SMT-Pod

How Anime Opening Credits Hook You and Tell You a Story - Tan Nazare

In this week’s episode, Tan Nazare explores the musical and visual mechanics of anime opening credits, analyzing how specific harmonic progressions, textures, and structu

Swan Lake: How the Classical Ballet Became a Political Mosh - Sasha Drozzina

In this week's episode, Sasha Drozzina considers the larger political symbolism of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s four-act ballet Swan Lake and the recent sampling of the bal

One Block to Rule Them All: The Single-Block Form in African Music - Alice (Bai) Xue

In this week's episode, Alice Xue introduces the “single-block form” in African music, and shows through 8 examples how repetition generates complexity, meaning, expressi

Is It Over? How Silence Frames Musical Beginnings and Endings in Arvo Pärt’s “Ludus” - Hang Ki Choi

In this week’s episode, Hang Ki Choi explores how the silences in Arvo Pärt’s "Ludus" play with our sense of musical beginnings and endings. This episode was produced by

Gender and the Death Trope in Judith Weir’s The Black Spider - Luis Matos-Tovar

In this week’s episode, Luis Matos-Tovar gives us a look into Judith Weir’s The Black Spider, a children's opera that challenges gendered expectations of women dying and

Texture, Timbre, and Instrumentation in Laura Kaminsky’s As One: A Trans Narrative - Brandon D. Scribner

In this week’s episode, Brandon Scribner analyzes Laura Kaminsky’s opera, As One, which uses music (specifically texture and timbre) to trace the experience of Hannah’s g

Power and Captivity in Thea Musgrave’s Mary, Queen of Scots - Zachary Simonds

In this week's episode, Zachary Simonds uses tools developed by Robert Hatten to analyze Mary, Queen of Scots by Thea Musgrave, focusing on the melodically ascending octa

The Two Harriets in Thea Musgrave’s Harriet, The Woman Called Moses - Isabel Milbourn

In this week’s episode, Isabel Milbourn examines Thea Musgrave’s opera Harriet, The Woman Called Moses: a story of Harriet Tubman that delves into both her heroic actions

Trauma and Vocal Utterances in Ellen Reid’s p r i s m (2018) - Aaron D'Zurilla

In this week's episode, Aaron D'Zurilla explores how the vocal utterances and non-verbal vocalisms in Ellen Reid’s opera p r i s m (2018) convey the complexities of the t

SMT-Pod Student Seminar Series: Gender and Contemporary Opera (Introduction)

In this week’s episode, you'll hear from Rachel Lumsden about this SMT-Pod's season's Student Seminar Series, and you'll also get to hear from each of the seminar scholar

Episode 1 - Idiomatic Improvisation: Where Theory Meets Aural Skills - Alexandrea Jonker and Peter Schubert

This is the first episode in a five-episode mini-series on “idiomatic improvisation” as a pedagogical technique in the music theory and aural skills classroom. In this ep

Episode 2 - Idiomatic Improvisation: Where Theory Meets Aural Skills - Alexandrea Jonker and Peter Schubert

This is the second episode in Alex Jonker and Peter Schubert’s  five-episode mini-series on “idiomatic improvisation” as a pedagogical technique in the music theory and a

Episode 3 - Idiomatic Improvisation: Where Theory Meets Aural Skills - Alexandrea Jonker and Peter Schubert

This is the third episode in Alex Jonker and Peter Schubert’s five-episode mini-series on “idiomatic improvisation” as a pedagogical technique in the music theory and aur

Episode 4 - Idiomatic Improvisation: Where Theory Meets Aural Skills - Alexandrea Jonker and Peter Schubert

This is the fourth episode in Alex Jonker and Peter Schubert’s five-episode mini-series on “idiomatic improvisation” as a pedagogical technique in the music theory and au

Episode 5 - Idiomatic Improvisation: Where Theory Meets Aural Skills - Alexandrea Jonker and Peter Schubert

This is the final episode in a five-episode mini-series on “idiomatic improvisation” as a pedagogical technique in the music theory and aural skills classroom. In this ep

From the Sidelines: an in game look at Johanna Beyer’s Music of the Spheres - Craig Peaslee

In this week's episode, Craig Peaslee reimagines formal music theory analysis and takes the listener to the arena of competitive music performance through the lens of a r

Nicole Mitchell’s Mandorla Awakening II and the Sounds of Afrofuturist Theory - Audrey Slote

In this week's episode, Audrey Slote guides listeners through an analysis of “Mandorla Island” from Nicole Mitchell’s experimental jazz album Mandorla Awakening II from 2

Reimagine the Sound: Or, How to Improvise a Cecil Taylor Improvisation - Mark Micchelli

In this episode, Mark Micchelli examines the relationship between music theory and creative practice via a firsthand exploration of the formal structure of Cecil Taylor’s

Fuguing Essential Voices: An Informance of J. S. Bach's Prelude and Fugue, BWV 1011 - Daniel Ketter

In this week's episode, Daniel Ketter presents an essential voice analysis arrangement of J. S. Bach’s fugue for solo cello. It traces the composer’s solution to weaving

“In the Days of Auld Lang Syne”: Stability and Bagpipe Music in Hong Kong (1997-2024) - Samantha Sasaki

In this episode, Samantha Sasaki analyzes three bagpipe performances of “Auld Lang Syne” in Hong Kong in order to uncover why this instrument has retained cultural and po