Research and Lectures

Two Chapters in The Routledge Handbook of Pink Floyd

Publihsed in November 2022, the Routledge Handbook of Pink Floyd features two chapters that I wrote: a re-publication of my article about “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” and the stage theory of grief, which was published in Music Theory Spectrum in 2018 (full text is available here), and a new article that was invited for this book titled “Temporal Journey Through Pink Floyd’s Music.” The latter examines songs from Pink Floyd’s early days under Syd Barrett through their last formal release in 2014 and explores how the music interplays between dramatic, goal-oriented moments and elements that challenge standard time flow.

The Birth of a Song: Zoom Lecture Series (Hebrew)

איך מילים ולחן מתחברים? איך משפיעים כלי הנגינה על בניית האווירה של השיר? איך מוסיקה משקפת רגשות? איך שירים יכולים להביא מחאה? בסדרת מפגשים זו נבחן איך לחן ועיבוד יכולים לשקף, להדגיש ואף לשנות משמעויות בטקסט ולבנות תהליך רגשי מתחילת השיר ועד סופו. דרך הדגמות חיות ודיון בשירים של אריק איינשטיין, שלום חנוך, אחינועם ניני, מתי כספי, יוני רכטר, דני רובס, יהודית רביץ, טיפקס, הדג נחש ועוד, נבחן איך מלים, מנגינה, אקורדים, קצב, מרקם, סאונד וביצוע חוברים יחד ויוצרים שירים שנוגעים בנו ומרגשים אותנו.

הקלטה של מפגש ההיכרות בנושא מסע רגשי בשירים עבריים זמינה ביוטיוב בשלושה חלקים; לחצו לחלק הראשון
לרכישת הקלטות של ארבעת מפגשי הסדרה כתבו הודעה בטופס ההתקשרות

“The Shadow of Yesterday's Triumph”:
Pink Floyd’s “Shine On" and the Stage Theory of Grief

“The climax of ‘Shine On You Crazy Diamond’ is an instrumental phrase rather than a sung one: Once the slide guitar solo reaches its highest peak, a second guitar joins in, and together they wail parallel descending scales… The gradual climb of the guitar solo to the summit, joined by this intense fall, is Barrett’s story in a nutshell: a meteoric rise of a bright diamond, followed by his traumatic collapse.”

Read my full article about the emotional journey in “Shine On,” published in Music Theory Spectrum (Oxford University Press).

Lecture/concert at the 2014 Pink Floyd Conference at Princeton University (in English, with subtitles in English and Hebrew), which was the seed for this paper, including a live performance of my arrangement of “Shine On” for flute, clarinet, piano, and strings.

Expansive Form in “Dogs”

"In the theatre world, 'when the emotion becomes too strong for speech, you sing; when it becomes too strong for song, you dance.' In Pink Floyd’s music, when the emotion becomes too strong for singing, Gilmour takes a solo."

Read my full article about Pink Floyd’s 17-minute song "Dogs," including transcriptions of all guitar solos, published in Music Theory Online.

In Pink Floyd’s River, Time is Endless

Invited by and Published on The Conversation, 2014
Use this link for free access on The Conversation.

Pink Floyd’s last release to date, the 2014 albumThe Endless River evokes stasis and timelessness by gleaning material from the 1960s, the 1990s, and the 21st century; bridging between dead and living musicians; bringing back sounds, chords, and grooves from the past; and employing musical syntax that heavily relies on harmonic oscillation, motionless pondering, repeated textural tapestries, short melodic guitar fragments, and little melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic tension, all resulting in isolated pools of sound and groove that offer little sense of direction.

Zoom Lecture Series (Hebrew): Pink Floyd - Evolution of a Style

January-February 2021. info and registration
Video recordings of all sessions are available for purchase; use the contact form