Julian L. Hook
Associate Professor of Music (Music Theory); Chair, Department of Music Theory
Contact Information:
juhook
[at]
indiana [dot] edu
(juhook@indiana.edu)
Simon Center, M225H
Department
Education
- Ph.D. in Music Theory, Indiana University, 2002
- Ph.D. in Mathematical Logic, Princeton University, 1983
- M.M. in Piano Performance, Indiana University, 1997
- M.Arch. in Architecture, University of Illinois, 1989
Biography
Julian ("Jay") Hook is associate professor and chair of the Department of Music Theory at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, where he has taught since 2003. His research involves transformational theory and other mathematical approaches to the study of musical structure.
Hook's article "Uniform Triadic Transformations," published in the Journal of Music Theory, won the Society for Music Theory's Emerging Scholar Award in 2005. His other publications, appearing in Music Theory Spectrum, Music Theory Online, Perspectives of New Music, Intégral, Science, and elsewhere, range from broad surveys of mathematical music theory to a review article on David Lewin's books, a tutorial on combinatorics and enumeration in music theory, studies of works by Messiaen and Webern, several studies involving the mathematical basis of key signatures and enharmonic equivalence, and a recent article titled "How to Perform Impossible Rhythms," published online with audio examples recorded by Hook at the piano.
He is currently writing a book titled Musical Spaces and Transformations. He has presented papers at conferences of the Society for Music Theory, the American Mathematical Society, the Society for Mathematics and Computation in Music, and other organizations.
Hook holds advanced degrees in mathematics, architecture, and piano performance, as well as music theory. He has taught mathematics at Florida International University in Miami and music theory at Penn State University. He has also has worked as an architect and structural engineer in Chicago, and has performed chamber music on several occasions with members of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
As a graduate student at Indiana University, he won a piano concerto competition and received an award for outstanding teaching. He served for six years as reviews editor of the Journal of Mathematics and Music, and for two years as president of Music Theory Midwest.
In 2010-11, he was the recipient of a sabbatical fellowship from the American Philosophical Society.