Research

Scholarship

My scholarly research examines how musicians' choices shape musical performance. I also explore the ways in which music can be understood as a form of social interaction, and how it is mediated by cultural and technological forces. Areas of interest include improvisation, experimental music, virtual scores, online open-source software development communities, and electronic music. (A lot of this goes for my creative work as well.)

Click here for a list of publications.

Experimental Music

Much of my research is centered on the performance of twentieth-century experimental music, with a focus on improvisatory and electronic works. I am especially interested in how notation, performance practice, and technology intersect to shape musical realizations of works by composers like Pauline Oliveros, John Cage, and Earle Brown.

In this article, I use statistical methods to describe recurring tendencies in the music of the composer John Cage, whose works are often regarded as "random." In another article, I transcribe and compare three performances of the same composition by Earle Brown to better understand the role of the conductor in Brown's "open form" works.

I'm particularly interested in using computational methods to analyze experimental music. I created software that allows you to generate random and customized performances of Four2, the piece discussed in the article. You can download the latest version here as a Max patch. I've also been working on a Python toolkit called IndySim that allows you to simulate virtual performances of indeterminate works in order to analyze them.

You can also read my dissertation, which explores the limits and possibilities of performance of the music of John Cage and Earle Brown.

The topics covered in my blog often dovetail with my research interests. I'm also on Github!