Applying the Metaphor of Motion to Phrase Analysis and Performance of Choral Music

JAMES MCGOWAN recently graduated with a Ph.D. in theory from the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, with the completion of his dissertation "Dynamic Consonance in Selected Piano Performances of Tonal Jazz." He also holds a Master’s degree (music theory) from the University of North Texas, and Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees (composition) from the University of Toronto. He has published articles (CAML Review, Discourses in Music, and others forthcoming) and presented research on topics including jazz theory, performance and analysis studies, Schenkerian analysis, serial techniques, and text-music relationships at conferences in Canada, the United States, and England. As an award-winning composer, he has composed works for a variety of ensembles in diverse idioms, including five choral cantatas and many smaller works for choir. He has worked with amateur choirs in churches for about twenty years, during which he directed mass ecumenical choirs, large choral works with orchestra, and staged children’s and youth musicals. In addition to his work as a composer, choral conductor, accompanist, jazz pianist, and organist, James has taught music theory at the University of Rochester, and is currently a member of the faculty in the Department of Theory and Composition at the University of Western Ontario, Don Wright Faculty of Music.