8th – 10th July 2024, University of Liverpool

Programme

Schedule for Day 1, Symposium (July 8)
School of the Arts Library, 19 Abercromby Sq.

9:15-10:10Alyssa Barna. “Women Singing in 21st-Century(ish) Popular Music: Some Thoughts”
10:15-11:10Stephanie Doktor. “Microrhythmic Expression in Jazz Fusion: A Case Study on Hiatus Kaiyote” (OR: jazz doesn’t have to swing, ya dingus!)
11:20-12:20Walt Everett. Title TBC.
2:00-2:30Allan Moore. “I wonder what you’re doing”
2:30-3:00Chloe Mullet (based on recent discussions with Phil Tagg)
3:00-3:30Coffee
3:30-5:00Roundtable discussion
5:30-6:00Tribute to Philip Tagg

Schedule for Days 2 & 3, Symposium (July 9 & 10)
Department of Music, Gordon Stevenson Building

Students are divided into two groups of 15-20 each. Each workshop leader teaches the same(ish) lesson twice each day.

Topics Covered and Preparation

Matt BaileyShea, “Lyrics and Music in Popular Song”

This workshop will discuss the relationship between words and music in song in ways that go beyond questions of meaning (e.g. “What is this song about?”). We will consider how the words of a song are themselves musical elements that can help articulate form, create grouping patterns, and affect our sense of empathy, intimacy, and emotional distance. We will look at songs in a variety of genres, including pop, rock, and rap.

In preparation, please read the following materials:

Matt BaileyShea, Lines and Lyrics: An Introduction to Poetry and Song (Yale University Press, 2021), chapters three and four, pp. 64–124.

Matt BaileyShea, “From Me to You: Dynamic Discourse in Popular Music,” Music Theory Online (20/4): https://www.mtosmt.org/issues/mto.14.20.4/mto.14.20.4.baileyshea.html

Nicole Biamonte, “Rhythm and Meter in Popular Music”

This workshop will explore the theory and analysis of rhythm and meter in popular music. We will survey some theoretical approaches to these parameters, and then analyze a variety of musical examples from Anglophone pop, rock, and related genres. Topics include the functions of rhythmic patterns within the texture and within formal sections, types of metric and rhythmic dissonances including polymeters and hemiola, and metric transformations in cover versions.

In preparation, please read the following materials:

Nicole Biamonte, “Rhythmic and Metric Theorization in Rock Music”, in The Bloomsbury Handbook of Rock Music Research, ed. Allan F. Moore and Paul Carr, 129-147 (Bloomsbury, 2020). https://hcommons.org/deposits/item/hc:27469/

Nicole Biamonte, “Formal Functions of Metric Dissonance in Rock Music”, Music Theory Online 20.2 (2014). https://www.mtosmt.org/issues/mto.14.20.2/mto.14.20.2.biamonte.html

optional: Nicole Biamonte, “Rhythmic Functions in Pop-Rock Music”, in The Routledge Companion to Popular Music Analysis, ed. Kenneth Smith, Ciro Scotto, and John Brackett, 190-206(Routledge, 2019). https://hcommons.org/deposits/item/hc:27441/

Mark Spicer, “Tonality and Form in Pop and Rock Songs”

This workshop will explore how our understanding of tonality and form in pop and rock songs is shaped by our experience of listening to recordings as they unfold in real time. We will analyze representative examples of recorded popular song from the past sixty years and across a wide range of styles. Students are asked to read the following articles in preparation:

Day 1: Tonality

Mark Spicer, “Fragile, Emergent, and Absent Tonics in Pop and Rock Songs,” Music Theory Online, 23/2 (2017). https://mtosmt.org/issues/mto.17.23.2/mto.17.23.2.spicer.html

OPTIONAL:

  • Walter Everett, “Making Sense of Rock’s Tonal Systems,” Music Theory Online 10/4 (2004). https://www.mtosmt.org/issues/mto.04.10.4/mto.04.10.4.w_everett.html
  • Drew Nobile, “Harmonic Function in Rock Music: A Syntactical Approach,” Journal of Music Theory 60/2 (2016): 149–80. https://academia.edu/19368734/Harmonic_Function_in_Rock_Music_A_Syntactical_Approach

I invite you to have a go at making a melodic/harmonic analysis of the following songs (using chord symbols, functional Roman numerals, or whatever you find appropriate), all of which are readily available to listen to for free at Spotify, YouTube, and other streaming audio sites. As with most recorded popular music, the recordings themselves are the true “scores” and any published sheet music should be viewed with caution. Nevertheless, you can find sheet music versions of these songs at musicnotes.com and other sites (if you use the Chrome browser, you can preview the pages onscreen at musicnotes.com without actually purchasing the music). You can also search the web for lyrics and chord symbols to these songs, but again, don’t assume that everything you find posted online is 100% accurate.

  • ABBA, “SOS” (1975)
  • Earth, Wind & Fire, “September” (1978) [HINT: Compare this song to Michael Jackson’s “Rock With You” (1979), which I discuss in my MTO article.]
  • The Korgis, “Everybody’s Got to Learn Sometime” (1980)
  • Simply Red, “If You Don’t Know Me By Now” (1989) [Note the striking modulation at the onset of the prechorus.]
  • Gotye (feat. Kimbra), “Somebody That I Used to Know” (2011)
  • Ed Sheeran, “Shivers” (2021)

Day 2: Form

Mark Spicer, “(Ac)cumulative Form in Pop-Rock Music,” Twentieth-Century Music 1/1 (2004): 29–64. https://hcommons.org/deposits/item/hc:27479/

OPTIONAL:

Finally, listen carefully to the following six songs and come prepared to talk about their formal design and make some preliminary observations as to why these songs qualify as examples of accumulative or cumulative form.

  • Peter Gabriel, “Solsbury Hill” (1977)
  • Journey, “Escape” (1981)
  • The Waterboys, “The Whole of the Moon” (1985) [There have been several covers of this iconic song, but I’m particularly fond of Fiona Apple’s 2019 version, used in the finale of the Showtime series, The Affair.]
  • Björk, “Hyperballad” (1995)
  • Coldplay, “Viva la Vida” (2008)
  • Tears for Fears, “No Small Thing” (2022)

Information

Contacts

Please contact Kenneth on kenneth.smith@liverpool.ac.uk.

Location

On Day 1, for the Symposium, we’re in the School of the Arts Library, (first floor)
19 Abercromby Square University of Liverpool, L69 7ZG

On Days 1-2, we’re in the Music Department. We are based in the Music Department, though this is the ‘Gordon Stevenson’ building on the corner of Abercromby Square. Our two rooms are left and right of the foyer when you enter. There is a wheel chair ramp, and the rooms are all reasonably accessible. Some info here, but essentially we’re building 104 on this campus map. Unfortunately typing “Bedford Street South” into a satnav can lead you into the middle of a housing estate nearby. So look for Abercromby Square- we’re located just off that.

Registration

Be sure to register for free: https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/school-of-the-arts-university-of-liverpool/t-eavexay

Sunday evening drinks

A table is reserved at the Buyer’s Club on Hardman Street for 7.30 pm. The kitchen serves food until 8 if you wish to eat. Otherwise last orders is 10.30.

Wi-fi

Eduroam is operative but temperamental. We have Wi-fi codes for registered delegates.

Restaurants

  • For refined (but reasonably priced) eating, anywhere on HOPE STREET. (The Quarter is also 7 minutes walk and very good).
  • For quick convenient lunches / coffees, turn right after exiting the music buildings, head for the main road and you’ll see some. Here is Richard’s map: