Deborah Burton Speaks At The 2010 Hartt Music Theory Forum 4/26

Deborah Burton, Assistant Professor of Music (Composition and Theory) at the College of Fine Arts at Boston University, gives a presentation entitled "Mozart and Musical Mad Men" for the 2010 Hartt Music Theory Forum on April 26, at 7:30 PM in Room 342 of the Fuller Music Center, on the University of Hartford campus. This event is free and open to the public. 
 
"Mozart and Musical Mad Men" will attempt to sort through several issues, using several examples of male operatic protagonists under duress, with a goal of working towards a theory of opera analysis.  Burton says,   "Mozart once wrote to his father that composers writing operas should not 'stick faithfully to our rules.'  His statement raises some fundamental questions for the opera analyst: How much do opera composers control the final result? Which musical "rules" does Mozart feel the composer is compelled to break? How can analysts even hope to discover coherence in works where rules are broken by design? Yet the music in opera is what Cone calls 'the controlling consciousness': the speed of every stage movement, the rhythm of every line of dialogue, the range of every vocal intonation or stress is influenced, if not out rightly determined, by the musical score."
 
Deborah Burton received her Diploma in piano performance from the Mannes College of Music, Master of Music in piano performance from the Yale School of Music, and Ph.D. in music theory from the University of Michigan.  She has taught at Harvard University, University of Massachusetts at Amherst, University of Michigan, and Yale University.  Her research concerns opera analysis, counterpoint, and the history of music theory emphasizing Italian sources.  She was president of the New England Conference for Music Theory from 2006 to 2008 and currently is a Junior Fellow of the Boston University Humanities Foundation. 
 
Burton is co-editor of Tosca's Prism:  Three Moments of Western Cultural History (Northeastern University Press, 2004) and has published articles in Theoria, Studi Musicali, Nuova Rivista Musicale Italiana, and Opera Quarterly.  She currently is writing a monograph entitled Recondite Harmony:  The Music of Puccini and is working with the Metropolitan Opera and the Italian Consulate to organize a centennial celebration for Puccini's La fanciulla del West in December 2010.
 
The Hartt Music Theory Forum was established in 1988 by the Hartt Music Theory Department to bring distinguished musicians to The Hartt School to present their music theoretical ideas for students, faculty, and the general public.
 
The Hartt School is the comprehensive performing arts conservatory of the University of Hartford that offers innovative degree programs in music, dance, and theatre. With more than 400 concerts, recitals, plays, master classes, dance performances, and musical theatre productions a year, performance is central to Hartt's curriculum. For more information on The Hartt School, visit www.hartford.edu/hartt.

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