Suzannah Clark

Suzannah Clark is the Morton B. Knafel Professor of Music at Harvard University, specializing in music theory and historical musicology. Her research focuses on Franz Schubert, the history of tonal theory, and medieval vernacular music. She has authored and co-edited influential works such as Analyzing Schubert (Cambridge, 2011) and Music Theory and Natural Order (Cambridge, 2001).

• Education: MFA (1993) and PhD (1997) from Princeton University; undergraduate and master’s degrees at King’s College London; visiting student at Humboldt University (1994–1995)

Clark’s research explores the evolution of tonal systems, including ongoing work on Quirks in Tonality: Aspects in the History of Tonal Space, which examines modulation, key relations, and historical conceptions of diatonicism and chromaticism. Her teaching at Harvard spans graduate-level courses in Schenkerian Analysis, Neo-Riemannian Theory, and Sonata Forms, alongside undergraduate instruction in tonal analysis and medieval motets.

She has received fellowships from the British Academy, DAAD, SSHRC, AHRC, and the National Humanities Center. Clark is an active member of academic councils, including the American Musicological Society Council and the Society for Music Theory Executive Board, and contributes editorially to Music Analysis and Journal of the American Musicological Society.