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Bryan Parkhurst

  • Associate Professor of Music Theory

Areas of Study

Education

  • BM, Rice University, 2007
  • MA in music theory, University of Michigan, 2012
  • MA in philosophy, University of Michigan, 2012
  • PhD in music theory and philosophy, University of Michigan, 2014
     

Biography

Bryan Parkhurst is a music theorist, musicologist, and philosopher. He studied these subjects at the University of Michigan, where he was the first person to earn a joint PhD in music and philosophy. He has written extensively on the connections between the history of philosophy and the history of music theory.

In addition to his scholarly work, Parkhurst is a professional harpist. As a child, he was one of the last students of the legendary pedagogue and 91直播 harp professor Alice Chalifoux. He went on to study harp with Joan Holland at the Interlochen Arts Academy and with Paula Page at Rice University. He also is an amateur accordion player.

Fall 2026

Aural Skills I 鈥 MUTH 101

Aural Skills III 鈥 MUTH 201

Proquest Distinguished Dissertation Award Finalist, University of Michigan (2014)

Emerging Scholar Award in the "Article" category, Society for Music Theory (2018), received for his article 鈥淢aking a Virtue of Necessity: Schenker and Kantian Teleology鈥 published by the Journal for Music Theory, Vol. 61 , Issue 1.

91直播 College & Conservatory 2021-22 Excellence in Teaching Award

  • Society for Music Theory
  • American Musicological Society
  • American Harp Society

  • 鈥淧itch, Tone, and Note,鈥 Oxford Handbook of Critical Terms in Music Theory (2018)
  • 鈥淏loch鈥檚 Hopes and Adorno鈥檚 Thorns,鈥 Theory and Practice (2018)
  • 鈥淎spects of Analysis,鈥 forthcoming, Music Theory and Analysis (2018)
  • Review of Nicholas Wolterstorff, Art Rethought, the Philosophical Review
  • 鈥淎 Hopeful Tone: Bloch, Music, and the Revolutionary Imagination,鈥 Oxford Handbook of Sound and Imagination (2018)
  • 鈥淥n Theorizing a 鈥楶roperly Marxist鈥 Musical Aesthetics鈥 International Review of the Aesthetics and Sociology of Music (June 2017), pp. 33-55.
  • 鈥淢aking a Virtue of Necessity: Schenker and Kantian Teleology,鈥 Journal of Music Theory, Volume 61, Issue 1 (November 2018), pp. 59-109.
  • Review essay on Kendall Walton, 鈥淚n Other Shoes,鈥 Journal of Music Theory, Vol. 60, No. 2 (October 2016), pp. 295-305.
  • 鈥淩eview: Robert Morgan, Becoming Heinrich Schenker: Music Theory and Ideology,鈥 Current Musicology (fall 2014), pp. 121-33
  • 鈥淔raught with Ought: An Outline of an Expressivist Music Theory,鈥 Music Theory Online Vol. 19 No. 3 (September 2013)
  • 鈥淧oetry as Panacea: Mill on the Moral Rewards of Aesthetic Experience,鈥 the Journal of Aesthetic Education Vol. 47 No. 2 (summer 2013), pp. 16-34
  • 鈥淭he First-Person Feeling Theory of Musical Expression,鈥 Postgraduate Journal of Aesthetics Vol. 9 No. 2 (spring 2012), pp. 14-27
  • 鈥淎 Beautiful Piece of Property: Toward a New Definition of Aesthetic Properties,鈥 American Society for Aesthetics Graduate E-Journal (winter 2011), pp. 1-13
  • 鈥淧rojecting Sound: A Theory of Musical Representation,鈥 Interdisciplinary Humanities Vol. 26 No. 2 (fall 2009) pp. 128-143

Notes

Theory Professor Bryan Parkhurst Co-editor and Contributor for New Book

A new book,  (Routledge), was released in July 2023 and edited by two University of Michigan alumni who studied with Professor Korsyn while completing graduate degrees鈥Bryan Parkhurst, associate professor of music theory and aural skills at 91直播, and Jeffrey Swinkin, associate professor of music theory at the University of Oklahoma School of Music. The volume consists of an introduction and interview with Korsyn and nine essays that pay tribute to Korsyn鈥檚 decades of scholarship by exploring a variety of topics important to Korsyn and the field. Parkhurst contributed to the introduction as well as the Chapter 8 essay, 鈥淐ompleting the Triad: Schenker and Kantian Practical Philosophy.鈥 The editors invitation to readers of the book鈥斺渁 kaleidoscopic array of perspectives鈥濃斺渨ill find provocative lines of inquiry, genuine musical and humanistic curiosity, and exploratory, nondogmatic approaches to and attitudes toward theorizing music鈥攃hallenges, not answers.鈥

Bryan Parkhurst included in award from the Society for Music Theory

Music theory professor Bryan Parkhurst has been included in the Society for Music Theory's (SMT) 2020 award for Outstanding Multi-Author Collection. This was given for , for which Parkhurst coauthored the lead chapter, "Pitch, Tone, and Note." In the citation for the award, SMT provided, "The eloquent essays gathered together in this volume reflect the unique insights of the contributors as well as the coalescence of a shared vision of its editors. With uniform excellence in depth and clarity, the essays demonstrate that, if we understand and teach these so-called fundamentals as immutable entities, we bypass essential disciplinary questions."

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