S02E29 - Norman Carey

Greenroom Conversations

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.