James K. Palmer
- Courses6
- Reviews6
- School: St. Olaf College
- Campus:
- Department: Music
- Email address: Join to see
- Phone: Join to see
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Location:
1520 St Olaf Ave
Northfield, MN - 55057 - Dates at St. Olaf College: January 2018 - May 2019
- Office Hours: Join to see
Biography
St. Olaf College - Music
Lecturer, University of British Columbia | Director of Content, Picardy Learning
Higher Education
James
Palmer
Canada
Lecturer, Music Theory | University of British Columbia
Director of Content | Picardy Learning
Online Materials Reviewer | W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
Professional Birding Guide
Experience
The University of British Columbia
Lecturer
I have instructed the following courses:
- Music Fundamentals Preparatory Course (for music majors: distance learning), Summer 2015
- Foundations of Music Theory, Aural and Keyboard Skills (for music majors), Fall 2016; Spring 2017
- Music Theory II, Spring 2016
- Music Theory III, Fall 2014
- Aural Skills IV, Spring 2016
The University of British Columbia
Lecturer
I am currently overhauling the 2nd-year core music theory curriculum.
Picardy Learning
Director of Content
James worked at Picardy Learning as a Director of Content
W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
Online Materials Reviewer
I am currently reviewing materials for online summative and formative assessments for two forthcoming textbooks: one Aural Skills text and one Music Theory text.
St. Olaf College
Visiting Assistant Professor
James worked at St. Olaf College as a Visiting Assistant Professor
Education
McGill University
Master's Degree
Music Theory
McGill University
Bachelor's Degree
Music, Performance (Clarinet) and Music Theory
Outstanding Graduate Teaching Award
Nominated for award by anonymous written recommendation of my student(s)Recruitment Excellence Fellowship
The University of British Columbia
Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
Music Theory
My doctoral dissertation discusses, and posits a theoretical apparatus for analyzing and understanding humour in Classical instrumental music. I address form-functional and topical mechanisms by which composers—primarily Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven—create humour in some of their instrumental works.Faculty of Arts Graduate Award
The University of British Columbia
Lecturer
I have instructed the following courses: - Music Fundamentals Preparatory Course (for music majors: distance learning), Summer 2015 - Foundations of Music Theory, Aural and Keyboard Skills (for music majors), Fall 2016; Spring 2017 - Music Theory II, Spring 2016 - Music Theory III, Fall 2014 - Aural Skills IV, Spring 2016The University of British Columbia
Lecturer
I am currently overhauling the 2nd-year core music theory curriculum.
Publications
Humorous Script Oppositions in Classical Instrumental Music
Music Theory Online
ABSTRACT: Most of us can recall chuckling, or even laughing out loud, at a humorous musical passage and perhaps recalling how much that experience increased our enjoyment of the music. This article focuses on musical humor in passages from instrumental works by Joseph Haydn, Michael Haydn, and Mozart. In the most general sense, musical humor arises when composers play with established conventions of musical discourse by writing something incongruous according to the stylistic context. I begin by briefly discussing the role of contrast in establishing musical humor in both historical and modern writings. I then introduce a strategy by which Classical composers created musical humor. I call this strategy “script opposition,” following linguistic theories of verbal humor. In my analytical discussion, I explain how “valence shifts” between implications of “high” and “low” create script oppositions, and demonstrate how these valence shifts are produced primarily by musical topics, but are bolstered by formal functions and cues in other musical parameters. My analytical and theoretical approach to musical humor draws on recent studies of musical topics, form, and communication in the Classical style, as well as concepts from recent linguistic theories of verbal humor.
Humorous Script Oppositions in Classical Instrumental Music
Music Theory Online
ABSTRACT: Most of us can recall chuckling, or even laughing out loud, at a humorous musical passage and perhaps recalling how much that experience increased our enjoyment of the music. This article focuses on musical humor in passages from instrumental works by Joseph Haydn, Michael Haydn, and Mozart. In the most general sense, musical humor arises when composers play with established conventions of musical discourse by writing something incongruous according to the stylistic context. I begin by briefly discussing the role of contrast in establishing musical humor in both historical and modern writings. I then introduce a strategy by which Classical composers created musical humor. I call this strategy “script opposition,” following linguistic theories of verbal humor. In my analytical discussion, I explain how “valence shifts” between implications of “high” and “low” create script oppositions, and demonstrate how these valence shifts are produced primarily by musical topics, but are bolstered by formal functions and cues in other musical parameters. My analytical and theoretical approach to musical humor draws on recent studies of musical topics, form, and communication in the Classical style, as well as concepts from recent linguistic theories of verbal humor.
Review of "Taking Flight: A History of Birds and People in the Heart of America" by Michael Edmonds
The Loon - Journal of the Minnesota Ornithologists' Union
This was a relatively short commissioned review I did of a wonderful academic book about how birds permeated Indigenous culture and European settlers of the American midwest.
Humorous Script Oppositions in Classical Instrumental Music
Music Theory Online
ABSTRACT: Most of us can recall chuckling, or even laughing out loud, at a humorous musical passage and perhaps recalling how much that experience increased our enjoyment of the music. This article focuses on musical humor in passages from instrumental works by Joseph Haydn, Michael Haydn, and Mozart. In the most general sense, musical humor arises when composers play with established conventions of musical discourse by writing something incongruous according to the stylistic context. I begin by briefly discussing the role of contrast in establishing musical humor in both historical and modern writings. I then introduce a strategy by which Classical composers created musical humor. I call this strategy “script opposition,” following linguistic theories of verbal humor. In my analytical discussion, I explain how “valence shifts” between implications of “high” and “low” create script oppositions, and demonstrate how these valence shifts are produced primarily by musical topics, but are bolstered by formal functions and cues in other musical parameters. My analytical and theoretical approach to musical humor draws on recent studies of musical topics, form, and communication in the Classical style, as well as concepts from recent linguistic theories of verbal humor.
Review of "Taking Flight: A History of Birds and People in the Heart of America" by Michael Edmonds
The Loon - Journal of the Minnesota Ornithologists' Union
This was a relatively short commissioned review I did of a wonderful academic book about how birds permeated Indigenous culture and European settlers of the American midwest.
End Games: Haydn’s and Beethoven's Play with Endings in their Op. 33 No. 2s
The Online Journal of the Haydn Society of North America
ABSTRACT Both Beethoven’s Bagatelle Op. 33 no. 2 and Haydn’s String Quartet Op. 33 no. 2 demonstrate playfulness far beyond the typical confines of eighteenth-century galant conventions. Although many scholars have addressed the conclusions to these works (Wheelock 1992, Levy 1995, Goeth 2013, Klorman 2013, Palmer 2015), no research has demonstrated how Beethoven’s practical joke is both indebted to, and distinct from Haydn’s famous gag. This article demonstrates how Beethoven’s “end game” is indebted to Haydn, but takes on a unique flavor in the hands of the budding romantic. In these two endings, both composers play practical jokes on their listeners who cannot know when the piece will end. In Haydn’s well-known string quartet, a series of pauses alternately create heightened anticipation for both the continuation of the entertainingly hackneyed rondo refrain and the quartet’s conclusion. From the beginning of Beethoven’s bagatelle, the downbeat is unclear. This metrically problematic opening measure creates a narrative of Beethovenian conflict, borne out in quasi-mechanical alternation between the left and right hands as the metric ambiguity, sown into the fabric of the opening motive, is repeatedly tugged until it unravels into an awkward, and ultimately unresolved, spat between the two hands. Both of these passages are excessive: they project a sense of redundancy and vacuity through the successive repetition of musical material that appears to have “gone on for too long” (Huron 2004, Sisman 1990, Palmer 2015). Haydn’s excessive passages (in this work and others) are often sudden and surprising: there are no conspicuous intraopus cues to suggest the manner or extent of the surprising and excessive conclusion yet to come. Beethoven’s excessive passage, on the contrary, presents a metrically ambiguous opening motive that returns often, introducing elements of increasing conflict and, eventually, absurdity into the unfolding intraopus narrative.
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