My research primarily focuses on the relationship between music and associated multimedia components (lyrics, text, visuals, etc.). The resulting meaning and interpretation of these multimedia works provides deeper insight and allows for multiple interpretations to emerge.
Selected Publications:
- “Crossing the Ludo-Cinematic Continuum: Music-Theoretical Approaches to Video Game Music,” in Oxford Handbook of Video Game Music and Sound, eds. Mark Grimshaw-Aagaard and William Gibbons, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2024).
- “Those Tunes Really Hold the Game Together: Thematic Families in Final Fantasy IX,” in The Music of Nobuo Uematsu in the Final Fantasy Series, ed. Richard Anatone, (Bristol: Intellect, 2022).
- Music Theory: The Foundation of Great Music, The Great Courses (Chantilly: The Teaching Company, 2021).
- “Introduction,” in The Psychology of Final Fantasy: Surpassing the Limit Break, ed. Anthony Bean, (Fort Worth: Leyline Publishing, 2020).
- “Soaring Through the Sky: Topics and Tropes in Video Game Music.” Music Theory Online, 25.2.
Selected Presentations:
- “Billy Joel and the Cinematic American West.” Texas Society for Music Theory, February 2020.
- “Tropes and Narrative Foreshadowing in Final Fantasy IV.” Presentation at the 5th Annual North American Conference on Video Game Music.
- “Flipped Classroom Strategies for Music Theory Instruction.” Special Pedagogy Presentation at the Texas Society for Music Theory.
Sean Atkinson 