Theory & Composition News

We are very pleased to welcome Dr. Dylan Principi, who joined the FSU faculty in Fall 2024 as Assistant Professor of Music Theory. Principi previously taught at Wesleyan University, Temple University, The College of New Jersey, and Princeton University, where he completed his Ph.D. in 2022. His research focuses on how the intellectual history of music has been shaped by called “musical exceptionalism,” or the belief that music is intrinsically special. His current project and his articles in Music Theory Online and 19th-Century Music trace this way of thinking as it touches on musical topics, jazz aesthetics, and the politics of interpretation, sound studies, and music’s alleged ineffability. Other scholarship has focused on extended tonality in the music of Les Six and computational analysis in mid-century bebop improvisations. He has presented papers at conferences throughout North America and Europe, including the Society for Music Theory, the American Musicological Society, the International Musicological Society, the Philosophy Study Group of the Royal Musical Association, and at IRCAM. Principi is also a multiple woodwind performer who has appeared with the Artosphere Festival Orchestra, the Philly Singers, Concerto Soloists of Philadelphia, and on PBS television.