Clare Eng
Associate Professor of Music
College of Music & Performing Arts
Dr. Eng received a Ph.D., M.A. and M.Phil. in music theory from Yale University, a Bachelor of Music in French Horn Performance, summa cum laude, from Florida International University, and a Bachelor of Law with honors from the National University of Singapore
(615) 460-6267clare.eng@belmont.edu
Biography
Clare Sher Ling Eng is a Professor of Music Theory at Belmont University. She joined the faculty in 2011, and teaches courses in theory, aural skills, analysis and counterpoint. Before coming to Belmont, she taught at Macalester College and Yale University.
Dr. Eng is an active scholar. Her publications have appeared in Music Theory Spectrum, Music Theory Online, Engaging Students, Journal of Music Theory Pedagogy, VoiceXchange, and an edited volume on the music of Benjamin Britten. She has also given papers at regional, national and international musicological conferences, including meetings of the Society for Music Theory, the College Music Society and the Society for Ethnomusicology. She is also active in scholarly service. Currently, she is co-reviews editor of the journal, Music Theory Online, and is president of the South Central Society for Music Theory.
Dr. Eng’s research seeks to better understand recent Western and Chinese music, as well as how culture comes through in different performances of the same work. In Western music since 1900, she considers how it transforms older concepts, such as signaling closure without traditional cadences, creating coherence through motivic intertextuality, and new uses of sequences. In Chinese music since 1900, she is interested in both classical and commercial works. She has written about the Communist ballet, Red Detachment of Women, The Butterfly Lovers Violin Concerto, and the multilingual songs of the Taiwanese pop star, Teresa Teng.
Besides writing and talking about music herself, Dr. Eng seeks to foster the same activities among students. While a graduate student at Yale, she organized the Yale Graduate Music Symposium, the first of a still ongoing biennial conference series at Yale. At Belmont, she is active in the annual SPARK Symposium.
Dr. Eng received a Ph.D., M.A. and M.Phil. in music theory from Yale University, a Bachelor of Music in French Horn Performance, summa cum laude, from Florida International University, and a Bachelor of Law with honors from the National University of Singapore.
Selected Publications:
“Teachers in Liminal Spaces: From Solitude to Solidarity.” Engaging Students 8 (2022). http://dx.doi.org/10.18061/es.v8i0.7723
“The Problem of Closure in Neo-Tonal Music.” Music Theory Spectrum 41/2 (2019): 285–304.
“Britten’s Slippery Semitone and Motivic Intertextuality in The Poet’s Echo, op. 76, and Serenade, op. 31.” In Essays on Benjamin Britten from a Centenary Symposium, edited by David Forrest et al, 145–180. Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2017.
“Red Detachment of Women and the Enterprise of Making ‘Model’ Music during the Chinese Cultural Revolution .” VoiceXchange 3/1 (2009): 5-37.
“'Writ in remembrance more than things long past’: Cadential Relationships in Fauré’s Mirages.” Journal of Music Theory Pedagogy 23 (2009): 135-152.
(Joint First Prize Winner of the 2009 Bruce Benward Student Analysis Competition)