Serial Music
Olivier Messiaen
Popular Song
Allen's recent activities
Allen's life so far...
Allen's published works
Links to other sites of interest
Madeleine Forte's web site
Allen Forte Electronic Archive
The purpose of the website--and I had to give this considerable thought--is to provide information about my current work, my publications, and my background to persons who may know something about me but feel compelled to know more. I can certainly understand that there is a great deal of enthusiasm out there for music theory, which is my field. Perhaps curiosity is a better word. At any event, the intent of this facility is not to explain music theory, which, in my experience, is an impossible task, but to offer some specific information about one individual whose entire adult life has been devoted to research and writing in that discipline, namely, me. In short, this is an egocentric enterprise, if there ever was one, and I don't mind telling you that I am a bit nervous about having myself tossed about in cyberspace. Please be gentle.

NEWS: Recently a large gift by an anonymous donor enabled Yale to establish a permanently endowed chair, the Allen Forte Professorship of Music Theory. For more information, please see the article from Yale Today here.

The University of North Texas has created a YouTube archive containing videos of my lectures, teaching, and performances. A documentary film on my life and work has recently been placed on that site. There was an online archive of my unpublished papers and analytical notes but it is currently undergoing maintenance. Hopefully it will be available again soon.

My collection of rare books on music theory is now at the Florida State University Music Library in Tallahassee. The librarian there, Mark Froelich, has placed the catalog (49 books) on their website: here

Instructions to access list:

1. Under “Research at the Library” select “Print Resources”
2. Click “Go”
3. Click “Special Collections”
4. Click “Allen Forte Theory Treatise Collection”

THE ALLEN AND MADELEINE FORTE MEMORIAL COLLECTION at UNT
Madeleine and Allen Forte donated their papers, books, scores, photos, recordings, and memorabilia to the University of North Texas Library, Denton, Texas.


(Photo by Madeleine Forte, 2004.
Click on it for a larger version.)