Music Theory and its Future History

Thursday, January 18, 2024 at 4:00pm CST

Regenstein Master Class Room

Presented by Thomas Christensen, Avalon Foundation Professor of Music and the Humanities, University of Chicago 

Over the past few years, music theorists seem to be joining their scholarly siblings in increasing numbers by turning “global” in their research. Yet a study of music theory on a global scale presents a number of challenges. Above all, what constitutes “music theory” outside of the familiar confines of the North Atlantic academe? The kind of scholarship and pedagogy that we may reflexively assume to constitute music theory might not be legible to musicians from other cultures and traditions. Even more challenging, perhaps, is the attempt to historicize many of these non-Western traditions of theorizing, where written documentation is lacking. As an editor of an ambitious new international project to write a global history of music theory, Christensen reflects on some of the obstacles—and possible solutions—we face for the writing of a future history of music theory.