Sam Reenan
Lecturer in Music
sreenan@hamilton.edu WebsiteSam Reenan is a Ph.D. candidate in music theory at the Eastman School of Music. He holds an M.A. in music theory from Eastman (2018), and a B.M. in music theory and B.S. in biological sciences from the University of Connecticut (2014). A recipient of Eastman’s 2017–18 TA Prize for Excellence in Teaching, he has taught throughout the Eastman curriculum.
Sam is co-author of a 2016 article exploring seventh-chord voice-leading transformations, published in Music Theory Online. His dissertation focuses on issues of genre, large-scale form, and narrative in early twentieth-century Germanic music, focusing on the techniques composers used to compose music of monumental size.
Recent Courses Taught
Music Theory for Non-Majors
Basic Aural Skills
Research Interests
- Form, counterpoint, and harmony in the music of the Modernist period, especially Gustav Mahler, Richard Strauss, and Alban Berg
- Transformational and post-tonal analysis and the music of Henri Dutilleux
- Pedagogical approaches to musical form and teacher training
- Aesthetics and Adorno’s philosophy of music
- Analysis of commercial uses of music, advertisement jingles, and borrowed music
- Memory and perception of musical organization
Distinctions
- Recipient of the Irna Priore Prize for Graduate Research from Music Theory Southeast, 2020
- Eastman Teaching Assistant Prize for Excellence in Teaching, 2017-18
Select Publications
“Types and Applications of P3,o Seventh Chord Transformations in Late Nineteenth Century Music.” Co-authored with Richard Bass. Music Theory Online 22.2.
Professional Affiliations
Pi Kappa Lambda National Music Honor Society
Society for Music Theory
Society for Music Analysis
Music Theory Society of New York State
Music Theory Midwest
Society for Music Perception and Cognition
Society for American Music
Appointed to the Faculty: 2020
Educational Background
M.A, Eastman School of Music
B.M., University of Connecticut
B.S., University of Connecticut