John Muniz, Associate Professor of Music Theory at the University of Arizona
Monday July 17, 2023,
2:30-3:30 pm
ASA Koffler Great Room and Zoom
Join John Muniz for his second presentation about classical music at Academy Village as he helps us learn how to listen to and appreciate atonal music.
Atonal music is a paradox: despite having been widely performed for more than 100 years, it still strikes many listeners as deeply unfamiliar or even unmusical. Its often jagged melodies, dissonant harmonies, and lack of an orienting key challenge us to radically expand our notions of what is melodious, harmonious, and beautiful in music. Atonal music can be all of these; we just have to know how to listen. John Muniz shows that order and beauty lie hidden within atonal music, and that even its chaos—when heard correctly—can be sublime.
John Muniz joined the University of Arizona music theory faculty in 2015, after completing a PhD at Yale University. Earlier, he earned a MM degree from Boston University in Composition. He has published articles and given talks internationally, such as “Rhythmic Processes in Schoenberg’s Pierrot lunaire,” and “Transformation at the Margins of Tonality: Scriabin’s Piano Sonata, Op. 64.” He is an active composer whose works are frequently premiered in Tucson and elsewhere.
Compiled and edited by Rosemary Brown, Academy Village Volunteer
You can connect to Zoom either by using the following URL: https://zoom.us/j/95456511620?pwd=OC9GcnJRNmJpMTdXdXFhaUpCUkx4QT09 or by opening a browser to zoom.com/join and typing in Meeting ID: 954 5651 1620 and Passcode: 85747