Published on The Department of Music at Columbia University (http://music.columbia.edu)
Lerdahl, Fred

About Me
Position/Title:
Fritz Reiner Professor of Musical Composition
MFA composition (Princeton 1967)

Fred Lerdahl taught at the University of California, Berkeley and Harvard University, at Columbia from 1979-85, and subsequently at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, before returning to Columbia in 1991.

He has received the Koussevitzky Composition Prize (1966), a Guggenheim Fellowship (1974-75), two awards from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters (1971, 1988), an NEH Fellowship (1991), and other awards, and many commissions for compositions.

Academic Background
Degrees:
BMus composition/piano (Lawrence University 1965)
Selected Publications:

A Generative Theory of Tonal Music. [with Ray Jackendoff] Cambridge, MA: MIT Press (1983).

Tonal Pitch Space. New York: Oxford University Press (2001).

"Spatial and Psychoacoustic Factors in Atonal Prolongation." Current Musicology 63 (1997).

"Calculating Tonal Tension." Music Perception 13.3, 319-363 (1996).

"Perception of Musical Tension in Short Chord Sequences: The Influence of Harmonic Function, Sensory Dissonance, Horizontal Motion, and Musical Training." [with Emmanuel Bigand and Richard Parncutt] Perception & Psychophysics 58 (1996).

"Tonal and Narrative Paths in Parsifal." In Musical Transformation and Musical Intuition: Essays in Honor of David Lewin. Roxbury: Ovenbird Press (1994).

"Octatonic and Hexatonic Pitch Space." Proceedings of the International Conference for Music Perceptions and Cognition (1994).

Selected Compositions:
*Quiet Music (1994) for orchestra
*Without Fanfare (1994) for winds and percussion
* Marches (1992) for chamber ensemble
* Waves (1988) for chamber ensemble: CD DGG 435389-2
* Cross-Currents (1987) for orchestra
* Fantasy Etudes (1985) for chamber ensemble: CD CRI CD580
* Episodes and Refrains (1982) for wind quintet
* Waltzes (1981) for violin, viola, 'cello and double bass: CD CRI CD580
* Second String Quartet (1982)
* First String Quartet (1978): CD CRI CD551
* Eros (1975) for mezzo-soprano and chamber ensemble: CD CRI CD580
* Wake (1968) for soprano and chamber ensemble: CD CRI CD580

Contact Information
Office:
TBA

Source URL: http://music.columbia.edu/people/bios/lerdahl-fred