Megan Non Brevis
@theorymeg.bsky.social
Music theorist, early music specialist, mezzo soprano, feminist, yogi, hiker. Into equitable pedagogy. Author of Hearing Homophony (OUP 2020: http://bit.ly/341RhmB). She/her/hers.
Faculty meeting goals
I’m sure you’ve already used this but I couldn’t resist:
“she did not think he deserved the compliment of rational opposition”
Sense and Sensibility.
“she did not think he deserved the compliment of rational opposition”
Sense and Sensibility.
February 1, 2026 at 8:32 PM
Faculty meeting goals
Reposted by Megan Non Brevis
I've almost doubled the number of entries in the music notation timeline this year alone--and it's hard to believe that in a year this resource will have been online for a decade!
silpayamanant.wordpress.com/timeline-of-...
silpayamanant.wordpress.com/timeline-of-...
February 1, 2026 at 6:16 PM
I've almost doubled the number of entries in the music notation timeline this year alone--and it's hard to believe that in a year this resource will have been online for a decade!
silpayamanant.wordpress.com/timeline-of-...
silpayamanant.wordpress.com/timeline-of-...
Five classes I took in college:
- Intro to Linguistics
- Imagining the City
- Postmodernism in the Premodern Novel
- 19th-c. American Women Authors (met in front of a fireplace and there was a dog)
- 20th-c. North American Art
- Intro to Linguistics
- Imagining the City
- Postmodernism in the Premodern Novel
- 19th-c. American Women Authors (met in front of a fireplace and there was a dog)
- 20th-c. North American Art
Five classes I took in college:
- Percussion Ensemble
- Anthropology of World Beat
- Language and Reality in 20th C Lit
- Jazz Arranging
- Introduction to Physical Anthropology
- Percussion Ensemble
- Anthropology of World Beat
- Language and Reality in 20th C Lit
- Jazz Arranging
- Introduction to Physical Anthropology
Five classes I took in college:
-American thinkers
-Bowling
-Acoustics
-music calligraphy
-Modern dance
-American thinkers
-Bowling
-Acoustics
-music calligraphy
-Modern dance
January 31, 2026 at 7:35 PM
Five classes I took in college:
- Intro to Linguistics
- Imagining the City
- Postmodernism in the Premodern Novel
- 19th-c. American Women Authors (met in front of a fireplace and there was a dog)
- 20th-c. North American Art
- Intro to Linguistics
- Imagining the City
- Postmodernism in the Premodern Novel
- 19th-c. American Women Authors (met in front of a fireplace and there was a dog)
- 20th-c. North American Art
Reposted by Megan Non Brevis
One of my most cherished classes is my 18th century novels course where the primary learning objective is "learn how read long novels." We did a "couch to 5k" approach to attention span and note-taking.
My hot take about the “students cannot read whole novels / watch whole films / etc.” is that they can learn to do it. None of us are born with attention spans suited for long media. It is a learned skill and can be developed with practice.
January 31, 2026 at 4:23 PM
One of my most cherished classes is my 18th century novels course where the primary learning objective is "learn how read long novels." We did a "couch to 5k" approach to attention span and note-taking.
It's that time again: nominate your favorite new books, articles, websites, and more for the SMT Publication Awards! Self nominations are welcome. You don't have to write a rationale, all you need is a citation. societymusictheory.org/grants/publi...
Publication Awards | SMT
societymusictheory.org
January 30, 2026 at 4:17 PM
It's that time again: nominate your favorite new books, articles, websites, and more for the SMT Publication Awards! Self nominations are welcome. You don't have to write a rationale, all you need is a citation. societymusictheory.org/grants/publi...
Reposted by Megan Non Brevis
Not to be the stereotypical English professor, but this is the fundamental value of ambiguity. Being able to hold many (sometimes mutually exclusive) truths and realities in creative tension together at the same time is the goal and purpose of complicated intellectual traditions.
January 29, 2026 at 6:36 PM
Not to be the stereotypical English professor, but this is the fundamental value of ambiguity. Being able to hold many (sometimes mutually exclusive) truths and realities in creative tension together at the same time is the goal and purpose of complicated intellectual traditions.
Reposted by Megan Non Brevis
>>In meines Herzens Grunde<< BWV 245 (8-Hour Club Remix)
January 29, 2026 at 8:59 AM
>>In meines Herzens Grunde<< BWV 245 (8-Hour Club Remix)
The act of choosing what questions to ask and how to ask them is subjective whatever your field.
January 29, 2026 at 2:37 AM
The act of choosing what questions to ask and how to ask them is subjective whatever your field.
I will keep using my em-dashes and keep putting way too much of my personal voice in my footnotes to prove my humanity.
OMG - f*ck AI for ruining the em-dash for writers. I use them all the time. Of course, what a shock that AI uses them since they were trained off my voice and other authors' voices.
I'm a writer who has specifically been directed *not* to use em-dashes because "they mean it was written by AI." I can detect AI writing, but it is not simply a matter of the punctuation used.
January 28, 2026 at 6:53 PM
I will keep using my em-dashes and keep putting way too much of my personal voice in my footnotes to prove my humanity.
Reposted by Megan Non Brevis
📣 Just a quick reminder that the MedRen 2026 Call for Papers deadline is 31 January! ⏳
Come to Warsaw 6-10 July 2026 for Med-Ren.
Submit your proposal via the online form — link here and in comments. 👇
medren2026.uw.edu.pl/ninja-forms/...
Come to Warsaw 6-10 July 2026 for Med-Ren.
Submit your proposal via the online form — link here and in comments. 👇
medren2026.uw.edu.pl/ninja-forms/...
January 28, 2026 at 4:57 PM
📣 Just a quick reminder that the MedRen 2026 Call for Papers deadline is 31 January! ⏳
Come to Warsaw 6-10 July 2026 for Med-Ren.
Submit your proposal via the online form — link here and in comments. 👇
medren2026.uw.edu.pl/ninja-forms/...
Come to Warsaw 6-10 July 2026 for Med-Ren.
Submit your proposal via the online form — link here and in comments. 👇
medren2026.uw.edu.pl/ninja-forms/...
Reposted by Megan Non Brevis
The analog classroom is ironically the most innovative environment you can create in 2026. Cut out the noise and you create a superior learning situation.
But it is a battle to maintain, especially when admin pushes “no cost” or “low cost” online books like they do at my comprehensive public uni
But it is a battle to maintain, especially when admin pushes “no cost” or “low cost” online books like they do at my comprehensive public uni
Forth Worth teacher Chanea Bond says sticking with pen and paper keeps generative artificial intelligence out of her American literature classes. n.pr/4c3cdzs
To keep AI out of her classroom, this high school English teacher went analog
Forth Worth teacher Chanea Bond says sticking with pen and paper keeps generative artificial intelligence out of her American literature classes.
n.pr
January 28, 2026 at 12:39 PM
The analog classroom is ironically the most innovative environment you can create in 2026. Cut out the noise and you create a superior learning situation.
But it is a battle to maintain, especially when admin pushes “no cost” or “low cost” online books like they do at my comprehensive public uni
But it is a battle to maintain, especially when admin pushes “no cost” or “low cost” online books like they do at my comprehensive public uni
It has been
0
days since my last complaint about endnotes.
0
days since my last complaint about endnotes.
January 27, 2026 at 7:50 PM
It has been
0
days since my last complaint about endnotes.
0
days since my last complaint about endnotes.
Another day, another great innovation from our friends* at Blackboard.
*enemies, blackboard is the single worst thing about my job
*enemies, blackboard is the single worst thing about my job
All normal Mac apps, including ordinary text-editing boxes in Chrome: ⌘⇧← means highlight from the cursor position to the beginning of the line
Blackboard Ultra: ⌘⇧← means exit out of the grading interface and lose all your work
Blackboard Ultra: ⌘⇧← means exit out of the grading interface and lose all your work
January 26, 2026 at 7:03 PM
Another day, another great innovation from our friends* at Blackboard.
*enemies, blackboard is the single worst thing about my job
*enemies, blackboard is the single worst thing about my job
Reposted by Megan Non Brevis
This thread is an excellent addendum; "bulking out" an idea with hallucinated details displaces the thinking that would have led to actual innovation, as well as the engagement of the "audience" (in this case, product teams).
‘We imagine in 8 bit’ is mostly an idea that the blockiness of early Lego and video games left space for human imagination to fill in the gaps and enable new play.
It’s also why fast prototyping of UI and digital products skips a critical period of sketchy, fluid imagination and design criticism
It’s also why fast prototyping of UI and digital products skips a critical period of sketchy, fluid imagination and design criticism
January 25, 2026 at 5:11 PM
This thread is an excellent addendum; "bulking out" an idea with hallucinated details displaces the thinking that would have led to actual innovation, as well as the engagement of the "audience" (in this case, product teams).
Reposted by Megan Non Brevis
"PLAY FLOW MY TEARS!"
*Sighs* "Read thou the sign."
"Request not ye Lachrimae Pavan."
*Sighs* "Read thou the sign."
"Request not ye Lachrimae Pavan."
January 24, 2026 at 1:02 PM
"PLAY FLOW MY TEARS!"
*Sighs* "Read thou the sign."
"Request not ye Lachrimae Pavan."
*Sighs* "Read thou the sign."
"Request not ye Lachrimae Pavan."
Reposted by Megan Non Brevis
dowland wasn't always like this but tuning the lute for decades on end made him like that
January 24, 2026 at 2:45 PM
dowland wasn't always like this but tuning the lute for decades on end made him like that
Reposted by Megan Non Brevis
Part of the current trend to see everything in summary is the lack of awareness that great writing tends to already be in its simplest, most accessible form. It may simply take 800 pages to state the simplest version of some ideas.
January 23, 2026 at 4:20 PM
Part of the current trend to see everything in summary is the lack of awareness that great writing tends to already be in its simplest, most accessible form. It may simply take 800 pages to state the simplest version of some ideas.
What's the library book on your shelf that you always regret returning? Mine is /A Correspondence of Renaissance Musicians/ which is like 50,000 pages and which I always need the day after I return it to the library.
January 22, 2026 at 9:29 PM
What's the library book on your shelf that you always regret returning? Mine is /A Correspondence of Renaissance Musicians/ which is like 50,000 pages and which I always need the day after I return it to the library.
Early music folks, help! Someone (Jane Bernstein?) told me once that before music printing, more music was circulating in tablature than in staff notation. Is this true? Can anyone recommend a source I can read on this?
January 21, 2026 at 8:02 PM
Early music folks, help! Someone (Jane Bernstein?) told me once that before music printing, more music was circulating in tablature than in staff notation. Is this true? Can anyone recommend a source I can read on this?
I'm increasingly of the opinion that the overwhelming majority of ed tech is completely at odds with the fundamental missions of education.
"the IT Department thinks it’s the best thing ever. No one else feels so strongly." 💀
I highly recommend educators of all stripes read 7th grade Micha's reviews/impressions of the edtech that he uses in his day-to-day activities for school. micahblachman.beehiiv.com/p/is-educati...
January 19, 2026 at 8:34 PM
I'm increasingly of the opinion that the overwhelming majority of ed tech is completely at odds with the fundamental missions of education.
Numbering the measures in my 150-page coursepack AMA.
January 19, 2026 at 6:58 PM
Numbering the measures in my 150-page coursepack AMA.
Reposted by Megan Non Brevis
Ok, so we understand that you don't think it should be an alto solo but you see, we really want it, and so we're taking it. It is now an alto solo.
This is not about solos.
This is not about solos.
January 19, 2026 at 6:29 PM
Ok, so we understand that you don't think it should be an alto solo but you see, we really want it, and so we're taking it. It is now an alto solo.
This is not about solos.
This is not about solos.
It happened to me: I was publicly shamed (my phone autocorrected my misspelling of the plural "minutiae").
January 15, 2026 at 7:39 PM
It happened to me: I was publicly shamed (my phone autocorrected my misspelling of the plural "minutiae").
Truly nothing I love more than getting an out-of-the-blue email with a musica ficta question. 😍
January 15, 2026 at 7:30 PM
Truly nothing I love more than getting an out-of-the-blue email with a musica ficta question. 😍
Reposted by Megan Non Brevis
new term just dropped (courtesy of a typo):
"solfish": insisting on your preferred solfege system even though nobody else likes it
"solfish": insisting on your preferred solfege system even though nobody else likes it
September 4, 2023 at 6:31 PM
new term just dropped (courtesy of a typo):
"solfish": insisting on your preferred solfege system even though nobody else likes it
"solfish": insisting on your preferred solfege system even though nobody else likes it