Richard Parncutt
Richard Parncutt is an Australian academic. He has been professor of systematic musicology at Karl Franzens University Graz in Austria since 1998.
Education
Parncutt studied music and physics at the University of Melbourne, and physics at the University of New England, Australia. In 1987 he was awarded a PhD from the University of New England. From 1996 to 1998 he held a position as a lecturer in psychology at Keele University, UK.Research
Parncutt's research addresses the perception of musical structure, the psychology of music performance, and the psychological origins of tonality. He has been publishing research since 1984. He proposed the "psychoacoustic model of harmony" in 1989.His 2002 edited volume with Gary E. McPherson was called a "great service to the profession... not only an inspiration for daily teaching, but it is also a concise resource for information on nearly every
aspect of music research." His 2024 book on major-minor tonality was favourably reviewed in Empirical Musicology Review, which said he "addresses broader cultural and philosophical issues, thus offering a novel approach to understanding the universality and specificity of MmT."