Ronald Squibbs

Associate Professor of Music Theory, Associate Department Head for Graduate Studies

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Ph.D., Yale University
B.A., Yale University

Courses Regularly Taught
MUSI 1313 – Harmony I (Fall Semester)
MUSI 1314 – Harmony II (Spring Semester)
MUSI 5353 – Theory Seminar (Fall Semester)
MUSI 3361/6400 – 16^th-Century Counterpoint (2-year rotation, Spring Semester)
MUSI 3371Q/5379 – Post-Tonal Analysis (2-year rotation, Spring Semester)

Teaching Philosophy: Whether at the beginning or advanced levels of the study of harmony, counterpoint, and analysis, the student should be involved in the making of music by any and all means available—singing, playing, listening, reading, writing, thinking, and discussing. Each one of these activities reinforces the learning potential of the others. Working hard is necessary, but so is having fun (especially at 8 and 9 in the morning, which is when MUSI 1313 and 1314 meet!).

Articles

Mycènes-Alpha: A Listener’s Guide. In From Xenakis’s UPIC to Graphic Notation Today, edited by Peter Weibel, Ludger Brümmer, and Sharon Kanach, 416-30. Berlin: Hatje Cantz Verlag, 2020.

Xenakis’s Method of Stochastic Composition: A Brief Introduction. In Twentieth-Century Music and Mathematics, edited by Robert Illiano, 23-39. Turnhout, BE: Brepols, 2019.

Varieties of Transformation in Xenakis’s Metastaseis. In Xenakis Matters, edited by Sharon Kanach, 147-71. Hillsdale, NY: Pendragon Press, 2012.

The Composer’s Flair: Achorripsis as Music. In Definitive Proceedings of the International Symposium Iannis Xenakis, edited by Makis Solomos, Anastasia Georgaki, and Giorgos Zervos. http://cicm.mshparisnord.org/ColloqueXenakis/papers/Squibbs.pdf (accessed July 31, 2020).

Xenakis in Miniature: Style and Structure in à r. (Hommage à Ravel) for piano (1987). Perspectives of New Music 41/1 (2003): 120-53.

Some Observations on Pitch, Texture and Form in Xenakis’s Mists. Contemporary Music Review 21/2-3 (2002): 91-108.

A Methodological Problem and a Provisional Solution: Structure and Form in Xenakis’s Evryali. In Presences of Iannis Xenakis, edited by Makis Solomos, 153-58. Paris: Centre de documentation de la musique contemporaine, 2001.

Musical Composition as Applied Mathematics: Set Theory and Probability in Iannis Xenakis’s Herma. In Bridges: Mathematical Connections in Art, Music, and Science, Conference Proceedings, edited by Reza Sarhangi, 141-52. http://archive.bridgesmathart.org/2000/bridges2000-141.html (accessed July 31, 2020).

Images of Sound in Xenakis’s Mycenae Alpha. Les cahiers du GREYC (Groupe de recherches en informatique, image, et instrumentation de Caen) 4 (1996): 208-18. http://jim.afim-asso.org/jim96/actes/squibbs/ (accessed July 31, 2020).

Liner Notes

Iannis Xenakis: Metastaseis A, Terretektorh, Nomos Gamma. Orchestra Sinfonica RAI and the Residentie Orkest The Hague, Arturo Tamayo, conductor. Mode Records 299 (2017).

Selected Presentations

The Presence of Absence: Gapped Mensuration Canons in John Luther Adams’s Among Red Mountains (for solo piano) (2001). Rhythm in Music since 1900. University of Colorado, Boulder. November 2019.

The Mensuration Canon beneath the Surface of John Luther Adams’s Nunataks (2007). Research on Contemporary Composition. University of North Georgia, Dahlonega. October 2019.

Space and Time in Ursula Mamlok’s From My Garden. Rocky Mountain Society for Music Theory. University of Utah, Salt Lake City. April 2017; West Coast Conference of Music Theory and Analysis. University of Victoria, BC. April 2017.

Near Evenness, Complement Unions, and Analysis Using Large Pitch-Class Sets. Invited presentation, Hartt Music Theory Forum, Hartt School of Music, University of Hartford. April 2014.

Aspects of Compositional Realization in Xenakis’s Pre-Stochastic and Early Stochastic Music. Xenakis: Arts/Science. Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Music Media and Technology, McGill University, Montreal. October 2010; Iannis Xenakis International Symposium. Centre for Contemporary Music Cultures, Goldsmiths, University of London. April 2011.

Joji Yuasa: Cosmos Haptic II – “Transfiguration” (1986) for piano. Lecture-performance. 9^th Annual New Music Festival. California State University, Fullerton. March 2010.

“Syntony” and Harmonic Transformation in the Music of Dane Rudhyar. Society for Music Theory Annual Meeting. Los Angeles. November 2006.

Time-Span and Pitch-Space Analysis as a Model of Perception in Two Works by Xenakis. The Creative and Scientific Legacies of Iannis Xenakis. University of Ontario, Guelph. June 2006.

Comparative Analysis as a Tool for Assessing Influences on the Development of Ruth Crawford Seeger’s Early Musical Style. Society for Music Theory Annual Meeting. Seattle. November 2004.

Western Harmonic Resources in a Japanese Context: Joji Yuasa’s Two-Octave Twelve-Tone Sets. New England Conference of Music Theorists Annual Meeting. Boston University. April 2004.

 

Recordings

Peter Garland: Three Dawns, Bush Radio Calling. Cold Blue Music. Forthcoming.

Dane Rudhyar: Four Pentagrams, Paeans, Granites, Prophetic Rite. Aucourant Records AUREC 1302 (2013).

On the Keyboard: Piano Works of Joji Yuasa. Aucourant Records AUREC0501-1 (2005).