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<div style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; ">Dear Dimitar,</div>
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<div style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; ">I too strongly endorse the idea that those teaching music theory, analysis, composition, etc., have the best academic, performance and skills training possible. They should be expert in the history
of our discipline yet at the same time visionaries, always looking forward to new, best practices. They should have a vast understanding of the repertoire, and not merely the common practice, but the remarkable repertoire from Dufay to Dutilleux, and further
(since Prof. Dutilleux passed away four months ago). The teacher should be creative and compelling in the classroom, sensitive yet rigorous, and available outside of class to provide help and enrichment for all levels of students. </div>
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<div style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; ">However, several practical obstacles stand in the way, three of which I'll mention:</div>
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<div style="font-size: 14px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Calibri,sans-serif">1. Many schools have but one professional music theorist (i.e., a "specialist") on its faculty. Given this common situation, s/he will be saddled with basic, more general
classes: fundamentals of music, music appreciation, first and second year written theory and aural skills (sight singing, conducting, dictation, etc.) , one or more upper level courses (form and analysis, counterpoint, etc.), keyboard proficiency classes,
etc. It would be, then, quite difficult for the "</font><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Consolas; font-size: medium; ">disciplines of harmony, counterpoint and musical form [to] emerge on their own right, freed from the umbrella of a generalized
theory sequence, and taught creatively by professors who have specialized in each of these disciplines." </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium; ">Further, given the trajectory of music theory in the past 30 years, specialists must
necessarily focus their research on areas that expand the field, whether it be semiotics, mathematics, philosophy, cognition and perception, and any number of important and emerging areas, areas fertile for publication, but not particularly applicable to undergraduate
teaching, especially given what many in the field now view as the rise of students entering schools as music majors with less background than even ten years ago. Remediation has become a common term in music theory circles.</span></div>
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<div style="font-size: 14px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium; ">2. Many schools do not enjoy the presence of even one professional music theorist. All theory and aural skills classes are taught by the applied faculty, those who play
and teach their instrument at an artist's level, but who have little background in music theory save for two years of undergraduate work and the occasional one or two graduate courses in the analysis of tonal and post-tonal music. They teach in theory and
aural skills classrooms in order to fill out their full-time faculty loads. Thus, those folks who </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Consolas; ">can "harmonize all kinds of melodies, play harmonic progressions and modulations idiomatically,
work out skillfully canonic sequences in invertible counterpoint, and analyze musical forms creatively, going beyond the limitations imposed in most books." a</span>re sadly few and far between. Rather, these teachers are filled with a sense of success when
their students write IV to V in four voices and in E minor without parallel fifths or octaves (although in all likelihood, ^7 will not be raised to create a leading tone in V). </div>
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<div style="font-size: 14px; ">3. Finally, I would hope that theory teachers be much more than a specialist, especially in an area that isn't even offered at their institution. I would hope that music theory faculty are able to demonstrate concepts fluently
on an instrument, teach model composition, analyze creatively and powerfully, unearthing the connection between analysis and performance, write a fugue, take dictation with ease, sight sing fluently in at least four clefs, explain hexachordal combinatoriality
effortlessly and musically to mediocre students, and all of the rest that is required to provide a full
<i>musical</i> education. I'm not for one second speaking of "jacks of all trades but masters of none" but rather a complete, functioning and flexible musician, able to negotiate the myriad requirements imposed on today's faculty. The 18th century conservatoire
model that you espouse ("<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Consolas; ">The most important factor here is the realization that a theory teacher will become a professor of harmony, or a professor of counterpoint or a professor of musical analysis
- he/she does not have to cover all of those disciplines at a dilettante level, but specialize in one of them and bring real professionalism to the school!")</span>while laudable, is today not feasible.</div>
<div style="font-size: 14px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium; "><br>
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<div style="font-size: 14px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium; ">I too believe in deep knowledge and expertise, but the person who can move deftly from such a variety of crucial activities I list in #3 above is, at least in my opinion,
worthy of praise: any school would consider such a person a real asset to their faculty.</span></div>
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<div style="font-size: 14px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium; "><br>
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<div style="font-size: 14px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium; ">Steve Laitz</span></div>
<div style="font-size: 14px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium; ">Professor, Music Theory</span></div>
<div style="font-size: 14px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium; ">Eastman School of Music</span></div>
<div style="font-size: 14px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium; ">University of Rochester</span></div>
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