Conference Agenda

At many higher education institutions, the curricular structuring of music history and music theory teaching tends to present progressions of courses that run parallel to each other. Although we expect students to integrate their learning across sequences, Bob Duke (2005) reminds us that this transfer is not automatic, and we seldom model these ideals. Moreover, one discipline is often framed as supplementary to the other, where theory provides analytical tools for history and compositional discussions, and historical/cultural contexts provide the backdrop for music-theoretical conceits.

This same disciplinary segregation is reified at professional conferences organized by AMS and SMT, where teaching conversations about theory and history run almost entirely in parallel. Although both organizations have decade-long histories of Study or Interest-groups devoted to pedagogical practices, summer conferences, and online journals, opportunities to bring the two together remain rare.

Consequently, we propose to celebrate this year’s conference with a roundtable serving teachers of both music theory and music history. Our discussions will relate to course designs for integrated introductory classes. The roundtable consists of: Daniel Barolsky, (Beloit College), Louis Epstein (St. Olaf College), Sarah Lahasky (Carleton College), Cullyn Murphy (Beloit College), and Tony Perman (Grinnell College), whose disciplinary backgrounds/training include musicology, ethnomusicology, theory, composition, and recording/editing. Each speaker will present for up to ten minutes on courses that they have developed at their institutions. The shared goals of these courses, in keeping with themes that emerged from the 2024 Pedagogy into Practice conference in Oklahoma City, include the consideration of music theory’s “why.” We examine how different kinds of music theory serve performance, improvisation, cultural studies, history, or composition and consider what counts as theory. More broadly, we explore how our courses seek to dismantle and interrogate conceptual hierarchies that separate music theory from musicology/ethnomusicology and, alternatively, offer integrated alternatives that put these subdisciplines in perpetual conversation. After the 40-minute panel, we invite the audience to engage in an interdisciplinary discussion to share ideas, answer questions, troubleshoot, and plan for future curricular developments.