About

I am associate professor of music history at the Hartt School at the University of Hartford in West Hartford, Connecticut. My main areas of focus are on late medieval notation, theory, and performance; medievalism; and contemporary pop music, jazz, and music in media such as film, television, and video games. Additionally, I am an active singer, performer, and conductor of both early and contemporary music.

Education

Ph.D, Duke University

M.M., Peabody Conservatory

B.A., Gettysburg College

Work Shared in CORE

Articles

Other Publications

Music Theory in Late Medieval Avignon: Magister Johannes Pipardi. Routledge, 2021.

 




“Ludomusicology: Normalizing the Study of Video Game Music.” Translation of “Ludomusicología: Normalizando el Estudio de la Música de los Videojuegos.” Juan Pablo Fernández-Cortés, originally published in Anuario Musical 75 (Jan–Dec 2020): 181–199. Journal of Sound and Music in Games 2, no. 4 (2021), 13–35. https://doi.org/10.1525/jsmg.2021.2.4.13 











Karen M. Cook, Julianne Grasso, Dana Plank, Matthew Thompson, and Ryan Thompson. “Introduction to Video Game Music.” Teaching the Game: A Collection of Syllabi for Game Design, Development, and Implementation, vols. 1–2, edited by Emily Baumgartner, Richard E. Ferdig, and Enrico Gandolfi, vol. 1, 92–116.  Pittsburgh, PA: ETC Press, 2021.

Review of Composing Community in Late Medieval Music: Self-Reference, Pedagogy, and Practice, by Jane D. Hatter (Cambridge University Press, 2019). Notes: Quarterly Journal of the Music Library Association 77, issue 4 (June 2021): 598–601.

“Workbook: The Medieval Period, Part 1: Monophonic Traditions.” A-R Online Musical Anthology, May 2021. https://www.armusicanthology.com/media/PDFs/02-Guides-Medieval1.pdf

“Workbook: The Medieval Period, Part 2: Polyphonic Traditions.” A-R Online Musical Anthology, May 2021. https://www.armusicanthology.com/media/PDFs/03-Guides-Medieval2.pdf

“Johannes Pipardi [Pipudi].” Grove Music Online. Dec 23, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1093/omo/9781561592630.013.90000315354

Review of Karen Desmond, Music and the Moderni, 1300-1350: The Ars Nova in Theory and Practice (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018). Theoria 26 (2020): 141–44.

Review of Unlimited Replays: Video Games and Classical Music, William Gibbons (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018) and Bits and Pieces: A History of Chiptunes, Kenneth B. McAlpine (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018). Sound Studies (June 2020). https://doi.org/10.1080/20551940.2020.1776922

“Whose Music? Questions of Representation in the Early Music Survey,” Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Teaching (SMART) 27, no. 2 (2020): 41–52.

“ Visible and Invisible Impairments in Images of Medieval Musicians,” in The Medieval Disability Sourcebook, edited by Cameron Hunt McNabb, 476-84. New York: punctum books, 2020.

“Gaming the Medievalist World in Harry Potter,” in The Oxford Handbook of Medievalism in Music, edited by Kirsten Yri and Stephen Meyer, 750-63. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020. Also published online as part of Oxford Handbooks Online, Mar 2020. doi: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190658441.013.45

“Canon Anxiety?” In “Colloquy: Canons of Game Music and Sound,” Karen M. Cook, William Gibbons, Julianne Grasso, and Hyeonjin Park, Journal of Sound & Music in Games 1, no. 1 (2020): 95–99.

“Medievalism and Emotions in Video Game Music.” postmedieval 10, no. 4 (Dec 2019): 482–497.

Review of The Montpellier Codex: The Final Fascicle, Contents, Contexts, Chronologies, edited by Catherine A. Bradley and Karen Desmond (Boydell Press, 2018). Notes: Quarterly Journal of the Music Library Association (2019): 250-53.

“ ‘The Things I Do For Lust …’: Humor and Subversion in The Bard’s Tale (2004),” in Music in the Role-Playing Game: Heroes & Harmonies, edited by William Gibbons and Steven Reale, 21–34. New York: Routledge, 2019.

“Beyond (the) Halo: Plainchant in Video Games,” in Studies in Medievalism XXVII: Authenticity, Medievalism, Music, edited by Karl Fugelso, 183–200. Suffolk, UK: Boydell & Brewer, 2018.

“1378: Music at the Start of the Schism,” EMAg: The Magazine of Early Music America 24, no. 3 (Sept. 2018): 30–34.

“Nicolaus de Aversa, Frater.” Grove Music Online. September 28, 2018. http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-3000000135

James Cook and Karen M. Cook. “Medievalism and Music.” In Oxford Bibliographies in Music. Edited by Bruce Gustafson. New York: Oxford University Press, March 2018. doi: 10.1093/obo/9780199757824-0241

“John Dunstaple,” A-R Online Musical Anthology, 2018. http://www.armusicanthology.com/anthology/ViewerPlus.aspx?=1&music_id=784 [log-in required]

Karen M. Cook and Carol Williams, “New Light on Frater Nicolaus de Aversa: His Plainchant Treatise in LHD 244.” Musica Disciplina 60 (2015, pub. 2017): 115–148.

“Beyond the Grave: The ‘Dies irae’ in Video Games,” Sounding Out! https://soundstudiesblog.com/2017/12/18/beyond-the-grave-the-dies-irae-in-video-game-music, Dec 18, 2017.

“Cantigas de Santa Maria.” A-R Online Musical Anthology, 2017. http://www.armusicanthology.com/anthology/ViewerPlus.aspx?=1&music_id=745 [log-in required]

“Comtessa (Beatriz?) de Dia.” A-R Online Musical Anthology, 2017. http://www.armusicanthology.com/anthology/ViewerPlus.aspx?=1&music_id=746 [log-in required]

“Teaching the Pre-Modern Post-Inauguration.” Guest blog post, MassMedieval: MASSachusetts State Universities Medieval Blog, Feb 1, 2017. https://massmedieval.com/2017/02/01/teaching-the-pre-modern-post-inauguration

Review of The Art of Grafted Song: Citation and Allusion in the Age of Machaut, by Yolanda Plumley (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014). Ars Lyrica 24 (2015, pub. 2017): 75–78.

Review of The Musica of Hermannus Contractus, ed. and trans. Leonard Ellinwood, rev. and new introduction by John L. Snyder (Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press, 2015). Francia- Recensio, 2017. http://www.perspectivia.net/publikationen/francia/francia-recensio/2017- 1/ma/ellinwood_cook.

Review of The ‘Ars musica’ Attributed to Magister Lambertus/Aristoteles, ed.Christian Meyer and trans. Karen Desmond (Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2015). Theoria 22 (2015): 189–94.

“Text Mining and Early Music: Using Lexomics in Research.” Early Music (Winter 2015): 1–6.

“A New Reading of Binchois’s ‘Mon seul et souverain desir.’ ” Plainsong & Medieval Music 24, issue 2 (Oct. 2015): 167–88.

“Music, History, and Progress in Sid Meier’s Civilization IV,” in Music and Video Games: Studying Play, edited by K. J. Donnelly, William Gibbons, and Neil Lerner, 166–82. New York: Routledge, 2014.





Blog Posts

    Projects

    Non Est Minimo Dare Minus: The Fracturing of Rhythm in the Late Medieval Period. Monograph.

     

     

    Upcoming Talks and Conferences

    “Playing with Fire (and Other Natural Disasters): The Sounds of Climate Change in Sid Meier’s Civilization VI: Gathering Storm (revised),” Responses in Music to Climate Change, The Graduate Center (CUNY), Oct 2021.

    Memberships

    American Musicological Society

    AMS: New England Chapter

    AMS: Ludomusicology Study Group

    AMS: Music & Media Study Group

    AMS: Popular Music Study Group

    Society for Music Theory

    AMS/SMT: Early Music Analysis Interest Group

    AMS/SMT: History of Music Theory Interest Group

    New England Conference of Music Theorists

    Medieval Academy of America

    TEAMS: Teaching Association for Medieval Studies

    Society for Medieval Feminist Scholarship

    International Machaut Society

    Society for American Music

    International Association for the Study of Popular Music

    The Society for the Study of Sound and Music in Games

    American Recorder Society

    Sigma Alpha Iota

     

    Karen Cook

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