Brenda Ravenscroft

Academic title(s): 

Professor (Sabbatical leave, 2022-23)

Brenda Ravenscroft
Department: 
Music Research
Area(s): 
Music Theory
Contact Information
Email address: 
brenda.ravenscroft [at] mcgill.ca
Group: 
Faculty
Biography: 

Three interests animate Dr. Ravenscroft’s research in music theory: her fascination with time, her love of poetry, and her passion for equity for women in music. Dr. Ravenscroft specializes in the music of twentieth and twenty-first-century American composers, including the music of Elliott Carter, rhythmic organization in post-tonal music, and the relationship between words and music. Her pedagogical research is focused on active learning, student engagement, and educational technology. 

Following an academic and administrative career spanning 24 years at Queens’s University, in July 2017, Dr. Ravenscroft began her mandate as Dean at the Schulich School of Music; she holds a Ph.D. from the University of British Columbia, an M.Mus. from King’s College, London, and a B.Mus. from the University of Cape Town.

Selected publications: 

Research: Music Theory

Selected publications:

“An Adventure in Form: Elliott Carter’s ‘Like a Bulwark’ (2009),” Elliott Carter Studies Online 2 (2017).

“Enhancing Learning in an Advanced Analysis Course: the Flipped Model, Peer Learning, and the Mode Effect,” Journal of Music Theory Pedagogy 29 (2017): 73–99. (Co-authored with V. Chen).

Analytical Essays on Music by Women Composers: Concert Music, 1960–2000, edited by Laurel Parsons and Brenda Ravenscroft. New York: Oxford University Press, 2016.

“Music as a Mirror: Libby Larsen’s Chanting To Paradise.” In Analytical Essays on Music by Women Composers: Concert Music, 1960–2000, edited by Laurel Parsons and Brenda Ravenscroft, 176–95. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016.

“Elliott Cook Carter.” In Routledge Encyclopedia of Modernism. Routledge, 2016, DOI 10.4324/9781135000356-REM25

Review of Elliott Carter's What Next?: Communication, Cooperation, and Separation, by Guy Capuzzo. Music Theory Spectrum 37 (2015): 313–17.

“Layers of Meaning: Expression and Design in Carter’s Songs.” In Elliott Carter Studies, edited by Marguerite Boland and John Link, 271–91. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012.

“Chair’s Introduction to ‘Form as Process: Celebrating the Work of Janet Schmalfeldt.’” Music Theory Online 16/2 (June 2010).

Review of The Cambridge History of Twentieth-Century Music, edited by Nicholas Cook and Anthony Pople. Journal of the American Musicological Society 60/2 (2007): 441–47.

“Reconstruction: Cage and Schoenberg.” Tempo 60 (2006): 2–14.

"Setting the Pace: the Role of Speeds in Elliott Carter's A Mirror on Which to Dwell." Music Analysis 22/3 (2003): 253–82.

Review of Exploring Twentieth-Century Music: Tradition and Innovation, by Arnold Whittall. Canadian University Music Review 23/1 (2003): 224­–27.

“Composing for Voice: A Twentieth-Century Approach.” In Sharing the Voices: The Phenomenon of Singing International Symposium III, edited by Ki Adams and Andrea Rose, 171–77. St. John's, NF: Memorial University of Newfoundland, 2002.

“Finding the Time for Words: Elliott Carter's Solutions to the Challenges of Text-Setting.” Indiana Theory Review 22/1 (2001): 83­–102.

“Working Out the ‘Is-Tos and the As-Tos’: Lou Harrison’s Fugue for Percussion.” Perspectives of New Music 38/1 (2000): 25–43.

“The Moon and the Insomniac: Musical Personae in Elliott Carter’s ‘Insomnia’.” South African Journal of Musicology 19/20 (1999/2000): 57–70. 

Research: Pedagogy

Selected publications:

“Enhancing Student Engagement through an Institutional Blended Learning Initiative: a Case Study,” Teaching and Learning Inquiry (forthcoming).

“A Case Study in Music Analysis.” In The Flipped College Classroom, edited by L. Santos Green, J. R. Banas and R. Perkins, 79–83 and 241–44. New York: Springer, 2017.

 “Balancing Act: Creating a Multidisciplinary Introductory Statistics Course,” Transformative Dialogues 10/1 (April, 2017). (co-authored with V. Chen).

  “Adapting Bangert’s Online Teaching Effectiveness Evaluation Tool to a Canadian Context,” Innovations in Education and Teaching International, 54/4 (2017): 355–63. (co-authored with U. Luhanga and B. King). http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14703297.2016.1231618.

“Developing Employability Skills in Humanities and Social Sciences Using the Flipped Model.” In Leading Issues in e-Learning Research, MOOCs and Flip: What’s Really Changing? Edited by Mélanie Ciussi, 30–45. Reading: Academic Conferences and Publishing International Ltd., 2015. (co-authored with U. Luhanga)

“Promoting and Supporting Innovations in E-learning in a Traditional Environment.” In Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on E-Learning, held at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology, Cape Town, South Africa, 27-28 June 2013. Edited by Eunice Ivala. Reading: Academic Conferences and Publishing International Ltd.

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