What I Do:

[Karen Cook]

I do hope I'm posting this correctly!  So, about me.  I am a 6th-year doctoral student in musicology at Duke University (Durham, NC, USA), currently completing a dissertation on the creation and evolution of the semiminim, ca. 1350-1450.  I am fascinated by all things notation, and in my work I am untangling on the one hand the theoretical debates over the term, the various attempts to rename the unit, and how this duration has been prescribed in treatises, and on the other hand what the repertory shows us was being done in practice, graphically and rhythmically.  I enjoy other aspects of notation, in particular uniquely created note forms, ars subtilior, proportions, canons, etc.  I a a performer, specializing in recorders and other winds (crumhorn, some double reeds), some viola da gamba, percussion, and voice, and for modern music I specialize in trumpet and horn. I also have a deep interest in 20th/21st-century music, particularly pop, jazz, and cultural studies.