Originally from Halifax, Nova Scotia, Ben Duinker is currently completing a SSHRC-funded PhD in Music Theory at McGill University. The multifaceted musician also performs and tours extensively with Architek Percussion, a quartet specializing in avant-garde, crossover, and electroacoustic chamber music.
Under the supervision of Nicole Biamonte, Duinker’s doctoral research investigates the role of rhythm and meter in the construction, performance, and perception of the rapped vocals of hip-hop music. His other research interests include tonality in popular music, empirical musicology, analysis and performance, and phenomenological issues in music theory. His work is published in Empirical Musicology Review, Music Theory Online, and Xenakis Matters, a collection of analytical essays on the music of Iannis Xenakis. He has presented his work at conferences hosted by the Society for American Music (SAM), Music Theory Society of New York State (MTSNYS), The European Music Analysis Conference (EuroMAC), Music Theory Midwest (MTMW), the Society for Music Theory (SMT), and New Interfaces for Musical Expression (NIME).
Duinker has performed as a soloist and chamber musician across Canada, the United States, and Europe, and has won prizes at competitions including the OSM Standard Life Competition, PASIC Solo Percussion Competition, the Universal Marimba Competition, and the Prix D’Europe. His concerto performances have been described as displaying “breath-holding physical grace” (the Halifax Chronicle Herald) and as “revealing exceptional dexterity and precision” (La Presse, Montreal). Duinker has worked with groups such as Architek Percussion, Sixtrum, Ensemble Contempoarain de Montreal, Collectif9, SMCQ, Bradyworks, Symphony Nova Scotia, and (insert TITLE) Marimba Duo, which he co-founded with Greg Samek. Duinker appears on recordings released by Ambiences Magnetiques, ATMA Classique, Centrediscs, Constellation Records, Redshift Records, and Mode Records, and has frequently performed on live CBC broadcasts.
Here is a video of Ben performing with his quartet, Architek Percussion:
As a choral tenor, Duinker performed with the National Youth Choir of Canada for three tours (2002, 2004, and 2006), spent seven years in the professional core of the Choir of the Church of St. Andrew and St. Paul (2007-2014), and performed with Viva Voce during its last years (2011-2016) as a Montreal-based chamber choir specializing in early music. In 2013 he began collaborating with Peter Schubert on Renaissance vocal improvisation, which led to performances hosted by the Fondazione Cini (Venice, 2013), McGill University’s Research Alive Series, and the Music Encoding Initiative (Montreal, 2016).
How many years have you been at McGill?
Nine, but not consecutively! I completed two master’s degrees (in percussion performance and music theory), and I’m now nearing the end of my PhD in music theory.
What made you choose McGill for your studies?
I initially chose McGill for performance; at the time it was (and still is) one of the top places in Canada to study percussion. I didn’t know much about the theory faculty back then, but I’ve since learned that it is top notch as well!
How has being a McGill student influenced you and your research?
Being surrounded by such interesting and diverse academic personalities (both in the faculty and my fellow students) has constantly reminded me that high quality research is happening in just about every domain of music. Knowing this, I remain encouraged and focused.
Explain your research in three sentences or less:
I study flow (the rapped vocals) in hip-hop music. I’m fascinated by how rappers use various rhythmic and metric techniques to cultivate personal flow styles. I’m also interested in discerning large-scale trends in flow practice across hip-hop music’s 40+ year history.
What led you to this particular topic?
I’ve liked hip-hop music for a long time, and I’ve always been interested in rhythm and metre in music, especially how these parameters are constructed/perceived by listeners. Since hip-hop music is a recorded genre, and analysis of it thus begins through listening, I thought this pairing of repertoire and topic went hand in hand.
How does your research add to what was already known?
I’m studying this repertoire from a stylistic standpoint (broad overview of many songs) and a critical standpoint (closer readings of individual songs). Not much analytical work in music theory has been done in either domain, so I hope my contributions encourage more to be done.
Were there any findings that you found particularly surprising?
I’m constantly surprised by how stylistically diverse hip-hop music has become, even in the few focused musical contexts in which I’m analyzing this question.
Why is it important, and who is going to benefit most from your research?
Music theory research into the musical parameters of hip-hop flow is a young field. There is still a need to identify general practices, in order to better understand how they have evolved, where they are now, and ruminate on where they might go in the future. I think research like mine can have a broad appeal to both the academic community and the general public.
Here's a video that explains the triplet flow in rapped lyrics:
What are your next steps?
I’m hoping to submit my dissertation and graduate in 2019-2020. In the meantime, I have a paper about triplet flow slated for publication in Popular Music, another under review at a different journal, and one or two more I’d like to finish and submit for publication before I graduate. I also maintain an occasionally busy performing and touring schedule with my percussion quartet, Architek Percussion.
What advice would you give to new students in your program?
Don’t assume that you need to sideline your interests and pursuits as a practicing musician—be it in performance or composition—in order to study music theory. If you’re an organized person, it is eminently possible to pursue parallel careers in performance and academics and can be especially rewarding if you find ways to integrate them. Even if your pursuits are relatively unrelated (like mine), using one as a diversion from the other keeps you refreshed and interested in both!
Where is your favourite place to study?
My office at home; I have a huge desk, meaning I have lots of room for books, my computer, snacks, etc.
Where in Montreal can you be found on a day off?
I’m not really known for taking days off, to be honest! But my favourite spare time activities include hanging out with my family, cycling, exploring Montreal’s architecture, and benefitting from the city’s immensely diverse food and drink offerings…
What is your earliest musical memory?
When I was young, my family briefly lived in Vienna, where we owned a mid-19th century Streicher grand piano, of the type most likely used by Brahms and his Viennese contemporaries. My earliest musical memory is learning bits of the C major prelude from J.S. Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier. At age 4, my music reading skills were still pretty basic, so part of this learning was done by ear, where my mother - a pianist and my de facto first teacher - would sing out a measure from nearby, or one of the chord arpeggiations in this prelude, and I’d try to figure it out at the keyboard. I’m sure my progress was glacial, but all that time spent on this prelude surely had an impact on my musical development thereafter.
(Years later, this piano would be donated to McGill, though long before I arrived here, and I’m told it remains in storage with the view of one day being refurbished. I remember well the day that former professor of piano Tom Plaunt came to our house to see the piano…)
If you hadn’t ended up in music, what would your alternate career path have been?
Probably transportation engineering or urban planning. I was halfway through a Civil Engineering degree when I switched to music.
What was the last book you read?
From cover to cover? A Peace to End all Peace by David Fromkin. An exhaustively detailed and harrowing account of how the Western powers got it so wrong in the Middle East during and after WWI. I’d highly recommend it for anyone wishing to know more about that region of the world.
If you were offered a return plane ticket to anywhere in the world, where would you go and why?
Japan: for the food, culture, architecture, trains, and scenery.
If you could invite any four notable figures from any point in history to a dinner party, who would they be?
I always have a hard time taking this type of question seriously, so here’s a non-serious answer:
1: Tupac Shakur
2: Christopher Wallace (The Notorious B.I.G.)
3: Suge Knight
4: Sean Combs (P. Diddy)
And then I could make the four main agents of the "East/West hip-hop feud" hug and make up.
Banner image: Alex Tran
