Dr. John Roeder
Acting Director School of Music [2013]
Professor of Music Theory

Office: 604.822.3715
Email: john.roeder(at)ubc.ca

John Roeder (A.B., Harvard, 1979; Ph.D., Yale, 1984) is a Professor in the School of Music at the University of British Columbia, where he serves as coordinator of the Theory Division. He teaches theories of tonal and nontonal music, analysis, the history of music theory, music since 1950, transformational theory, and rhythmic theory. In 1992 his distinguished teaching was honored with a University Teaching prize.

His research focuses on theories of rhythm and pitch in recent art music, but extends also to computer applications, musical semiotics, and rhythm and form in music of other times and cultures. In November 1995 he received the Outstanding Publication Award of the Society for Music Theory for his article "Interacting Pulse Streams in Schoenberg's Atonal Polyphony." From 2000-2007 he directed research into strategies for preserving digitally created information, including music, as a member of the InterPARES project. He has held grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada to study Transformation in Contemporary Art Music and Periodicity in Music.

He has served on the editorial boards of Perspectives of New Music , Music Theory Spectrum, and Journal of Music Theory, and he chaired the Publications Committee of the Society for Music Theory. In June 2003 he conducted a Workshop at the Mannes Institute for Advanced Studies in Music Theory on "Transformational Approaches to Contemporary Music." In November 2008 he led a seminar on "Analyzing Contemporary Music" for the Graduate Student Workshop Program of the Society for Music Theory.

Selected Publications

• Roeder, John. 2012. "'The matter of cooperation' in Carter's mature style."  In Elliott Carter Studies, ed. Marguerite Boland and John Link.  Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 110-137.
• Roeder, John and Michael Tenzer. 2012. "Identity and Genre in Gamelan Gong Kebyar: An Analytical Study of Gabor".
  Music Theory Spectrum 34 (1): 78-122.
• Tenzer, Michael and John Roeder, eds. 2011.  Analytical and Cross-Cultural Studies in World Music. New York: Oxford University Press.
• Roeder, John. 2011. "Transformational Aspects of Arvo Pärt's Tintinnabuli Music". Journal of Music Theory 55/1: 1-41.
• Roeder, John. 2011. "Fluctuant Grouping in a Silk-and-Bamboo Melody." Analytical Approaches to World Music Journal 1/2.
• Roeder, John. 2009. "Archivists meet Artists: InterPARES Insights into Authenticity". Art, Conservation, and Authenticities: Material, Concept, Context, ed. Erma Hermens and Tina Fiske, 227-234. London: Archetype Publications.
• Roeder, John. 2009. "Constructing Transformational Signification: Gesture and Agency in Bartók's Scherzo, Op. 14, No. 2, mm. 1-32." Music Theory Online 15/1.
• Roeder, John. 2009. "A Transformational Space Structuring the Counterpoint in Adès’s 'Auf dem Wasser zu singen.' " Music Theory Online 15/1.
• Roeder, John. 2008. "A transformational space for Elliott Carter's recent complement-union music." In T. Noll, T. Klouche (eds.), Mathematics and Computation in Music - First International Conference, MCM 2007, Berlin, Germany, May 18-20, 2007. Communications in Computer and Information Science (CCIS). Volume 37, pp. 300-307. Springer: Berlin, Heidelberg.
• Roeder, John, Philip Eppard, William Underwood and Tracey P. Lauriault. 2008. “Part Three—Authenticity, Reliability and Accuracy of Digital Records in the Artistic, Scientific and Governmental Sectors: Domain 2 Task Force Report,” in International Research on Permanent Authentic Records in Electronic Systems (InterPARES 2): Experiential, Interactive and Dynamic Records, Luciana Duranti and Randy Preston, eds., 139-186. Padova, Italy: Associazione Nazionale Archivistica Italiana.
• Roeder, John. 2007. [Review of Franck Jedrzejewski's Mathematical Theory of Music.] Journal of Mathematics and Music 1/3: 191-198.
• Roeder, John. 2006. "Co-operating Continuities in the Music of Thomas Adès". Music Analysis 25/1-2: 125-154.
• Roeder, John and Scott Cook. 2006. "Triadic Transformation and Parsimonious Voice Leading in Some Interesting Passages by Gavin Bryars". Intégral. 20: 43-67.
• Roeder, John. 2006. "Autonomy and Dialog in Elliott Carter's 'Enchanted Preludes'." In Analytical Studies in World Music. Ed. Michael Tenzer. New York: Oxford.
• Duranti, Luciana and John Roeder. 2005. "La conservazione a lungo termine dell'autenticitá di composizioni digitali interattive: la ricerce di InterPARES 2.". Archivi e Computer 15/3: 45-62.
• Roeder, John. 2004. "Preserving authentic interactive digital artworks: case studies from the InterPARES project." In International Cultural Heritage Informatics Meeting: Proceedings from ichim04 (Berlin). CD-ROM. Toronto: Archives & Museum Informatics.
• Roeder, John. 2004. "Rhythmic Process and Form in Bartók's 'Syncopation'." College Music Symposium 44.
• Roeder, John. 2003. "The Craft of Hybrid Composition: Meter, Tonality, and Grouping in Michael Torke's 'Adjustable Wrench'." Perspectives of New Music 41/2: 120-158.
• Roeder, John. 2003. "Beat-Class Modulation in Steve Reich's Music." Music Theory Spectrum 25/2: 275 - 304
• Roeder, John. 2001. "Pulse Streams and Problems of Grouping and Metrical Dissonance in Bartók's 'With Drums and Pipes'" Music Theory Online 7/1.
• Roeder, John. 2001. "Set" (2000 words); "Interval Class" (400 words); "Pitch Class" (250 words). Invited contributions to the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2d ed. London: Macmillan Reference, Ltd.
• Roeder, John. 1998. [Review of Christopher F. Hasty, Meter as Rhythm]. Music Theory Online 4.4: 1.1-5.7.
• Roeder, John. 1995. "A Calculus of Accent." Journal of Music Theory 39/1: 1-46.
• Roeder, John. 1994. "Formal Functions of Hypermeter in the Dies iræ of Verdi's Messa da Requiem." Theory and Practice 19: 83-104.
• Roeder, John. 1994. "Voice Leading as Transformation." In Musical Transformation and Musical Intuition: Essays in Honor of David Lewin. Ed. Raphael Atlas and Michael Cherlin. Roxbury, MA: Ovenbird Press. Pp. 41-58.
• Roeder, John. 1994. "Interacting Pulse Streams in Schoenberg's Atonal Polyphony." Music Theory Spectrum 16/2: 231-249.
• Roeder, John. 1993. [Review of Eugene Narmour's The Analysis and Cognition of Basic Melodic Structures]. Music Theory Spectrum 15/2: 267-272.
• Roeder, John. 1993. "A MaMuTh Achievement" [Review of Guerino Mazzola's Geometrie der Töne and Gruppen und Kategorien in der Musik]. Perspectives of New Music 31/2: 294-312.
• Roeder, John. 1993. "Toward a Semiotic Evaluation of Music Analyses." Music Theory Online 0.5: 1-22.
• Roeder, John. 1991. "Logic-Programming Models of Music: A Semiotic Evaluation." Music and Science. Seattle: Center for the Creation and Interdisciplinary Study of Music, University of Washington. Pp. 16-36.
• Roeder, John. 1990. "Pitch and Rhythmic Dramaturgy in Verdi's Lux æterna." 19th-Century Music 14/2: 169-185.
• Roeder, John. 1990. "A Prolog Program for Music Segmentation." Musicus 1/2: 165-176.
• Roeder, John. 1989. [Review of Composition with Pitch-Classes by Robert D. Morris]. Music Theory Spectrum 11/2: 240 - 251.
• Roeder, John. 1989. "Harmonic Implications of Schoenberg's Observations of Atonal Voice Leading." Journal of Music Theory 33/1: 27 - 62.
• Roeder, John and Keith Hamel. 1989. "A General-Purpose Object System for Musical Graphics." Proceedings of the 1989 International Computer Music Conference. San Francisco: Computer Music Association. Pp. 260 - 263.
• Roeder, John. 1988. "Issues of Representation in the Analysis of Atonal Music." Proceedings of the First Workshop on Artificial Intelligence and Music, St. Paul, Minnesota. Menlo Park: American Association for Artificial Intelligence. Pp. 138 - 147.
• Roeder, John. 1988. "A Declarative Model of Atonal Analysis." Music Perception 6/1: 21 - 34.
• Roeder, John. 1987. "Música y Teoria de Grupos Finitos: A Review." Perspectives of New Music 25: 638 - 641.
• Roeder, John. 1987. "A Geometric Representation of Pitch-Class Series." Perspectives of New Music 25: 362 - 409.

In press:

• Roeder, John. 2012. "'The Matter of Human Cooperation' in Carter's Mature Style". In Elliott Carter Studies, ed. Marguerite Boland and John Link. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Roeder, John and Michael Tenzer. 2012. "Identity and Genre in Gamelan Gong Kebyar: An Analytical Study of Gabor ". Music Theory Spectrum 34 (1).

Recent unpublished papers:

• Roeder, John. 2008. "Design Issues in Music-Analytical Animations". Presented at the 2008 Annual Meeting of the Society for Music Theory, November 7, 2008, Nashville, TN.
• Roeder, John. 2010. "Superposition in Saariaho's 'The claw of the magnolia...'." Presented at the 2010 Annual Meeting of the Society for Music Theory, November 5, 2010, Indianapolis, IN.
• "Hearing Space and Time in Music of Thomas Thomas Adès." Presented at the University of Toronto, November, 2007, and at Indiana University, April, 2007.
• "Second Thoughts: Protension and Form in Fauré's Prelude, Op. 103, No. 9". Presented at the Distinguished Lecture Series of the University of California at Santa Barbara, February 1997, at the University of Buffalo in February 2000, and at the Eastman School of Music in 2001. For a version of part one, see the Music Analysis through New Media home page.
• "Overload: Competing Practical and Academic Demands in Music at UBC." Paper presented at Round Table, "Balancing Professional Training and the Liberal Arts in Canadian Music Programs", at the Canadian University Music Society meeting in Toronto, May, 2002.
• "A Processive Model of Rhythmic Groups in Atonal Polyphony." Presented at the Society for Music Theory annual meeting, Baton Rouge, LA, November 1996.

Works outside music theory:

• Soukas, A., P. Wanderer,..., J. Roeder, et al. 1980. "Search for Prompt Neutrinos and New Penetrating Particles from 28-Gev Proton-Nucleus Collisions." Physical Review Letters 44/9: 564-567.
• Roeder, John [composer] and Kathryn Kimball [librettist]. 1980. Saints in Boston 1844. [A dramatic musical commissioned for the sequicentennial of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.] Performed 1980 in Wellesley, MA, 1991 in Cambridge, MA, and 1992 in Hamden, CT.
• Roeder, John. 2006. The Lord is My Shepherd for SATB choir a capella. Performed by the UBC University Singers Nov. 16 and 17, 2006, Vancouver, BC, and February 7 and 8, 2008.
• Other compositions.

Research Grants:

• "An Expert System for the Analysis of Atonal Music": University of British Columbia HSS New Faculty Research Grant, 1985-1986.
• "A Graphics-Based Musical Analysis System": Social Sciences and Humanities Reseach Council of Canada, 1988-1991. Keith Hamel, co-investigator.
• "Rhythmic Processes in Twentieth-Century Polyphony": UBC Izaak Walton Killam Memorial Fellowship, 1992-1993.
  
• "Multimedia Instruction in Music Composition, Theory, and Performance": BC Ministry of Skills, Training, and Labour, 1996-1997. Co-investigators: Keith Hamel, Martin Berinbaum, Robert Pritchard.
• "Software Tools for Model-Based Composition": UBC Teaching and Learning Enhancement Fund, 1998-1999. Project Manager: John Roeder. Programming team: Keith Hamel, Robert Pritchard, Tom Roeder.
• "Music Analysis through New Media": UBC Hampton Fund, 1996-1997. Co-investigators: William Benjamin, Richard Kurth
• "Transformation in Contemporary Art Music ": Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, 2004-2007.
• (with Michael Tenzer) "Periodicity in Music": Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, 2008-2011.