Rosa Abrahams

Associate Professor, Music Theory & Cognition, Department Chair

she/her/hers

Dr. Abrahams’s research is interdisciplinary, centering around analytical approaches to oral tradition musics and the integration of music analysis and ethnographic methods. She works primarily with embodied musical experiences in Jewish and Greek Orthodox liturgical settings, as well as studying embodiment in music theory pedagogy, music cognition, and music philosophy. She has published research in the Analytical Approaches to World Music journal, the Journal of Music Theory Pedagogy, and the edited collection, Expanding the Canon: Black Composers in the Music Theory Classroom. Dr. Abrahams is currently co-authoring a new undergraduate music theory textbook, under contract and forthcoming with W.W. Norton, tentatively titled The Engaged Musician: Theory and Analysis for the 21st Century.

Dr. Abrahams has presented at conferences in the United States and abroad, including the Society for Music Theory, the Society for Ethnomusicology, the Analytical Approaches to World Music International Conferences, the International Association for the Study of Popular Music (US and Canada), the Music Theory Society of the Mid-Atlantic, and “Magnified & Sanctified”: the first International Academic Conference on the Music of Jewish Prayer. She serves as an associate editor for the Analytical Approaches to World Music journal and as coordinator for the Jewish Musics Analysis Group.

Dr. Abrahams holds a Ph.D. and an M.Mus. in music theory and cognition from Northwestern University, and a B.Mus. in music theory from the Eastman School of Music, University of Rochester.

Department

Music

Degrees

B.Mus., Eastman School of Music, University of Rochester

M.Mus., Northwestern University

Ph.D., Northwestern University

Publications

Abrahams, Rosa. 2022. “Structural Shifts and Identity in Music by Ester Rada.” Expanding the Canon: Black Composers in the Music Theory Classroom: 201-211.

Abrahams, Rosa. 2021. “Rethinking Music Literacy in the Undergraduate Theory Core.” Journal of Music Theory Pedagogy 35, no.1: 2.

Abrahams, Rosa. 2019. “Mimicry as Music Analysis.” Analytical Approaches to World Music, Volume 7, No. 2.

Teaching

Music Theory & Aural Musicianship

Music Cognition

Music & Movement

What is Music?

Related News

An Analytical Toolkit for Music Theory and Jewish Liturgical Chant

When Assistant Professor of Music Rosa Abrahams began studying music theory, Jewish liturgical music—which she calls her “musical home”—was not reflected in what she was learning because music theorists have typically engaged with music that is traditional, classical, and popular. She was fortunate enough to have a dissertation advisor in graduate school who encouraged her to study what she loved, so she started exploring Jewish music analysis.