Liam Hynes-TawaVisiting Assistant Professor of Theory

Liam Hynes-Tawa is a music theorist specializing in modern Japanese and Renaissance European forms of tonality. This research usually involves trying to figure out how irreconcilable ways of thinking about pitch have dealt with each other, as well as the entertainingly vexing question of what modes and keys are, and how feelings around those concepts have been graphically represented. Liam has a BA in Music and East Asian Studies from Brown University, a PhD in Music Theory from Yale University, and recent publications in the Journal of Music Theory and Analytical Approaches to World Music, the last of which was awarded the 2022 Outstanding Publication Award from the Society for Music Theory. Liam has also been active in efforts to bring translations of Japanese music theory from a variety of time periods to the anglophone worlds, and has published translations in Music Theory Online and in a forthcoming collection called Thinking Music. Liam also continues to play cello, sing (especially from earlier notations), and write music when possible.