The Engaged Musician is the first music theory book designed and written for the  21st century musician.

The Engaged Musician unfolds in four parts: foundations, analysis and composition (in two parts), and applications. Each chapter provides conceptual material presented alongside avenues of philosophical inquiry, music cognitive research, and a rich variety of musical examples from around the world. By engaging students in critical inquiry about music from the beginning of the book, the authors encourage analytical reasoning and writing skills that carry across the curricular sequence and that are useful beyond the music theory classroom. 

Rosa Abrahams (she/her/hers)

is an Associate Professor of Music at  Ursinus College, where she coordinates the music theory curriculum. Her research is interdisciplinary, centering around analytical approaches to oral-tradition musics and the integration of music analysis and ethnographic methods. She works primarily with embodied musical experiences in Jewish and Greek Orthodox liturgical settings, as well as studying embodiment in music theory pedagogy, music cognition, and music philosophy. 

Philip Ewell (he/him/his)

 is Professor of Music Theory at Hunter College of the City University of New York. His specialties include race studies in music, Russian opera, twentieth-century music theory, and African American music. He’s the author of On Music Theory, and Making Music More Welcoming for Everyone (UM Press), and the co-editor, with sociologist Joe Feagin, of the volume American Antiblackness (Routledge). He is the series editor for Theorizing African American Music (Oxford University Press), and the managing editor of the open-access peer-reviewed journal Black Music, in Theory (UM Press)

Cora S. Palfy (she/her/hers)

is visiting Associate Professor at Washington & Jefferson College, where she focuses pedagogical research on cultural inclusivity and antiracism in the classroom. Her music theoretical research interests are musical narrative, musical agency, music cognition, and the analysis of popular music. She is a singer with a background in jazz and opera training. 

Meet your marketing manager: Emily Erickson

Hi! I'm Emily. I've been working at W.W. Norton for the past five years. I have such an amazing position as the marketing manager for music. I collaborate with a highly creative, passionate team on exciting music projects across theory, appreciation, jazz, rock, and more.

I love meeting with instructors to hear about course challenges and the ever-evolving nature of teaching music to today’s high school and college students. I like to brainstorm how Norton music courseware solves these challenges.

When I'm not at work, I enjoy hiking in the Rockies, riding my bike around the small town that I live in, and finding new places to explore with my husband and two young boys. We all love music and often spin records and dance in our living room.