Dr. Ian Gerg

Assistant Professor

Music Theory

University Center 224

Biography

Ian Gerg centers his research on issues of musical meaning and interpretation with an emphasis on narrative and virtual agency in nineteenth-century instrumental music. He has presented papers at the annual meetings of the Music Theory Society of the Mid-Atlantic, Music Theory Midwest, the Semiotic Society of America, and several others. He has recently been invited to speak on virtual agency at Temple University, Penn State, and SUNY Fredonia. His latest publication, an essay on Chopin’s Nocturne in F-sharp minor, Op. 48, no. 2, is a case study that considers agential transformation through the lens of the Freudian psyche.

Prior to his appointment at Southeastern, Prof. Gerg was an assistant professor at Chestnut Hill College (Philadelphia). He holds a Ph.D. in Music Theory from the University of Texas at Austin, where he was a Kent Kennan Endowed Graduate Fellow.
Recent publications:
• “Quasi una Fantasia: Virtual Agency in a Chopin Nocturne,” in Musical Waves: West Coast Perspectives of Pitch, Narrative, and Form, ed. Andrew Aziz and Jack Boss (Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars, 2020).
• Review of A Theory of Virtual Agency for Western Art Music, by Robert S. Hatten. Notes: The Quarterly Journal of the Music Library Association (September 2020).
• Review of Sonic Space in Djibril Diop Mambety’s Films, by Vlad Dima. Notes: The Quarterly Journal of the Music Library Association (March 2018).
• “Observing and Gazing Gestures in Music,” in Semiotics 2014: Paradoxes of Life, ed. Jamin Pelkey and Leonard Sbrocchi (Ottawa: Legas Publishing, 2014).

Recent papers:
• “Show or Tell: Toward a Theory of Narrative Voice and Focalization in Music,” Temple University (April 2019).
• “What Harold Saw in Italy: A Case for Narrative Agency,” Vancouver, BC (May 2019).
• “Participants and Observers: The Potentials of Virtual Agency in Music,” SUNY Fredonia (April 2018).

Recent publications:
• “Quasi una Fantasia: Virtual Agency in a Chopin Nocturne,” in Musical Waves: West Coast Perspectives of Pitch, Narrative, and Form, ed. Andrew Aziz and Jack Boss (Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars, 2020).
• Review of A Theory of Virtual Agency for Western Art Music, by Robert S. Hatten. Notes: The Quarterly Journal of the Music Library Association (September 2020).
• Review of Sonic Space in Djibril Diop Mambety’s Films, by Vlad Dima. Notes: The Quarterly Journal of the Music Library Association (March 2018).
• “Observing and Gazing Gestures in Music,” in Semiotics 2014: Paradoxes of Life, ed. Jamin Pelkey and Leonard Sbrocchi (Ottawa: Legas Publishing, 2014).