Kenneth M. Smith, Professor of Music Theory, University of Liverpool

Kenneth M. Smith is Professor of Music Theory at University of Liverpool and serves as Vice President of the Society for Music Analysis. He is the author of Skryabin, Philosophy and the Music of Desire and co-editor of The Routledge Companion to Popular Music Analysis.

"In this simultaneously psychodynamic and music-theoretical discussion of the Oedipal triangle of Tonic, Subdominant, and Dominant functions in fin-de-siècle music, Kenneth Smith offers a potent new theory of how late tonal musicplayed its part in the development of modern concepts of psychological desire. Scintillating, challenging, and always engagingly written, this book makes a decisive contribution to our understanding of the libidinal landscape of musical modernity." - J. P. E. Harper-Scott, Professor of Music History and Theory, Royal Holloway, University of London

"In Desire in Chromatic Harmony, Kenneth Smith explains the unexplainable. And does so in compelling readable prose. Lying at the intersection of psychology, critical theory, philosophy, music theory, and historical musicology, Smith invites the reader into an in-depth yet unassuming contemplation of complicated music-analytical themes — through the chromaticism of Ives, Copland, Szymanowski, Strauss, Suk and Skryabin — from the 19th century right up to today. Something of a post-poststructuralist account of the philosophy of desire in music through the useful psychoanalytic notion of psychodynamics, Smith's incisive work will surely be required reading for all in the music academy, and beyond. In short, a great read." - Philip Ewell, Associate Professor, Hunter College

"Kenneth Smiths scintillating new book is the best kind of interdisciplinary work: psychoanalysis becomes not a goal of music theory here, but its drive, the engine for a real adventure in concept-making. It rewards the mind but also the ears, which cannot hear this endlessly beguiling repertoire in the same way afterwards. A rabbit-hole of a good read!" - Seth Brodsky, Associate Professor of Music, University of Chicago