PEER-REVIEWED PUBLICATIONS

• “Prioritizing Narrative Structure in Large-Scale Film-Music Analysis: A Case Study of Dramatic Irony in Barton Fink.” Music Theory Online, Volume 29, Number 1, March 2023


• “Detour or Bridge? Contrasting Sections and Storytelling in Musical Theater.” Society for Music Theory Videocast Journal (SMT-V), Volume 6.2, 2020, co-written with John Peterson (James Madison University)


• “Increasing Retention and Motivation: Making a Case for Conscious Long-Term Repetition and Leveraging Peer Learning.” Journal of Music Theory Pedagogy, Volume 33, 2019, co-written with John Peterson (James Madison University)


• “Alternative Paths, Phrase Expansion, and the Music of Felix Mendelssohn.” Music Theory Spectrum, Volume 41, Issue 2, Fall 2019, co-written with John Peterson (James Madison University)
  • (Click for phrase-diagram videos)


• “Hearing Harmony Holistically: Statistical Learning and Harmonic Dictation.” Engaging Students: Essays in Music Pedagogy, no. 3 (2015).

GRANTS

• “A New Vision for Open Music Theory.” This grant supported creating a brand-new version of the website Open Music Theory which is a comprehensive online textbook that is free to use and is an open-access resource. I was the author of the chapters on large form and most chapters on chromatic harmony. Co-authors were Bryn Hughes, Brian Moseley, Kris Shaffer, Mark Gotham, Kyle Gullings, Chelsey Hamm, Megan Lavengood, and John Peterson

RESEARCH ACTIVITY and PRESENTATIONS

• “How Are Verse Melodies Different than Chorus Melodies?: A Katy Perry Corpus Study”
  • Texas Society for Music Theory Conference, 2024


• “Auralayer: An easy-to-use web app for visualizing instrumentation and timbre”
  • Presentation at the Timbre & Orchestration Interest Group at the Society for Music Theory’s national meeting, 2023. Co-written with Megan Lavengood and Evan Williams


• “Decoupling Harmonic-Analysis Notation through Vertical Representation”
  • Presentation at the Music Notation and Visualization Interest Group at the Society for Music Theory’s national meeting, 2022


• “Form & Function in the 8-bit Era: A Corpus Study of Complete NES/Famicom Soundtracks”
  • Presentation at the Music Theory Society of the Mid-Atlantic, 2021


• “Zelda, Mario, and Metroid: Analyzing Game Music from the 1980s”
  • Invited presentation at UTEP’s Department of Music Lecture Series, 2021


• “Preventing Curricular Gridlock: 10 Strategies for a Fluid Future.”
  • Presentation at the Sol Conference at the University of Texas at El Paso, 2021


• “Don't Count Your Cadences Before They Hatch: Advocating for Discussions of Closure in Pedagogical Contexts” Co-written and presented with John Peterson (James Madison University)
  • Society for Music Theory Conference, 2020
  • Texas Society for Music Theory Conference, 2020
  • Music Theory Society of the Mid-Atlantic Conference, 2020


• “Assessing for Retention: Modeling Creative, Multi-Use Quiz Design” Co-written and presented with John Peterson (James Madison University). Part of the “Using Open Educational Resources for Inclusive, Flexible, and Innovative Music Theory Pedagogy” special panel.
  • Society for Music Theory Conference, 2020


• “Inter-University Peer Learning: Increasing Motivation and Retention through a Long-Term, Collaborative Final Project” Co-written and presented with John Peterson (James Madison University)
  • Rocky Mountain Society for Music Theory (El Paso, TX), 2019


• “Defying Brevity: Expansion at the Phrase Level and Beyond in Musical Theater” Co-written and presented with John Peterson (James Madison University)
  • Society for Music Theory Conference (San Antonio, TX), 2018


• “Expanding Expansion Through the Metaphor of Travel”
  • Guest Lecture at Fort Hays State University, 2018


• “‘Unlimited, the Future is Unlimited’: Reimagining Expansion with Musical Theater” Co-written and presented with John Peterson (James Madison University)
  • Texas Society for Music Theory Conference (Dallas, TX), 2018
  • Music Theory Southeast Conference (Columbia, SC), 2018


• “Phrase Expansion through the Metaphor of Musical Motion: A Case Study of Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E Minor, Op. 64”
  • Co-written and presented with John Peterson (James Madison University)
  • Texas Society for Music Theory Conference (Houston, TX)
  • 2017 Music Theory Society of the Mid-Atlantic Conference (Washington, D.C.), 2017


• “Creating Advanced Blackboard Quizzes in Bulk using Microsoft Excel and HTML”
  • Invited presentation at University of Texas at El Paso's Blackboard Institute (2017).


• “Binding Ensemble Casts with Static Cues: Paul Thomas Anderson’s Magnolia (1999) and Boogie Nights (1997)”
  • Music and the Moving Image Conference (New York, NY), 2016


• “Large-Scale Dramatic Irony in Carter Burwell’s Score to Barton Fink”
  • Society for Music Theory Conference, 2015
  • Music Theory Southeast Conference, 2015
  • Music Theory Forum, Florida State University, 2015


• “Tom’s ‘Twister’: More than 180° in Miller’s Crossing’s Love Triangles”
  • Music and the Moving Image Conference (New York, NY), 2015


• “Formal Structures Reconsidered: New Ideas about Form in Alkan’s Grande Sonate”
  • Alkan USA Bicentennial Conference (Orem, Utah), 2013


• “Analyzing Film Music across the Complete Filmic Structure: Three Coen and Burwell Collaborations”
  • Dissertation (Florida State University), 2015
  • Committee Members: Matthew Shaftel, Nancy Rogers, Michael Buchler, David Johnson


• “Formal Structure in Puccini’s Suor Angelica: Expanding Hepokoski’s Rotational Analysis”
  • Master’s Thesis (Bowling Green State University)
  • Committee Members: Nora Engebretsen-Broman, Gene Trantham