The Role of Music Theory in Music Production and Engineering

• Main Author: Wiederkehr, George
• Other Authors: Boss, Jack
• Language: en_US
• Published: University of Oregon 2016
• Subjects: Music; Music engineering; Music production; Music theory; Production; Recording
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1794/19679

Due to technological advancements, the role of the musician has changed dramatically in the 20th and 21st centuries. For the composer or songwriter especially, it is becoming increasingly expected for them to have some familiarity with music production and engineering, so that they are able to provide a finished product to employers, clients, or listeners. One goal of a successful production or engineered recording is to most effectively portray the recorded material. Music theory, and specifically analysis, has the ability to reveal important or expressive characteristics in a musical work. The relationship between musical analysis and production is explored to discover how music analysis can provide a more effective and informed musical production or recording and how a consideration of music production elements, notably timbre and instrumentation, can help to better inform a musical analysis. Two supplemental MP3 files are included with this thesis to demonstrate proposed mixing guidelines derived from the analysis.