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Event

Doctoral Colloquium (Music): Justin London (Carleton College)

Friday, January 27, 2023 16:30to18:30
Elizabeth Wirth Music Building A-832, 527 rue Sherbrooke Ouest, Montreal, QC, H3A 1E3, CA
Price: 
Free Admission

The Doctoral Colloquium is open to all.

Doctoral Colloquium:Justin London (Carleton College)


Title:A Bevy of Biases: How Music Theory’s (and Musicology’s) Methodological Problems Hinder Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
Abstract:
In his essay, “Music Theory and the White Racial Frame” Philip Ewell pointed out some of the problems of racial bias in music theory and analysis (MTO26.2.4).In this presentation some of the underlying causes of those problems will be described.Music theory is a largely inductive practice, derived from a small, unrepresentative corpus of pieces from the “common practice period” of tonal music. We (mis)use this repertory due to a combination ofimplicit biasesthat stem from our enculturation as practicing musicians,explicit biasesthat stem from broadly held aesthetic beliefs regarding the status of “great” composers and particular “masterworks”, andconfirmation biasesthat are manifest by our tendency to use onlypositive testing strategiesand/or selective sampling when developing and demonstrating our theories. The theories of harmony and form developed from this small corpus further suffer fromoverfitting, whereby theoretical models are overdetermined relative to the broader norms of a musical practice.All of which means that simply expanding our analytic and/or pedagogical canon will do little to displace the underlying aesthetic and cultural values that are bound up with the core repertory of the analytic canon, and that working toward greater equity, diversity, and inclusion in music theory goes hand in hand with addressing some of the problematic methodologies that have long plagued our discipline. Indeed, we cannot do the former without doing the latter.
Biography:
Justin London is the Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Music, Cognitive Science, and the Humanities at Carleton College, Northfield, Minnesota, where he teaches courses in Music Theory, the Philosophy of Music, Music Psychology, Cognitive Science, and American Popular Music. He has held teaching and research appointments at the University of Cambridge, the University of Jyäskylä (Finland), The University of Oslo, and the Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics, Frankfurt. He served as President of the Society for Music Theory in 2007–2009, and as President of the Society for Music Perception and Cognition in 2017–2018. He is also the guitarist in the “Spare Niche” jazz trio.


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