Michael Spitzer
Michael Spitzer is a British musicologist and academic.
Early life[edit]
Michael Spitzer was born in 1966 in Nigeria. He was raised in Israel and, in 1973, emigrated to the UK. He was a refugee of the Yom Kippur War.[1]
He completed his undergraduate studies at Merton College, Oxford, and his doctorate at the University of Southampton (awarded in 1993).
Career[edit]
He taught at Durham University, where he was appointed to a readership in 2005; he then moved to the University of Liverpool after the 2009–10 academic year and remains a professor of music there as of 2018. He is a past president and chair of the Society for Music Analysis editorial board.[2][3][4][5][6]
According to his university profile, he is a specialist in Beethoven "with interests in aesthetics and critical theory, cognitive metaphor, and music and affect."[3]
He inaugurated the International Conferences on Music and Emotion series at Durham in 2009.[2] He co-organized the International Conference on the Analysis of Popular Music (Liverpool, 2013).[2] His publications explore the intersections between music theory, philosophy, and psychology.[2]
Works[edit]
Spitzer's book Metaphor and Musical Thought (2004) is among the first two book-length music theory publications on metaphor and music analysis. It distinguishes itself by synthesizing literary metaphor with cognitive-science approaches to metaphor.
Selected publications[edit]
- Metaphor and Musical Thought (University of Chicago Press, 2004).
- Music as Philosophy: Adorno and Beethoven's Late Style (Indiana University Press, 2006).
- (Editor) Beethoven (Ashgate, 2015).
- A History of Emotion in Western Music: A Thousand Years from Chant to Pop (Oxford University Press, 2020).
- The Musical Human: A History of Life on Earth, (Bloomsbury, 2021)[7][8]
- "Can music give you an orgasm? The short answer is yes". Aeon Essays. 18 October 2021. Retrieved 15 January 2023.
- Spitzer, Michael. "40,000 years of music explained in 8 minutes". Big Think – via YouTube.
- Spitzer, Michael (September 2009). "Musicology's dialogue with emotion studies: Analysing musical structure". 2009 3rd International Conference on Affective Computing and Intelligent Interaction and Workshops. pp. 1–2. doi:10.1109/ACII.2009.5349502. ISBN 978-1-4244-4800-5. S2CID 15597044.
References[edit]
- ^ "Michael Spitzer". Shenington and Alkerton Music & Literature Festival. Shenington with Alkerton. Retrieved 15 January 2023.
- ^ a b c d "MichaelSpitzer-bio" (PDF). umass.edu. 2021. Retrieved 15 January 2023.
- ^ a b "Michael Spitzer", University of Liverpool. Retrieved 29 December 2018.
- ^ For his promotion to a readership, compare Durham University Calendar, vol. 1 (2004–05), p. 204, and Durham University Calendar, vol. 1 (2005–06), p. 206. For his movement to Liverpool, compare Durham University Calendar, vol. 1 (2009–10), p. 208, with "Durham University Calendar 2010–11: Board of Studies in Music", Durham University. All retrieved 29 December 2018.
- ^ "Professor Michael Spitzer", University of Liverpool, as archived on 3 February 2012.
- ^ "Ambiguity and paradox in Beethoven's late style", EThOS (British Library). Retrieved 29 December 2018.
- ^ "THE MUSICAL HUMAN". Kirkus Reviews. January 21, 2021. Retrieved 15 January 2023.
- ^ Lyons, Mathew. "Symphony of a Thousand Millennia". Literary Review. Retrieved 15 January 2023.
External links[edit]
- Lisseman, Christian (30 April 2021). "Author Q&A: Michael Spitzer". Big Issue North.
- Lahdelma, Imre; Eerola, Tuomas (22 October 2020). "A Response to Michael Spitzer's Commentary". Empirical Musicology Review. 15 (1–2): 141. doi:10.18061/emr.v15i1-2.7324. S2CID 226331406.