Public Music Theory: An Introduction

Abstract This special issue of Music Theory Spectrum, including the five plenary talks from the 2023 Society for Music Theory annual conference, as well as eleven other essays, brings together a wide array of perspectives on public music theory. In addition to showing the many ways that people are doing public music theory today, these sixteen essays raise questions that extend far beyond the practice of public music theory and go to the heart of what it means to do music theory of any kind: What does it mean to be a music theorist? How can public music theory help us to be more effective communicators? And how can we do music theory in such a way as to break down barriers between “outsiders” and “insiders”?