SMT-V: The Society for Music Theory Videocast Journal
SMT-V is the open-access, peer-reviewed video journal of the Society for Music Theory. Founded in 2014, SMT-V publishes video essays that showcase research in music theory in a dynamic, audiovisual format, presented so as to have the potential to engage both specialists within the field as well as interested viewers outside the music theory community. The journal features a supportive and collaborative production process, and publishes several videos each year. Read more about SMT-V here.
Latest Issue: 12.4 (July 2026)
“Polycardinalities and Emergent Complexity in Math Rock and Math Metal”
Calder Hannan (Indiana University) and Timothy JS (Independent Scholar)
Music in which two or more patterns occur at the same time has long fascinated theorists. In this video essay, we introduce the term polycardinality to formalize this space. In particular, we focus on situations in math metal and math rock in which patterns—of rhythm, pitch, text, articulation, and other musical dimensions—are mapped onto each other rather than being simply superimposed.
Keywords: isorhythm, metal, rhythm and meter