robert hasegawa
associate professor of music theory, william dawson scholar
schulich school of music of mcgill university
555, rue sherbrooke ouest
montréal (québec) h3a 1e3
robert.hasegawa@mcgill.ca






publications

Books

The Oxford Handbook of Orchestration Studies.
Edited volume with co-editors Julie Delisle, Jason Noble, and Moe Touizrar. Under contract with Oxford University Press, forthcoming in 2025.

Book chapters

“Timbre and Orchestration in Two Works by Rebecca Saunders for Soloist and Ensemble.”
Forthcoming in The Oxford Handbook of Orchestration Studies, Oxford University Press (2025).

“Toru Takemitsu’s Itinerant for solo flute.”
Forthcoming in Modeling Musical Analysis, ed. Kimberly Loeffert and John Peterson, Oxford University Press (2024). PDF

“Creating with Constraints.”
In The Oxford Handbook of the Creative Process in Music, ed. Nicolas Donin (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2022). PDF

“Timbre as Harmony—Harmony as Timbre.”
In The Oxford Handbook of Timbre, ed. Emily Dolan and Alexander Rehding (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021). PDF

“Constraint Systems in Brian Ferneyhough’s Third String Quartet.”
In Text and Beyond: The Process of Music Composition from the 19th to the 20th Century, ed. Jonathan Goldman (Bologna: Ut Orpheus Edizioni, 2016), 271–88. Ad Parnassum Studies, general editor Luca Lévi Sala, 8. PDF

“L’intonation juste, un renouveau esthétique et théorique.” (“Just intonation: An aesthetic and theoretical renewal.”)
In Théories de la composition musicale au XXe siècle, ed. Nicolas Donin and Laurent Feneyrou (Lyon: Symétrie, 2013), 1499–1531. Translated by Gilles Rico. PDF(EN)

“Coherence and Incoherence in Xenakis’s Embellie.
In Xenakis Matters, ed. Sharon Kanach (Hillsdale, NY: Pendragon Press, 2012), 231–43. PDF

Journal special issues—refereed

Twenty-First-Century Composers on Poetics and Politics.
Special issue of Twentieth-Century Music with co-editors Marie-Hélène Benoit-Otis and Luis Velasco-Pufleau. Under review (June 2024).

Issue co-editor (with Paul Bazin): Les voies de la pansonoriteé : La microtonalité d’hier à aujourd’hui.
Special issue of Circuit : musiques contemporaines 29/2 (September 2019). www.erudit.org/en/journals/circuit/2019-v29-n2-circuit04806/

Issue editor: The Music of James Tenney.
Special issue of Contemporary Music Review 27/1 (February 2008). www.tandfonline.com/toc/gcmr20/27/1

Journal articles—refereed

“Introduction: Sciarrino’s Novel Forms.”
Music Theory Online 29/4 (2023). https://mtosmt.org/issues/mto.23.29.4/mto.23.29.4.hasegawa.html

“Composing with Hybrid Microtonalities.”
Živá hudba: Review for the Study of Music and Dance 11 (2021), 112–126. ziva-hudba.info/hybrid-microtonalities/

Paul Bazin and Robert Hasegawa. “Introduction. Les voies de la pansonorité.”
Circuit : musiques contemporaines 29/2 (September 2019), 7–10. id.erudit.org/iderudit/1062563ar

Cecilia Taher, Robert Hasegawa, and Stephen McAdams. “Effects of musical context on the recognition of musical motives during listening.”
Music Perception 36/1 (September 2018), 77–97. doi.org/10.1525/mp.2018.36.1.77

“Clashing Harmonic Systems in Haas’s Blumenstück and in vain.
Music Theory Spectrum 37/2 (Fall 2015), 204–23. Received the Society for Music Theory’s Emerging Scholar Award, 2016. PDF, doi.org/10.1093/mts/mtv014

“New Approaches to Tonal Theory.”
Review-article on Steven Rings, Tonality and Transformation (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011) and Dmitri Tymoczko, A Geometry of Music (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011). Music & Letters 93/4 (2013), 574–93. PDF, doi.org/10.1093/ml/gcs077

Gegenstrebige Harmonik in the Music of Hans Zender.”
Perspectives of New Music 49/1–2 (2011), 207–34. PDF, doi.org/10.7757/persnewmusi.49.1.0207

“Gérard Grisey and the ‘Nature’ of Harmony.”
Music Analysis 28/2–3 (2009), 349–70. PDF, doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2249.2011.00294.x

“Tone Representation and Just Intervals in Contemporary Music.”
Contemporary Music Review 25/3 (June 2006), 263–81. PDF, doi.org/10.1080/07494460600726529

Journal articles—non-refereed

“Introduction: ‘Sound for the Sake of Perceptual Insight’.”
Contemporary Music Review 27/1 (February 2008), 1–5. PDF, doi.org/10.1080/07494460701671491

“Aux États-Unis, des voies parallèles au spectralisme.” (“Parallels to Spectralism in the United States.”)
L’Etincelle: Le Journal de la création à l’IRCAM 1/1 (November 2006), 4–7. Translated by Jean-François Cornu. PDF(EN)

Encyclopedia entries

“Pascale Criton: Parcours de l’oeuvre.”
Article in IRCAM’s BRAHMS: base de documentation sur la musique contemporaine, forthcoming (2024).

“James Tenney: Parcours de l’oeuvre.”
Article in IRCAM’s BRAHMS: base de documentation sur la musique contemporaine, forthcoming (2024).

“James Tenney” and “Just Intonation.”
Subject entries in the Routledge Encyclopedia of Modernism, ed. Stephen Ross, 2016.

“Harry Partch: Parcours de l’oeuvre.”
Article in IRCAM’s BRAHMS: base de documentation sur la musique contemporaine, 2015. Also contributed biography and worklist. Translated by Jean-Michel Magniez. PDF(EN), brahms.ircam.fr/harry-partch#parcours

“Georg Friedrich Haas: Parcours de l’oeuvre.”
Article in IRCAM’s BRAHMS: base de documentation sur la musique contemporaine, 2014 (updated 2021). Translated by Gilles Rico. PDF(EN), brahms.ircam.fr/georg-friedrich-haas#parcours

“Atonality, §4: Theoretical issues.” Co-authored with David Headlam.
Grove Music Online, 2013. Also updated bibliographies for articles “Atonality” and “Twelve-Note Composition.”

Reviews

Review of Christian Utz, Musical Composition in the Context of Globalization: New Perspectives on Music History of the 20th and 21st Century.
Circuit : musiques contemporaines 32/1 (2022), 114–18. id.erudit.org/iderudit/1088790ar

Review of Un siècle d’écrits réflexifs sur la composition musicale : Anthologie d’auto-analyses de Janáček à nos jours, ed. Nicolas Donin.
Circuit : musiques contemporaines 31/1 (2021), 83–87. id.erudit.org/iderudit/1076407ar

“Explorations of Equal-Tempered Microtonality.”
Review-article on Julia Werntz, Steps to the Sea: Ear Training and Composing in a Minute Equal Temperament (Frog Peak Music, 2014) and Ivan Wyschnegradsky, Manual of Quarter-Tone Harmony, edited by Noah Kaplan and translated by Rosalie Kaplan (Underwolf, 2017). Circuit : musiques contemporaines 29/2 (September 2019), 99–102. id.erudit.org/iderudit/1062570ar

Conference report: Spectralisms 2019.
Živá hudba 10 (2019), 189–192. ziva-hudba.info/conference-report-spectralisms-2019/

Review of James Tenney, From Scratch: Writings in Music Theory, ed. Larry Polansky, Lauren Pratt, Robert Wannamaker, and Michael Winter.
Computer Music Journal 40/3 (Fall 2016), 83–86. PDF, muse.jhu.edu/article/643665

Review of György Ligeti: Of foreign lands and strange sounds, ed. Louise Duchesneau and Wolfgang Marx.
Circuit : musiques contemporaines 23/2 (2013), 79–83. id.erudit.org/iderudit/1018451ar

Translations

“Scelsi, de-composer,” translation of an article by Tristan Murail.
Contemporary Music Review 24/2–3 (April/June 2005), 173–80. doi.org/10.1080/07494460500154822

“Scelsi and L’Itinéraire: The Exploration of Sound,” translation of an article by Tristan Murail.
Contemporary Music Review 24/2–3 (April/June 2005), 181–85. doi.org/10.1080/07494460500154830

Other publications

CD notes: Tristan Murail, Portulan.
Kairos, 2019. PDF

CD notes: Joshua Fineberg, Sonic Fictions.
Divine Art/Métier, 2018. PDF

“Just Intervals and Tone Representation in Contemporary Music.”
PhD dissertation, Harvard University, 2008. PDF

CD notes: Joshua Fineberg, Empreintes, Veils, and Shards.
Mode Records, 2007. PDF






research presentations

Conference papers—refereed

“Compositional Resources of a Hybrid Seven-Note Microtonal Scale.”
Presentation at Microtonal Village (New York, 19–22 September 2024).

“Timbral Segmentation and Association in Works by Rebecca Saunders for Soloist and Ensemble.”
Presentation at the biennial meeting of IMSEA: International Musicological Society, East Asia (Jeonbuk National University, Jeonju, South Korea, 21 October 2022).

“Documenting Composer-Performer Collaborations on Orchestrational Problem Solving.”
Presentation at the Nova Contemporary Music Meeting 2021: Music Performance as Creation with co-authors Yuval Adler and Joshua Rosner (Lisbon, 7 May 2021).

“Response to Li, Utz, and Boyle.”
Presentation at the annual meeting of the Society for Music Theory, special session: “Salvatore Sciarrino's Novel Forms: Organic Ideals and Multilinear Temporalities” (Minneapolis/online, 8 November 2020).

“Compositional constraints and creative process in solo works by George Benjamin.”
Presentation at the conference “Tracking the Creative Process in Music”s (Nova University FCSH, Lisbon, 10 October 2019).

“Timbre, interference effects, and room acoustics in Pascale Criton’s Wander Steps.
Presentation in panel “Interdisciplinary Studies in Orchestration and Timbre: The ACTOR Project” (special session), Society for Music Perception and Cognition Annual Meeting 2019 (New York, 5 August 2019).

“Open form and performance networks in Luciano Berio’s Laborintus II.
Presentation at the 20th Congress of the International Musicological Society (Tokyo, 23 March 2017). Recipient of a Paper Presentation Grant from McGill’s Office of the Vice-Principal (Research and International Relations).

“Rhythm and repetition in Grisey’s Vortex Temporum.
Presentation at the conference “Gérard Grisey, the spectral moment, and its legacy” (Montreal, 21 October 2014), the annual meeting of the Society for Music Theory (St. Louis, 30 October 2015), and the NOVA Contemporary Music Meeting (Lisbon, 22 November 2018).

“‘Production of Presence’ in Liza Lim’s Invisibility.
Presentation at the annual meeting of the American Musicological Society (Milwaukee, 9 November 2014).

“Register, Root, and Voicing in Post-Tonal Harmony.”
Invited lecture at the University of Chicago (22 November 2013), the Eastman School of Music (6 December 2013), and the University of Toronto (17 February 2022). Presentation at the annual meeting of the Music Theory Society of New York State (New York University, 6 April 2014).

“Constraint Systems in Brian Ferneyhough’s Third String Quartet.”
Presentation at the conference “Tracking the Creative Process in Music” (McGill and Université de Montréal, 10 October 2013). Revised version published in Text and Beyond: The Process of Music Composition from the 19th to the 20th Century (see under Book chapters).

“Clashing Harmonic Systems in Haas’s Blumenstück and in vain.
Presentation at the annual meeting of the Music Theory Society of New York State (Stony Brook University, 6 April 2013) and at Composition in the Twenty-First Century (Trinity College Dublin, 6 March 2014). Recipient of a Paper Presentation Grant from McGill’s Office of the Vice-Principal (Research and International Relations). Revised version published in Music Theory Spectrum (see under Journal articles—refereed).

“Strange Attractors: Chaotic Form in Tristan Murail’s Attracteurs étranges.
Presentation at the annual meeting of the Music Theory Society of New York State (Hunter College, 31 March 2012).

“‘Le vertige de la durée pure’: Time and Harmony in Gérard Grisey’s Vortex Temporum.
Presentation at “Inharmonic/(X)enharmonic: A Conference and Concert Celebrating Microtonal Music” (Columbia University, New York, 17 December 2011 and the annual meeting of the New England Conference of Music Theorists (Connecticut College, 20 April 2012).

“An Acoustic Model for Chord Voicings in Post-Tonal Music.”
Poster presentation at the biennial meeting of the Society for Music Perception and Cognition (Eastman School of Music, 11 August 2011).

Gegenstrebige Harmonik in the Music of Hans Zender.”
Presentation at the annual meetings of the Music Theory Society of New York State (University at Buffalo, 9 April 2011) and the New England Conference of Music Theorists (Brandeis University, 15 April 2011). Revised version published in Perspectives of New Music (see under Journal articles—refereed).

“Combination-Tone Harmony.”
Poster presentation at the annual meeting of the Society of Music Theory and American Musicological Society (Indianapolis, 5 November 2010).

“Coherence and Incoherence in Xenakis’s Embellie.
Presentation at the conference “Xenakis: Arts/Sciences” (McGill University, 1 October 2010). Revised version published in Xenakis Matters (see under Book chapters).

“Gérard Grisey and the ‘Nature’ of Harmony.”
Presentation at the annual meeting of the Society for Music Theory (Baltimore, 17 November 2007). Recipient of the Music Analysis 25th Anniversary Competition Award. Revised version published in Music Analysis (see under Journal articles—refereed).

“Interval as Ratio in Contemporary Music: James Tenney’s ‘Harmonic Space’.”
Presentation at the annual meeting of the New England Conference of Music Theorists (Tufts University, 24 March 2007).

Colloquia, symposia, and lectures—invited

“Timbre and Orchestration in Two Works by Rebecca Saunders for Soloist and Ensemble.”
Invited lecture, Oxford Seminar in Music Theory and Analysis (Oxford University Faculty of Music and online, 14 May 2024).

“Georgia Spiropoulos’s Roll...n’Roll...n’Roll.
Invited workshop presentation at Instruments, Interfaces, Infrastructures: An Interdisciplinary Conference on Musical Media (Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, 11–13 May 2023).

“Temperament in Contemporary Microtonal Music.”
Invited keynote presentation at Institut mikrointervalové hudby 2023 / MicroFest Prague 2023 (HAMU, Prague, 29 April 2023).

Workshop: Diversity and Inclusion in the Pedagogy of Contemporary Music Analysis.
Invited presentation at the Annual Meeting of the Society for Music Theory, Analysis of Post-1945 Music Interest Group (online, 4 November 2021).

“Analysis Workshop: Georgia Spiropoulos’s Roll...n’Roll...n’Roll.
Invited presentation at the conference “Dialogues: Performance and Analysis” (University of Toronto, 8 October 2021).

Panelist and co-organizer, “Diversity in Post-Tonal Theory Pedagogy.”
Invited presentation at Eastman School of Music Theory Colloquium (online, 19 February 2021).

“Compositional constraints and creative process in solo works by George Benjamin.”
Invited presentations at Eastman School of Music Theory Colloquium (11 December 2020) and at Yonsei University (Seoul, South Korea, 17 October 2022).

“Composing with Hybrid Microtonalities.”
Invited keynote presentation at Institut mikrointervalové hudby 2020 / MicroFest Prague 2020, October 2020. Online event hosted by the Music and Dance Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (16 October 2020). Presentation for McGill Association of Student Composers (Montreal, 12 November 2020).

“Three pillars of ACTOR: Analytical/Creative.”
Invited presentation with Stephen McAdams and Philippe Esling at “L’orchestration et le projet ACTOR,” (Institut de Coordination Acoustique/Musique [IRCAM], Paris, 22 June 2019). https://medias.ircam.fr/xb3e554.

Analysis/Performance Workshop on Pascale Criton’s Wander Steps (2017–18) for two microtonal accordions.
With Fanny Vicens and Jean-Etienne Sotty (Duo XAMP) and Pascale Criton. Spectralisms 2019 (IRCAM, Paris, 13 June 2019).

“Demystifying Contemporary Music.”
Keynote addresses at the annual meeting of the Music Theory Society of New York State (The College of Saint Rose, Albany, NY, 6 April 2019) and at the annual meeting of the Music Theory Society of the Mid-Atlantic (online, 29 July 2022). Also presented at the research centre CITAR (Centro de Investigação em Ciência e Tecnologia das Artes), Universidade Católica Portuguesa (Porto, 28 November 2018).

“Composing with Constraints.”
Lecture presented at CITAR (Centro de Investigação em Ciência e Tecnologia das Artes), Universidade Católica Portuguesa (Porto, 26 November 2018).

Melbourne Music Analysis Summer School.
Lecture series (seven 90-minute talks) on transformational theory and spectral music (University of Melbourne/Medley Hall, 20–24 November 2017).

“Echo and Transformation in New Music.”
Presentation on George Benjamin’s Shadowlines with live performers (Zhenni Lee and Christopher Goddard) for the Schulich School of Music’s Research Alive! series (McGill University, 1 February 2017). YouTube

“Intersections between harmony and timbre in contemporary music.”
Presentation at the Interdisciplinary Workshop on Timbre (Musikinstrumenten-Museum Berlin, 13 January 2017).

“Hybridizing musical genres and practices.”
Roundtable chair, CIRMMT workshop “John Zorn: At the Crossroads of Musical Genres” (McGill University, 22 January 2016).

“Timbre as Harmony—Harmony as Timbre.”
Keynote address at “Fostering New Music and Its Audiences: The Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition 30th Anniversary Conference” (University of Louisville, 6–7 March 2015) and presentations at the Radcliffe Institute exploratory workshop “Making Sense of Timbre” (Harvard University, 14–15 May 2015) and for the Korean Society for Music Theory (Yonsei University, 19 October 2022). Revised version in The Oxford Handbook of Timbre (see under Book chapters).

“Temperament in Contemporary Microtonal Music.”
Presentation at Beyond: Microtonal Music Festival (University of Pittsburgh, 27 February 2015).

“Temperament and the corps sonore: Rameau’s theories and recent compositional practice.”
Presentation at “Le Savant et le praticien: Théoriser la composition de Rameau à nos jours,” conference organized by IRCAM and the Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles (IRCAM, Paris, 14 November 2014).

“Mathematics and Music Theory.”
Presentation at Rochester Institute of Technology, Summer Mathematics Institute (1 July 2010).

Organization of conferences and colloquia

Spatialization, Orchestration, Perception: IRCAM Forum Workshops hors les murs
Montreal/online, 4–6 and 11–12 February 2021. Funded by a SSHRC Connection Grant.

International Conference on Mixed Music Pedagogy 2018 (ICOMMP-2018)
Montreal, 9–19 November 2018. Funded by a SSHRC Connection Grant.

Gérard Grisey, the Spectral Moment, and Its Legacy
McGill University and Université de Montréal, 19–21 October 2014. Funded by a SSHRC Connection Grant.






selected compositions

Kogarashi Variations (2021) for cello and piano
Performed by Duo Kogarashi (Sahara von Hattenberger, cello and Mayu Funaba, piano). Featured in A Short Film in Three Parts by director Huei Lin. YouTube

Ajax is all about attack 2 (2019) for alto saxophone and percussion
Performed by the Arête Duo (Douglas O’Connor and Jacob Harpster), Kennedy Center Millenium Stage, Washington, DC, 25 August 2019. PDF score, YouTube

Spiral (2008) for solo violin and ensemble
Performed by Gabriela Diaz and the White Rabbit Ensemble with Eric Hewitt, conductor. PDF score, SoundCloud

Chaconne for James Tenney (2007) for octet
Performed by the White Rabbit Ensemble with Eric Hewitt, conductor. PDF score, SoundCloud

it is our tribe's custom to beguile (2003) for flute, bass clarinet, violin and cello
Performed by Susan Gall, William Kirkley, Ben Schwartz and Sue-Ying Koang with Stephen Drury, conductor. PDF score, SoundCloud

Cantilena (2004) for solo cello
Performed by Frances-Marie Uitti. PDF score, SoundCloud

Ajax is all about attack (2003) for soprano saxophone and percussion
Performed by the Yesaroun' Duo (Eric Hewitt and Sam Solomon). PDF score, SoundCloud

Due Corde (2002) for two retuned pianos in 19-tone equal temperament
Performed by Stephen Drury and Yukiko Takagi. PDF score, SoundCloud

the clear architecture of the nerves (2000) for horn with piano resonator
Performed by Daniel Costello, Institut mikrointervalové hudby 2020 / MicroFest Prague 2020, 16–17 October 2020. PDF score, YouTube
Performed by James Somerville (principal horn, Boston Symphony Orchestra), Harvard Musical Association, 19 February 2021. YouTube

Prelude and Fantasy (2000) for string quartet
Performed by Ben Russell, Adda Kridler, Wendy Richman and Ben Schwartz. PDF score, SoundCloud






updated 3 June 2024
all content © Robert Hasegawa
robert.hasegawa@mcgill.ca