Dr. Uri Binyamin Rom

Uri B. Rom is head of the TAU Buchmann-Mehta School of Music, where he teaches music theory, musicology and conducting. He heads a TAU research group in quantitative musical research funded by the Israel Science Foundation.

Teaching

Music theory and analysis, conducting, harmony, improvisation, research seminars.

Biography

Uri B. Rom is an Israeli musicologist, composer and conductor. He studied conducting and music theory in Tel Aviv and Berlin. In 2011 he earned his PhD at the Humanities Faculty of Berlin’s Technical University summa cum laude, writing on the compositional significance of key choice in Mozart’s works. His compositions in original and historical styles and completion of fragments by Mozart have been published, and his oboe concerto in the style of the Venetian Baroque was recorded by the Berlin Academy for Ancient Music for harmonia mundi france (this CD was shortlisted for the Gramophone Award 2015 in the concerto category). His musical adaptation of Dante's La vita nova was commissioned by the Renaissance Theatre Berlin and premiered in Leverkusen and Berlin in 2010. His research interests encompass Formenlehre and corpus studies on musical form; structural implications of key choice in tonal music, form and expression in Mozart’s music, as well as advanced issues of chromatic harmony and enharmonicism. Between 1998 and 2009 he taught orchestral conducting at the Berlin University of the Arts. Since October 2011 he is Assistant Professor for Music Theory at the Buchmann-Mehta School of Music, Tel Aviv University. In 2017, Uri Rom received a three-year research grant from the Israeli Science Foundation to explore structural implications of key choice in tonal music and key-related compositional profiles.

Music theory and analysis, musical corpus studies, advanced chromatic harmony and enharmonicism, Formenlehre, key choice and structure in Mozart.

PhD dissertation:

Rom, U. B. (2011), Key-Related Aspects of Mozart’s Music with Particular Reference to his Instrumental (in German: Tonartbezogenes Denken in Mozarts Werken unter besonderer Berücksichtigung des Instrumentalwerks) [PhD, Berlin Technical University].

Articles in peer-reviewed journals:

Rom, U. B. (2009). An E-flat Major Motif? Interrelation between Motifs and Keys in Mozart’s Music (in German). Zeitschrift der Gesellschaft für Musiktheorie (ZGMTH), 6, 9–50.

Rom, U. B. (2016). Invited review: Matthew Riley, The Viennese Minor-Key Symphony in the Age of Haydn and Mozart (Oxford University Press, 2014). Music Theory and Analysis (MTA), 3(1), 103–113.

Rom, U. B. (2019). “To Gild Refined Gold,” or What Mozart Didn’t Want Us to Embellish. Music Theory and Analysis (MTA), 6(1), 50–87.

Rom, U. B., Raz, O., Chawin, D. (in press, 2021). The Mozart Expositional Punctuation Corpus: A Dataset of Interthematic Cadences in Mozart’s Sonata-Allegro Expositions. Empirical Musicology Review (EMR), in press.

Papers presented at scientific meetings published in proceedings:

Rom, U. B. (2007), “Mozart and the grief process: Interpreting the string quintet in G minor K.516,” in: Interpretare Mozart: Conveno Internationale di Studi, Milano, 19–21 Maggio 2006, ed. M. Dellaborra, G. Salvetti, C. Toscani, Lucca: Libreria Musicale Italiana, 381–387.

Manuscripts under revision in peer-reviewed journals:

Rom, U. B., and Rosset, S., Key-Related Idioms in Mozart’s Music: A Peek into his Creative Process? (under revision)

Rom, U. B., and Chawin, D., Sliding-Window Pitch-Class Histograms as a Means of Modeling Musical Form (under revision)

Database publication:

The Mozart Expositional Punctuation Corpus – symbolic dataset to be published alongside article accepted for publication in EMR (see above).

Publications of international conference & symposium abstracts:

Rom, U. B. (2011). Structural Deformation as a Token of Undercurrent Humor in Mozart’s Instrumental Rondos. 7^th European Music Analysis Conference. Rome, Sep. 29–Oct. 2, 2011.

Rom, U., B. and Rosset, S. (2011). Key-Related Idioms in Mozart’s Music: A Peek into his Creative Process? 34^th Annual Meeting of the American Society for Music Theory.  Minneapolis, Oct. 27–30, 2011.

Rom, U. B. (2012). Digression to the Parallel Major – Redemption, Facilitation or just a Harmonic faux pas? On the Status of a Harmonic Device in 18th Century Music Theory and Composition. Annual Congress of the German Society for Music Theory. Essen, Oct. 5–7, 2012.

Rom, U. (2014). The Pitfall of Diachronicity: ‘Explicit’ vs. ‘Implicit’ Musical Temporality. 8^th European Music Analysis Conference. Leuven, Sep. 17–20, 2014.

Rom, U. B. (2015). Towards an Extended Typology of Enharmonic Progressions. Keele Music Analysis Conference (KeeleMAC). Keele University, July 8–10, 2015.

Rom, U. B. (2017). Making Harmonic Ambiguity Sound – Schoenberg, Escher, Brahms. 9^th European Music Analysis Conference (EuroMAC 9). Strasbourg, June 28–July 1, 2017.

Rom, U. B. (2018). The Riddle of the Horn Concerto Fragments and a New Completion of the Concerto Movement in E Major K.494a. Annual meeting of the Israel Musicological Society. Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Feb. 27, 2018.

Rom, U. B. (2019). Bach and the Sequence: From a Harmonic Mechanicality to a Musical Representation of the Transcendental. The Music of Johann Sebastian Bach: New Aspects, New Edition. Jerusalem Academy of Music & Dance, Jerusalem, Feb. 17, 2019.

Rom, U. B. (2019). Musical Punctuation and Temporality in a Corpus of Mozart’s Sonata Expositions. Patterns- Algorithms – Symmetries. UdK Berlin, Berlin, June 28–29, 2019.

Artistic publications:

Rom, U. B. (2001, 2005). Rondo for Natural Horn and Orchestra in E-flat major, Offenbach (Main): Edition mf (piano score), Cologne: Dohr (score).

Rom, U. B. (2005). Die Schweizer Familie, A Lyrical Opera by Joseph Weigl (music), Ignaz Franz Castelli (libretto), Tobias Müller-Kopp (Wallstein), Petri Mikael Pöyhönen/Michael Hoffmann (Durmann/Speaker), Stephan Bootz (Richard Boll), Olivia Vermeulen (Gertrude), Marília Vargas/Antje Hochholinger (Emmeline/Speaker), Roman Payer (Jacob Fribourg), Robert Maszl (Paul), Chorus and Orchestra Dreieck, conducted by Uri Rom, Guild GMCD 7298/9 (2 CDs) DDD, Release Date: December 31, 2005.

Mozart, W. A. & Rom, U. B. (2007). Concerto Movement in E major for Horn and Orchestra K.494^a, completed by Uri Rom, Wernigerode: Robert Ostermeyer Musikedition (score and piano score).

Rom, U. B. (2013). Modern Times, Piano Trio Homage to Charles Chaplin, Leipzig: Friedrich Hofmeister Musikverlag (score and parts).

Rom, U. B. (2014). Concerto L'Olimpiade, Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, Xenia Löffler (oboe), harmonia mundi france, HMC902185, CD Concerto – Venice: The Golden Age, Release Date: August 25, 2014.

Rom, U. B. (2015, 2020). Concerto L'Olimpiade for Oboe and Orchestra, Leipzig: Friedrich Hofmeister Musikverlag (piano score, score).

Rom, U. B. (forthcoming). Tel Aviv Toccata for piano, Leipzig: Friedrich Hofmeister Musikverlag.

Ziv Kaplan (MA student): Ziv Kaplan has graduated as a percussionist from the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance and completed with distinction an M.Mus. studies in percussion at the TAU Buchmann-Mehta School of Music. He often performs with Israeli orchestras, including the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra. Ziv is currently completing his Master's thesis on the employment of rhythmic syncopation in the Classical style.

Roy Fridman (MA student): Roy Fridman has graduated as a composer from the TAU Buchmann-Mehta School of Music with distinction. He is currently completing a double MA in composition (with Prof. Ruben Seroussi) and musicology (supervised by Dr. Uri Rom) and is a receiver of the prestigious Colton Scholarship for 2020-2021. Roy's research focuses on Debussy's piano music, exploring the composer's employment of "static" bass lines as a means of formal unification.

Dror Chawin (research assistant): Dror Chawin is a graduate of the prestigious TAU Adi Lautman Interdisciplinary Program for Outstanding Students, in which he focused on music theory, composition, computer science, and East Asian studies. He wrote his MSc thesis in computer science (cryptography). He co-authored with Uri Rom "The Mozart Expositional Punctuation Corpus: A Dataset of Interthematic Cadences in Mozart’s Sonata-Allegro Expositions." Empirical Musicology Review, in press, and "Sliding-Window Pitch-Class Histograms as a Means of Modeling Musical Form." (under revision).

Omer Raz (research assistant): Omer Raz graduated in choir conducting from the TAU Buchmann-Mehta School of Music with distinction and is currently completing an MA thesis in musicology supervised by Prof. Zohar Eitan. He co-authored with Uri Rom "The Mozart Expositional Punctuation Corpus: A Dataset of Interthematic Cadences in Mozart’s Sonata-Allegro Expositions." (Empirical Musicology Review, in press).