School of Music alum wins major music theory prize

Matthew Boyle, an alumnus of the Hugh Hodgson School of Music, recently earned one of the most prestigious awards for emerging scholars in the field of music theory, the David Kraehenbuehl Prize.

Boyle (BMus, Music Theory, 2009), now a doctoral student at Indiana University, and Paul Sherrill’s article “Galant Recitative Schemas” was judged to be the best article published by non-tenured scholars in the Journal of Music Theory, which awards the Kraehenbuehl Prize biennially.

“The Journal of Music Theory is our field’s premier journal,” said Adrian Childs, area chair of Music Composition and Theory at the School of Music. “This awarding of the Kraehenbuehl Prize is all the more noteworthy because the authors are still doctoral students.”

The pair received a $2,000 cash award for their achievement. Their article can be found in volume 59 of the journal.

“Thanks to the work of Sherrill and Boyle, we’ll be listening to recitatives more carefully at the next opportunity,” the selection committee wrote. “Their very readable account provides an immediately useful typology of recitative gestures.”

The David Kraehenbuehl Prize, named for the founding editor of the Journal of Music Theory, was established in 2008.

The UGA Hugh Hodgson School of Music is a rising national leader in musical education and performance. With over 300 undergraduate and 200 graduate students, the School of Music trains the music performers, educators, scholars, composers and therapists of tomorrow with world-class facilities, unparalleled instruction and hundreds of performance opportunities each year.