Randy Zane Gillespie, Jr., DMA: Teaching Philosophy, Pedagogical Style, and Research Program

When a student completes his or her theory courses, (s)he should be able to identify the characteristic traits of any piece of music, from any period. This is the purpose of theory pedagogy. Real musicianship comes not only from theoretical study but also from an acquaintance with the music itself.

Therefore, one idea, seldom found in textbooks, should govern the way theory is taught: the chronological presentation of theoretical materials via complete musical examples. It is crucial to use complete examples because, especially when coupled with listening and performing, it is the only way a student will experience the music rather than merely learning the course objectives through a series of facilitating “prooftexts.”

I do not mean to say that the chronological presentation of material is new to theory texts (e.g., Baur, John. Practical Music Theory. Dubuque, IA: Kendall Hunt Publishing Company, 2013, Baur, John. Music Theory through Literature. Volumes I and II. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1985, Kraft, Leo. Gradus: An Integrated Approach to Harmony, Counterpoint, and Analysis. New York, NY: W.W. Norton, 1976, Ottman, Robert. Elementary Harmony: Theory and Practice. 5th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1998, Ottman, Robert. Advanced Harmony: Theory and Practice. 5th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2000, etc.), but those like Baur’s are the ones perhaps most easily amenable to the discussion of the evolution of compositional techniques from century to century, beginning with the Middle Ages. I am convinced of the pedagogical soundness of this approach. After all, what justification does a theory course need to begin with the earliest notated music?

Thus, in the first year of a two-year theory core, I would use examples covering plainchant through J. S. Bach, with at least one example from each century which introduces some new compositional technique (e.g., from melodic intervals in plainchant, to harmonic intervals in organum, triads and 8/5 constructions in 13th-century motets, all the way through to the early 18th century and functional harmony, modulation, chorale harmonization, and figured bass), constantly fusing the theoretical with the historical.

In the second year, after a review of J. S. Bach, my examples would consist of literature from Haydn through to some 21st-century composer such as Mason Bates, Daníel Bjarnason or Nico Muhly. In addition to the harmonic practice of the 18th and 19th centuries, this year would introduce students to the techniques and styles of the 20th and early 21st centuries.

Exercises would be divided into written skills and creative application. While drilling is necessary (e.g., finding and identifying all the suspensions in a motet or analyzing the harmony of the Liebestod of Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde), using what one learns in theory to compose is just as important to every musician’s training.

In addition to what has already been documented in both my letter of interest and my vita, my scholarly interests include developing a research program that broadly focuses on the state of concert music after the turn of the 21st century with particular reference to the interactive role of contexts such as neoconservatism and reconstructive postmodernism. It also focuses on varied socio-cultural influences and specifically delineates how increasing pre-modernization has shaped the development of art music, beginning with the ascendancy of post-tonal triadicism in the late 20th century.

My references will confirm that I have a demonstrated ability for producing high-quality scholarship in any area along with the potential to teach courses in such a manner that the subject matter is made suitable for individual differences and various learning environments. I am willing to develop a research program that involves undergraduates, and would, in fact, be happy to work collaboratively with anyone interested in doing research.

Wherever I may be, I see myself continuing a strong tradition of valuing both research and teaching, and expect to develop a high-quality research program that will involve students in constructive ways. I hope to have the opportunity to pursue my research and teaching interests somewhere that provides a base of good will and support from which each member of its community can draw.

Course Syllabus: Pre-College Music Theory Bootcamp (Class Title)

Overall course objective: Communiversity classes meet anywhere from 1 to 8 times, and from 1.5 to 3 hours per session. Determine number and length of sessions by the amount of material you want to cover to reach class objectives. This outline will help you structure your lesson plans and must be completed for a new course to be considered.

TOPICS / OBJECTIVES ACTIVITIES / METHODS

1. Acoustics and Clefs, Key, Scales, Key

Signatures, and Intervals

Describing the overtone series, Naming the flats or the sharps in the order that they

appear in key signatures, Writing major and minor scales, Writing intervals, Identifying

major and minor scales

2. Triads, Functional Harmony Naming the third and fifth in triads, Naming the type of triad found on each note of a

scale, Writing the keys and Roman numerals associated with any given chord, Writing

triads in different clefs, Writing chord symbols, Naming the common root progressions,

Naming the three chord progressions that are the exception to the rule, Outlining a four-

bar phrase of typical functions, Writing Roman numerals based on these functions,

Locating weaknesses in chord progressions

3. Part Writing: Triads, Rhythm and Meter Describing the three basic textures, Naming the approximate range of each of the basic

voices (SATB), Describing close position and open position, Describing part writing

when the chords are in root position, Describing the procedures for doubling when

triads are in the first inversion, Describing the part writing in the minor mode II to V

progression, Filling in inner voices, Naming three examples of non-metric music,

Describing each of the four types of basic accents, Naming appropriate time signatures

for each of the basic meters, Listing the units of rhythmic measurement from the

shortest to the longest, Indicating the relative strength or weakness of each note in a

melody

4. Cadences and Phrases, Nonharmonicism,

Six-Four Chords

Defining an authentic cadence, Defining a perfect authentic cadence, Identifying

cadences, Analyzing a musical example, showing chord symbols, Roman numerals,

and types of cadences, Rewriting a musical passage so that it includes passing tones

between each skip of a third in each voice without creating parallel 5ths, Locating

places where each voice descends by step and adding a suspension, Adding

appoggiaturas on the third of each chord except the first and last of a musical passage,

Analyzing an example by labeling the types of nonharmonic tones, Adding nonharmonic

tones to a melody that uses only chord tones and simple rhythms, Analyzing a musical

passage by labeling the types of six-four chords it contains

5. Bimodality and the Neapolitan Sixth Chord,

Modulation

Analyzing a musical example by locating Neapolitan sixth chords, Defining pivot chord,

common tone, and bimodal modulations, Designing modulations from one key to

another, Analyzing a musical passage for pivot chords

6. Seventh and Ninth Chords, Secondary

Dominants and Subdominants

Naming the notes in seventh chords and ninth chords, Writing progressions in SATB

texture that involve seventh chords and ninth chords, Analyzing a musical example for

seventh chords and ninth chords, Naming chord symbols for secondary dominants and

subdominants expressed as Roman numerals and vice versa, Indicating chord symbols

and Roman numerals for secondary dominants and subdominants in a musical

passage

7. Augmented Sixth Chords, Melodically Derived

Harmony

Indicating chord symbols and Roman numerals in a musical example containing

augmented sixth chords, Naming chord symbols for various #II7 and #VI7 chords,

Naming the notes in V+, V7+, #II7 and #VI7 chords, Writing chord progressions in SATB

texture that contain these chords, Indicating these chords in a musical example

8. Eleventh and Thirteenth Chords, Other

Scales

Writing the chord symbols for eleventh and thirteenth chords expressed as Roman

numerals, Describing the part writing in the V13 – I progression, Constructing major

pentatonic scales, Constructing minor pentatonic scales, Writing blues scales, Writing

the blues progression (chord symbols only), Naming the notes in an augmented ninth

chord

Return to: Division of Outreach and Continuing Education, Office of Professional Development and Lifelong Learning, Communiversity

(Attn: Sandra Sulton), Post Office Box 879, University, MS 38677 -or- email to sdsulton@olemiss.edu

YOUTUBE L INKS:

V ideo o f C lassroom Teach ing :

h t tps : / /www.youtube .com/watch?v=G_Kqf-HxsVI

V ideos o f Record ings , Representa t ive o f

Compos i t iona l Ou tpu t :

h t tps : / /www.youtube .com/watch?v=Sg5Z46GIOOc

h t tps : / /www.youtube .com/watch?v=_ukkhxFh8M4

Randy Zane Gillespie, Jr., DMA-Post-tonal Theory Narrative Statement 1

Overview

As I seek an academic position, I hope to find one that will allow me to freely employ post-tonal analytical techniques in both research and teaching. In the fall semester of 2007, I took a class in post-tonal theory at the University of Mississippi’s (Ole Miss) Department of Music. Something about the set theoretical nature of this branch of music theory resonated deeply within me. It offered me an extraordinary intellectual basis for all my future scholarship as well as the promise of an eventual teaching agenda that stresses the application of 21st-century tools to the analysis of post-tonal music.

Primary among my first post-tonal theoretical efforts at Ole Miss was my analysis of György Sándor Ligeti’s Monument (1976). The paper in which this work appears, “Ligeti’s Monument: Minimalist Processes, Structural Control, and ‘Illusionary’ Patterns,” was presented at the 2008 annual meeting of the South Central Society for Music Theory.

My penchant for post-tonal theory has benefited my academic career as well as my participation in the broader discipline and practice of music. I take very seriously my responsibilities as theorist and composer as demonstrated by my curricular records. In this narrative, I will highlight the significance and impact of the integration of post-tonal concepts with my music theoretical activities.

Focus on Analysis

My theoretical endeavors have been shaped by three common and related aims of my analyses: 1.) the consideration not only of the intervals formed between adjacent notes of melodic material, but also the intervals that frame it, for example, the interval between the first note and the last, between the second note and the second-to-last, and so on, 2.) the discovery, thereby, of basic motivic/intervallic structures, and 3.) the relation of such structures to transpositionally and/or inversionally equivalent repetitions of it. The incorporation of these elements into all levels of my analyses provides cohesiveness to my work, which enables me to be more efficient, effective, and productive.

Informed by the seminal literature of basic post-tonal concepts (e.g., Allen Forte, The Structure of Atonal Music (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1973); John Rahn, Basic Atonal Theory (New York: Longman, 1980); and George Perle, Serial Composition and Atonality, 6th ed., rev. (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1991)), my theoretical endeavors draw from the principles of octave equivalence, pitch class, enharmonic equivalence, integer notation, mod 12, pitch intervals, ordered and unordered pitch-class intervals, interval class, interval-class content, and interval-class vector to examine and address how a melody is organized or to notice patterns of recurrence or to conveniently indicate the basic sound of a vertical sonority, etc. These principles are invaluable to the cause of identifying and expounding upon sources of unity amid an often blinding variety. For this reason, the three aims listed above are very much integrated throughout my work.

Randy Zane Gillespie, Jr., DMA-Post-tonal Theory Narrative Statement 2

I began to formulate my analytical proclivities prior to my graduate career. As an undergraduate majoring in Theory at Ole Miss, I conducted independent research into the possibility of applying leading principles of Quantum Physics to the analysis of music. The research results were meager and not to be compared with those of others who have pursued a similar line of inquiry.• Even before taking up my undergraduate studies, I had attempted much analysis of music by means of conceptual physics while studying Composition under the auspices of Raymond Kurt Liebau, former professor of Piano and Composition at the Ole Miss Department of Music. These very early efforts, jejune as they were, nonetheless prepared me for the arithmetical operations that have proven to be so musically useful in the analysis of post-tonal music.

The remainder of this narrative is organized into three primary areas: 1.) research philosophy, 2.) writings and presentations, and 3.) teaching philosophy and curriculum.

Research Philosophy

The principle goal of my theoretical endeavors has been to find compositional determinants that can be expressed as accurately as if they had been calculated mathematically. This goal defines a determinant as a factor of the creative process that is found to be quantifiable in that it can be articulated according to a given rule. It seeks to categorize musical objects and describe their relationships as resulting from creative acts that betray the underlying presence of set structure, for example. Of course, there is a problem inherent in trying to segment a work of art into meaningful groupings by means of something like set structure without assuming too much about the intent of the artist who created it. Thus, an evaluation of authorial intention depends on an increasing weight of evidence that demonstrates a significant probability that a composer meant to do one thing or another, as when two transpositional paths of a basic motive are further seen to combine into a single comprehensive view.

Recent theoretical developments like transformational networks and graphs, contour theory, atonal voice leading, triadic post-tonality (including neotonality), inversional symmetry, and interval cycles satisfy my definition of a determinant in that they each represent an organizing force in composition that can also be expressed, if you will, scientifically. They are analytical techniques that have been developed in the course of examining music (featuring complementary hexachords as basic units of music) which is built symmetrically around a central set, or music the basic idea of which may be divided into trichords, for instance, related at Tn. As a theorist, I hope to discover and develop methodologies and categorizing/descriptive protocols of my own for the analysis of post-tonal music.

• See “Mutations in Systems in the Natural Sciences and Music in the First Half of the Twentieth Century,”Mark Delaere and P. H. Daly, International Review of the Aesthetics and Sociology of Music, Vol. 21, No.1 (Jun., 1990), pp. 3-28, “Varèse and the Lyricism of the New Physics,” John D. Anderson, The MusicalQuarterly, Vol. 75, No. 1 (Spring, 1991), pp. 31-49, “Synergetic Dynamics in John Cage's Europeras 1 &2,” Laura D. Kuhn, The Musical Quarterly, Vol. 78, No. 1 (Spring, 1994), pp. 131-148, “Music and theNew Scientific Theories,” Bruno Deschênes, International Review of the Aesthetics and Sociology ofMusic, Vol. 22, No. 2 (Dec., 1991), pp. 193-202, “Some Ideas about Meter in the Fourth Tableau ofStravinsky's Les Noces or Stravinsky, Nijinska, and Particle Physics,” Jeanne Jaubert, The MusicalQuarterly, Vol. 83, No. 2 (Summer, 1999), pp. 205-226, “Textual and Contextual Analysis: Mahler's FifthSymphony and Scientific Thought,” Vera Micznik, International Review of the Aesthetics and Sociology ofMusic, Vol. 27, No. 1 (Jun., 1996) , pp. 13-29

Randy Zane Gillespie, Jr., DMA-Post-tonal Theory Narrative Statement 3

Writings and Presentations

I know that an extremely important aspect of theory and analysis is the dissemination of research findings to audiences on which they can have the greatest impact. While I have had some success in sharing my work via peer-reviewed publications or at (inter-)national professional meetings, I believe my work shows that I have great potential.

Writings Since 2003, I have written quite a lot of material dealing with music theory as a science (relatable to other sciences) with the same logic of quantity and shape and arrangement. One paper, “A New Compositional Technique Inspired by Leading Principles of Chaos Theory,” was self-published on the Internet via non-profit digital archives like the Internet Archive whose stated mission is the achievement of “universal access to all knowledge.” Additionally, the results of the aforementioned analysis of Ligeti’s Monument appeared in a paper, “Ligeti’s Monument: Minimalist Processes, Structural Control, and ‘Illusionary’ Patterns,” which was presented at the 2008 annual meeting of the South Central Society for Music Theory. I successfully completed two experimental research projects which were each written up as papers (i.e., “Investigating the Role of Dissociation in Post-Formal-Operational Music Listening” (2008) and “Evidence for Recursion in Claude Debussy’s Prélude à l’aprés-midi d’un faune: A Quantitative Analysis” (2009)), and I am currently conducting independent research into the state of music at the turn of the twenty-first century.

One favorable outcome of my doctoral theory comprehensive (my analysis of the first movement of Anton Webern’s Fünf Sätz für Streichquartett (2012)) was the warming experienced by Dr. John Baur, Area Coordinator of Composition and Graduate Theory at the Rudi E. Scheidt School of Music of The University of Memphis, toward the idea of using numbers and arithmetic to model interesting aspects of music. My analysis formulated a rationale for sonata-allegro form in Anton Webern’s Five Movements for String Quartet, Op. 5, No. 1 based on the notion of transpositional combination (TC) as surrogate tonality.

Presentations I have been contributor or sole author and presenter of a number of presentations over the past several years. “Ligeti’s Monument: Minimalist Processes, Structural Control, and ‘Illusionary’ Patterns,” which contained the results of my analysis of that piece, was accepted for presentation at the 2008 meeting of the South Central Society for Music Theory. The annual meeting, held at a different post-secondary institution each spring, is an organization for scholars, teachers, and students of music theory and analysis with a geographic base in the states of Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Tennessee. Also in 2008, I gave a presentation entitled “Investigating the Role of Dissociation in Post-Formal-Operational Music Listening” at Ole Miss to share the results of a “maxi-” experiment I had completed for a class devoted to experimental research in music education. This presentation was especially well received by the audience for its novel conclusion that the music condition of my experimental design was conducive to stage-five reasoning. I was invited to demonstrate my chaos theory-based compositional technique at the Complete with Missing Parts: Interviews with the Avant Garde book-release event that was sponsored by Vox Press, Inc., a literary journal based in Oxford, Mississippi that publishes works of experimental literature, chronicling important voices outside of traditional publishing. Videos from this event have been made available online, and I continue to get requests for copies of my paper

Randy Zane Gillespie, Jr., DMA-Post-tonal Theory Narrative Statement 4

“A New Compositional Technique Inspired by Leading Principles of Chaos Theory.” In 2009, I gave a poster presentation for the faculty and students of the music department of Ole Miss as part of my final project in Research in Music Education. The presentation of my paper, entitled “Evidence for Recursion in Claude Debussy’s Prélude à l’aprés-midi d’un faune: A Quantitative Analysis,” was structured to raise awareness of the potential for statistical tests in the analysis of music.

Teaching Philosophy and Curriculum

Teaching, mentoring, and curriculum development are the objects of very strong desires I have which reflect how very much I want to provide quality teaching, service, and advising to students. As you can see from my vita, I have been most fortunate in my graduate career to have had ample opportunity to learn both the acquiring and imparting of knowledge. As a graduate student, I have been afforded a great deal of pedagogically informative experiences with a wide range of courses, including Foundations of Music Education, Kodály Music Education in America, Orff Level I Certification, and Pedagogy of Music Theory. In addition, a list of my experiences as an educator, in one form or another, can be found on my vita.

I am very proud to have had professors who challenged me, and who were committed to nurturing my ability to think critically, learn music theory and composition, and find a rewarding job. The relationships I have had with my professors have been consistently laudatory, marked by my ability to be taught and to communicate, and my enthusiasm for the subject matter. I am committed to working with my students and maintaining professional relationships with them beyond the classroom just as my own professors have been committed to me. Like them, I would consistently strive to keep my courses current, interactive, reflective, and challenging.

I look forward to inviting students to participate in my research projects and in co-authored publications. Through this participation, students will be able to shape research questions, analysis, and application of research results. I like to think that my approach to teaching would involve the recognition of the strengths of each participant, giving people the opportunity to make meaningful contributions, cultivating skill and capacity-building, and providing very clear and structured guidance.

Curriculum I am especially pleased at the prospect of teaching post-tonal theory, a course that should, at the very least, be required of all undergraduate music theory and/or composition majors, and which should focus on the study of analytic techniques that are useful in understanding post-tonal music.

As the instructor of such a course, I could hardly do worse than to make Joseph Straus’ Introduction to Post-tonal Theory (3rd Edition. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2005) the required text. I would organize it around learning outcomes that could reasonably be expected upon completion of the course: 1.) the ability to identify pitch-class sets and set classes in a variety of musical contexts, 2.) the ability to identify various relationships and compositional techniques in mod-12 pitch-class space, 3.) the ability to understand the fundamentals of pitch-class set theory, and 4.) the ability to understand the fundamentals of twelve-tone composition. As someone who has studied and extensively practiced this branch

Randy Zane Gillespie, Jr., DMA-Post-tonal Theory Narrative Statement 5

of music theory at two universities, I am confident that it is possible to structure a course in post-tonal theory to achieve these objectives in a cohesive manner that lends itself to a wholly positive student experience. I am sure that I will find myself continually revising and updating the content, readings, evaluation methods, and overall course structure based on student feedback as well as my own assessment of student learning, but, in the meantime, I offer the following as a prospective course schedule for a hypothetical spring semester:

Week Topic 1 The Importance of Analysis 2 Basic Concepts and Definitions 3 Pitch-class Sets 4 Pitch-class Sets 5 Contour Relations, Composing-out, Voice Leading 6 Centricity, Inversional Axis, Referential Collections 7 Interval Cycles, Triadic Post-tonality, Peer Review of Term Papers 8 Review and Midterm Exam 9 Spring Break 10 Additional Relationships 11 Basic Twelve-tone Operations 12 Basic Twelve-tone Operations, Webern and Derivation 13 Rotational Arrays (Stravinsky, Crawford, Babbitt), Minimalism, Process Music 14 Neo-Riemannian Theory 15 Aleatoric Music, Post-minimalism 16 Current Trends, Paper Presentations 17 Final Exam Review

Future Theoretical Endeavors

Being at a college or university will allow me, as it already has, to develop and refine my research and teaching in ways that would be both highly valued by the institution and central to my own philosophy of music theory. I would like to examine, through my research, teaching, and practice, just how basic triadic harmony is to neoclassicism, neotonality, minimalism, neoromanticism (in the original sense of the word), and any other kind of triadic music that is unrestricted by traditional, functional tonality. On the other hand, I would also like to develop means of analyzing post-tonal music in terms of tonal theoretical categories that would finally settle the disagreements that have been a continual source of irritation for tonally oriented analyses of post-tonal music. I also look forward to identifying ways to contribute to the relatively recent outburst of interest in neo-Riemannian theory.

StatementofEducationalPhilosophy

Incompositionlessons,thedialoguebetweentheteacherandhis/herpupiloftenfeaturesstatementsthatclingtothestudent’smemory.Manystatementsmadebymycompositionteachershavehadthisinsistentquality.Duringperiodsofwritingmusic,theyhavehauntedmeincessantly.Canonebeblamedifoneeventuallyfeelsthembecomingapartofthecircumstancesofcreatingandconstructing?Wouldn’tsomethingbemissingwithoutthisconstantcompanionship?

Eventuallytheremembranceofthesepersistentremarksledmetoask,“AmIwritingmusictoavoidsettledprofessionalism,forfeitingacademicsecurityfordoubtfulsuccess,althoughfreeoftheinhibitoryfearofpeerapproval?”

IconcludedthatbeingamemberofacademewhilesimultaneouslypossessingcompleteartisticfreedomispossiblewhenIwasawardedTheSmitCompositionAwardatTheUniversityofMemphisfortheacademicyear2011-2012.

Sincethen,Ihavefoughtthetemptationtoteachcompositionasadisguisedformofhandicraft.Thus,Idonotteachcompositionastheappreciationofsomemusic-producingphase,assomethingfitonlyforseminars,orasanamalgamationofalltheopinionsoncomposersandcompositions,orvagueaestheticisms,egotisms,orpseudo-profundities.Composersofthe“university”typeareapttofallintothisenticingbutultimatelylifelessattitude.

Iratherendeavortoteachcompositiontoguidethestudentthroughtheworkplaceofthemanorwomanwhowritesmusic.Thecoreofallthecomposer’spuzzles—namely,themyriadtechnicalintricaciesandtheoretical,constructiveimplicationsofchordalandtonalmaterials—isdemonstratedfrommyownpersonalexperiences.Thus,boththestudentandtheteacheroftenfindinthatdemonstrationopinionssomewhatdifferentfromtypicalcompositionpedagogy.Frombasicmusictheory,ourdiscussionsspreadoutintoaesthetics,science,philosophy,etc.withouttheslightestposturing.Nofactgiveniseverregardedasanhistoricalsingularity—everyresultofmyownspeculationshasalwaysturnedouttohavepredecessorsorparallels.Thus,theonlymeritofmytuitionisitstendencytofocusononlyonething:thecomposer’swork.Thisapproachisascomprehensiveasitisexclusive,andisthetypicalartisticWeltanschauung.Tothescientist,the“unmethod”ofapprehendingeverythingwithoutevercomprehendingitmustseemamateurish.Infact,theartisticapproachisamateurish.Atleastwithcompositionwehavebeenplacedhalfwaybetweenintellectualexactitude(i.e.,music’stechnicalaspects)andlimitlessimagination.

Maintaininganddefendingthispositionagainstanynon-artisticand/ornonscientificattacksmeanscriticizingtheconditionsfromwhichtheseattacksoriginated.Thestudent,onceconvincedthattheteacher’sintentionsarehonest,willtakethiscriticismnotasill-temper,butasaninterestinbetteringwhateverisunsatisfactoryinthestudent’smusicallife,havingalreadybeenexperiencedbytheteacherwhoisprofoundlydevotedtomaintainingmusic’sintegrityintheworld’sculturaldevelopment.

Acomposerteachinginanon-technicalmannerisinanoddsituation.Ironicallyenough,if(s)hemakesteachingthemajorpartofhis/heractivities(whichmeansneglectingcomposition),(s)hewilllosetherighttoamendhis/herstatements,toshowfurtherdevelopments,andtocorrecthis/hermistakes.Letmeshowyouhowsuchasituationmayarise.Throughoutmydoctoralprogram(2009-2013),myprimarycompositionteacherandIwouldoccasionallyhavediscussionsinwhichIwouldarguethatfavoringamusicalidea’sintrinsicweightorpresenceoverit’streatment(andviceversa)amountedto“esotericisolationism,”tousePaulHindemith’swords.Apartfromhowuglyhefoundmyargument—inpost-minimalismitisashideousasitstheoreticalequivalents(e.g.,development,composingout,nonconsecutiverelation,andsoon)—hefoundnothingremarkableinit,sincequiteobviouslyconceptsexpressedinmusicthatrepresentthevisceralaspectsofacomposer’sartworkaretheonlythingsentitledtopublicconsideration,andconsequentlyhetookforgrantedhischaracterizationofmymusicas“muchadoaboutnothing.”Thisremainedasourceoffriendlycontentionbetweenuswhilemymusicconsistentlyreceivedagreatdealofattention.Gradually,my“ugly”argumentbegantoshowacertainpowerofpenetration,andwhenitcametimetodefendmydissertation(asizeableworkfororchestra),Ifeltlikethesorcerer’sapprenticeofGoethe’s1797poem:hespoketheslogan“muchadoaboutnothing”onceagain,but,thistime,ithadgrowntorefertomymusicassomethingasrich,admirable,unique,andpraiseworthyasthousandsofalienwildflowersinafield.Apparently,itnowmetperfectlymyteacher’sdesireforaverballabelwhichclassifiedhisapprovalofmymusic,paradoxicallyexemptingmefrom“saying”anythinginwhathedescribedasanotherwiseextremelyexpressivecontext.Tothisday,ithasbeenimpossibletoforgetthesillyphraseandtheself-contradictoryclassificationthatgoeswithit.Therefore,althoughteachingmayaccomplishwhatalifelongdevotiontocomposingseriousmusiccannot,onemaybesurethat,fromtimetotime,eventhosewhodonotteachattheexpenseofcompositionwill(ifonlyatfirst)depositastudent’sinnovationinthe“muchadoaboutnothing”drawerwithoutreallyknowinguntilmuchlaterwhat(s)hehasstoredaway.Doubtlessly,teaching’saimisausefulnessthatissynonymouswithourShakespearianphrase,andwhichthusreliesoneverycause-and-effectrelationshipinmusic.Ontheotherhand,musicthathasnothingelseasitspurposeshouldneitherbewrittennorused,andthesameistrueofcompositionpedagogy.

Mycompositionteachershavebeenmorethanhelpfulinpreparingmetoteach.Theyunflagginglyencouragedasidelinetheoristwhoratherpreferredwritingmusic;theywerepatientwithacomposerwhoseonlyreliabilitywerehistireless,althoughmostlyunsuccessful,effortstochange;andtheyhadamostgenerousunderstandingforhistheoreticalandcompositionalweaknesses.Itisapleasuretoassurethemofmyheartfeltgratitude.

ZaneGillespieMemphis,TennesseeApril2016

Summarize Your Views and Perceptions about Teaching

TPI Profile SheetThank you for taking the TPI. Your results are represented on the graph below. For information on how tointerpret your results, please see theInterpretation page

TOTAL: 37 TOTAL: 42 TOTAL: 35 TOTAL: 40 TOTAL: 31

B = Beliefs What you believe about teaching and learning.

I = Intentions What you try to accomplish in your teaching.

A = Actions What you do when you're teaching.

Date of survey: 03/26/2015

Name of respondent: Randy Zane Gillespie, Jr., DMA

Association group: No, I am not a member of any of these groups

Area of learning: Undergraduate University

Subject of teaching: Music

Transmission Total: (Tr): 37 (B = 14; I = 11; A = 12)

Apprenticeship Total: (Ap): 42 (B = 15; I = 15; A = 12)

Developmental Total: (Dv): 35 (B = 10; I = 15; A = 10)

Nurturing Total: (Nu): 40 (B = 13; I = 15; A = 12)

Social Reform Total: (SR): 31 (B = 9; I = 13; A = 9)

Beliefs total: (B) 61

Intentions total: (I) 69

Action total: (A) 55

Mean: (M) 37

Standard Deviation: (SD) 3.85

Dominant Threshold: (HIT) 40.85

Recessive Threshold: (LOT) 33.15

Overall Total: (T) 185

Home

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

TRANS = 37

B = 14

I = 11A = 12

APPREN = 42

B = 15 I = 15

A = 12

DEVEL = 35

B = 10

I = 15

A = 10

NURTUR = 40

B = 13I = 15

A = 12

SOC REF = 31

B = 9

I = 13

A = 9

Mean: 37SD: ±3.85

Perspective totals onor above this line areDOMINANT for you.

Perspective totals onor below this line areRECESSIVE for you.

Reflecting on Your TPI Results

1. Review the Summary Paragraphs

Remind yourself what philosophical viewpoint each of the five perspectives represents: Transmission, Apprenticeship,Developmental, Nurturing, and Social Reform. Remember, these are Teaching Perspectives; not personality-based 'styles' ortechnical 'methods'.

2. Examine Your Profile Sheet

The height of the five large vertical bars on your profile represents how strongly you hold each of the Five Perspectives outlined onthe Summary Sheet: Transmission, Apprenticeship, Developmental, Nurturing, and Social Reform. Remember that all teachersembody all five views, but in varying degrees. (Note: Depending on the version you're using, the order of the paragraphs may notbe quite the same as the bars on your profile sheet. Not to worry!)

3. Note the Height and Range of Your Overall Scores

Scores on the profile sheet can range from a minimum of 9 to a maximum of 45. Do your scores overall generally fall in the 40s?Or the 30s? Or 20s? Are your individual perspectives strongly held? Moderately held? Weakly held? Do you know anyone whoholds stronger views on teaching? What might this suggest?

4. Check the Differentiation among Your Perspectives

On which perspective is your score the highest? Lowest? Are there marked (step-like) differences among your scores, some highand others low? Or is your profile somewhat 'flat', with smaller differences between your highs and lows? Keep in mind that toagree with some items meant that you must logically disagree with others--you cannot agree with everything. As you werecompleting the TPI, did you keep a single, specific educational context and a single group of learners in mind throughout?

5. Identify Your Dominant, Back-Up, and Recessive Perspectives

Do one or two of your perspective scores fall at or above the upper line labeled 'Dominant'? Which one? Most people have atleast one (occasionally two) dominant perspectives that represent strongly held views on their roles and functions as educators.Similarly, most people have one or two 'Back-up' perspectives that are also high, but somewhat lower than their dominantperspective. Which are your Back-Up perspectives? Do any of your scores fall at or below the lower line labeled 'Recessive'?Which one? These dominant and recessive thresholds are keyed to your profile individually (+/- 1 SD around the mean of yourown five scores). They are not influenced by how other people score on their profiles. For you, which are Dominant? Back-up?Recessive?

6. Check for Internal Consistency

Examine the sub-scores labeled B, I, and A (the short bars within each Perspective bar). Your score on each of your fiveperspectives is comprised of three sub-scores: a Belief sub-score, an Intention sub-score, and an Action sub-score. These sub-scores are indicators of how much agreement exists between what you do (Actions), what you want to accomplish (Intentions),and why you feel that is important or justified (Beliefs). High internal consistency (sub-scores within one or two points of eachother) means that your Beliefs, Intentions, and Actions are all aligned with each other.

7. Examine any Internal Discrepancies

If your B, I, A sub-scores differ by three or more points, inconsistencies may exist that you should consider. Where your sub-scores differ by 3, 4, 5 or more points, look to see where the differences occur. Within which Perspective? Between which sub-scores: Beliefs and Actions? Between Intentions and Actions? Between Actions and Intentions? What might explain thesedifferences? Job constraints? Philosophical inconsistencies? Non-clarity about departmental expectations?

8. Look for Consistency Across Perspectives

Examine the Intentions sub-score for all five perspectives. Does the highest Intention sub-score occur within your dominantperspective? If not, where does it occur and what might that indicate? Similarly, look across your Beliefs sub-scores; in whichperspectives are your Beliefs expressed most strongly? Within which perspectives do your Actions predominate?

9. Self-Corroboration

Are the scores on your profile sheet consistent with how you see yourself? Do they make overall sense to you? Are there anyunexpected insights? Do your scores help you clarify how you see yourself as a professional educator? Do the thoughts, words,and ideas from the Paragraph Summaries or these Ten Steps offer you new ideas and an expanded language for explaining whyyou teach as you do? How might these ideas help you draft a written Teaching Philosophy Statement?

10. Next Steps: Peer/Professional Validation

If you have exchanged profile sheets with your peers, have you shared and discussed your results with each other? Do they seeyou in the same manner as the profile suggests? Compare your profile with norms for other people in your department. Orcompare with others in your same professional sector. Or with others who have a similar educational background? Is it nowclearer that there are multiple and legitimate views on what constitutes 'good teaching'? Reconfirm or Check for Change:Remember, you can always take the TPI a second and a third time! Look for changes that may occur resulting from professionalworkshops, departmental discussions, critical self-reflection, discussions with your colleagues, or other important events.

Zane Gillespie, DMA Statement of Research and Scholarship

April 8, 2016

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Research and Scholarship

My professional mission is to use my expertise in different kinds of structural analysis to create, disseminate, and apply knowledge to improve the analysis of music, prepare others to connect musical data with operations on such data, and to encourage the examination of compositional practice and musical construction. This integrated mission provides cohesion to and increases the efficiency of my own work. In this essay I address this mission in the context of my research and scholarship.

As a graduate student during the academic year 2008-2009, I designed two prospective, empirical studies: 1.) an investigation of the role of post-formal-operational music listening and 2.) a quantitative analysis of recursion in Claude Debussy’s Prélude à l’aprés-midi d’un faune. These projects helped define my work at the University of Mississippi, and I focus this essay on their design, outcomes, and impact.

My research questions were straightforward. The first study asked, “Is there a relationship between cognitive development, personality, and reactions to music selected to provide an opportunity for fifth-stage reasoning?” The second asked, “To what extent are the works of exemplary composers recursive (self-similar)?” What I learned helped to answer these questions and many more.

The first study used an experimental design in which 36 non-musician undergraduate students (enrolled in a 100 level Music Appreciation course at the University of Mississippi) were assigned to listen to five excerpts of music, each representing five different musicological periods. Subjects then completed one self-report measure of personality (the 28-item Dissociative Experiences Scale–II) and one quiz modeled after fifth-stage reasoning quizzes devised by post-formal-operational researchers.

While results failed to support earlier studies showing the importance of the psychoticism dimension in measures of creativity involving music, I did find that 72.2% of the total sample was able to formulate theoretical determining factors for what they heard. I therefore concluded that the music condition was conducive to stage-five reasoning.

The second study counted 113 immediately perceptible forms of core musical ideas by means of a motivic analysis of Debussy’s Prélude à l’aprés-midi d’un faune. Chi-square analysis was used to test the consistency with which Debussy used recursion in each section making up the form of Prélude or, put differently, whether or not the number of instances of recursion observed in each section specified the theoretical number of self-similar events per section one would expect from the observational total. Did the data quantified by section “fit” the theoretical distribution? This study was innovative and unique because, to my knowledge, this was the first time the Price law had been used in the following manner: to test the hypothesis that N instances of the total number of perceptible, recursive forms of initial phrases, motives and other structural ingredients of themes amounted to approximately half of the small-scale sections consisting of the total

Zane Gillespie, DMA Statement of Research and Scholarship

April 8, 2016

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N instances of recursion in the work as a whole. The Kruskal-Wallis One-Way Analysis of Variance was also employed to compare the sum of rank scores of recursion events among the three large-scale sections of Debussy’s tone poem. This multiple-sample method provided a more sophisticated test of the hypothesis of no difference in recursion event number among these sections.

I learned that Debussy’s compositional reflexivity not only serves as an event horizon between sections, but that it may also be a factor determining the number of smaller-scale sections per large-scale section, especially when sections are measured in terms of the extent to which they are driven by processual self-similarity. Recursive working methods can be generalized as something which provides composers with a reliable context that is associated with or enables creative productivity. The results of this study strongly suggest that such a mechanism does exist (at least in Debussy’s case), and establishing the more general, if not universal, existence of composition as reflexive feedback process through future research might have important implications for theories of composition pedagogy.

These projects were part of my efforts to obtain my Master of Music degree in Music Education at the University of Mississippi, Oxford. Both studies were conducted with the aim of theory building. Such an approach has both aesthetic and sociological benefits which have the potential to turn research into a tool for teaching. I began with research topics I felt to be of importance to my field and with the goal of combining knowledge with action. The way I approach research has to do with the relationship between the researcher and his/her branch of learning. Quality research simply involves mindfulness on the part of the researcher of how the work will contribute to his/her discipline in all research phases (e.g., designing projects, performing project duties, interpreting data, and disseminating findings). (Note in my vita that I have listed research endeavors completed under the auspices of my research advisors.)

Research is meant to benefit one’s field. Those who belong to any branch of learning should benefit not only from the application of findings, but also from the research process itself. As a doctoral student at the Rudi E. Scheidt School of Music at the University of Memphis, I worked with theorist and composer Dr. John Baur in a detailed analysis of Luciano Berio’s Sinfonia. Consequently, Dr. Baur was able to interpret more observations (and the functions and relationships between them) as well as to abstract and synthesize more information than he would have otherwise. Granted, the analytical work I do is more empirical in nature, and so has obvious parallels with research in the natural sciences, but it is because of my modus operandi that Dr. Baur changed his view regarding the interplay between text (from Le cru et le cuit by the French anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss) and sounded events which I hypothesized to play a central role in creating musical tension and relaxation in the first movement of Sinfonia. As a result, I was asked to present my findings at a departmental composition seminar. The research summarized here is part of an ongoing, independent investigation of how this dynamic aspect of musical composition relates to the cognition of musical structure.

Zane Gillespie, DMA Statement of Research and Scholarship

April 8, 2016

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Research is also meant to enhance the manner in which one does research. I feel strongly that because of my very engagement in research, my work has produced increasingly valid and reliable results through improved music-theoretic descriptions of musical structures, heightened sensitivity to musical form and expressive aspects of musical performance, and an increasing implication-realization basis for the analysis of music. Thus, my research has had an impact on itself. After reading my analysis of the first movement of Anton Webern’s Fünf Sätz für Streichquartett reporting a rationale for sonata-allegro form based on transpositional combinatorial (TC) pitch organization, my dissertation committee remarked at my almost computer-like ability for rapid searching and matching of symbolic strings (in this case, the motives of Webern’s music). Throughout my graduate career, I have been called upon to “automate,” as it were, the searching and matching aspects of music analysis. While this may have given me a greater, general, indexical tendency in my creative output toward presentation as opposed to representation, Dr. Kamran Ince, internationally established composer and notable student of Pulitzer Prize-winning American composer Joseph Schwantner, nonetheless indicated that it had been an honor for the Theory/Composition faculty to get to know my compositions.

My research has expanded beyond my immediate discipline with my ecumenical efforts to address public engagement in music participation. This is implied in my vita, but I mention it here as I have encouraged the study of music through service. For example, as a Minister of Music, I have exploited the activities of those who contribute the causes of musical events (i.e., professionals, apprentices, amateurs, hobbyists, recreationists, and dabblers). I am currently the Director of Music Ministries at First United Methodist Church of Water Valley, MS and am chairing the music committee that is designing guidelines for evaluating and integrating an intelligent, professionally defensible application of music participation theory. We plan to use a research method that allows for the maximum input from our music participants.

My continued involvement in research and my direction of the music program are as valuable here as they were at Mount Pleasant United Methodist Church (where I was Music Director for six years) because community-engaged scholars like myself incubate community collaborations and, as incarnations of academia, generate opportunities to increase both the public’s knowledge as well as its trust in higher learning and its institutions. These public stakeholders include policy makers who determine higher education policy and appropriations decisions, parents of our students, and potential research participants.

Further regarding my interdisciplinary research and scholarship, a paper of mine entitled ““Mesmeric Revelation”: Art as Hypnosis” has been published by Humanities (ISSN 2076-0787), an international, peer-reviewed journal for scholarly papers of exceptionally high quality across all humanities disciplines. This paper can be accessed at http://www.mdpi.com/2076-0787/4/2/236. An adaptation of this paper is due for publication in the fall issue 2016 of The Edgar Allan Poe Review (EAPR). The EAPR publishes triple-blind, peer-reviewed scholarly essays on and creative responses to Edgar Allan Poe, his life, works, and influence, and is the official publication of the PSA. Vol. 16, No. 1, Spring 2015 of the EAPR was a special issue devoted to Poe and music.

Zane Gillespie, DMA Statement of Research and Scholarship

April 8, 2016

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My research effort has varied from nearly 100% to 5%. My future research and scholarship will include: 1) using statistical approaches in the analysis of music, 2) exploring the growing evidence for reconstructive or neoconservative postmodernism in contemporary art music, 3) engaging in scholarship concerning the state of art music at the turn of the 21st century, 4) investigating how extra-musical compositional schemes relate to the cognition of musical structure, and 5) neo-Riemmanian theory and triadic post-tonality.

Toward these ends, I submitted an article of mine for review by Perspectives of New Music (PNM) which happens now to be looking for material about younger composers who are actively concertizing, especially in NYC. I mention PNM’s present interest because my paper has to do with Sky Macklay, a graduate composer at Columbia University, and a recent string quartet of hers that, in my opinion, deserves serious investigation. I recently attended the premiere of this work as performed by the MIVOS quartet at a concert held at The DiMenna Center for Classical Music in NYC, and I must say it has been a long time since I've heard anything that excited me as much as this piece. Thus, I immediately set about laying bare some of the secrets of this quartet in an analysis of this music - in the interest of building awareness of this young woman’s burgeoning contributions∗ to 21st-century musical life - that is a meticulous, scientific yet passionate diagnosis of her constructive principles. From the beginning stages of prosecuting this analysis of her string quartet, I began to discover many things about the ingenious manner in which Sky maps a soupçon of neo-conservatism onto post-modern principles.

∗ Sky's music has been performed by ensembles such as ICE, the Da Capo Chamber Players, Dal Niente,Spektral Quartet, Talea, and Yarn/Wire. Her orchestral piece, Dissolving Bands, was commissioned by theLexington (MA) Symphony. She won both the 2013 and 2016 ASCAP Morton Gould Young ComposerAwards. In January of this year, Sky presented the first iteration of Harmonibots at the Waseca Art Centerin Minnesota. Harmonibots is a kinetic and sonic installation of harmonica-playing inflatable sculpturescommissioned by The International Alliance of Women in Music.

Links to websites or online resources with representative samples of my works

(i.e., performances, scores, etc.):

https://zane-gillespie.squarespace.com/#music- section

https://zane-gillespie.squarespace.com/media- horizon/ NOTE: Scroll down to "Miscellanea."

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/zp4ifldv69uaviu/A AAXs6kkLuQ1rQsChYkb-lVYa?dl=0

Note: Contains PDF Scores!

https://soundcloud.com/zane-gillespie-722088823

https://www.bandpage.com/ZaneGillespie

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVVPJiLtd Sg-DeDJGqoE-dw