Jonathan Wild
Associate Professor, Associate Dean, Research and Administration (Sabbatical leave, Fall '23/Winter '24)
BMus McGill University, Composition
MMus McGill University, Music Theory
PhD Harvard University, Theory & Composition
Jon Wild is a music theorist whose current research includes analysis of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century repertoires, focussing both on the chromaticism of late tonality and on early atonal works; speculative compositional theory (often incorporating a mathematical and/or computational approach) and transformational theory; tuning issues, both historical and creative; sixteenth-century vocal music and history of theory; and computer-assisted analyses of large corpuses of music, including a large-scale study of evolving harmonic idioms in western popular music.
As a composer he is especially sought after for vocal and choral works. He has been composer-in-residence for the Hilliard Ensemble, who have performed his music widely.
As a undergraduate Jon attended McGill, pursuing degrees in music (composition) and physics. He undertook his doctoral work at Harvard under the supervision of David Lewin. He is a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Music Theory, and in 2012 he joins the Journal of Mathematics and Computation in Music as reviews editor.
Recent graduate seminars have included Analysis: the Symphonies of Jean Sibelius; Tuning and Temperament; Analyzing Brahms's Late Solo Piano Works; and Mathematical Models for Music Analysis. In 2012 Jon was awarded the Schulich School of Music Prize for teaching.
