Daniel Munoz
THEORY 2 INSTRUCTOR
Daniel Munoz completed the PhD program in musicology from University of California Santa Cruz in 2017 with a 700-page dissertation on live experimental music practices in Los Angeles. At Gavilan he taught advanced music theory: ear training, melodic dictation, four-part writing and form and analysis of works from the classical music canon – Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven. He also taught composition and music history there. Recently at UC Santa Cruz he taught a course on the political usages of music (Music, Politics, and Protest).
Dr. Daniel’s academic interests span the gamut from the history of Western music theory, the analysis of harmony and form, counterpoint, idiomatic composition and songwriting, arrangement and orchestration, tuning and temperament (and its implementation in tuning vocal tracks), sound synthesis (the analysis and production of timbre), the sociology of music scenes, music aesthetics, and the study of music and the emotions. Beyond music, Daniel enjoys the writings of Nietzsche, Foucault, Bataille, Butler, Deleuze, Sontag, Zizek, Fisher, and Land.
As a performer, Daniel plays electric guitar, bass, and synthesizer in several local bands, including Egrets on Ergot – which was named “LA’s Best Punk Band” by the LA Weekly – and recently he has joined one of the first punk bands in Los Angeles, 45 Grave. 45 Grave will be featured alongside Morrissey, Blondie, Devo, Missing Persons, Berlin, and Bauhaus for the Cruel World Festival in May 2022 at the Rose Bowl. In 2019 he recorded bass for new wave legend Josie Cotton’s Christmas song “Everyday like Christmas.” In his earlier life he played lead soprano bugle for the Velvet Knights Drum and Bugle Corp and electric guitar in Glenn Branca’s Symphony #13 at the Walt Disney Concert Hall.
Daniel runs a home studio where he is finishing his first record as producer and co-songwriter with the band Guilty Strangers.
Dr. Daniel’s academic interests span the gamut from the history of Western music theory, the analysis of harmony and form, counterpoint, idiomatic composition and songwriting, arrangement and orchestration, tuning and temperament (and its implementation in tuning vocal tracks), sound synthesis (the analysis and production of timbre), the sociology of music scenes, music aesthetics, and the study of music and the emotions. Beyond music, Daniel enjoys the writings of Nietzsche, Foucault, Bataille, Butler, Deleuze, Sontag, Zizek, Fisher, and Land.
As a performer, Daniel plays electric guitar, bass, and synthesizer in several local bands, including Egrets on Ergot – which was named “LA’s Best Punk Band” by the LA Weekly – and recently he has joined one of the first punk bands in Los Angeles, 45 Grave. 45 Grave will be featured alongside Morrissey, Blondie, Devo, Missing Persons, Berlin, and Bauhaus for the Cruel World Festival in May 2022 at the Rose Bowl. In 2019 he recorded bass for new wave legend Josie Cotton’s Christmas song “Everyday like Christmas.” In his earlier life he played lead soprano bugle for the Velvet Knights Drum and Bugle Corp and electric guitar in Glenn Branca’s Symphony #13 at the Walt Disney Concert Hall.
Daniel runs a home studio where he is finishing his first record as producer and co-songwriter with the band Guilty Strangers.
