Vincent Perez Benitez, Jr.

Assistant Professor of Music Theory

The Pennsylvania State University

225 Music Building I

University Park, PA 16802

(814) 863-5392 (office)

vpb2@psu.edu

http://www.music.psu.edu/prospective/faculty/theoryfac.html#benitez

   

Education

Ph.D., Music Theory, Indiana University (August 2001)

 

D.M.A., Organ Performance, Arizona State University (August 1985)

M.M., Theory and Composition, Arizona State University (August 1985)

M.M., Organ Performance, University of North Texas (May 1982)

B.M., Organ Performance, magna cum laude, University of North Texas (May 1980)

Applied Organ Study: Marilyn Keiser, Larry Smith, Michael Corzine, Robert Clark, Charles   

        Brown, and Donald Willing

Publications

Books:

Messiaen’s Saint François d’Assise: Musical Language and Dramatic Design (in progress).

The Words and Music of Paul McCartney: The Solo Years. Praeger Singer-Songwriter Collection.

        Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers, (forthcoming, 2010).

Olivier Messiaen: A Research and Information Guide.  Routledge Music Bibliographies. New

        York and London: Routledge, 2008. xvi, 337 p. ISBN10: 0-415-97372-4.

Book Chapters:

“Messiaen and Aquinas.” In Messiaen the Theologian, ed. Andrew Shenton. Aldershot, Hants,

        England, and Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2009 (forthcoming).

“Narrating Saint Francis’s Spiritual Journey: Referential Pitch Structures and Symbolic Images in

        Olivier Messiaen’s Saint François d’Assise.” In Poznan Studies on Opera. Vol. 4, Theories

        of Opera, ed. Maciej Jablonski, 363-411. Poznan, Poland: Publishing House of the Poznan

        Society for the Advancement of the Arts and Sciences, Section of Music and Fine Arts,

        Publication of the Committee for Musicology, vol. 16, 2004.

Articles:

“Messiaen as Improviser.” Dutch Journal of Music Theory 13, no. 2 (2008): 129-44.

“Aspects of Harmony in Messiaen’s Later Music: An Examination of the Chords of Transposed

        Inversions on the Same Bass Note.” Journal of Musicological Research 23, no. 2 (April-June

        2004): 187-226.

“Simultaneous Contrast and Additive Designs in Olivier Messiaen’s Opera Saint François

        d’Assise.” Music Theory Online 8.2 (August 2002).

“A Creative Legacy: Messiaen as Teacher of Analysis.” College Music Symposium 40 (2000):

        117-39.

“Twentieth-Century Musical Concepts and the Music of the Beatles.” GAMUT 9 (1999): 91-104.

“Bach's Toccata and Fugue In D Minor BWV 538: A Rhythmic/Metric Perspective.” The

        American Organist (March 1991): 56-58.

“The Foundation of a Scientific Theory of Music” (third author; in collaboration with Michael H.

        McLarty and William H. Braun). Psychological Record 40 (Fall 1990): 491-504.

“Rhythm and Meter in Buxtehude's Toccata in D Minor BuxWV 155.” Diapason (July 1989):

        14-16.

“Musical-Rhetorical Figures in the Orgelbüchlein of J. S. Bach.” Bach 18, no. 1 (January 1987):

        3-21.

Book Reviews:

Review of Peter Hill and Nigel Simeone’s Olivier Messiaen: Oiseaux exotiques (Aldershot, UK

        and Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2007). MLA Notes (June 2008): 743-45.

Review of Björn Heile’s The Music of Mauricio Kagel (Aldershot, UK and Burlington, VT:

        Ashgate, 2006). MLA Notes (December 2007): 298-300.

Review of Messiaen’s Language of Mystical Love, ed. Siglind Bruhn (New York and London:

        Garland Publishing, Inc., 1998). MLA Notes (December 1999): 424-26.

Review of Benito V. Rivera’s Translation of Joachim Burmeister’s Musica Poetica 1606 (New

        Haven: Yale University Press, 1993). Indiana Theory Review 18, no. 1 (Spring 1997): 97-114.

Review of E. Thomas Glasow’s Translation of Olivier Messiaen: Music and Color: Conversations

        with Claude Samuel (Portland, OR: Amadeus Press, 1994).  Indiana Theory Review 17, no. 2

        (Fall 1996): 93-102.

Lectures

International (refereed):

“Music as Incantation: An Examination of André Jolivet’s Influence on Olivier Messiaen.”

        International Conference of Messiaen Studies, The University of Southern Queensland,    

        Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia, March 31, 2008; Messiaen 2008 International Centenary

        Conference, UCE Birmingham Conservatoire, Birmingham, England, June 21, 2008.

“The Fusion of the Philosophies of Saint Thomas Aquinas and Henri Bergson in Olivier

        Messiaen’s Theology of Time.” Boston University Conference, “Messiaen the Theologian,”    

        October 12, 2007.

“Messiaen as Improviser.” Ninth International Conference of the Dutch-Flemish Society for Music

        Theory, Prince Claus Conservatoire, Groningen, The Netherlands, February 24, 2007.

“Understanding Messiaen as Serialist: Theological Time and Its Musical Expression through

        Number.” Fourth Biennial International Conference on Twentieth-Century Music (member of

        a special Messiaen panel with Stephen Broad, Christopher Dingle, and Nigel Simeone),

        University of Sussex, Brighton, England, August 25, 2005; Dublin International Conference

        on Musical Analysis, University College Dublin, Ireland, June 25, 2005; Third Annual

        Conference of the Society for Musicology in Ireland, University College Cork, Ireland, May

        8, 2005.

“Aspects of Harmony in Messiaen’s Later Music: An Examination of the Chords of Transposed

        Inversions on the Same Bass Note.” 14th Nordic Musicological Congress, Sibelius Academy,

        Helsinki, Finland, August 13, 2004.

“Narrating Saint Francis’s Spiritual Journey: Pitch Structures and Symbolic Images in Messiaen’s

        Saint François d’Assise.”  International Conference of the College Music Society, University

        of Limerick, Limerick, Ireland, July 7, 2001.

“Simultaneous Contrast and Additive Pitch Designs in Messiaen’s Saint François d’Assise.” 

        OXMAC 2000, University of Oxford, Oxford, England, September 23, 2000.

National (refereed):

“The Influence of Saint Thomas Aquinas’s Summa Theologiae on the Compositional Aesthetic of

        Olivier Messiaen.” Forum on Music and Christian Scholarship, Yale Institute of Sacred

        Music, New Haven, Connecticut, March 10, 2007.

“Timbre as Religious Symbol in Olivier Messiaen’s Opera Saint François d’Assise.”  Forum on

        Music and Christian Scholarship, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, February 18,

        2005; Thirty-Seventh Annual Contemporary Music Festival, Indiana State University, Terra

        Haute, Indiana, October 31, 2003.

“Simultaneous Contrast and Additive Pitch Designs in Messiaen’s Saint François d’Assise.”

        Twenty-Second Annual New Music & Art Festival, Bowling Green State University, Bowling

        Green, Ohio, October 18, 2001; National Meeting of the College Music Society, Toronto,

        Ontario, November 4, 2000.

“Twentieth-Century Musical Concepts and the Music of the Beatles.” National Meeting of the

        Society for Music Theory, Phoenix, Arizona, October 31, 1997.

Regional (refereed):

“Pop Pedagogy in the Twenty-First Century: Teaching the Music of the Beatles to

        Millennials” (co-authored with Randal Baier). Twentieth Regional Conference of the Great

        Lakes Chapter of the College Music Society, Western Kentucky University, Bowling Green,

        Kentucky, April 2, 2005.

“Aspects of Harmony in Messiaen’s Later Music: An Examination of the Chords of Transposed

        Inversions on the Same Bass Note.” Mid-Atlantic Society for Music Theory, Temple

        University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, March 26, 2004.

“Exploring Messiaen's Later Harmonic Language: An Examination of Three Non-Modal Chord

        Types in Saint François d'Assise.” Rocky Mountain Society for Music Theory, University of

        Colorado, Boulder, April 19, 2002; South-Central Society for Music Theory, Louisiana State

        University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, February 22, 2002; Texas Society for Music Theory,

        University of Texas at Austin, February 16, 2002.

“A Creative Legacy: Messiaen as Teacher of Analysis.” GAMUT, Georgia State University,

        Atlanta, GA, April 24, 1999; South-Central Chapter of the American Musicological Society,

        University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky, March 26, 1999; South-Central Society for

        Music Theory, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, March 12, 1999; Texas Society

        for Music Theory, University of North Texas, Denton, Texas, March 5, 1999.

“Motives and Musical Structure: An Analysis of the Last Movement of the String Quartet in C

        Minor of Johannes Brahms.” Great Plains Chapter of the College Music Society, University

        of Missouri at Columbia, April 10, 1992.

“Musical Style and Dramatic Meaning in the Wolf's Glen Scene of Weber's Der Freischütz.”

        South-Central Chapter of the College Music Society, University of Central Arkansas,

        Conway, Arkansas, April 12, 1991; South-Central Society for Music Theory, University of

        Arkansas at Fayetteville, March 1, 1991.

“Rhetoric and the Music of Johann Sebastian Bach.” Southeastern American Society for

        Eighteenth-Century Studies, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, March 2, 1990. 

“Rhythm and Meter in Buxtehude's Toccata in D Minor BuxWV 155.” Southwest Chapter of the

        American Musicological Society, Rice University, Houston, Texas, April 8, 1989.

“Musical-Rhetorical Figures in the Orgelbüchlein of J. S. Bach.” Central Gulf Music Theory

        Society (currently South-Central Society for Music Theory), University of Southwestern

        Louisiana, Lafayette, Louisiana, March 25, 1989.

Invited/Campus:

“Olivier Messiaen: Composer-Organist, Man of Faith.” Pre-Concert Lecture for an all-Messiaen

        organ concert by Jon Gillock. Worship Hall, Pasquerilla Spiritual Center, The Pennsylvania

        State University, University Park, PA, April 15, 2008.

“The Influence of Saint Thomas Aquinas’s Summa Theologiae on the Compositional Aesthetic of

        Olivier Messiaen.” Institute for the Arts and Humanities, Fall 2006 Faculty Lecture Series,

        The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, November 14, 2006. 

“Music that Transports Us to God: Tonalities and Religious Symbolism in Olivier Messiaen’s

        Opera Saint François d’Assise.” Franciscan University, Steubenville, Ohio, April 20, 2001. 

 

“Musical-Rhetorical Figures in the Orgelbüchlein of J. S. Bach.” St. Joseph Chapter of the

        American Guild of Organists, First Presbyterian Church, St. Joseph, Missouri, September 16,

        1990.

Chair, Paper Sessions

“Rethinking the Compositional Language of Olivier Messiaen.” 2008 Annual Meeting of the

        American Musicological Society, Nashville, TN, November 6-9, 2008. Authored a formal

        session proposal that was accepted in its entirety. Panelists include: Andrew Shenton, Boston

        University; Christoph Neidhofer, McGill University; Wai Ling Cheong, Chinese University of

        Hong Kong; and Robert Fallon, Bowling Green State University.

“Teacher Education: Tutoring, Technology, and Techniques,” CMS International Conference at

        the University of Limerick, Ireland, July 10, 2001.

New Music and Art Festival, BGSU, October 10, 1998.

Moderator, “The Arts,” Third Annual Latino Issues Conference, BGSU, April 25, 1997. New

        Music and Art Festival, BGSU, October 5, 1996.