Music theorist presents free lecture on campus

Nicole Biamonte, associate professor of Music Theory at McGill University, lectures on “Interactions of Rhythm with Texture and Form in Popular Music” 4 p.m. Friday, Feb. 2, in Bliss Recital Hall on the campus of Youngstown State University.

The lecture, presented by the YSU Dana School of Music, is free and open to the public.

Biamonte earned a bachelor of Fine Arts degree in piano performance from the State University of New York at Purchase, and a PhD in Music Theory from Yale University. Among her publications are articles and book chapters on pitch structures, form, and meter and rhythm in popular music, exoticism in the music of Rush, musical representation in the video games Guitar Hero and Rock Band, and historicist aspects of 19th-century art music. She has recently completed a three-year term as editor of the journal Music Theory Online.

This lecture surveys recent research on rhythm and meter in pop-rock music as it relates to the different layers of the musical texture and to the different types and functions of formal song sections, and offers sample analyses drawn from Anglophone popular music from the mid- to late twentieth century that demonstrate various rhythmic functions.

Parking is available in the M30 Wick Avenue parking deck for a nominal fee. For more information, call 330-941-2307.