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:
- 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.
- “Deceptive Love and Denied Endings: Tropes in the Music of Billy Joel.” Popular Music, Volume 37, Number 3.
- “Tonality in Steve Reich’s Nagoya Marimbas.” Music Theory and Analysis, Volume 6, Number 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 