School of Music assistant professor, Paul Sherrill's article "Susanna's 'Deh vieni'" was published in the journal Music Theory Online, vol. 24 no. 4 (Dec. 2018). On Nov. 8, the American Musicological Society awarded Sherrill the Roland Jackson Award during its 2020 annual conference. The award recognizes an article "of exceptional merit in the field of music analysis."
It was open to all articles published in 2017-19 that analyzed music composed between 1600 and 1800. Each year the award recognizes an article from a rolling 3-year publication window; successive years consider analyses of music from different periods in music history.
"It's a tremendous honor to receive this award. Music theory sometimes has a reputation for being dry and technical. That's why, in my research about opera, I try to show what theory means in terms of how music can be performed and what emotions it expresses," said Sherrill.
"I would be absolutely delighted if the recognition this article received encourages more people—scholars, performers, and music lovers alike—to look more deeply into the connections between music theory and musical meaning, especially in opera."