Jack Boss

Jack Boss is professor of music theory and composition at the University of Oregon. He received B.Mus. and M.Mus. degrees in composition from Ohio State University in 1979 and 1981, and the Ph.D. in music theory from Yale University in 1991. At Yale, his teachers included Allen Forte, David Lewin, and Claude Palisca. His doctoral dissertation, advised by Allen Forte, was titled "An Analogue to Developing Variation in a Late Atonal Song of Arnold Schoenberg." It shows that motives in Schoenberg's song "Seraphita," Op. 22, No. 1, are controlled by processes strikingly similar to Schoenberg's notions of "developing variation" and "musical idea."

Boss's articles, book chapters and reviews may be found in the Journal of Music Theory, Music Theory Spectrum, Perspectives of New Music, Music Theory Online, Intégral, Gamut, Notes, Musical Currents from the Left Coast, Analyzing the Music of Living Composers (and Others), and Form and Process in Music, 1300-2014. He published a large monograph, Schoenberg's Twelve-Tone Music: Symmetry and the Musical Idea, with Cambridge University Press as part of their "Music since 1900" series, in November 2014. In November 2015, the book was given the Wallace Berry Award by the Society for Music Theory. Boss has also co-edited three collections of analytical essays originating as West Coast Conference of Music Theory and Analysis papers: Musical Currents from the Left Coast (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2008), with Bruce Quaglia, Analyzing the Music of Living Composers (and Others) (Cambridge Scholars, 2013), with Brad Osborn, Tim Pack and Stephen Rodgers, and Form and Process in Music 1300-2014 (Cambridge Scholars, 2016), with Heather Holmquest, Russell Knight, Ines Thiebaut, and Brent Yorgason.

Like his dissertation, many of Boss's publications deal with motivic structure and large-scale coherence in Schoenberg's music. Other articles consider motivic processes in Beethoven's piano sonatas, large-scale coherence in Mahler's symphonies, and parallels between text and musical structure in the music of Bernard Rands. Boss has also given a large number of scholarly presentations throughout the U.S., England, Ireland and Belgium on different aspects of Schoenberg's music and theory.

Before coming to the University of Oregon, Boss taught at Brigham Young University for three years (1992-95), Ball State University for one year (1991-92), and Yale University for one year (1990-91). He served as undergraduate theory coordinator at BYU and also coordinated the freshman theory and aural skills program at Yale. His courses at the University of Oregon include: undergraduate form and analysis, 20th-century counterpoint, Schenkerian analysis, post-tonal analysis, advanced aural skills, music theory pedagogy, the history of music theory, graduate 20th-century music history, and graduate seminars on topics including Schoenberg's vocal music and neo-Riemannian analysis.

Boss is involved in professional service at the national and regional levels. He was reviews editor for Music Theory Online, the Society for Music Theory's electronic journal, from 2001-2006 and served as a member of the SMT's Professional Development Committee from 1995-2000. He was reviews editor, associate editor, and editor-in-chief of the Journal of Music Theory from 1989 to 1991, and served on the editorial board for the Journal of Music Theory Pedagogy from 2005-2010. He has been president of the West Coast Conference of Music Theory and Analysis since 2003, and has helped determine their programs for numerous meetings. He has also served on program committees for the Rocky Mountain Society for Music Theory.