Quick Facts
Biography
Roger Mathew Grant is a Theorist of music specializing in the eighteenth century. He also works as a dramaturge, for example with Canadian filmmaker Bruce LaBruce on a film version of Arnold Schoenburg's "Pierrot Lunaire." Grant teaches at Wesleyan University.
Work
About his book from 2016, Choice magazine said: ""With this book, Grant (Wesleyan Univ.) sets groundwork for resolving the longstanding division in music theory between 'music perception' and the 'history of theory,' and he does so in ways music scholars at all levels should note. Essential."
According to a recent interview, Grant believes that "during the eighteenth century, debates within musical aesthetics re-scripted the role that performing musicians play in the creation and communication of affect."
Publications
- Beating Time and Measuring Music in the Early Modern Era (Oxford Studies in Music Theory Series, Oxford University Press, 2014).
- “Peculiar Attunements: Comic Opera and Enlightenment Mimesis.” In Critical Inquiry 43/2, “Comedy” ed. Lauren Berlant and Sianne Ngai (2017): 550–569.
- “Ad infinitum: Numbers and Series in Early Modern Music Theory.” In Music Theory Spectrum 35/1 (2013): 62–76.
- “Hysteria at the Musical Surface." In Music Theory Online 14/1 (2008).
Awards
- Emerging Scholar Award (Book), Society for Music Theory (2016), for Beating Time and Measuring Music in the Early Modern Era
- Stanford Humanities Center, External Faculty Fellowship (2016–2017)
Projects
The Magic Flute, installation at 80 Washington Square East Gallery, NYU Dramaturgy and performance; collaboration with Jonathan Berger, Susanne Sachsse, Vaginal Davis, and Jamie Stewart (December 2015; June–August 2016).
Pierrot Lunaire (2014), a film by Bruce LaBruce Music Producer and Supervisor Winner, Teddy Jury Award, Berlinale International Film Festival (2014)