L. Poundie Burstein

Poundie Burstein’s primary areas of interest include Schenkerian analysis, analysis of eighteenth-century music, music theory pedagogy, and form studies.  In addition to his scholarly work, he has performed extensively as a pianist for comedy improvisation groups in the NYC area.  He has also taught at Mannes College, Columbia University, Queens College, and held an endowed chair at University of Alabama in 2010. In 1995 he received the Distinguished Teaching Award from the New School University, and in 2008 he received the Outstanding Publication Award of the Society of Music Theory (SMT). He is a former President of the Society for Music Theory.

REPRESENTATIVE PUBLICATIONS: 

• “Marianna Martines, Sonata in A major, I (1765).” In Analytical Essays on Music by Women Composers, Volume I: Sacred and Secular Music to 1900. Edited by Laurel Parsons and Brenda Ravenscroft (New York: Oxford University Press, 2018), 131–45.
•  “The Practice of Music Theory, and Music Theory vs. Practice.” In Norton Guide to Teaching Music Theory, ed. Rachel Lumsden and Jeffrey Swinkin (New York: Norton, 2018), 1–10. 
• “Realidade e fantasia no ensino tradidional de teoria musical,” translated by Cristina Gerling. TeMA 2 (2017): 47–74.
• “Parenthetic Aside in a 1789 Analysis of Mozart’s K. 284,” with Quynh Nguyen (piano). SMT-V 3.1 (2017):  https://vimeo.com/societymusictheory/videocast3-1burstein
• “Voice-Leading Procedures in Galant-Era Expositions,” in Explorations in Schenkerian Analysis: Essays in Honor of Edward Laufer. Edited by David Beach and Su Yin Mak (Rochester: University of Rochester Press, 2017), 42–60. 
• “Expositional Journeys and Resting Points.” Composition as a Problem (2016): 5–16.
• A Concise Introduction to Harmony, Co-authored with Joseph Straus. New York: Norton, 2015, 2016.
• Review of Carl Schachter, The Art of Tonal Analysis. The Art of Tonal Analysis: Twelve Lessons in Schenkerian Theory, edited by Joseph N. Straus (Oxford University Press, 2016); MTO 22.2 (2016).
• “Functial Formanality: Twisted Formal Functions in Joseph Haydn’s Symphonies,” Formal Functions in Perspective, Essays in Musical Form from Haydn to Adorno, ed. Steven Vande Moortele, Nathan Martin, and Julie Pedneault-Deslauriers. Rochester: University of Rochester Press, 2015: 11–36.
•  “Strolling through a Haydn Divertimento with Two Heinrichs.” In Bach to Brahms: essays on musical design and structure, ed. David Beach and Yosef Goldenberg. Rochester: University of Rochester Press, 2015, 9–22. (This volume received the 2016 SMT Outstanding Multi-Author Collection Award.)
• “The Half Cadence and Other Analytic Fictions.” In What is a Cadence? ed. Pieter Bergé and Markus Neuwirth. Leuven: Peeters (forthcoming, 2015). 
•  “The Half Cadence and Other Such Slippery Events,” Music Theory Spectrum (forthcoming, 2014).
•  “Music Theory Pedagogy in the iPhone Generation.” Engaging Students: Essays in Music Pedagogy (Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike: 2013): http://flipcamp.github.io/EngagingStudents/index.html. 
• Essays from the Fourth International Schenker Symposium, Vol. 2, co-edited by Lynne Rogers and Karen M. Bottge. Kassel: Olms, 2013. 
• “Schenker/Schenkerian Analysis.” In Essays from the Fourth International Schenker Symposium, Vol. 2, ed. L. Poundie Burstein, Lynne Rogers and Karen Bottge (Kassel: Olms, 2013): 1–3.
•  “Beethoven’s Op. 31, No. 2: A Schenkerian Approach (piano version),” Beethoven’s Tempest Sonata: Contexts of Analysis and Performance, Piano Version, ed. Pieter Bergé (2012): ii 1–32. 
• “Schenkerian Analysis and Occam’s Razor,” Rez Musica 3 (2011): 112–22.
• "Reassessing the Voice-leading Role of Haydn’s So-called “False Recapitulations,'"  Journal of Schenkerian Studies 5 (2011):1–37.
• "'Lebe wohl tönt überall!' and a 'Reunion after so much Sorrow': Beethoven’s Op. 81a and the Journeys of 1809," Musical Quarterly 93 (2010): 366–414.
• “Mid-Section Cadences in Haydn’s Sonata-Form Movements.” Studia Musicologica (2010).
• “Echt oder Falsch? Zur Rolle der ‚falschen Reprise’ in Haydns Sinfonie Nr. 41,” translated by Felix Diergarten, Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) [= Memoria, vol. 11], edited by Sebastian Urmoneit. Berlin: Weidler, 2009: 97–129.
• "Beethoven’s Op. 31, No. 2: A Schenkerian Approach," Beethoven’s Tempest Sonata: Contexts of Analysis and Performance, ed. Pieter Bergé, Jeroen d’Hoe, and William Caplin. Analysis in Context: Leuven Studies in Musicology, Vol. 3. Leuven: Peeters (2009): 61–85.
• “Mozart’s Recomposed Bifocal Transition Sections,” Composition as a Problem 6 (2008): 25–36.
• “Conference Report for the Second Biannual Convention of the American Beethoven Society,” Eighteenth-Century Music (2008): 158–60.
• Structure and Meaning in Tonal Music, co-edited with David Gagné. Hillsdale, NY: Pendragon, 2006.
• "Of Species Counterpoint, Gondola Songs, and Sordid Boons," Structure and Meaning in Tonal Music, edited by L. Poundie Burstein and David Gagné. Hillsdale, NY: Pendragon, 2006: 33–40.
• “Les chansons des fous: on the Edge of Madness with Alkan,” in Sounding Off: Theorizing Disability in Music, edited by Neil Lerner and Joseph Straus. New York: Routledge, 2006: 187–98.
• “Retransitional Revisions in Beethoven’s Op. 4,”  Journal of Musicology (2006): 62–95.
• “The Off-Tonic Return in Beethoven's Op. 58 and Other Works,” Music Analysis (2005): 1–43. Recipient of the 2008 Outstanding Publication Award of the Society of Music Theory.
• “Unraveling Schenker’s Concept of the Auxiliary Cadence,”  Music Theory Spectrum 27/2 (Fall 2005): 159–85.
• Review of AP music theory texts and web sites;  sites; http://apps.apcentral.collegeboard.com  (2004–5).
• “Mozart’s Harmonic Experiments of 1784,”  A Composition as a Problem 3  (2003): 15–27.
• "Human Supervision, Control, and Lack of Control in Beethoven's Op. 36,"  Journal of New Music Research, Vol. 31/3 (2002): 191–99.
• "Her Ways, Their Ways: Comparison of Song Settings by Clara Schumann and Other Composers,"  Woman and Music, Vol. 3 (2002): 11–26.
• “Devil’s Castles and Schubert’s Strange Tonic Allusions,” in Theory and Practice 27 (2002): 87-102.
• "Interrelationships in Beethoven’s Second Symphony,"  Proceedings of the Workshop in Human Supervision and Control in Engineering and Music. Kassel: University of Kassel, 2001. 
• Review of Heinrich Schenker, The Art of Performance [Kunst des Vortrags], edited by Heribert Esser, translated by Irene Schreier Scott. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000); in Notes (June, 2001): 933–34.
• "Mozart in Medias Res," Electronic Journal for Music Theory (April, 2001).
• Conference Report for The Music of Amy Beach: An Interdisciplinary Conference (Die Musik von Amy Beach: Eine interdisziplinäre Konferenz), in VivaVoce 53 (Summer, 2000): 29–31.
• "Why Bach’s Organ Had No Stops: Fatherhood and Musical Hermeneutics in Bach,"  The Idler 2/122 (October, 2000).
• "Comedy and Structure in Haydn’s Symphonies,"  Schenker Studies 2, edited by Carl Schachter and Hedi Siegel. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999: 67-81.
• "Surprising Returns: The VII# in Beethoven’s Op. 18, No. 3, and its antecedents in Haydn,"  Music Analysis 17/3 (October, 1998): 295–312.
• "Lyricism, Structure, and Gender in Schubert’s G Major Quartet," in Musical Quarterly,  Vol. 81, No. 1 (Spring, 1997): 51–63.
• Review of Eugene Narmour and Ruth Solie, editors, Explorations in Music, the Arts, and Ideas (Stuyvesant, N.Y.: Pendragon Press, 1988); in Journal of Music Theory 35 (Spring/Fall, 1991): 257–67. 
• Review of Felix-Eberhard Von Cube, The Book of the Musical Artwork: An Interpretation of the Musical Theories of Heinrich Schenker, trans., with an afterword, by David Neumeyer, George R. Boyd, and Scott Harris (Lewiston/Queenston: The Edward Mellon Press, 1988), in Theory and Practice 16 (1991): 215–19.
• "More on Tristan," in Theory and Practice  9 (July-December, 1984): 125–28.
• "A New View of Tristan: Tonal Unity in the Prelude and Conclusion to Act I," in Theory and Practice 7 (September, 1983): 15–42.