John Brackett
Assistant Professor - Music Theory
DGH 408
john.brackett@utah.edu
801.581.7813
Dr. Brackett joined the faculty of the School of Music in 2004 after completing his PhD in Musicology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where his primary teachers were Severine Neff and John Covach. During his time at the school of music, Professor Brackett has acted as the coordinator of the music theory/ear-training area.
Professor Brackett's research interests include the music of the seminal American composer John Zorn (his book John Zorn: Tradition and Transgression will be published by Indiana University Press in 2009 - a slightly different version of what will be chapter 1 can be found here (Warning - contains concepts/ideas that might be offensive to some viewers!!!)), contemporary musical practices associated with New York's "Downtown" scene, the musical thought of Arnold Schoenberg, early twelve-tone composition, and various aspects of popular music (see his essay on Led Zeppelin in the journal Popular Music) In addition to these and other publications, Professor Brackett has presented papers at numerous regional and national conferences.
Professor Brackett is a a member of the Society for Music Theory, Society for American Music, and the American Musicological Society.
Selected Publications/Presentations
John Zorn: Tradition and Transgression. Indiana University Press. Expected Spring 2009.
“From the Fantastic to the Dangerously Real: Reading John Zorn’s Artwork,” Forthcoming. echo: a music-centered journal. Vol. VIII/I (Expected Winter 2007/Spring 2008).
“Examining Rhythmic and Metric Practices in Led Zeppelin’s Style,” Popular Music, Vol. 27, no. 1 (January 2008): 53-76.
“Schoenberg, Unfolding, and ‘Composing With Twelve Tones’: A Case Study (Op. 25/I).” Forthcoming. International Journal of Musicology, Vol. 11 (expected 2008).
“Appropriation and Transformation: Compositional Strategies in John Zorn’s Recent Concert Music”: 2008 (spring) Annual Meeting of the Society for American Music. San Antonio, Texas.
“Change Has Come?: Chronicling the ‘Crisis” on New York’s Lower East Side,” Prepared Talk as part of “Crisis In New Music? Vanishing Venues and the Future of Experimentalism in New York City”: 2007 (fall) Roundtable Co-Organized with Tamar Barzel (Wellesley College) and Marc Ribot, 2007 Guelph Jazz Festival and Colloquium. University of Guelph, Guelph, Canada.
“Magick and Mysticism in John Zorn’s Recent Music”: 2006 (spring) Joint Meeting of the Rocky Mountain Chapter of the American Musicological Society, the Southwest Chapter of the Society for Ethnomusicology, and the Rocky Mountain Chapter of the Society for Music Theory. University of Denver, Denver, Colorado.
“The Value of Bootleg Recordings in Popular Music Research” (with Andy Flory): 2004 (fall) annual conference of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music-United States, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia.
“The Wall Cycle”: The Concept Album Trilogy of Pink Floyd and Roger Waters”: 2003 (fall) annual conference of the Society for Music Theory, Madison, Wisconsin.
“Aspects of Rhythm and Meter in the Music of Led Zeppelin”: 2001 (fall) annual conference of the Society for Music Theory, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
“Schoenberg, Unfolding, and ‘Composing With Twelve Tones’: A Case Study (Op. 25/I)”: 2001 (spring) annual conference of the Southeast Chapter of the Society for Music Theory, Greenville, South Carolina.