Brent Auerbach, Associate Professor of Music Theory, University of Massachusetts Amherst

Brent Auerbach is Associate Professor of Music Theory at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. His research focuses on formalizing the concept of the musical motive and extending its applications for analysis. Other research interests include the music of Brahms, the aesthetics of Baroque composition and counterpoint, harmonic sequences, and music theory pedagogy. Dr. Auerbach has published articles in The Journal of Music Theory, Music Theory Online, Theory and Practice, Intégral, and in The Routledge Companion to Music Theory Pedagogy, ed. by Leigh VanHandel (2020).

"This is a specialized, albeit excellent, treatment of musical motive and it requires that readers have the ability to read music and are familiar with the discourse style of music theory and with theory's recent history." -- M. Dineen, CHOICE

"Auerbach's book is at once engaging and rigorous. We have long needed such a comprehensive approach to a concept that has occupied, even bedeviled, music theorists for centuries." -- Walter Frisch, Columbia University

"At every turn the author seems eager to engage a broad audience of interested readers beyond the community of professional music theorists. Following a detailed survey of historical perspectives on musical motive, Auerbach offers an original system of terminology and brings his methodology to bear on a wide range of repertoire. Specialists and non-specialists will appreciate his accessible style and his engagement with musical favorites from the Baroque era through Radiohead." -- Evan Jones, Florida State University