David Paul
Assistant Professor
Musicology/Theory
Music Building #1111
805-893-4538
Musicology Program
Theory Program
David C. Paul hails from Calgary, Canada. He began playing violin at a young age, but did not consider devoting himself to music until midway through his Bachelor of Science degree in physics at the University of Calgary. Taking composition lessons as an elective, he developed an affinity for contemporary music, and decided to pursue more intensive music studies after completing his B.Sc. (1995). At the University of British Columbia, he completed a Bachelor of Music in composition (1999), and then moved to the United States for graduate studies. He completed his Masters (2001) and Ph.D. (2006) in music history and literature at the University of California at Berkeley, writing a dissertation titled "Converging Paths to Canonicity: Charles Ives, Gustav Mahler, and American Culture." During his graduate studies, he was a recipient of several awards, including the Berkeley Fellowship for Graduate Study and the Alvin H. Johnson AMS 50 Dissertation Fellowship. David's research focuses on intersections between American music and intellectual history in the twentieth century, with a particular emphasis on the Cold War period. He is especially interested in reception issues, historiography, and the history of music theory. His next major project will be a study of post-World War II modernists and their efforts, led by Milton Babbitt, to win a place for compositional practice and music theory in the research university. David also intends to explore canon formation in bluegrass music, a genre to which he is devoted. His forthcoming article in the Journal of the American Musicological Society, "From American Ethnographer to Cold War Icon," examines the role of Henry and Sidney Cowell in the reception of Charles Ives. A second article, "Gustav Mahler and the Decline of the West," is currently pending at the Musical Quarterly and concerns the role European émigrés played in influencing American ideas about Gustav Mahler during the thirties. David has presented his work at the annual meetings of both the Society of American Music and the American Musicological Society. He remains an active violinist and has recently taken up the mandolin with intentions of forming his own bluegrass band. He is excited to be joining the vibrant musical community at UCSB.
