Publications and other writings

Mouse over titles for a brief description; click publication info to download. Please do not cite or circulate unpublished items without permission. If you're interested in music theory you probably want to check out my book

Drafts, forthcoming articles, and powerpoints

Many of the powerpoints are intended for a second book on triadic harmony.

Revisiting post-skip reversals. Under review at Music Perception.
In Quest of Musical Vectors. Forthcoming in an edited volume on mathematics and music.
A Study on the Origins of Harmonic Tonality. Powerpoint.
Harmonic Extroversion in the Pope Marcellus Mass. Powerpoint.
Rock Logic. Powerpoint.
Yes, but could the Martians understand Bach? Powerpoint.
Noneuclidean Perspectives on the Classical Style. Powerpoint.
OUCH theory, or a dialogue in neo-Fuxian style. Powerpoint.
Local Harmonic Grammar in Western Classical Music. Unpublished article.

Published scholarly articles

Information Theoretical Approach to Chord Classification (with Nori Jacoby and Naftali Tishby) Journal of New Music Research (2015): 1–26.
Geometry and the Quest for Theoretical Generality Journal of Mathematics and Music 7.2 (2013): 127–144.
Review of Michael Cuthbert, Music21: a Toolkit for Computer-aided Musicology. Music Theory Online 19.3 (2013).
The Generalized Tonnez. Journal of Music Theory 56.1 (2012): 1–52.
Submajorization and the Geometry of Unordered Collections (with Rachel Hall). The American Mathematical Monthly 119.4 (2012): 263–283.
Mazzola's Model of Fuxian Counterpoint. Mathematics and Computation in Music, eds. Carlos Agon, Moreno Andreatta, Gérard Assayag, Emmanuel Amiot, Jean Bresson, and John Mandereau: Springer (2011): 297–310.
Dear Stanley. Journal of Music Theory 54.1 (2010): 5–25.
Generalizing Musical Intervals. Journal of Music Theory 53.2 (2009): 227–254.
Geometrical Methods in Recent Music Theory. Music Theory Online 16.1 (2010).
Set Class Similarity, Voice Leading, and the Fourier Transform. Journal of Music Theory 52.2 (2008): 251–272.
Three Conceptions of Musical Distance. In Mathematics and Computation in Music, eds. Elaine Chew, Adrian Childs, and Ching-Hua Chuan, Heidelberg: Springer (2009), 258–273.
Recasting K-nets. Music Theory Online 13.3 (2007).
Lewin, Intervals, and Transformations: A Comment on Hook. Music Theory Spectrum 30.1 (2008): 164–168.
Generalized Voice Leading Spaces (with Clifton Callender and Ian Quinn). Science 320 (2008): 346-348.
The Geometry of Musical Chords. Science 313 (2006): 72-74.
Scale Theory, Serial Theory, and Voice Leading. Music Analysis 27.1 (2008): 1-49.
Scale Networks in Debussy. Journal of Music Theory 48.1 (2004).
Voice Leadings as Generalized Key Signatures. Music Theory Online 11.4 (2005).
Function Theories: A Statistical Approach (published in French, English original here). Musurgia 10.3-4 (2003): 35-64.
Octatonicism Reconsidered Again. Music Theory Spectrum 25.1 (2003): 185-202.
Stravinsky and the Octatonic: A Reconsideration. Music Theory Spectrum 24.1 (2002): 68-102.
The Consecutive-Semitone Constraint on Scalar Structure: A Link Between Impressionism and Jazz. Integral 11 (1997): 135-179.

Annoying polemics

Things I've written responding to criticisms by others, or responding to responses to criticisms of others, etc.

Basket Cases. Music Theory Spectrum 34.1 (2012): 153–154.
'Hey, Wait a Minute!'. Music Theory Spectrum 34.1 (2012): 144-149.
Round Three. Music Theory Spectrum 33.2 (2011): 211-215.

General audience

Some dating back to the days after I'd been asked to leave philosophy graduate school, when I was thinking about trying to become a freelance intellectual.

Geometric Listening. Berfrois August 2011.
The Sound of Philosophy. Boston Review October/November 2000: 42-46.
The Sublime Beethoven. Boston Review December/January 1999-2000: 40-43.
What Good is Religion? Boston Review October/November 2000: 42-46.
The Nitrous Oxide Philosopher. The Atlantic Monthly May 1996: 93-101.
The End of Jazz? Transition 70 (1996): 72-81.