/1 (Winter 2007): 6-42.
• “The Major Tritone Progression in Recent Hollywood Science Fiction Films,” Music Theory Online 12/2 (May 2006). Click here for more information.
• “An Audiovisual Foreshadowing of the Last Eight Minutes of Psycho In Its First Thirty Seconds” In Darkness and Discord: Music and Sound in the Horror Film, edited by Philip Hayward (London: Equinox Publishing, 2006).

Translations

• Grabòcz, Marta. “The Application of A.J. Greimas’s Structural Semantics to Sonata Form.” Translated by Evan Jones and Scott Murphy. Intégral 12 (1998): 1-23.

International Conference Presentations

• "Extraordinary Phrase Rhythm Without Extra Measures in Haydn’s XVI: 12/3" Celebrating Haydn International Conference; August 2009; York University, Toronto, ON
• “Geometrizing Meters in Three Dimensions,” Eleventh International Conference of the Dutch-Flemish Society for Music Theory; February 2009; Leuven, Belgium
• “Wagner’s Sirens in Hitchcock’s Music” Music and the Moving Image Conference; May 2008; New York University, New York, NY
• “Gestures Within the Boundaries of ‘The Cage’,” Conference on Music and Gesture; August 2003; Norwich, England
• “Aesthetic Idiolects and Greimasian Structuralism in Film Music Analysis, ” 7th World Congress of the International Association for Semiotic Studies; October 1999; Dresden, Germany
• “Semiotic Theories of Meaning and Evolution of Meaning in Film Music,” Institute for Socio-Semiotic Studies Symposium; March 1999; Vienna, Austria

National Conference Presentations

• "Extraordinary Phrase Rhythm Without Extra Measures in Haydn’s XVI: 12/3" Haydn Society of North American Conference; May 2009; Cambridge, MA
• “In the Beginning of Penderecki’s Paradise Lost,” Forum on Music and Christian Scholarship; February 2009; University of Notre Dame, South Bend, IN.
• “Wagner’s Sirens in Hitchcock’s Music.” Semiotic Society of America National Conference; October 2008; Houston, TX.
• “Metric Cubes and Metric Transformations in Some Music of Brahms,” Society for Music Theory National Conference; November 2006; Los Angeles, CA
• “On Harmony and Meter in the Rondo of Brahms's Op. 25 Piano Quartet,” Society for Music Theory National Conference; November 2004; Seattle, WA
• “Penderecki’s Melodic Tree: A Preliminary Report,” American Perspectives on Penderecki; October 2004; Houston TX
• “Western Rhythms and Wild Western Rhythms,” Conference on Popular Music and American Culture; November 2002; Austin, TX"
• “Re-Solving One Kind of Metrical Dissonance,” Society for Music Theory National Conference, Special Session on Popular Music; November 2002; Columbus, OH
• “Wayward Faith: Divergence and Reconciliation of Harmonic Cycle and Melodic Sequence in Some Measures from the Prelude to Wagner's Parsifal,” Society for Music Theory National Conference; November 2001; Philadelphia, PA
• “Ernst Kurth at the Movies: Syntax and Semantics of Absolute Progressions in Recent American Film Music,” Society for Music Theory National Conference; November 2000; Toronto, ON
• “Generalized Cyclical Motions in Wagnerian Triadic Progressions,” Society for Music Theory National Conference; November 1999; Atlanta, GA
• “ODACS: Omni-Divisional Algorithmic-Composition System,” Association for Technology in Music Instruction National Conference; November 1997; Cleveland, OH
• “Defining Popular Music,” International Association for the Study of Popular Music—US Chapter Conference; October 1996; Denver, CO

Regional Conference Publications

• “Bernstein quasi Berg: Techniques of Twelve-Tone Ordering in the ‘Kaddish’ Symphony” College Music Society Great Plains Conference; April 2009; Kansas City, MO
• “Metric Cubes and Metric Transformations in Some Music of Brahms,” Music Theory Midwest Conference; May 2006; Muncie, IN
• “On Harmony and Meter in the Rondo of Brahms's Op. 25 Piano Quartet,” Music Theory Midwest Conference; May 2004; Kansas City, MO
• “Re-Solving One Kind of Metrical Dissonance,” Rocky Mountain Society for Music Theory Regional Conference; April 2002; Boulder, CO
• “Wayward Faith: Divergence and Reconciliation of Harmonic Cycle and Melodic Sequence in Some Measures from the Prelude to Wagner's Parsifal,” University of Western Ontario Graduate Student Conference; June 2000; London, ON
• “Chromatic Neighbor-Note Motions, Absolute Progressions, and an Assessment of One Dialect from the Polyglot of Recent American Film Music,” Music Theory Society of New York State; April 2000; New York City, NY
• “Toward a Semiotic Model of Film Music, “ Music Theory Society of New York State; April 1998; New York City, NY
• “‘Where's the Rest of Me?’: Methods of Meaning in the Main Theme of Kings Row,” Music Theory Midwest Conference; May 1997; Northfield, MN
• “Timbral Hierarchy and Recursion in the Symphonies of Johannes Brahms,” Pacific Northwest Music Graduate Students' Conference; September 1996; Vancouver, BC

Invited Presentations

• “Harmonizing Sensuality in Wagner and Hitchcock,” September 2007; University of Iowa Colloquium Series
• “In the Beginning of Paradise Lost,” January 2007, Credo Conference: The Arts as Expressions of Belief, Houston Baptist University
• “Diabolus in Stellae: Tracking a Code in Recent Science Fiction Film Scores,” April 2005; Central Missouri State University
• “On Metric Cubes,” February 2005, University of Chicago
• “Diabolus in Stellae: Tracking a Code in Recent Science Fiction Film Scores,” October 2004, University of Houston
• “Diabolus in Stellae: Tracking a Code in Recent Science Fiction Film Scores,” September 2003, University of South Dakota Ondrozeck Guest Lecture
• “Mathematical and Musical Understanding: Conjoint or Disjoint Sets?” April 2003, University of Math Club Presentation, Math Awareness Month
• “Evaluating Neo-Riemannian Networks and Other Music-Theoretic Constructs,” July 2001, Third Conference on Neo-Riemannian Theory, State University of New York at Buffalo
• “Alchemy, Pharmacy, and the Music of John Williams,” April 2001, Gibbs Street Connection Pre-Concert Lecture Series, Rochester, NY
• “Before and After: The Music for Stanley Kubrick’s 2001,” October 1999, Humanities Department, Eastman School of Music

Published Original Compositions

• “Peace I Leave With You.” Galesburg, IL: Moon of Hope Publishing, 1996.
• “Drop, Drop Slow Tears.” Galesburg, IL: Moon of Hope Publishing, 1996.
• “O, Sacred Head, Now Wounded.” St. Louis: MorningStar, 1995.