Peter Martens

Peter Martens is Assistant Professor of Music Theory at Texas Tech University. Dr. Martens holds a B.M. in Music Education and a B.A. in Classics from Lawrence University, and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in the History and Theory of Music from the University of Chicago. In his dissertation "Beat-Finding, Listener Strategies, and Music Meter," Dr. Martens combines research models from music theory and music psychology to pursue the elemental but complicated question of where listeners locate the main beat in music. He finds that this behavior is governed by a combination of individual, performed, and musico-structural factors, and constructs a model for beat-finding that reflects this shared basis. He has presented this blend of music theory, music cognition, and performance analysis to organizations such the Society for Music Theory (SMT), the European Society for the Cognitive Sciences of Music (ESCOM), and the International Conference on Music Perception and Cognition (ICMPC). Dr. Martens' research interests include rhythm and meter in popular music, questions of perception in the recorded legacy of pianist Glenn Gould, and the texts and personalities of the 16th- and 17th-century German Lateinschule traditon.

To contact Dr. Martens, please email peter.martens@ttu.edu