Editor’s Message
Greetings, all, and welcome to Issue 31.4 of Music Theory Online!
[1] In this, the final quarterly offering of 2025, the editors and staff of Music Theory Online are proud to offer up another bounty of cutting-edge theory research for you. Two articles advance novel approaches to rhythm and meter. One is from Soo Kyung Chung on the music of Chopin; the other is from Zoe Tall Weiss on music from the Elizabethan Renaissance. Two historical investigations come our way, as Caleb Mutch interrogates the mythology and past practices of monochord usage, and Bryan Espinosa informs us of sonata form developments in eighteenth-century Spain. There is some Formenlehre on hand, as Laurence Willis places three prominent twentieth-century theories on theme types in dialogue. And there is some pop-music harmonic theory, as Stephen Hudson and Jiayi Wang invite us to take an active role in how we cognize and experience pedal tones in popular music. The last two articles in this issue discuss music impacted by visual media. Daniel Moreira theorizes at length on Bernard Hermann’s polytonality and film narrative, and Timothy Johnson analyzes Caroline Shaw’s Partita for 8 Voices as it relates to the generative instructions in the Sol LeWitt wall drawings that inspired it.
[2] Following the articles, we are pleased to present an exchange on diversity and corpus studies of popular music, which extends a broader dialogue currently unfolding across several public venues. More specifically, Trevor de Clercq offers a detailed commentary on the 2024 MTO article “Diversity in Corpus Studies,” co-authored by seven theorists, and that full set of authors has responded.
[3] The issue closes with a review by Drew Nobile of The Practice of Popular Music by Trevor de Clercq—who, due to the caprices of the publication pipeline, has ended up receiving a double billing of sorts in this issue. De Clercq’s book is a remarkable new textbook that pioneers a unique approach to undergrad theory by grounding all teaching of harmony, melody, and form in popular music idioms.
[4] Turning now to issues of journal management—along with a brief detour into some valedictory musings on the journal and its future—I’ll begin by announcing that this will be the last issue of MTO over which I’ll be overseeing production. That marks three full years of serving as editor-in-chief, on top of a two-year stint as associate editor.
[5] Looking back, I will not say that all five years of this service were exhilarating and joyful, nor will I be so curmudgeonly as to deny that many moments were. What I will say about this full span of service is that it has been unendingly rewarding. To stand this close to and to have a hand in the emergence of some of the most dynamic and creative research in our field has been a truly awe-inspiring privilege.
[6] Much of this sense of privilege stems from the intellectual offerings themselves, meaning the world class theory and analysis I’ve been proximate to. It derives even more so from the pride of being associated with a publication as special as Music Theory Online, a journal that remains ever vibrant, voluminous, and steadfastly open (both globally and freely accessible) and one that has evolved to be dependably and fiercely inclusive in its subject matter. In its digital pages, we theorists are invited to engage with film music; musics from Asia, Africa, South America, and Eastern Europe; speculative theory spanning the fifth through the twenty-first centuries; Romantic music; ragtime, tin pan alley, and post-bop jazz; cognition; pedagogy; post-tonal music; the gender, racial, sexual and accessibility politics of our thought-spaces and workspaces; and the list goes on
[7] Such a diversity of topics and viewpoints seems to invite discordance, yet some near-miraculous centripetal force seems to be holding our society-wide conversations, indeed, our collective music-theory identity together. (Again: how wondrously special is this dynamic, which I assure you does not manifest in many peer academic fields.) It is not difficult to identify the common factor underlying it, that being the people who generate the research, who have the conversations and with peers and students, and who keep the lights on at the regional meeting offices and conference sites. It is somewhat more challenging to discern what motivations these people share, though important to try if we wish to gain insight into our collective self. While allowing room for other answers, I would posit that the main characteristics our community members share are the following: 1) that we identify as musicians, and 2) that we feel the impulse to promote and extend compelling work whenever we encounter it.
[8] To say this another way, the uniquely exciting identity and trajectory of Music Theory Online is what it is because it best approximates—or better: reflects—the activity of a vast, cohesive community of theorists. This specialness, which is worth preserving, is rooted in those who build it and run it. And we’ve established that that’s. . . us! The best way, then, to ensure the future of MTO is for all of us to remain a part of it, in whatever way we can and to whatever extent seems fair and manageable in our own circumstances. It is not always an exhilarating and joyful experience to donate one’s precious time to serve as a reviewer, production assistant, board member or editor, but it is endlessly rewarding. I hope you all remember that when the time comes and MTO calls upon you to lend some of your expertise in support of its noble, scholarly mission.
[9] All that is to be kept in mind for the future. For now, I am happy to report that Music Theory Online has secured all the brilliant and dedicated personnel it needs to ensure that it thrives in the near term. I am excited to announce that Drew Nobile, who has extensive experience both as a contributor and associate editor, will be taking over as editor in chief. I am further pleased that Chris White has agreed to take over one of the associate editor positions, as Zack Bernstein finishes out an outstandingly productive and helpful term there. The last bit of good news is that the editorial board of MTO will benefit from the expertise and experience of seven new members: we are thrilled to welcome Knar Abrahamyan, Thomas Kierkegaard, Rachel Lumsden, Caleb Mutch, Dylan Principi, Nick Shea, and Xieyi (Abby) Zhang to our esteemed ranks.
[10] I bid the new team good fortune and thank them in advance for their important work. I also offer my hopes that you, the readers and supporters of MTO, cherish the offerings of this and all future issues. Thank you, Happy New Year to you all, and Happy Reading!
Brent Auerbach, Editor-in-ChiefUniversity of Massachusetts Amherst