S02E29 - Norman Carey

Norman Carey faculty and administrator from the CUNY Graduate
Center joined us in the studio to talk about his journey from
pianist to theorist. He wears many hats and most identifies with
his career as a pianist. After two performance degrees he pursued
his Doctorate in Music Theory. We talked about; the distinction
between a composer and theorist and how this was formed in the
United States, the performer/theorist division and how
curriculums can be more connective, the challenges of teaching an
art form with traditions and understanding of why we do things,
his time with Nadia Boulanger studying theory, his influence of
Schenkerian analysis and the process his uses for his own
compositions. His multifaceted abilities as a pianist, theorist,
composer and as an administrator at the college level is what has
made his career interesting. We posed a few questions for him to
answer; fixed or moveable, how to teach keys and how to explain
well-tempered.