Editor’s Message

Notice from MTO about submission, review, and publication schedule:

The sudden move to online and video class instruction has brought new burdens for everyone in our discipline, including the MTO editorial staff and our editorial board. The problem is compounded for us by the fact that the next two issues, 26.2 and 26.3, are large, with a dozen items each. Please be advised that publication of Issue 26.2 will be delayed by three months, till September. In addition, although the journal will continue to accept submissions through the OJS system, we would like to inform potential authors that their work will not be sent out for review before June, and that Volume 26 is now closed. The earliest that any article not already under review could be published is in 27.1 (currently scheduled for March 2021).

[1] In his message for issue 24.1, our former editor Jeffrey Perry wrote that “Music theorists do many things; one thing that they are particularly fond of is adapting old tools to new uses. . . . Sometimes, an elegant insight is seen to stand behind . . . a creative overstep; perhaps [it is this that] keeps us a united discipline. . . . Music Theory Online celebrates analytical heterodoxy, while searching for connection and coherence within it.” Here, Jeff echoes assessments and assertions that have become common in our discipline, and if this is indeed the situation of music theory in the present, then we are happy to report that in MTO 26.1 nothing has changed. The times and locales for our five articles range from eighteenth-century Germany to Victorian England to North India to New York in the 1980s and into the world of music-making in the present. The topics include keyboard improvisation and composition pedagogy (Remeš), the consequences of a distinctive octatonic moment in Elgar’s String Quartet (Chandler), the implications for metric theory of a device used in classical North Indian performance (Clayton), tonic divergence and intervallic dissonance in the music of Sonic Youth (Heetderks), and reminiscence space in three songs by Sufjan Stevens (Palfy).

[2] In addition to the five articles just described, this issue contains a review-essay in which Dmitri Tymoczko describes and engages with the arguments and viewpoints in Fred Lerdahl’s most recent book. And, related to the Society’s current emphasis on diversity issues, Fred Everett Maus provides a report on a matter of continuing importance to the profession: the status of LGBTQ+ music theorists.

[3] From David: This is my second and final issue in the role of interim editor. As of the publication of this issue, René Rusch is the journal’s editor; readers, authors, and potential authors can contact her through the mto-editor@societymusictheory.org address. Our associate editors continue to serve, while managing editor Brent Yorgason and his assistants continue their indispensable work on production. As for myself, I will be reverting to informal and occasional volunteer, particularly for copyediting tasks in the near term as issues 26.2 and 26.3 will have a dozen articles each, a tribute to both quality and quantity of scholarly work in our field but also a challenge to our journal’s resources.

[4] From René: On behalf of all of the personnel at MTO, I would like to thank David for stepping in as Interim Editor for issues 25.4 and 26.1. His expertise has been indispensable throughout this transition period, and it has been such a privilege working together. I would also like to personally thank Jeff Perry, Jon Kochavi, Brian Alegant, Nicole Biamonte, Stephen Rodgers, Yonatan Malin, and Karen Bottge for their insight, wisdom, and guidance on all MTO-related matters these past several years.

[5] MTO is especially well suited for the publication of articles that incorporate recordings, videos, and other media, but we also welcome text submissions in a variety of formats, including articles, commentaries, and conference reports. Please refer to our submission guidelines.

[6] We host job listings and a dissertation index; please submit announcements for both to MTO.

[7] All MTO volumes dating back to our first issue in 1993 can be accessed from the contents page at http://www.mtosmt.org/issues/issues.html. Thank you, as always, for your support of Music Theory Online—a Journal of the Society for Music Theory.

David Neumeyer, interim editor
René Rusch, incoming editor