SMT at 50: Notes, Queries, and a Plea for More (Topical) Analysis

This reflection begins by observing that the 1977 rupture between AMS and SMT was not as total as some accounts have implied. I then comment on the inevitable but somewhat problematic rise of interest groups, SMT's enduring structuralist priorities, and the practice of music analysis. I end by making a case for topical analysis, a mode of analysis that facilitates inquiry into both the structural and expressive dimensions of music.