Andrew Pau

  • Associate Professor of Music Theory

Areas of Study

Education

  • AB, Stanford University, 1990
  • JD, Harvard Law School, 1993
  • MM, Mannes College of Music, 2005
  • PhD, City University of New York, 2012

Biography

Andrew Pau has taught at the Oberlin Conservatory since 2011. Pau’s research focuses on the music of nineteenth-century French composers. He has written and presented papers on chromatic harmony, phrase rhythm and text setting, and theories of narrative and musical meaning. He is especially interested in musical genres such as opera that lie at the intersection between music and the literary, visual, theatrical, and choreographic arts.

In April 2016, Pau appeared on national television as a contestant on the game show Jeopardy!, where he became a six-day champion.

Barry S. Brook Dissertation Award in Music, CUNY Graduate Center (2012)

Mannes Theory Essay Award (2010)

Felix Salzer Techniques of Music Award, Mannes College of Music (2005)

"Common-Tone Tonality in Bizet's Carmen." Music Theory Spectrum 40(2) (2018): 280–301.

"The Harmonic Theories of Jean-Adam Serre." Intégral 32 (2018): 1–13.

"Plagal Systems in the Songs of Fauré and Duparc." Theory and Practice 41 (2016): 81–112.

“Sous le rythme de la chanson: Rhythm, Text, and Diegetic Performance in Nineteenth-Century French Opera.” Music Theory Online 21/3 (2015).

"The Six Épigraphes Antiques and Debussy's (Re)compositional Process." Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Society for Music Theory, San Antonio, TX, November 2018; and at Debussy Perspectives 1918–2018, Manchester, UK, March 2018.

“The Influence of Dance Forms on Metrical Practices in Nineteenth-Century French Opera.” Paper presented at the annual meeting of Music Theory Midwest, Appleton, WI, April 2014.

“‘A Flight Into the Exotic Distance’: Harmony and Voice Leading in the Act IV Duet from Bizet’s Carmen.” Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Society for Music Theory, Charlotte, NC, November 2013.

“Voice Leading as Harmonic Determinant in Atonal Music.” Paper presented at the annual meetings of the Society for Music Theory, Baltimore, MD, November 2007.

Fall 2024

East Asia in Western Art Music — MUTH 266PT
French Music from the Belle Époque, 1871 - 1900 — MUTH 362

Notes

Andrew Pau Presentes Research Papers

November 20, 2024

Associate Professor of Music Theory Andrew Pau presented two research papers on opposite sides of the Atlantic during the first week of November. The first presentation, "Expanded Continuation Phrases in Fauré's Piano Music," was given at the Institut de France in Paris, at a colloquium marking the centenaries of the deaths of French composers Gabriel Fauré (1845–1924) and Théodore Dubois (1837–1924). The second presentation, "Fauréan Influences in Lili Boulanger's Clairières dans le ciel" was given at the annual conference of the Society for Music Theory in Jacksonville, Florida.

Andrew Pau publishes book review

October 15, 2020

Associate Professor of Music Theory Andrew Pau reviewed Alexandra Kieffer's book Debussy's Critics: Sound, Affect, and the Experience of Modernism for France Review, an online review dedicated to books on French history and culture. 

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