In this dissertation, I present a method for developing tonal jazz pitch-listening skills (PLS) which is rooted in scientific experimental findings from the fields of music cognition and perception. Converging experimental evidence supports the notion that humans develop listening skills through implicit learning via immersive, statistically rich…[Read more]

Robert Kennedy proclaimed, “Except for war, there is nothing in American life which trains a boy better for life than football.” While the sport’s governing bodies are presently distancing themselves from violent connections—altering rules in order to make the game safer for players—football culture remains firmly connected with militaris…[Read more]

The real world, as we experience it today, is intimately connected with technological mediation. Drawing on theories of post-humanism, onlife, the infosphere, and audience participation, this paper addresses how the cultural, social and political beliefs of participants in immersive theatre can be trans-ed. The relationality inherent in the term…[Read more]

Taking the idea of a “radical ethnomusicology” from Ed Emery (2017), I want to expose that the fact there is not a normal academic situation for ethnomusicology in the Balearic Islands it is also an opportunity to develop a radical and transforming scholar field, and I also rise some questions that I believe a radical Catalan ethnomusicology…[Read more]

One could call «industrial musicology» the study of the musical life in factories and workshops. Unlike agrarian societies, there are very few works about industrial workers’ musical activity, neither at the Catalan Countries nor Europe. Based on British and Catalan scholars’ few theoretical works, our research Música popular i indust…[Read more]

Baltasar Samper i Marquès (1888-­1966), from Majorca, was one of the most promi­nent musicians of the first third of the 20th century, forming part of the musical elite of Catalonia until the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War. A long exile, first in France and later in Mexico, from where he was never to return, pushed him into the background an…[Read more]

During the last five decades, public, intellectual, and academic debates have created an increased awareness of so-called transhumanist discourses and social movements accompanied by a diverse body of theoretical works in philosophy, social sciences, and humanities which can broadly be described as posthumanist. Building on a three year long…[Read more]

Shipibo indigenous people perform a sophisticated array of vocal musical genres, including short ‘laughing songs’ called osanti. These song-jokes make fun of certain non-humans, mostly animals. They are by definition sung from within the non-humans’ perspective. Osanti are only performed by trained specialists in indigenous medicine and sorce…[Read more]

Previous theories emphasize tonal jazz’s undeniable continuity with European tonality. Here, I argue that some of its features are better understood as developments of the African-American musical tradition. As a simple example, consider the gesture ^3–1 to end a phrase. Schenkerian theory would explain this as an elided ^3–2–1, a gesture commo…[Read more]

This article examines the Royal Shakespeare Company’s (RSC) recent focus on digital ‘innovation’ by analysing the relationship between their emerging digital-focused business practices and digital performance practice for The Tempest (2016). To assess this relationship, I first review the socioeconomic context of 21st century neoliberal UK econo…[Read more]

The chapter focuses on conceptualizing event and situation for ethnographic knowledge production and development of anthropological theory. Therefore, in a first step, I draw attention to the historical and conceptual importance of the anthropological approaches of “situational analysis” and “extended-case method”, developed by Max Gluckma…[Read more]

In this article, I examine the nonfunctional harmony of three tunes from the mid-1960s by Wayne Shorter from the perspective of transformational theory. While some transformational approaches to jazz have taken the seventh or ninth chord as the basic unit, I use the more inclusive and abstract concept of a “chord scale” to encompass more of the…[Read more]

This article discuss the ways rhythm changes can be used in music theory instruction.

This chapter proposes an application of topic theory to jazz improvisation. It introduces the concept of a “groove topic” and defines the expressive correlations of a variety of common jazz grooves. The chapter then traces the unfolding groove topics in Miles Davis’s celebrated 1964 solo on “My Funny Valentine.”

This paper explores the role of mobile telecommunication and technology firms (MTTs) in the distribution of recorded music in Ghana and Kenya. These countries both have vibrant music markets with weak formal distribution networks. Limited enforcement of copyright regimes and weak market regulation created new entrepreneurial business models. While…[Read more]

An essay written for the catalog for the exhibition, “Benga: Kenyan Kaleidoscope” (Bureau Sepän). Originally written in English; French translation by Gabriella Seemann.

Abstract from the catalog:
Se référant à une performance musicale à laquelle il a assisté et impliquant l’un des musiciens les plus en vue du Kenya, Dan Aceda, dans cet ess…[Read more]

Review Essay of Hamilton: An American Musical

In this paper we attempt the beginning of a critical study of Amir Khusrau’s contributions to Indian music. A very important book Hazrat Amīr Khusro kā ‘ilm-e-musīqī (The Music of Amir Khusrau), by Rashid Malik, exists in Urdu, which deals extensively with this subject. Unfortunately it is still unavailable in English. This paper draws heavily…[Read more]