Thomas Patteson is a writer, teacher, and musician specializing in the experimental, and electronic traditions of music since 1900. His research explores how new techniques, technologies, and forms of musical expression reflect the conditions of contemporary society and shape our experience of living in the modern world.
Before joining the Musical Studies faculty at the Curtis Institute of Music in 2013, Thomas studied at New College of Florida (BA, 2004), the Universität zu Köln (Fulbright Scholar, 2005), and at the University of Pennsylvania (PhD, 2013). His book Instruments for New Music was published in 2016 by the University of California Press under their open-access program, Luminos. A contribution to the history of electronic and experimental music, the book explores the musical, social, and political ramifications of sound technologies developed in Germany during the Weimar Republic. Instruments for New Music received the 2017 Lewis Lockwood Award from the American Musicological Society, which recognizes "a musicological book of exceptional merit produced by a scholar in the early stages of their career."
Other publications include the article "Player Piano" for Oxford Handbooks Online and translations of German writers Carl Dahlhaus and Theodor Adorno for the Oxford Handbook of Timbre (forthcoming). An avid supporter of the digital humanities, Thomas is the author of the music blog Acousmata and co-curator of an online archive of speculative organology, the Museum of Imaginary Musical Instruments. Beyond his scholarly work, Thomas is an associate curator at Bowerbird, and has collaborated with groups such as <fidget>, Philadelphia Sound Forum, Data Garden, and Network for New Music. He has also given numerous talks and presentations for general audiences.
Thomas' current research project (working title: Sound/Systems) investigates the history of compositional attempts to bypass or transcend subjectivity, from constraints and algorithms to improvisation and chance procedures. Other major areas of interest include synthesizer culture, cybernetics, and alternative education.
Before joining the Musical Studies faculty at the Curtis Institute of Music in 2013, Thomas studied at New College of Florida (BA, 2004), the Universität zu Köln (Fulbright Scholar, 2005), and at the University of Pennsylvania (PhD, 2013). His book Instruments for New Music was published in 2016 by the University of California Press under their open-access program, Luminos. A contribution to the history of electronic and experimental music, the book explores the musical, social, and political ramifications of sound technologies developed in Germany during the Weimar Republic. Instruments for New Music received the 2017 Lewis Lockwood Award from the American Musicological Society, which recognizes "a musicological book of exceptional merit produced by a scholar in the early stages of their career."
Other publications include the article "Player Piano" for Oxford Handbooks Online and translations of German writers Carl Dahlhaus and Theodor Adorno for the Oxford Handbook of Timbre (forthcoming). An avid supporter of the digital humanities, Thomas is the author of the music blog Acousmata and co-curator of an online archive of speculative organology, the Museum of Imaginary Musical Instruments. Beyond his scholarly work, Thomas is an associate curator at Bowerbird, and has collaborated with groups such as <fidget>, Philadelphia Sound Forum, Data Garden, and Network for New Music. He has also given numerous talks and presentations for general audiences.
Thomas' current research project (working title: Sound/Systems) investigates the history of compositional attempts to bypass or transcend subjectivity, from constraints and algorithms to improvisation and chance procedures. Other major areas of interest include synthesizer culture, cybernetics, and alternative education.
