The Department of Music Theory presents a lecture by guest scholar William Caplin, Distinguished James McGill Professor of Music Theory at McGill University. This event is made possible with support from the Carrigan Lecture Series in Music Theory.

ABSTRACT

This talk examines various classification schemes for music theory and analysis, especially ones that have played a central role in my own research activities. After a brief consideration of the ubiquity of binary oppositions in music-theoretical thought, along with some limitations of this approach, the remainder of the talk focuses on classifications consisting of three elements, what I call (after Nattiez) tripartitions. I set the stage for my investigations by reviewing the three dialectically grounded tripartitions of intervals, harmonies, and keys as proposed by Mortiz Hauptmann in the mid nineteenth century. The heart of my talk then details three tripartitions in the domains of harmony, form, and general analytical methodologies. The first tripartition classifies harmonic progressions into three types: prolongational, sequential, and cadential. With the second tripartition, I consider the temporal functions of beginning, middle, and end, and examine how these temporalities are expressed by a variety of formal functions and formal types. The final tripartition, inspired by some ideas of Leonard B. Meyer, organizes various modes of music analysis into three general categories: conformant, statistical, and syntactical. To conclude, I return to Hauptmann and consider the extent to which my three tripartitions correlate with his dialectical framework.

ABOUT THE GUEST SPEAKER

WILLIAM CAPLIN completed undergraduate studies in music composition (BM,1971) at the University of Southern California and graduate studies in the history and theory of music (MA, 1975; PhD, 1981) at the University of Chicago. He began his academic career in the Faculty of Music at McGill University in 1978. He was appointed Distinguished James McGill Professor of Music Theory in 2019 following fourteen years as a James McGill Professor.

Caplin specializes in the theories of musical form and musical cadence. His extensive investigations into formal procedures of late-eighteenth-century music culminated in the 1998 book Classical Form: A Theory of Formal Functions for the Instrumental Music of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven (Oxford University Press), which won the 1999 Wallace Berry Book Award from the Society for Music Theory. He has refined and extended his theoretical approach in his recent book Cadence: A Study of Closure in Tonal Music (OUP, 2024). Caplin has also undertaken research in the history of music theory. His most notable study in this area, “Theories of Musical Rhythm in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries,” appears in The Cambridge History of Western Music Theory. His current academic project is a complete harmonic, cadential and formal analysis of Beethoven’s thirty-two piano sonatas.

Caplin’s research work has been honoured by two Festschrift publications: Formal Functions in Perspective: Essays on Musical Form from Haydn to Adorno (Eastman Studies in Music, 2015); and “Contemplating Caplin,” a Festschrift issue of Intersections: Canadian Journal of Music 31/1, 2010. In 2015, he was elected a Fellow in the Royal Society of Canada (Academy of Arts and Humanities). Following his retirement in 2022, he was awarded the 2023 McGill University Medal for Exceptional Academic Achievement. Most recently, he received the 2025 Pascall Medal from the Society for Music Analysis (UK).