Why does music theory and analysis today feel so separate from performance? with Dr. Stephen Rodgers
Dr. Stephen Rodgers is Professor of Music Theory and Musicianship at the University of Oregon School of Music and Dance, where he has been teaching since 2005. He writes about the relationship between music and poetry, focusing especially on German Lieder. His edited collection, The Songs of Fanny Hensel, is forthcoming from Oxford University Press, and he is currently working on a book about Clara Schumann’s songs and another about song and the musical aspects of poetry. Rodgers’s work extends beyond academia as well. He regularly gives pre-concert lectures for the Oregon Bach Festival and other local performing arts organizations, and he has performed several lecture-recitals throughout the United States. An Iowa native, he received his B.A. in Music and English from Lawrence University and his Ph.D. in music theory from Yale University. The Question of the Week is, "Why does music theory and analysis today feel so separate from performance?" Dr. Rodgers and I discuss the ever-widening chasm between theory and performance, how music education may not encourage students to prioritize analysis and theory in there performances, how his time as a Professor of Music Theory has informed his own musicality and performance, and the tools of musical analysis that he believes are important.