Stay ConnectedWhat does it mean to be a music researcher? How does a musician use music as a medium to foster community? Featuring interviews with other musicians, scholars and artists, host Lydia Bangura seeks to ask interesting questions about music and execute important and relevant music research. Join Lydia as she reads, writes and chats her way through a music PhD program.
Got questions or feedback? Interested in being a guest on the pod? Send inquiries to: hermusicacademia@gmail.com
Copyright: © Lydia Bangura
Episode seven of season two, during which we chat with Megan Lyons (University of Connecticut) about her dissertation on the art songs of Amy Beach, Beach's controversial politics, how to analyze art song, and a whole lot of theory pedagogy!
Timestamps:
Megan's background: 2:32
Should written skills and aural skills be the same class? 14:24
How Megan picked her dissertation topic: 21:24
Amy Beach's racist (and sexist?) background: 29:19
Listening to and discussing "After:" 45:15
Analyzing art song and text painting: 57:40
Emily takes a pop quiz (spoiler: always write flat three!): 1:05:32
Get in touch with us at: thetheoryclubpodcast@gmail.com
Episode six of season two, where we read and discuss Susanne Cusick's chapter in Queering the Pitch: The New Gay and Lesbian Musicology. We also discuss our first piece of racist hate mail, our experience dating other musicians, personifying music (specifically as a woman), and pleasure as a form of self care.
Timestamps:
Hate mail: 1:47
Emily's Facebook poll about women in music: 10:50
An introduction and summary of the chapter: 12:45
So you wanna date a musician? 25:27
Who's on top? 35:17
The power/pleasure/intimacy triad: 46:47
Music that gives us pleasure: 56:06
Get in touch with us at: thetheoryclub@gmail.com
Season two episode five, during which we chat with Susan O'Brien about her personas as an actor, singer and poet, as well as her experience starting Forte Chicago, an all-female opera sketch comedy troupe.
Timestamps:
Susan's background: 3:13
The challenge of pathfinding in music: 10:14
Susan's work with Forte Chicago: 26:40
Improv Shakespeare: 39:40
Dealing with (gendered) criticism: 43:53
Get in touch with us at: thetheoryclub@gmail.com
Episode four of season two, in which we chat with Dr. Malia Jade Roberson about public music theory, performance anxiety, her struggles with tenure, and her experience publishing with Hal Leonard.
Timestamps:
Public pedagogy: 2:42
Malia's background: 14:35
Malia gets published: 34:23
"Those who don't do, teach:" 50:32
We are all music entrepreneurs: 1:05:57
Get in touch with us at: thetheoryclubpodcast@gmail.com
Episode three of season two, where we discuss performing and recording music during a pandemic, and Lydia's performance of Judith Weir's one woman opera.
Get in touch with us at: thetheoryclubpodcast@gmail.com
Season two episode two, where we chat with Corinne Costell (Roosevelt University) about her research on racism and cultural appropriation in opera, her work developing an anti-racist curriculum for white musicians, DBR's opera aria "They Still Want To Kill Us," and the implications of the term "ally."
Corinne's conference presentation
Daniel Bernard Roumain's "They Still Want To Kill Us" (on YouTube through July 31st!)
Timestamps:
Corinne's background: 4:06
Lydia rants about the tenure system: 13:02
Corinne's research project: 19:54
The challenges of Zoom: 36:20
The intersection of research and performance: 41:46
DBR and the Tulsa Opera: 49:10
Is the term "ally" useful? 57:23
Get in touch with us at: thetheoryclubpodcast@gmail.com
We're back for another eight episodes! This summer season we'll be focusing on music, research, performances and theories by women. In this episode, we discuss the music of American composer Jennifer Higdon, our views on recital requirements in conservatories, and the constant dilemma of "making it" as a musician.
Timestamps:
Emily's experience with the piece: 3:30
Lydia rants about recital requirements: 7:02
The fear of not being a good enough musician: 17:16
Listening to and discussing Fanfare Ritmico: 29:05
Higdon's other works: 40:32
Get in touch with us at: thetheoryclubpodcast@gmail.com
Episode seven, in which sit down with Dr. David Kjar (Roosevelt University) to discuss his path to musicology, his experience playing early music, his thoughts on reimagining the early music movement, and the role of "authenticity" in historically informed performance.
Streetwise Opera's performance of Bach's St. Matthew Passion
Timestamps:
Dr. Kjar's background: 1:34
Dr. Kjar's current project: 13:48
Discussion of Dr. Kjar's chapter on "Thirdspacing" Early Music: 17:02
Revisiting the idea of the "composer's intentions:" 28:30
Authenticity in live vs. recorded performance: 32:01
Defamiliarization, artistic agency and belonging: 38:01
Performance as a means for social justice: 47:33
Get in touch with us at: thetheoryclubpodcast@gmail.com
Episode six, in which we chat with Dr. Linda Berna (Roosevelt University) about her "retrograde" path to music theory, her dissertation about Samuel Barber's Knoxville: Summer of 1915, Sergei Prokofiev's "The Butterfly," and applying the philosophies and theories of non-musicians to expand the way the think about music.
Timestamps:
Dean Berna's background: 1:42
Picking a dissertation topic: 18:25
Barber's Knoxville: 27:40
Discussion of Dean Berna's chapter on Prokofiev: 30:52
Graphic notation: 37:12
Which came first, the music or the text? 41:43
Get in touch with us at: thetheoryclubpodcast@gmail.com
Episode five, in which we listen to and discuss a choral piece by Latvian composer Eriks Esenvalds. We also talk about our experience with modern and post tonal music, and the unique relationship of instrumentalists to their instruments.
Boccherini's Body by Elizabeth Le Guin
On a Lesbian Relation With Music: A Serious Effort Not To Think Straight by Susanne Cusick (chapter 4 in Queering the Pitch: The New Gay and Lesbian Musicology)
Timestamps:
Modern and post tonal music: 3:51
Listening to and discussing the piece: 17:51
Instruments as an extension of the instrumentalist: 25:42
Get in touch with us at: thetheoryclubpodcast@gmail.com
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