Alexander Martin

Associate Professor of Music Theory

My teaching has three primary goals: 1) to equip students with a strong command of musical materials and concepts in both written and applied settings, 2) to encourage students to be able to argue a position using evidence, and 3) to guide them to the realization that knowledge of music theory can enliven their experience of and engagement with music. I achieve these goals through a graduated approach to working with classroom materials, through an emphasis on music analysis in which students stake an interpretive claim and defend it using arguments, and by encouraging students to relate music-theoretical concepts to other areas of musical study.

  • The Graduate Center, CUNY, PhD in Music Theory and Analysis, 2018
  • University of British Columbia, MA in Music Theory, 2013
  • University of Toronto, BMus in Music History and Theory with Honours, 2010

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Alexander Martin

Biography

Alexander Martin joined the School of Music faculty in August 2018 as Assistant Professor of Music Theory. He teaches core music theory, aural training, upper division music theory electives, and special topics courses (e.g., Form in Beethoven in 2019 and Songs & Song Cycles in 2023). Martin is the founder and host of the Friends of Music Theory Forum. 

Professor Martin’s research concerns Schenkerian analytical approaches to the Romantic Lied. He has presented his scholarship nationally at the Society for Music Theory annual meeting, regionally at Music Theory Southeast, South Central Society for Music Theory, and his work is published in Music Theory Online. He is currently preparing a new article on how musical parameters contribute to a listener’s sense of implied stage blocking in imagined physical space in Robert Schumann’s narrative ballads.

More About Alexander Martin

Areas of Expertise

  • Schenkerian analysis
  • The nineteenth-century Lied
  • Form and formal function

Course Topics

  • Core Music Theory Courses
  • Core Aural Training Courses
  • Advanced Analysis
  • Songs & Song Cycles
  • Senior Research

  • Schenkerian analysis and theory
  • Nineteenth-century music and chromaticism
  • The music of Robert and Clara Schumann
  • Text-music relationships
  • Form and formal function