SMT-Pod

In this week's episode, Stefanie Bilidas and Grace Gollmar discuss the role of timbre in the listener's perception of genre, focusing on cover songs and Massive Attack's discography as two case studies.

This episode was produced by Jose Garza along with Team Lead Thomas Yee.

SMT-Pod Theme music by Zhangcheng Lu; Closing music "hnna" by David Voss. For supplementary materials on this episode and more information on our authors and composers, check out our website: https://smt-pod.org/episodes/season03/

In this week's episode, Brent Ferguson talks about a pedagogical approach he implemented with his undergraduate students, an approach he calls the "buffet-style grading system." Let's begin with a student composition from this class.

This episode was produced by Jennifer Beavers along with Team Lead Lydia Bangura.

SMT-Pod Theme music by Zhangcheng Lu; Closing music "hnna" by David Voss. For supplementary materials on this episode and more information on our authors and composers, check out our website: https://smt-pod.org/episodes/season03/

In this week's episode, Jeremy Orosz discusses a formal trend that's been emerging in pop and rock songs. In the last decade or so, a surprisingly high number of songs in verse-chorus form contain only two statements of the chorus as opposed to the typical three. Over the course of the episode, Orosz walks us through his detailed corpus-based study, discussing nuances of this trend and the impact that this form, what he calls "2C" for short, has on the organization and sound of this music.

This episode was produced by Zach Lloyd along with Team Lead Anna Rose Nelson.

SMT-Pod Theme music by Zhangcheng Lu; Closing music "hnna" by David Voss. For supplementary materials on this episode and more information on our authors and composers, check out our website: https://smt-pod.org/episodes/season03/

In this week’s episode, Tori Vilches delves into various adaptations of the Italian folk song “Bella Ciao” in Netflix’s La Casa de Papel, demonstrating its role in symbolizing resistance against oppressive structures and contributing to the humanization of the show’s anti-hero characters, ultimately fostering emotional connections between viewers and the show.

This episode was produced by Zach Lloyd along with Team Lead Megan Lyons.

SMT-Pod Theme music by Zhangcheng Lu; Closing music "hnna" by David Voss. For supplementary materials on this episode and more information on our authors and composers, check out our website: https://smt-pod.org/episodes/season03/

This week’s episode will consider The 5th Dimension’s medley, “Age of Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In” (1969) in relation to its Vietnam War Era context and through the lens of Afrofuturism.

This episode was produced by David Thurmaier along with Team Lead Richard Desinord.

SMT-Pod Theme music by Zhangcheng Lu; Closing music "hnna" by David Voss. For supplementary materials on this episode and more information on our authors and composers, check out our website: https://smt-pod.org/episodes/season03/

In this week’s episode, game designer Brent Ferguson and composers George Reid and Matthew Ferrandino discuss their chiptune rearrangements of canonical and marginalized composers’ music for the Bardcore video game project.

This episode was produced by Zach Lloyd along with Team Lead Thomas Yee.

SMT-Pod Theme music by Zhangcheng Lu; Closing music "hnna" by David Voss. For supplementary materials on this episode and more information on our authors and composers, check out our website: https://smt-pod.org/episodes/season03/

In this week’s episode, Thomas B. Yee discusses non-octave repeating scales, exploring precedents in the ideas of theorists from outside mainstream music theory and the application of non-octave repeating scales in the works of living composers.

This episode was produced by Katrina Roush along with Team Lead Jennifer Weavers. Special thanks to Craig Weston, Luis Javier Obregon, David Forrest, Liam Hynes-Tawa, and Jenny Beavers for literature recommendations, draft feedback, and insights helpful in producing this episode.

SMT-Pod Theme music by Zhangcheng Lu; Closing music "hnna" by David Voss. For supplementary materials on this episode and more information on our authors and composers, check out our website: https://smt-pod.org/episodes/season03/

In this week's episode, Nariá Assis and Luís Raimundo investigate sound masses. Their insightful analytical discussion touches on the intricate relationship between texture and rhythm, the historical evolution of the use of sound masses, and current applications in both modern and contemporary classical and electronic music.

This episode was produced by Katrina Roush along with Team Lead Anna Rose Nelson.

SMT-Pod Theme music by Zhangcheng Lu; Closing music "hnna" by David Voss. For supplementary materials on this episode and more information on our authors and composers, check out our website: https://smt-pod.org/episodes/season03/

This episode introduces a simple, but powerful pedagogical exercise inspired by the short story writer George Saunders, which involves listening to a piece of music one segment at a time, describing what you noticed, and guessing what will happen next.

This episode was produced by Jose Garza along with Team Lead Jennifer Weaver.

SMT-Pod Theme music by Zhangcheng Lu; Closing music "hnna" by David Voss. For supplementary materials on this episode and more information on our authors and composers, check out our website: https://smt-pod.org/episodes/season03/

This episode explores how women in the Azores, a Portuguese autonomous region in the North Atlantic Ocean, use their musical play on the viola da terra (a native Azorean chordophone) as a resource for postcolonial feminine performance.

This episode was produced by David Thurmaier along with Team Lead Shannon McAlister.

SMT-Pod Theme music by Zhangcheng Lu; Closing music "hnna" by David Voss. For supplementary materials on this episode and more information on our authors and composers, check out our website: https://smt-pod.org/episodes/season03/