I first met music theorist Li Qing in November 2022 when she attended a series of online lectures and classes that I gave for Xinghai Conservatory in Guangzhou, China. A few months later, she reached out to me about using two of my song cycles for her graduate research. I was grateful for her interest in my music (and Emily Dickinson’s poetry!), and I found our many subsequent conversations fascinating because, as has often been the case throughout music history, theory was following practice. What I heard and wrote was . . . what I heard and wrote! She was analyzing my work and putting it in context with the harmonic practices of our time. Now, two years later, I want to congratulate Li Qing on the successful defense of her thesis and the completion of her Master of Arts degree.
The title of Li Qing’s thesis:
拉里· 艾伦 ·史密斯两部声乐套曲中的后调性音乐技法研究
Studies in Post-Tonal Techniques in Two Vocal Cycles by Larry Alan Smith
The thesis will be published by CNKI (China National Knowledge Infrastructure). Click here for the CNKI website.
Recordings of the two LAS/Dickinson song cycles can be found at the following link.
Li Qing received the following degree from South China University of Technology in Guangzhou, China.
作曲与作曲技术理论和声方向艺术学硕士
Master of Arts in Composition and Composition Technology Theory (Harmony)
For my original October 2023 post about Li Qing’s thesis plans, click here.
I believe that Li Qing is a music theorist with a very bright future, and I look forward to following her career during the coming years.
Larry Alan Smith 