Society for Music Theory Archives

The Society for Music Theory (SMT) promotes music theory as both a scholarly and a pedagogical discipline. SMT has a membership of over 1200 music theorists worldwide. SMT was founded in 1977 out of the American Musicological Society by Richmond Browne, Allen Forte, and others who believed that Music Theory was not adequately respected as a subject and should be taught by theorists instead of musicologists, performers, or composers. The first SMT meeting was held in Evanston in 1977. The Society has held an Annual Meeting hosted by a different University every year at which members present analytical and pedagogical research. The SMT publishes a twice-annual journal, The Music Theory Spectrum, and a Newsletter. This collection contains personal papers from past Presidents, Secretaries and Treasurers, papers from the Executive Board meetings, By-laws and business office papers, membership materials, Newsletters and Music Theory Spectrum along with Editors’ Papers, Committee correspondence and reports, correspondence with other related organizations, and papers and ephemera from Annual Meetings.