James Baker, Professor of Music, has taught at Brown since 1983. He is Chair of the Department of Music, and served earlier in this position from 1991 to 1996. He received the B.A. from Yale University, with majors in Intensive English and Music Theory, and earned the Ph.D. at Yale in Music Theory. He has taught at the University of Virginia, Columbia University, and Yale, and has served as Editor of Music Theory Spectrum and the Journal of Music Theory. He was elected the first President of the New England Conference of Music Theorists. Baker's scholarship, which deals with theory and analysis of tonal and posttonal music, has been supported by fellowships from the American Council of Learned Societies and the National Endowment for the Humanities. His publications include The Music of Alexander Scriabin (New Haven, 1986), Music Theory in Concept and Practice (coedited with Jonathan Bernard and David Beach, Rochester, 1997), and numerous articles on music by such diverse composers as Mozart, Haydn, Liszt, Ives, and Webern. He teaches courses on harmony and voice leading in tonal music, analytical approaches to twentieth-century music, and analysis and performance.
