David Neumeyer

For many Graduate Office questions, contact Stephen Wray, Graduate Coordinator, Office: (512) 232-2066. Fax: (512) 232-6289. e-mail: Graduate Coordinator, Music.   Graduate Music website: Graduate Office.     School of Music website: Music.     University website: The University of Texas at Austin Home page.     For graduate admissions questions, contact Graduate Admissions Coordinator. Email: Music Graduate Admissions. Phone: 512/471-0799.

File last updated on 09 July 2008; links last tested 15 August 2007.

Go to: COURSES
PUBLICATIONS
ITEMS OF INTEREST

NOTE TO ENTERING MUSIC GRADUATE STUDENTS, fall 2008:A page with tables of chord symbols is available here to help you prepare for Theory diagnostic exam I: go to chord tables.

NOTE TO ENTERING GRADUATE STUDENTS IN COMPOSITION, THEORY, MUSICOLOGY, AND ETHNOMUSICOLOGY, FALL 2008:For information on content of the Theory diagnostic exam II (counterpoint), go to Exam Information. Please note that Musicology, Ethnomusicology, and Jazz Composition students no longer take Theory exam II, as of August 2003. Contact the graduate coordinator for more information.

COURSES, SPRING SEMESTER 2009 {projected}:
(1) MUS 337: Music for Radio and Television. Topic: Music in Sound Film. Will meet TTH 2:00-3:30. For more details, see Spring 2008 courses below. The spring 2009 section will not be a writing component course. (2) MUS 688A, topic 5: Analytical Techniques. Form and analysis course for music graduate students. Will meet TTH 12:30-2:00.

COURSES, FALL SEMESTER 2008:
MUS 368L: Review of Music Theory, unique course # 22190. Harmony and form review for graduate students. Meets MWF 2:00-3:00. A public copy of the 2006 syllabus is available at 368L syllabus. This year's course schedule and requirements will be similar, except that some quizzes may be replaced by web-based assignments. Additional course documents will be made available here in August 2008.

MUS 325L: Sixteenth-century counterpoint (undergraduate), unique course # 21960. A public copy of the syllabus and other documents for the 2006 class may be found at Go to 325L course page. In fall 2008, the schedule and requirements will be very similar. There is no final exam in this course.

COURSE, FIRST SUMMER SESSION 2008:
MUS F337: Music for Radio and Television/Topic: Music in Sound Film. Unique # 79375. Meets daily 1:00-2:30 in MRH 2.634. The course is designed for the general student. Information and skills from courses such as Introduction to Film, Music Appreciation, or Introduction to Music Theory can be helpful but are not necessary for success in this course. The main requirement is a willingness to listen carefully and to articulate what you hear. For more information, contact the instructor. A public copy of the syllabus is available at: Go to 337 syllabus, summer 2008. Please note that this is not a substantial writing component course.

COURSES, SPRING SEMESTER 2008:
MUS 337: Music for Radio and Television. Topic: Music in Sound Film. This is a second section of MUS 337 that will meet TTH3:30-5 in MRH 2.610. It is a writing component course. Our object is to develop skills in analyzing the sound track, music's role in the sound track, and the relation of sound track and image track (especially relating to music) on small-scale and large-scale (narrative) levels. The course develops critical listening and viewing skills at the same time it offers a film-music history survey. Musical background is not a prerequisite. Information and skills from courses such as Introduction to Film, Music Appreciation, or Introduction to Music Theory can be helpful but are not necessary for success in this course. The main requirement is a willingness to listen carefully and to articulate what you hear.

MUS221K. Musical Analysis. Continuation of Music 221J. Meets TTH 10-11. Prerequisite: Music 221J. Except for the exams, this course will focus entirely on analysis of the repertoires being studied and performed by students in the class. Weekly graded assignments; take-home midterm and final exams.

Courses from earlier semesters/years: Go to courses from 2001 to fall 2007.

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Publications, 1995-2007, and forthcoming:

Published 2004-07:
--"Description and Interpretation: Fred Lerdahl's Tonal Pitch Space and Linear Analysis," review-article, Music Analysis 25/1-2 (2006): 201-30. Published in September 2007.

--with Laura Neumeyer, "On Motion and Stasis: Photography, 'Moving Pictures,' Music," in Music, Meaning and Media, ed. by Richard Littlefield, Erkki Pekkilä, and David Neumeyer (Imatra/Helsinki: International Semiotics Institute, 2007), 11-33.

--"The Contredanse, Classical Finales, and Caplin's Formal Functions," Music Theory Online, 12/4 (December 2006).

--with James Buhler, "Music-Sound-Narrative: Analyzing Casablanca," in Interdisciplinary Studies in Musicology 5 , edited by Maciej Jablonski and Michael Klein (Poznan, Poland: Rhytmos, 2005), 277-91.

--"Merging Genres in the 1940s: The Musical and the Dramatic Feature Film," American Music 22/1 (2004): 122-132.

Forthcoming:
--"Diegetic/Nondiegetic: A Theoretical Model." Music and the Moving Image 2/1 (2008).

--(textbook) Hearing the Movies: Music and Sound in Film History, with James Buhler and Robert Deemer. New York: Oxford University Press. This will be in production by summer 2008; the expected publication date: January 2009. An instructor CD will be available. Information should be forthcoming from the publisher sometime in fall 2008.

--with James Buhler, "Composing for the Films, Modern Soundtrack Theory, and the Difficult Case of A Scandal in Paris," in Peter Schweinhardt, ed., Eisler-Studien, volume 4 (Wiesbaden: Breitkopf and Haertel: forthcoming (2007)).

--"The String Quartet in the Chamber Music of Paul Hindemith," in Evan Jones, ed., Intimate Voices: Aspects of Construction and Character in the Twentieth-Century String Quartet (Rochester: University of Rochester Press, forthcoming).

--with James Buhler, "Silent Movies and the Transition to Sound," in Robynn J. Stilwell and Peter Franklin, eds., The Cambridge Companion to Film Music (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, forthcoming).

--with James Buhler, "Music in the Evolving Soundtrack," in Graeme Harper and Jochen Eisentraut, eds., Companion to Sound in Film and Visual Media (London/New York: Continuum, forthcoming in 2008?).

Articles recently submitted to journals for review:
--"Expressive Themes and (Proto-)Backgrounds in Linear Analysis." Abstract: In traditional literary analysis, theme, as the last abstraction of design elements, occupies a position analogous to the background structures of linear analysis in music. Theme and thesis (or, the argument being forwarded) are aligned with David Lewin's distinction be-tween rationalist systems and values. Schenker is seen as muddling this distinction. Ex-amples from Schenker, Lewin, and Arthur Komar lead to a separation of nonexpressive themes (tonic-triad intervals) from expressive devices (following the structuralist model of Shcheglov and Zholkovsky). (Proto-)backgrounds derived by applications of LINE, N(eighbor), DIV(ision), and their inverses, are catalogued and discussed.

Published 1995-2003:
--"Film Theory and Music Theory: On the Intersection of Two Traditions," in Music in the Mirror, ed. Andreas Giger and Thomas Mathiesen (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2002), 275-294. Go to the University of Nebraska Press website: University of Nebraska Press. Go to the Press's listing for Music in the Mirror: Music in the Mirror.

--Music and Cinema, ed. James Buhler, Caryl Flinn, and David Neumeyer: Go to Wesleyan University Press Home Page

Reviews: Anahid Kassabian, Popular Music 24/1 (2005): 155-7; Julie Hubbert, Notes - Volume 58, Number 2, December 2001, pp. 337-339; Katherine McQuiston, Current Musicology 70 (2000); Kyle Barnett, Film Quarterly 57/4 (2004): 54-55; J. C. Tibbetts, Choice (June 2001): 1803.
For a course syllabus that embeds articles from this volume as readings, see Movie Music (King's College London; Kay Dickinson).
Sample citations: James Tobias, "Cinema, Scored: Toward a Comparative Methodology for Music in Media," Film Quarterly 57/32 (2003-4): 26-36; Sayrs in Music Theory Online. Elizabeth P. Sayrs, "Narrative, Metaphor, and Conceptual Blending in "The Hanging Tree," Music Theory Online 9/1 (March 2003); Morris B. Holbrook, "Ambi-Diegetic Music in Films as a Product Design and -Placement Strategy," Marketing Theory 4/3 (2004): 171-185.

--with James Buhler, "Analytical and Interpretive Approaches to Film Music (I): Analyzing the Music," in Kevin Donnelly, ed., Film Music: Critical Approaches. (Edinburgh University Press: 2001), 16-38. This volume also contains a companion essay by James Buhler, "Analytical and Interpretive Approaches to Film Music (II): Analysing Interactions of Music and Film."

For a list of the section headings for both articles, go to Section headings.
Go to Edinburgh University Press Home Page. This book is now distributed in the United States by Continuum Books.
A review of this volume, including comments on these articles, appears in Scope: Scope reviews, May 2003.
For course syllabi that embed these articles as readings, see Screen_Soundtracks (MacQuarie University; Mark Evans) and Sound and Cinema (University of Kent; Murray Smith).
Cited in: Whalen in Game Studies.Zach Whalen, "Play Along -- An Approach to Videogame Music," Game Studies 4/1 (2004). Cited in: Coyle in Metro Magazine. Rebecca Coyle, "Sounding Rural Australia: analysing documentary sound tracks - Documentary," Metro Magazine (Australia) (Fall 2003).

--"Tonal Design and Narrative in Film Music: Bernard Herrmann's A Portrait of Hitch and The Trouble With Harry," Indiana Theory Review 19 (1998): 87-123. Go to Indiana Theory Review Home Page

--with Helen Cox, "The Musical Function of Sound in Three Films by Alfred Hitchcock," Indiana Theory Review 19 (1998): 13-33.

--"Performances in Early Hollywood Sound Films: Source Music, Background Music, and the Integrated Sound Track." Invited article for a special issue of Contemporary Music Review, 19, Part I (2000): 37-62.

--"Hindemith and His American Critics: A Postmodern View," Hindemith Jahrbuch 27 (1998): 218-234.Go to the Home Page of the Paul-Hindemith Institut.

--"Source Music, Background Music, Fantasy and Reality in Early Sound Film, College Music Symposium 37 (1997), 13-20.

--"Synthesis and Association, Structure and Design, in Multi-Movement Compositions." In Music Theory in Concept and Practice. Edited by David Beach, James Baker, and Jonathan Bernard. Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press: 1997), 197-216.

--"Hayasaka's Music for Rashomon," in The Force of Vision 6: Inter-Asian Comparative Literature, edited by Kawamoto Koji, Heh-Hsiang Yuan, and Ohsawa Yoshihiro, Proceedings of the XIIIth Congress of the International Comparative Literature Association (Tokyo: n.p., 1996), 477-486.

--"Melodrama as a Compositional Resource in Early Hollywood Sound Cinema." Current Musicology 57 (1995): 61-94.

Book Reviews
--"Beyond the Soundtrack eds. Daniel Goldmark, Lawrence Kramer, and Richard Leppert, Journal of the American Musicological Society 61/2 (2008): 445-53 [forthcoming].

--"Film Music Studies in the mid-1990s: George Burt's Art and Royal S. Brown's Reading," The Journal of Film Music 1/1 (2002): 79-97.

--"Schenker's Interpretive Practice by Robert Snarrenberg," Journal of Music Theory 45/1 (2001): 190-204.

Older publications.

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Items of interest:

Film music studies:
Franz Waxman: Concerts of the Los Angeles Music Festival, 1947-1966: "LA Music Festival."
Home page for Franz Waxman, official website.

Film music -- some files from courses:
Claudia Gorbman's seven rules for music's narrative functions.

Detailed TOC for George Burt's The Art of Film Music.
Detailed TOC for Michel Chion's Audio-Vision: Sound on Screen.
Detailed TOC for Michel Chion's The Voice in Cinema.

Theory and history of traditional European tonal music:
1. (CAPLIN FUNCTIONS: EXAMPLES) Formal functions for phrase, theme, and small forms (after William E. Caplin, Classical Form: A Theory of Formal Functions for the Instrumental Music of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven [New York: Oxford University Press, 1998]), summary and examples: Beethoven examples.
Data for theme types in contredanses:
          "Arquebus"
          Bacquoy-Guâedon
          Clarchies
          La Cuisse
          Landrin
          Mozart & Beethoven
          Playford
2. (TONAL FRAMES; CADENCE MODELS IN HISTORICAL REPERTOIRES 1) Tonal frames and ascending cadence gestures: Frames and Gestures. An older version of this page based on Schenkerian models can be found here: : Rising lines.
3. (TONAL FRAMES; CADENCE MODELS IN HISTORICAL REPERTOIRES 2) Complex upper-voice cadential figures: Complex upper-voice figures. Note: The revision of this page is under construction as of 06 July 2008. The current version is based on outdated Schenkerian models.

Music in traditional European dance:
1. (19TH CENTURY DANCE-MUSIC HISTORY) Franz Boehme, Geschichte des Tanzes in Deutschland (1886), text and musical examples for the waltz: excerpts from Boehme.
2. (LOC DANCE MANUALS -- LINKS TO MUSIC) Links to music pages in some dance instruction manuals and dance collections, American Memory site, Library of Congress: LOC dance music.
3. (ILLUSTRATIONS OF DANCING IN SHEET MUSIC AND DANCE MANUALS FROM THE 19TH CENTURY) By far the richest resource on the internet for sheet music covers showing dancing is the Lester Levy Collection, Johns Hopkins University. This Collection is arranged by topic -- felicitously preserved in the exceptionally well presented online site -- and three boxes are labeled "Dance": Box 184, Box 185, Box 186. Such images are more difficult to find on the Library of Congress American Memory site and the Duke University Historic American Sheet Music, 1850-1920, whose items are also accessible through the American Memory site. Many more images of dancers and dancing may be found in dance instruction manuals, also on the American Memory site.
4. (TOMLINSON, MENUET, DANCE AND MUSIC) Music from the Menuet engravings that conclude Kellom Tomlinson's The Art of Dancing (1735): Tomlinson menuet.

Older theoretical models for traditional European tonal music:
1. (SCHENKER GUIDE) David Neumeyer and Susan Tepping, A Guide to Schenkerian Analysis (Prentice Hall, 1992 -- oop):
    chapters available online
2. (SCHENKER: FREE COMPOSITION COMPARISON) Collation of the openings of the German and English versions of Schenker's Free Composition: Free Composition collation
3. (CADENCE GESTURES) Schenkerian versions of the page on ascending cadence gestures (Rising lines) and the page on complex upper-voice cadential figures (Complex upper-voice figures).

Miscellaneous lists and tables:
1. (GRADUS TOC) Clementi, Gradus ad Parnassum, annotated table of contents: Gradus contents
2. List of dance halls (historic and modern): Alex Trevino's list of Texas dance halls, from his book Dance Halls and Last Calls: A History of Texas Country Music.
3. "50 Places to Dance" The Austin360 site reproduces Jonathan Goodsell's recent story in the Austin American Statesman (06 April 2006) on 50 local venues for dancing. Covers a very wide range of dance styles.
4. "Why is Austin called the live music capital of the world?" The Austin360 site reproduces Michael Barnes' story in the Austin American Statesman (1 September 2005) on 100 local venues for live music. Includes comments on dancing and dance floors for some entries.

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Some links:

Personal website  David and Laura Neumeyer; includes information on local (central Texas) dance and music venues
Garden writer: Henry Mitchell website (unofficial):
Full text sites:

Online Books Page (University of Pennsylvania)
Making of America books (University of Michigan)
HTI American Verse Project
Poetry: Academy of American Poets
Literature: Bedford-St.Martins LitLinks
Library of Congress: Library of Congress American Memory Site
Philosophy: Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
History: Timelines of History
Painting: Artcyclopedia   "fine arts search engine"

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All original material copyright David Neumeyer 2004-08.