Michael's research into music theory extends into various aspects of post-tonal theory, including tone-clock theory, pitch-class set tiling, analysis of New Zealand music (including key analyses of works by Jenny McLeod, Jack Body and Douglas Lilburn), rotation theory (including various new extensions to pc-set rotation) and Neo-Riemannian theory.
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
Norris, M, ‘Tonal Desires: Convention and Transgression in the Harmonic Procedures of Three Non-Transcriptive Works by Jack Body’, Canzona, 26 (2007), 58–67
Norris, M, ‘Crystalline Aphorisms: Commentary and Analysis of Jenny McLeod’s Tone Clock Pieces I-VII’, Canzona 2006, 26 (2008), 74–86
Norris, M, ‘Tessellations and Enumerations: Generalising Chromatic Theories’, Canzona 2006, 26 (2008), 93–100
Norris, Michael, ‘Harmonic Stratification in the Instrumental and Electronic Music of Douglas Lilburn’, in Searches for Tradition: Essays on New Zealand Music, Past and Present (Wellington: Victoria University Press, 2017)
Norris, Michael, ‘Apropos Appropriation: Jack Body in conversation’, Canzona, 2007, 40–43
Norris, M., ‘"A Kind of Travelling”: Reflections on the Role of Musical Transcription in Works by Jack Body’, Keynote address, Jack Body Conference, Zhejiang Conservatory of Music, 2015
Norris, M., ‘Inscapes and Soundscapes: Semantic, Harmonic, Timbral, and Spatial Stratification in Lilburn’s Electroacoustic Music’, 2015