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Biography | Research
Interests | Teaching
Experience | Links
Biography
I was born in 1978 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and spent my childhood in the town of Hockessin, Delaware. After graduating from high school (Sanford School) in 1997, I attended Haverford College, where I received a BA in music (2001). I subsequently enrolled in the musicology program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where I received my MA (2003) and PhD (2006), writing my dissertation under the direction of Professor Tim Carter.In June 2004, Katie Connell (now Katie Connell Gersh) and I were married in Doylestown, Pennsylvania. After graduation from UNC Chapel Hill, we returned to Philadelphia. Katie is a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Cell and Developmental Biology at the University of Pennsylvania, working under the direction of Professor John Weisel. I serve as Faculty Administrative Coordinator for the Drexel University Office of the Provost, where I assist in the analysis of faculty data and the preparation of reports for the Vice Provost for Academic Affairs, the Vice Provost for Budget, Planning, and Administration, and other university offices. Although employed full-time as an academic administrator, I also maintain an active profile as a researcher and writer.
Research Interests
My graduate work centered on the Latin-texted songs of William Byrd, a prominent English composer of the late sixteenth century and early seventeenth century. In my doctoral dissertation ("Text-Setting in William Byrd's Liber primus sacrarum cantionum quinque vocum [1589]: Toward an Analytic Methodology"), I examined the influence of various musical and extramusical phenomena on the setting of Byrd's motet texts: mode; texture; sonority; and rhetorical figures, musical and spiritual. Although many scholars have commented on Byrd's sensitivity to texts and his ability to translate that sensitivity into musical settings, remarkably little has been done systematically to determine how this text-setting might operate. One of the goals of my dissertation was to establish analytical methodologies for filling that gap.
A number of papers have grown out of this research. In 2005, I presented a paper on "Modes of Mediation in William Byrd's 1589 Cantiones" at the AMS-Southeast Conference at Duke University and another on "Rhetorical Commonplaces and Text-Setting Strategies in William Byrd’s 1589 Cantiones” at the International William Byrd Conference. Additionally, I wrote a review of John Harley's monograph William Byrd's Modal Practice, which was published in Notes in June 2006.
I am currently working on an article on "Range and Tessitura in Byrd's Vocal Polyphony," and I recently presented a closely related paper at the March 2007 meeting of the Music Theory Society of the Mid-Atlantic. In this paper, I address not only the narrowly focused question of how to quantify empirical observations of range and register in Byrd's polyphony but also the broader philosophical question of how to bring a greater degree of methodological rigor into musical analysis through the use of statistics and the articulation of verifiable (and falsifiable) statements about music.
Another major research interest is the relationship between music and evolutionary theory--more specifically in how natural selection acts upon the algorithms for composing, performing, and interpreting music. The theory of natural selection has had a profound impact upon numerous disciplines in the humanities and social sciences: philosophy, literary studies, linguistics, economics, anthropology, and sociology, just to name a few. As evidenced by an upsurge of interest in the evolution of music, the discipline of musicology is certainly no exception. I recently submitted a paper for review on "The Darwinian Evolution of Musical Algorithms," and I presented another on "Selection Pressure, Memetic Drift, and Progress in Musical Evolution" at the conference on Music and Evolutionary Thought at Durham University in June 2007. In addition, I am engaged in research on the evolutionary adaptations of common-practice notation and on the application of game theory to the relationship between text and music in songs.
Other interests of mine include the song cycles of Benjamin Britten, the "English Musical Renaissance" of the early twentieth century, and the songs of Charles Ives. In September 2005, I presented a paper on "Layers of Identity: Constructing Religion in the 114 Songs of Charles Ives" at the South Central Graduate Music Consortium Conference. With my interest in sacred music, I am also particularly fascinated by how the study and performance of sacred music have served to promote religion, and I have an article forthcoming in the April/May 2008 issue of Free Inquiry on the ethical and aesthetic quandaries faced by secular humanists who study, perform, or otherwise enjoy these works.
As a teaching assistant in the UNC Department of Music, my assignments ran the gamut from survey courses for non-majors (such as the "Introduction to World Music" and the Western "Great Musical Works" survey) to an aural-skills lab for students of music theory. Having taught for several years in higher education, I believe that one of the greatest challenges facing undergraduates is learning how to move beyond the "exam mentality" and to begin thinking of oneself as a junior scholar capable of original thought and intellectual risks. In planning and running classes, I aim to encourage students not only to develop a firm knowledge base and set of methodological skills, but also a willingness to think independently.
In addition to my teaching at UNC Chapel Hill, I also served in a number of non-teaching positions such as Editorial Assistant for The Journal of Musicology, Assistant Administrator of the departmental MIDI lab, and member of the Carolina Lectures in Music and Culture.
For more information on my studies, teaching, and other professional activities, please have a look at my curriculum vitae.
Links
Drexel University:
Main Page
Office of the Provost
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill:
Main Page
Department of Music
Anne MacNeil, Associate Professor of Music (member of my dissertation committee)
John Nádas, Gerhard L. Weinberg Distinguished Professor of Music (member of my dissertation committee)
Severine Neff, Eugene Falk Distinguished Professor of Music (member of my dissertation committee)
Tim Carter, David G. Frey Distinguished Professor of Music (my graduate advisor)
UNC Chapel Hill Graduate Students in Music
Haverford College:
Main Page
Department of Music
Richard Freedman, Professor of Music (my undergraduate advisor)
William Byrd -- Selected Scholars, Scholarship, and Resources:
Davitt Moroney, Professor of Music, UC Berkeley
James MacKay, Associate Professor of Music, Loyola University New Orleans
Jeremy Smith, Associate Professor of Musicology, University of Colorado at Boulder
Jessie Ann Owens, Dean and Professor of Music, UC Davis
Joseph Kerman, Professor Emeritus of Music, UC Berkeley
Kerry McCarthy, Assistant Professor of Music, Duke University (member of my dissertation committee)
Richard Rastall, Professor of Historical Musicology, Leeds University
Richard Turbet, Special Collections Cataloguer and Music Librarian, University of Aberdeen
Roger Bowers, University Reader in Medieval and Renaissance Music, University of Cambridge
The Byrd Edition (published by Stainer & Bell)
William Byrd Edition (recorded by The Cardinall's Musick)
William Byrd Festival
Evolutionary Theory, Music, and Culture -- Selected Scholars, Scholarship, and Resources:
Bennett Zon, Chair, Department of Music, Durham University
Centre for Music and Science, University of Cambridge
Charles Lumsden, Professor of Biology, University of Toronto
Charles Nussbaum, Associate Professor of Philosophy, University of Texas, Arlington
Dan Sperber, Research Professor, Centre Nationale de la Recherche Scientifique
Daniel C. Dennett, Austin B. Fletcher Professor of Philosophy, Tufts University
David Cope, Professor Emeritus of Music, UC Santa Cruz
David Huron, Professor of Music, Ohio State University
David Sloan Wilson, Professor of Biology, Binghamton University
Douglas Hofstadter, College Professor of Cognitive Science and Computer Science, University of Indiana
Elizabeth Tolbert, Professor of Musicology, Johns Hopkins University
Ellen Dissanayake, Affiliate Professor of Music, University of Washington
Elliott Sober, Hans Reichenbach Professor of Philosophy, University of Wisconsin, Madison
Geoffrey Miller, Assistant Professor of Psychology, University of New Mexico
Iain Morley, Templeton Research Fellow, University of Cambridge
Ian Cross, Reader in Music and Science, University of Cambridge
Jonathan Gottschall, Adjunct Assistant Professor of English, Washington and Jefferson College
Joseph Carroll, Professor of English, University of Missouri, St. Louis
Luigi Cavalli-Sforza, Professor Emerits of Genetics, Stanford University
Marcus W. Feldman, Wohlford Professor of Biological Sciences, Stanford University
Music & Language Studies
Nicholas Bannan, Lecturer in Music Education, University of Western Australia
Peter J. Richerson, Distinguished Professor of Environmental Science and Policy, UC Davis
Richard Dawkins, Charles Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science, University of Oxford
Robert Aunger, Senior Lecturer in Evolutionary Public Health, London School of Hygiene and Public Medicine
Robert Axelrod, Walgreen Professor for the Study of Human Understanding, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
Robert Boyd, Professor of Anthropology, UCLA
Stephen Jay Gould Archive
Steven Brown, Professor of Psychology, Simon Fraser University
Steven Jan, Senior Lecturer in Music, University of Huddersfield
Steven Mithen, Professor of Archaeology, University of Reading
Steven Pinker, Johnstone Family Professor of Psychology, Harvard University
Susan Blackmore, Visiting Lecturer, University of the West of England, Bristol
Tecumseh Fitch, Lecturer in Psychology, University of St Andrews
The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online
Other:
Americans United for Separation of Church and State
Bucks County Choral Society
Council for Secular Humanism
National Center for Science Education
This page was last updated 12 December 2007.
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