Faculty: Theory of Music

Mark J. Butler
email: mabutler@sas.upenn.edu
Ph.D., Indiana University, 2003
Assistant Professor of Music

Music theorist with interests in popular music, rhythm and meter, music and sexuality, musical meaning and aesthetics, and the history of music theory (especially ancient and medieval theory). Butler's research integrates theoretical, historical, and anthropological approaches to music, with particular emphasis on the use of ethnographic methodology to address music-theoretical questions. His book Unlocking the Groove: Rhythm, Meter, and Musical Design in Electronic Dance Music (Indiana University Press, 2006) explores the rhythmic and metrical organization of electronic dance music from the measure to the complete DJ set, drawing upon field research with audiences and creators of electronic dance music as well as musical analysis. Other publications appear in journals such as Theoria, Music Theory Online, Semiotica, Semiotics 1999, and Popular Music. In 2005, Butler received the Wiley Housewright Award from the Society for American Music. His current research includes a book focusing on relationships between technology, improvisation, and composition in electronic–music performance.