Peter Silberman

Associate Professor and Chair, Music Theory, History Composition
School: School of Music, Theatre, and Dance
Phone: 607-274-1496
Office: James J Whalen Ctr for Music 2207, Ithaca, NY 14850
Specialty: Music Theory

Chair (2022-25), Department of Theory, History, and Composition

B.M. in French horn performance and music theory, Oberlin Conservatory.  M.A. and Ph.D. in music theory, Eastman School of Music.

Coordinator of electives (includes music theory fundamentals) at Ithaca College’s Summer Music Academy.

Articles and reviews in the Journal of Popular Music EducationCollege Music SymposiumGamut, the Journal of Music Theory Pedagogy, Music Theory Online, The Horn Call, and the anthologies Routledge Companion to Popular Music Analysis:  Expanding Approaches and  Musical Currents from the Left Coast.  Presentations at meetings of the Society for Music Theory, Music Theory Society of New York State, New England Conference of Music Theorists, West Coast Conference of Music Theory and Analysis, Music Theory Midwest, Music Theory Southeast, South Central Society for Music Theory, International Horn Society, Northeast Chapter of the College Music Society, Great Lakes Chapter of the College Music Society, and Pedagogy Into Practice:  Teaching Music Theory in the Twenty-First Century.

Research interests include theory and analysis of twentieth-century tonal music, analysis of popular music, and music theory pedagogy.

Vice President of the Music Theory Society of New York State and formerly treasurer and board member.

Former faculty member, University of Rochester, Oberlin Conservatory, Baldwin-Wallace Conservatory, and Keuka College.

Selected publications:

Review of The Musical Language of Rock by David Temperley. Journal of Popular Music Education, 3/1 (2019): 157-161.

“Form and Time in Trout Mask Replica.” In Ciro Scotto, Kenneth Smith, and John Brackett, eds.The Routledge Companion to Popular Music Analysis: Expanding Approaches. Abingdon, U.K.: Routledge, 2018: 315-331.

“New From Norton:  Two Undergraduate Theory Textbooks.” (Review) College Music Symposium 56 (2016).

“John Harbison’s Use of Music of the Past in Three Selected Compositions.” Gamut: Online Journal of the Music Theory Society of the Mid-Atlantic, 6/1 (2013): 143-192.

“Teaching Classic Era Style Through Keyboard Accompaniment.”Journal of Music Theory Pedagogy, 26 (2012): 141-188.

“Analyzing Tonal Embellishment in Post-Tonal Music.” In Jack Boss and Bruce Quaglia, eds. Musical Currents from the Left Coast. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholar’s Publishing, 2008: 155-173.

“Brahms’s Use of the Hand Horn in the Trio, Op. 40.” The Horn Call 38/2 (2008): 49-53.

“Post-Tonal Improvisation in the Aural Skills Classroom.” Music Theory Online 9/2 (2003).