Ann Kosakowski McNamee (born May 21, 1953) is a

music theorist Music theory is the study of theoretical frameworks for understanding the practices and possibilities of music. '' The Oxford Companion to Music'' describes three interrelated uses of the term "music theory": The first is the " rudiments", that ...

, singer-songwriter and musical theater composer/lyricist based in San Francisco, California and a retired

Professor Emerita ''Emeritus/Emerita'' () is an honorary title granted to someone who retirement, retires from a position of distinction, most commonly an academic faculty position, but is allowed to continue using the previous title, as in "professor emeritus". ...

of music at

Swarthmore College Swarthmore College ( , ) is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded in 1864, with its first classes held in 1869, Swarthmore is one of the e ...

notable for her contribution to

music theory Music theory is the study of theoretical frameworks for understanding the practices and possibilities of music. ''The Oxford Companion to Music'' describes three interrelated uses of the term "music theory": The first is the "Elements of music, ...

; her song writing; and her musical performances with the bands the Flying Other Brothers and

Moonalice Moonalice is an American Rock music, rock band, formed from previous members of the Flying Other Brothers. The band has been touring since May 2007, and has come to the attention of music critics. The band is currently made up of ten musicians ...

known for their cutting-edge technology, particularly in the area of social media, as well as their performances at festivals such as

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Hardly Strictly Bluegrass (HSB), originally Strictly Bluegrass, is an annual free and non-commercial music festival held the first weekend of October in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, California. Conceived and subsidized by San Francisco ven ...

, Nateva,

Summer Camp Music Festival The Summer Camp Music Festival is a multi-day music festival created by Jay Goldberg Events & Entertainment and held annually on Memorial Day Weekend at Three Sisters Park in Chillicothe, Illinois. The event typically attracts around 20,000 visi ...

Oregon Country Fair The Oregon Country Fair (OCF) is a nonprofit organization and an annual three-day art and music fair held outside the city limits of Veneta, Oregon, United States. Located in the Willamette Valley, the site is about west of Eugene along the L ...

Gathering of the Vibes Gathering of the Vibes (often abbreviated as GOTV) was an annual four-day music, camping and arts festival that celebrated the Grateful Dead and showcased a diverse variety of music. Over the course of the event, styles would often include funk, ...

; and with her band Ann Atomic during the 2010 revival of

Lilith Fair Lilith Fair was a concert tour and travelling music festival, founded by Canadian musician Sarah McLachlan, Nettwerk Music Group's Dan Fraser and Terry McBride (CEO), Terry McBride, and New York talent agent Marty Diamond. It took place during ...

. She composed the majority of the songs on the

album that was part of

T Bone Burnett Joseph Henry "T Bone" Burnett III (born January 14, 1948) is an American record producer, guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He was a guitarist in Bob Dylan's band during the 1970s. Burnett has won several Grammy Awards for his work on film sou ...

’s nomination for Producer of the Year at the 2009

Grammys The Grammy Awards, stylized as GRAMMY, and often referred to as The Grammys, are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize outstanding achievements in music. They are regarded by many as the most prestigious ...

Contribution to music theory

She is the author of highly cited academic work in

, specifically on

bitonality Polytonality (also polyharmony) is the musical use of more than one key (music), key simultaneity (music), simultaneously. Bitonality is the use of only two different keys at the same time. Polyvalence or polyvalency is the use of more than one di ...

, mode and interval in the music of

Karol Szymanowski Karol Maciej Szymanowski (; 3 October 188229 March 1937) was a Polish composer and pianist. He was a member of the modernism (music), modernist Young Poland movement that flourished in the late 19th and early 20th century. Szymanowski's early w ...

, the role of the piano introduction in

Franz Schubert Franz Peter Schubert (; ; 31 January 179719 November 1828) was an Austrian composer of the late Classical period (music), Classical and early Romantic music, Romantic eras. Despite his short life, Schubert left behind a List of compositions ...

Lieder In the Western classical music tradition, ( , ; , ; ) is a term for setting poetry to classical music. The term is used for any kind of song in contemporary German and Dutch, but among English and French speakers, is often used interchangea ...

, and the octave expansion and

sonata form The sonata form (also sonata-allegro form or first movement form) is a musical form, musical structure generally consisting of three main sections: an exposition, a development, and a recapitulation. It has been used widely since the middle of t ...

Grażyna Bacewicz Grażyna Bacewicz Biernacka (; 5 February 1909 – 17 January 1969) was a Polish composer and violinist of Lithuanian origin. She is the second Polish female composer to have achieved national and international recognition, the first being Ma ...

's Second Piano Sonata. She has been cited by

Allen Forte Allen Forte (December 23, 1926 – October 16, 2014) was an American music theorist and musicologist. He was Battell Professor Emeritus of the Theory of Music at Yale University and specialized in 20th-century atonal music and music analysis. ...

, co-winner of the 1997 Wallace Berry Distinguished Book Award of the

Society for Music Theory The Society for Music Theory (SMT) is an American organization devoted to the promotion, development and engagement of music theory as a scholarly and pedagogical discipline. Founded in 1977 by a group of distinguished theorists, among them Alle ...

for her significant contribution to his 1995 book, "The American Popular Ballad of the Golden Era, 1924–1950: A Study in Musical Design.". Dave Headlam, winner of the 1997

Deems Taylor Joseph Deems Taylor (December 22, 1885 – July 3, 1966) was an American composer, radio commentator, music critic, and author. Nat Benchley, co-editor of ''The Lost Algonquin Roundtable'', referred to him as "the dean of American music." He was e ...

award in the

Symphonic A symphony is an extended musical composition in Western classical music, most often for orchestra. Although the term has had many meanings from its origins in the ancient Greek era, by the late 18th century the word had taken on the meaning ...

Books category of the

American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) () is an American not-for-profit performance-rights organization (PRO) that collectively licenses the public performance rights of its members' musical works to venues, broadc ...

(ASCAP), cited her for her contribution on interval cycles in

's works, in his 1996 book "The Music of

Alban Berg Alban Maria Johannes Berg ( ; ; 9 February 1885 – 24 December 1935) was an Austrian composer of the Second Viennese School. His compositional style combined Romantic lyricism with the twelve-tone technique. Although he left a relatively sma ...

". Kristine H. Burns in her 2002 book, "Women and Music in America Since 1900: An Encyclopedia wo Volumes cited her for her work on the music of

and

. She has also been cited in reviews of music in the 2004 edition of "New Historical Anthology of Music by Women" edited by James R. Briscoe.

Contribution to music's digital revolution

McNamee is the co-writer of the

song "It's 4:20 Somewhere". The lyrics of the song were referenced in the 2011 book, "The Fall of the House of

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917. It has been owned by the Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes. The co ...

: The Inside Story of the Collapse of a Media Empire" by Stewart Pinkerton. In August 2012 the

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (RRHOF), also simply referred to as the Rock Hall, is a museum and hall of fame located in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, United States, on the shore of Lake Erie. The museum documents the history of rock music and the ...

announced that the digital logs for "It's 4:20 Somewhere" had been acquired for its library and archives, describing the Moonalice logs as helping to "...tell the story of music's digital revolution; specifically the rise of direct-from-artist (DFA) distribution. Moonalice is the first band without a label to achieve one million downloads of a song from its own servers, direct-from-artist. "It's 4:20 Somewhere" has been downloaded over 4.6 million times".

Contribution to musical theater

Having retired from performing with Moonalice in October 2012 to pursue a career in musical theater, she co-wrote a musical, ''Love Bytes'', together with

Roger Love Roger Love is an American vocal coach based in Los Angeles who has worked with many singers, actors and public speakers. Career Love took his first singing lessons when he was 13 years old. By 16 or 17 he studied vocal pedagogy in Seth Riggs's ...

. Six of the songs from ''Love Bytes'' were performed during a public performance in October 2012. She is collaborating on a second musical, ''

Other World In historical Indo-European religion, the concept of an otherworld, also known as an otherside, is reconstructed in comparative mythology. Its name is a calque of ''orbis alius'' (Latin for "other world/side"), a term used by Lucan in his descr ...

'', with

Hunter Bell Hunter Houston Bell is an American writer and theatre actor. Early life and education Bell was born in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and was raised in Wilson, North Carolina until the seventh grade, when he moved to Atlanta, Georgia. Hunter earned a B. ...

Jeff Bowen Jeff Bowen (born August 30, 1971) is an American composer, lyricist and actor. He is best known as one of the authors and stars of the Broadway musical ''title of show, itle of show'. Bowen also wrote the music and lyrics to the musical, ' ...

and

Wētā Workshop Wētā Workshop is a creative company delivering concept design, special effects, props, collectibles, immersive visitor experiences and video games. Based in Miramar, Wellington, New Zealand. It also offers two tourism experiences, the Wēt ...

(Wellington, NZ), initially developing the project as part of the Johnny Mercer Writers Colony at Goodspeed Musicals in 2014. ''Other World'' was selected as the inaugural project at the 2016 Spring Space in

Saratoga Springs, New York Saratoga Springs is a Administrative divisions of New York#City, city in Saratoga County, New York, United States. The population was 28,491 at the United States Census 2020, 2020 census. The name reflects the presence of mineral springs in the ...

, and held its First Preview at Bucks County Playhouse on March 14, 2020. A preview of Other World was streamed as a part of the New York Theatre Barn's New Works Series on June 23, 2021. ''Other World'' began its world-premiere engagement February 24, 2022 at Delaware Theatre Company co-starring

Bonnie Milligan Bonnie Milligan is a musical theater performer and television actor, known for her " belting" style of singing and wide vocal range. She was awarded the 2023 Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical for her performance as Debra in '' Ki ...

, with performances through March 20, 2022. The production won best New Play or Musical at the Broadway World awards for Delaware 2022. Invitation-only staged readings to ''Other World'' were held on Thursday, March 16 and Friday, March 17, 2023, at Open Jar Studios in New York City. It was announced at the New York

Comic Con A comic book convention or comic con is a fan convention emphasizing comic books and comic book culture, in which comic book fans gather to meet creators, experts, and each other. Commonly, comic conventions are multi-day events hosted at conv ...

in November 2023 that ''Other World'' has also been released as a comic book series. An exhibition entitled ‘Stage to Page’ took place at the Haight Street Art Center in May, 2024.

Personal

She has a B.A. in music from Wellesley (1975) and a PhD in Music Theory from Yale University (1980). She has been married to the venture capitalist Roger McNamee since 1983 and, with her husband, is a co-founder of the Haight Street Art Center, which will be run as a co-op for artists, and will include a fine art print shop as well as exhibition space. Along with

Jack Markell Jack Alan Markell (born November 26, 1960) is an American politician and diplomat. He had served the United States ambassador both to Italy and to San Marino. He had served as the United States ambassador to the Organisation for Economic Co-oper ...

, former Governor of Delaware, created “

Charlottesville Charlottesville, colloquially known as C'ville, is an independent city in Virginia, United States. It is the seat of government of Albemarle County, which surrounds the city, though the two are separate legal entities. It is named after Quee ...

,” a song celebrating the life of Heather Heyer, and “The Silence of the Good,” featuring Dr.

Clarence B. Jones Clarence Benjamin Jones (born January 8, 1931) is an American lawyer and the former personal counsel, advisor, draft speech writer and close friend of Martin Luther King Jr. He is a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's hig ...

, which includes the lyric, “As history has taught us, the Reverend understood, the bad get their power from the silence of the good.” This song is inspired by

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister, civil rights activist and political philosopher who was a leader of the civil rights movement from 1955 until his a ...

's The Letter from Birmingham Jail, where the civil rights leader was detained after a rally in 1963.

Discography

*2012 ''Let's Start from Here'' *2012 ''No End to Love'' *2011 ''The Rest of the Words'' *2011 ''It's 4–20 Somewhere'' *2010 ''Wherever These Words Land'' *2008 ''Blink of An Eye'' Produced by

T-Bone Burnett Joseph Henry "T Bone" Burnett III (born January 14, 1948) is an American record producer, guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He was a guitarist in Bob Dylan's band during the 1970s. Burnett has won several Grammy Awards for his work on film sou ...

*2007 ''Cracks in the Sidewalk'' Produced by G.E. Smith *2005 ''Complicated Eyes'' Produced by G.E. Smith *2003 ''Crazy in Heaven'' Produced by G.E. Smith *2000 ''Space in Your Arms''

References

External links

* www.annmcnamee.co

* https://otherworldmusical.com

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{{DEFAULTSORT:McNamee, Ann American women singer-songwriters Living people People from Southbridge, Massachusetts 1953 births American indie rock musicians Swarthmore College faculty American women academics 21st-century American women Singer-songwriters from Massachusetts Moonalice members Flying Other Brothers members