Ellen Bakulina
Associate Professor
Ellen Bakulina specializes in the theories and analysis of tonal music: musical form, analysis of meter and rhythm, Schenkerian analysis, and issues of tonal pairing and late tonality. She also specializes in the music of Sergei Rachmaninoff. Ellen鈥檚 other area is the bridging of English-language and Russian-language music scholarship via translations and various forms of synthesis of these two scholarly traditions. Prior to joining 麻豆社 in 2022, she taught at the University of North Texas, Yale University, and Brooklyn College. She is currently (2026-27) serving as the MTSNYS program committee chair.
Degrees: PhD (City University of New York), MA and BMus (麻豆社), diploma in music theory pedagogy (College of the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory)
Courses taught: Form in Romantic Music (graduate seminar), Schenkerian Theory and Analysis, Analyzing Rachmaninoff, The Art of Harmonic Reduction, Undergraduate Theory I through IV.
Forthcoming publications:
Form in Rachmaninoff鈥檚 Piano Concertos. Monograph. Cambridge University Press. Publication planned in 2028.
Three translations with commentary in Thinking Music: Global Sources for the History of Music Theory (ed. Thomas Christensen, Carmel Raz, and Lester Hu). Chicago University Press. Two other translations with commentary by other authors (Philip Ewell and Zivar Guseinova) in the same volume will be edited by Bakulina.
鈥淭he In-Between Function: Inter-Movement Links in the Nineteenth-Century.鈥� Intersections, Canadian Journal of Music.
Selected publications:
鈥淓xtra measures in Rachmaninoff鈥檚 G-Minor Prelude, op. 23 no. 5.鈥� Theory and Practice 51. 2026.
鈥淭onal Pairing in Two of Rachmaninoff鈥檚 Songs.鈥� In Analytical Approaches to Russian Music, edited by Inessa Bazayev and Chris Segall. Routledge. 2021.
鈥淭he Loosening of Closure: A Form-Functional Study of Rachmaninoff鈥檚 Solo Songs.鈥� Theory and Practice 45. 2020.
鈥淭he Brigade Textbook: Disseminating the Riemannian Legacy in the Russian-Soviet Theoretical Tradition.鈥� Theoria 26: 85鈥�111. 2020.
鈥淧roto-harmony and the Problem of Tonal Centricity in Rachmaninoff鈥檚 All-Night Vigil.鈥� Int茅gral 32. 2018.
鈥淐anons as Hypermetrical Transitions in Mozart.鈥� Music Theory Online 23.4.2. 2017.
鈥淭onality and Mutability in Rachmaninoff鈥檚 All-Night Vigil, Movement 12.鈥� Journal of Music Theory 59. 2015.
鈥淭he Concept of Mutability in Russian Theory.鈥� Music Theory Online 20. 2014.
鈥淭he Loosening Role of Polyphony: Texture and Formal Functions in Mozart鈥檚 鈥楬aydn鈥� Quartets.鈥� Intersections 32. 2013.
