RUKA SHIRONISHI

Music Theory, Ph.D.

I am currently a full-time teaching faculty of music theory and aural skills at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, as well as a faculty member of the Extension Division at The Juilliard School. I have previously taught at the Mannes School of Music (The New School University) and Queens College (City University of New York).
My primary research examines the development of modal harmony particularly in nineteenth-century France.
In addition to being a conservatory-trained pianist, I am also a performing member of the Balinese gamelan, Yowana Sari.

Research

  • My primary research interest lies in French compositions of the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. I specifically focus on the harmonic language of Gabriel Fauré and Claude Debussy, both of whom challenged the confines of the tonal framework while remaining within it. I examine their harmonic languages mainly in two ways: 1) through voice-leading analysis and 2) from the perspective of the history of theory.

  • A comparative study of harmony treatises from nineteenth-century France allows insight into how the education of composers such as Fauré and Debussy may be reflected in their music. For example, the language of plainchant modality has provided both nineteenth-century French composers with a refreshing source of harmonic ideas to develop a language alternative to both eighteenth-century tonality and Wagnerian chromaticism. My research on nineteenth-century writings regarding plainchant tonality as well as treatises on plainchant accompaniment reveals the way these composers developed a new type of harmonic language by incorporating modality.

  • The basis of my research on modal harmony and plainchant is presented in my dissertation: "Plainchant Accompaniment and Modal Harmony" (2021). https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/4307

Recent Conference Presentations

  • 2024 "Gabriel Fauré and Modal Harmony." La modalité dans la musique française à L’orée du XXe siècle : héritage et évolutions, Université de Montréal.

  • 2024 “The Gregorian Sanctus of the Requiem Mass and Fauré’s Major-Mediant Cadence.” University of Colorado-Boulder.

  • 2023 "Modal Cadences in the Tonality of Plainchant." MTSNYS, New York University.
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Currivulum Vitae

Academic Positions Held

  • Full-time Teaching Faculty
  • University of Wisconsin-Madison
  • Part-time Assistant Professor Mannes School of Music (The New School University)
  • Adjunct Assistant Professor
  • Queens College (The City University of New York)
  • Faculty
  • The Juilliard School, Extension Division

Education

  • Ph.D., Music Theory City University of new York, The Graduate Center
  • M.M., Music Theory Mannes college, The New School for Music
  • B.M., Piano Performance San Francisco Conservatory of Music

Courses Taught

  • Lecutre-based courses
  • Music Theory (Undergrad core and Graduate Review)
  • Analysis (Form and Analysis, Schenkerian Analysis)

  • Skill-based courses
  • Aural Skills (Sight singing and Dictation) Keyboard Skills (Keyboard Harmony and Score Reading)

  • Graduate Seminars Form and Analysis
  • Renaissance Polyphony Writing About Music
More Details

Gamelan

  • Ruka is a member of Gamelan Yowana Sari: https://www.gamelanys.com/ The group performs mostly in the New-York tristate area but also has travels to Bali regularly for performances. Yowana Sari is scheduled to release its debut album in the coming months. Ruka will also be teaching a study-abroad program in Bali this summer (2005). For more information, please visit: MusicandCultureinBali.com

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