More+ on UCSB

Hi Emily,

Dr. Van den Toorn mentioned that he had left you a message.
Congratulations! You'll get the official letter from the university soon
that explains that this fellowship covers all the costs of university study
at UCSB. You might also want to look at Moodle (Google Moodle and UCSB) to
see some of the listings in the film department. And don't forget that we
are only two hours from tinseltown...

Please email me if you have any questions. You have the opportunity
through this fellowship to visit our campus. I will be in Paris March
17th-24th, but I will be in SB the rest of the time. I believe that $650
in travel money is paid for.

Best,

Pat

Free vacation much?

Studying for the dreaded ORAL QUALIFYING EXAMS OF DOOOM

Yes. Three Os in DOOOM. That's how bad it is.

Anyway, the final part of my competancy exams takes place tomorrow at 2:30pm. I have hit the 24 hour mark, so I thought I would reflect on the organizational process I have developed.



I'm a very visual person, so I used a color coding technique. Green folders are GOOD TO GO! Purple are HEY, MORE WORK NEEDED. Yellow files have been read and bullet pointed. Red are READ ME!s. This has worked pretty well so far. Seeing the colors change has helped me get a decent grasp of how much work I've done, and how much is left.

I'll reflect more on the experience once I pass, be it tomorrow or some other time. Preferably tomorrow.

Fiona Apple & Friends cover "Tonight You Belong To Me" (Gene Clark)

In case you don't read You Ain't No Picasso, or are too lazy to click on my Google Reader link, here is a great cover of Gene Clark's "Tonight You Belong To Me" by Fiona Apple and a few members of Nickel Creek. In my opinion, Fiona Apple can do no wrong. I love her.

More on UCSB

So. I just received an email from Patricia Hall, the theory coordinator at UCSB and my roomie at the M&MI conference I went to last May in NYC. (If you don't know that story comment and I'll fill you in.) Anyway, she emailed me to let me know about my being accepted into the program (already knew), about my TAship (uhhh .... didn't know that!) and my fellowship nomination (heard about that). But the TAship? Hell yeah.

*five minutes later*

Okay so I just looked up the TAship info ... apparently it is a partial fee waiver (ehhh) and free health insurance (very nice). So I'd need the fellowship, which Dr. Hall said pays for tuition and fees. So I'd really need both. And the fellowship is for students who are the first in their families to go to college.

This is started to get complicated. I applied to, like, seven PhD programs because I didn't think I had a shot. I applied to the MA because I wanted to see if I had a chance in hell at a top music program in Europe (I mean ... Adam Krims works there!). I've gotten into three of the seven and have been offered money at two of them. I may actually have to make a really tough choice. If I get a big honkin' fellowship at UCSB in addition to a TAship ... hmmm. But I mean, Texas is my #1 ... ugh. I didn't think I'd get in anywhere! Now I have three possibilities, maybe even more after I hear back from other places. I'm way too indecisive for this.

I was talking with some other grad students today, and out of the four "scholar" grads that are graduating this year (all in August because we're too lazy and too much of commitaphobes to write our thesis) I am the oddest one out and the only one to continue on after this year. Morgan is a musicologist that focuses on 20th-century music (she's writing on Berg's Lulu, Kathryn is a musicologist and cellist who is obsessed with Bach and is writing about Vaughn Williams, Jennie is a theorist writing on phrasing in Bach, and I am a theorist that listens to punk and indie rock and is writing about film music. They fit much better into the canon than I do. Yet Morgan and Kathryn are seriously considering changing fields, and Jennie may give up if she doesn't get into FSU.

So. Maybe the canon is changing? Maybe the field of "acceptable dissertation topics" is finally branching out after ... two hundred years. I guess I just have good timing.

I GOT INTO UT-AUSTIN!!!

Dear Emily,

I am delighted to inform you that the theory faculty has recommended
that you be admitted to the Ph.D. program in music theory at the
University of Texas! You were one of only a few students chosen from
a very large pool of applicants and I commend you for this
achievement. Your official letter of acceptance will be arriving in
the mail shortly.

We are prepared to offer you a scholarship in the amount of 20,000
dollars for your first year along with a waiver of out-of-state
tuition valued at about 6,500 dollars. This brings the total value
of your first year offer to about 26,500 dollars. In-state tuition
is currently in the neighborhood of 6,000 dollars. Should you accept
our offer, after your scholarship year you would be given a
three-year .5 teaching assistantship to begin in your second year,
bringing the total number of years of support to four. The stipend
for teaching assistants is currently 10,000-10,500 dollars for the
two-semester long session. Teaching assistants also receive an
out-of-state tuition waiver valued at around 6,500 dollars, about
6,000 dollars of in-state tuition assistance (this covers the entire
amount of your in-state tuition), and health insurance valued at
about 3,000 dollars. This brings the estimated nine-month total to
25,500-26,000 dollars.

I very much enjoyed speaking with you at the recent SMT conference.
Based on our conversation, I believe you would find our program to be
an especially good fit for you. As I mentioned in a previous email,
we have a very active theory program at UT with a current enrollment
of about 15 masters and doctoral students, including those working on
masters reports and dissertations. The faculty has a very strong
research record with articles appearing in major journals and books.
Perhaps most important of all, is the fact that we have one of the
strongest placement records in the nation with all recent graduates
(interested in doing so) landing teaching positions in colleges and
universities throughout the United States and Canada.

Congratulations on your acceptance into the theory program at UT! If
you would like to visit our campus, I would be more than happy to
schedule individual meetings with the members of the faculty. Please
let me know if you have any questions. I will look forward to
hearing from you.

All the best,

EP

HELL F'N YEAH!

More PhD Stuff, Elliot Smith, and the Status of Rock Analysis

Hey hey. I'll do this in order.

I've been nominated for a departmental fellowship at UC-SB. That definitely rules. I still have yet to hear from the six remaining schools, though I've heard that UT-Austin has made decisions and that UKansas-Lawrence has just begun looking at apps. I'm hoping that by the end of February I'll know from everywhere and will have some choices.

Today was the Tonal Systems of Rock workshop at the Conversations in Music conference at UMich. Six groups of 2-3 graduate students presented analyses of many different pop songs. My group did Elliot Smith's "Pretty Mary K" from his album Figure 8 (2000). The three of us had very different approaches. Brian, a PhD candidate from CCM, presented a very Schenkerian approach, and discussed a large scale I-bIII-V-I progression throughout the piece. The bIII occurs in the large bridge/third rotation section that changes keys from D major to F major. Those of you Neo-Riemannians will note the PR relationship of those two key areas. Nate, a PhD candidate at UMich, talked about the S-T cadences and lack of dominant cadence types throughout the work, as well as the Ab/G# relationship that goes throughout the work. I took a less technical approach, discussing the vocal qualities and layering which played into the death/religious connotations of the work, in turn illuminating the plagal S-D cadences and the lack of dominant goal orientation. I also waxed all musicological-like, talking about possible song meanings, Elliot Smith's personal life, recording techniques and aesthetic associations of them, and the like.

I was in a tricky position because the session was let by Walt Everett, the head of the theory department at UMich. A program I am applying to. I did, however, talk to him for a few minutes about my application (he said he enjoyed my Morricone article) and about my continued research for my thesis. So that was good. I feel like I said some good things at this workshop, but I was definitely not as technically/analytically detailed as everyone else. Oh well.

Every other presentation--with the exception of the presentation on Radiohead's "Faust Arp"--contained a Schenker graph. When exactly did pop analysis begin to revolve around Schenker so much? I wonder what Schenker would think about popular and contemporary music being analyzed with his methods. He's probably rolled over so many times in his grave that the world's rotation has slowed.

I've decided to put up the transcription I helped work on for the workshop, as well as my time breakdown, on my portfolio site. I think I'll also put up my Morricone paper and my final version of the Final Fantasy IX paper. I also need to start working on my thesis! And my Scrubs paper. And I think my paper for G/A/M will be on Authenticity and Death. I'll focus primarily on Elliot Smith and Nick Drake, and maybe some other folk/pop/singer/songwriters that have committed suicide/died and how it helps authenticate/whatever their musical legacies. I like using slashes apparently.

Wow, that was a long post.