My research primarily focuses on American popular music, 1950s to present. I have specific interest in form and the way in which contrast affects the study and analysis of formal structures in popular and rock songs. My dissertation, titled “Examining Contrast in Popular and Rock Music” brings the concept of contrast into focus by offering analytical tools that focus on sameness and difference through the lens of both static and dynamic analysis.
I am committed to the transmission of music theory to a general audience: there has been a rise in the public’s interest in theoretical and analytical topics in the past several years. However, a disconnect between journalists, editors, and academics remains. It is a duty of music theorists to make our scholarship and field accessible to an audience who is eager to learn more. You can read my recent work in public music theory published in the Washington Post here and here, as well as on Slate.
Upcoming Presentations:
To be announced—more to come in-person!
Paper Presentations:
“Graduate Instructor Peer Observation in Music Theory Pedagogy,” (co-authored with Sam Reenan), to be presented at the Pedagogy into Practice Conference, Santa Barbara, CA, May 23-25.
“Music Theory’s Role in Mainstream Digital Journalism.” Presented at the joint meeting of SMT/AMS, San Antonio, TX, 2018.
“The Dance-Chorus in Recent Top-40 Music.” Presented at the Annual Conference of Music Theory Midwest, London, Ontario, 2018.
“Music Theory’s Role in Mainstream Digital Journalism.” Presented at the Public Music Discourse Conference, Columbia, SC, 2018.
“The Dance-Chorus in Recent Top-40 Music.” Presented at Music Theory Southeast Annual Conference, Columbia, SC, 2018. *Winner, Irna Priore Prize for Best Student Paper
“Modular Form in Popular Music.” Presented at the Ninth European Music Analysis Conference (EuroMac 9), University of Strasbourg, Strasbourg, France, 2017.
“The Engaged and the Absurd: Narrative Clarity and Listener Engagement in the Music of System of a Down.” Music Society of New York State Annual Conference, Mannes School of Music, New York, NY, 2016.
“Structural and Surface Analytical Techniques in Two Late Songs of Milton Babbitt.” Presented at the Symposium of Research in Music Theory, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, 2015.
“Associative Polyphony and the All-Partition Array in the Unaccompanied Music of Milton Babbitt.” Presented at: Approaches to Analysis and Interpretation, Cincinnati College- Conservatory of Music, Music Theory and Musicology Society, Cincinnati, OH, 2014.
Alyssa Barna 