Alfred Cramer is a musicologist, music theorist, and violinist whose work encompasses historical, cultural, and cognitive outlooks on the notion of music as a language. His past work has focused on German modernism from Schumann to Schoenberg, and current projects explore the musical significance of speech intonation and the formation of meaning in Woody Guthrie’s music. Currently Chair of the Music Department at Pomona College, he is past President of the Pacific Southwest Chapter of the AMS and a past winner of the Outstanding Publication Award from the Society for Music Theory.