Forte set class table by SIA or AIS

I am teaching a class in post tonal theory right now. I have always found that the easiest way to identify the prime for of the set by interval. What some books call SIA (successive interval array) and some call AIS (adjacent interval series) is a quick and easy way...

Why the Star Spangled Banner is so very bad

The Star Spangled Banner is one of if not the worst national anthem ever for several reasons. Most people know this intuitively, but they can’t articulate it very well. Unless, of course, they’ve been in one of my classes where they got me to go on my...

Portrait of the artist as a college student

It occurred to me this week that one of the greatest gifts that my undergraduate education afforded me was the space to develop. I mean that quite literally. It was especially true during my junior and senior year.There was an old theatre on the campus that had been...

Woody Allen, Richard Wagner, and immoral artists

The recent resurfacing of allegations against Woody Allen have brought up one of the great questions about art and artists. What do we do when a really terrible human being makes great art?Musically speaking, the greatest efforts to address this question have been...

3 new etudes for organ

You know that thing where Chopin says to Liszt, “I would like to borrow your way of playing my Etudes.”? I had the chance to go an hear Chris Marks play three of my Etudes the other day (from memory!). I promised I would put up my performance of the same...