Books
Single author
Analyzing Classical Form: An Approach for the Classroom. New York, Oxford University Press, 2013; 768 pp.
Classical Form: A Theory of Formal Functions for the Instrumental Music of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998; 307 pp.; paperback ed., 2001. Winner of the 1999 Wallace Berry Book Award, Society for Music Theory.
Co-authored
Caplin, William E., James Hepokoski, and James Webster. Musical Form, Forms & Formenlehre: Three Methodological Reflections. Ed. Pieter Bergé. Leuven: University of Leuven Press, 2009; 179 pp.; paperback ed. 2011.
Pieter Bergé, in collaboration with Jeroen D’hoe, Poundie Burstein, William E. Caplin, James Hepokoski, and Willam Rothstein. Beethoven's Tempest Sonata: Five Annotated Analyses for Performers and Scholars. Leuven: Peeters, 2012; 204 pp.
Co-edited
Beethoven’s Tempest Sonata: Perspectives of Analysis and Performance. Ed. Pieter Bergé, co-eds. Jeroen D’hoe and William E. Caplin. Leuven: Peeters, 2009; 341 pp.
Book chapters
“Fantastical Forms: Formal Functionality in Improvisational Genres of the Classical Era.” In Musical Improvisation and Open Forms in the Age of Beethoven. Eds. Gianmario Borio and Angela Carone. London: Routledge, 2018.
“Harmony and Cadence in Gjerdingen’s ‘Prinner.’” In What Is a Cadence? Theoretical and Analytical Considerations on the Classical Cadence. Eds. Markus Neuwirth and Pieter Bergé. Leuven: University of Leuven Press, 2014.
“Topics and Formal Functions: The Case of the Lament.” In The Oxford Handbook of Musical Topics. Ed. Danuta Mirka, 415–52. New York: Oxford University Press, 2014.
“Formal Function versus Thematic Content: Mozart’s Rondo in D, K. 485. In Histories and Narratives of Music Analysis. Eds. Milos Zatkalick, Denis Collins, and Milena Medic, 318–42. Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2013.
“Criteria for Analysis: Perspectives on Riemann’s Mature Theory of Meter.” In The Oxford Handbook of Neo-Riemannian Music Theories, eds. Edward Gollin and Alexander Rehding, 419–39. New York, Oxford University Press, 2011.
“The Tempest Exposition: A Springboard for Form-Functional Considerations.” In Beethoven’s Tempest Sonata: Perspectives of Analysis and Performance. Ed. Pieter Bergé, co-eds. Jeroen D’hoe and William E. Caplin, 87–125. Leuven: Peeters, 2009.
“Schoenberg’s ‘Second Melody,’ Or, ‘Meyer-ed’ in the Bass.” In Communication in Eighteenth-Century Music, eds. Danuta Mirka and Kofi Agawu, 160–88. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008.
“The Genesis of the Countersubjects for the Grosse Fuge.” In The String Quartets of Beethoven, ed. William Kinderman, 234–61. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2006.
“Theories of Musical Rhythm in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries.” In The Cambridge History of Western Music Theory, ed. Thomas Christensen, 657–94. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002.
“Structural Expansion in Beethoven’s Symphonic Forms.” In Beethoven’s Compositional Process, ed. William Kinderman, 27–54. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1991.
Journal articles
“Cadence in Fugue: Modes of Closure in J. S. Bach’s Well-tempered Clavier.” Music Theory & Analysis 7/1 (April 2020): 190–249.
“Beyond the Classical Cadence: Thematic Closure in Early Romantic Music.” Music Theory Spectrum, 40/1 (Spring 2018): 1–26.
Sears, David, R. W., Jacob Spitzer, William E. Caplin, and Stephen McAdams. “Expecting the End: Continuous Expectancy Ratings for Tonal Cadences. Psychology of Music 48/3 (2020): 358–75.
Sears, David, Marcus T. Pearce, William E. Caplin, and Stephen McAdams. “Simulating Melodic and Harmonic Expectations for Tonal Cadences Using Probabilistic Models.” Journal of New Music Research 48/1 (2018): 29–52.
Sears, David R. W., Marcus T. Pearce, Jacob Spitzer, William E. Caplin, and Stephen McAdams. “Expectations for Tonal Cadences: Sensory and Cognitive Priming Effects.” Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 2018: 1–17.
Caplin, William E., and Nathan John Martin. “The ‘Continuous Exposition’ and the Concept of Subordinate Theme.” Music Analysis 35/1 (2016): 4–43.
Sears, David, William E. Caplin, and Stephen McAdams. “Perceiving the Classical Cadence.” Music Perception 31/5 (2014): 397–417.
“Teaching Classical Form: Strict Categories versus Flexible Analyses.” Tijdschrift voor Muziektheorie 18/3 (December, 2013): 119–35.
“William Caplin Responds.” Intersections: Canadian Journal of Music 31/1 (2012): 67–76. (A response to papers by Edward Jurkowsky, Mark Richards, and Carl Wiens, as part of a Festschrift issue of Intersections entitled “Contemplating Caplin.”)
“Beethoven’s ‘Tempest’ Exposition: A Response to Janet Schmalfeldt,” Music Theory Online 16/2 (2010). (Shortened version of the book chapter “The Tempest Exposition.”)
Vallières, Michel, Daphne Tan, William E. Caplin, and Stephen McAdams. “Perception of Intrinsic Formal Functionality: An Empirical Investigation of Mozart’s Materials.” Journal of Interdisciplinary Music Studies 3/1–2 (2009): 17–43.
“On the Relation of Musical Topoi to Formal Function.” Eighteenth-Century Music 2/1 (2005): 113–24.
“North American Approaches to Musical Form.” Zeitschrift der Gesellschaft für Musiktheorie 2, no. 2 (2005): http://www.gmth.de/www/artikel/2005-04-10_11-04-06_7/.
“The Classical Cadence: Conceptions and Misconceptions.” Journal of the American Musicological Society 57/1 (Spring, 2004): 51–117. Winner of 2006 Prix Opus for “Article of the Year,” Conseil québécois de la musique.
“The Classical Sonata Exposition: Cadential Goals and Form-Functional Plans.” Tijdschrift voor Muziektheorie 6/3 (2001): 195–209.
“Hybrid Themes: Toward a Refinement in the Classification of Classical Theme Types.” Beethoven Forum 3 (1994): 151–65.
“History of Theory in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries: A Survey of Recent Research.” Music Theory Spectrum 11/1 (1989): 29–34.
“The ‘Expanded Cadential Progression’: A Category for the Analysis of Classical Form.” Journal of Musicological Research 7 (1987): 215–57.
“Funktionale Komponenten im achttaktigen Satz.” Musiktheorie 1/3 (1986): 239–60.
“Riemann’s Theory of Dynamic Shading: A Theory of Meter?” Theorea 1 (1985): 1–24.
“Moritz Hauptmann and the Theory of Suspensions.” Journal of Music Theory 28/2 (1984): 251–69.
“Tonal Function and Metrical Accent: A Historical Perspective.” Music Theory Spectrum 5 (1983): 1–14.
“Harmony and Meter in the Theories of Simon Sechter.” Music Theory Spectrum 2 (1980): 74–89.
“Der Akzent des Anfangs: Zur Theorie des musikalischen Taktes.” Zeitschrift für Musiktheorie 9/1 (1978): 17–28.
Conference proceedings
Vallières, Michel, Daphne Tan, William E. Caplin, Joseph Shenker, Stephen McAdams. “Beginnings, Middles, and Endings: The Effect of Musical Parameters in the Perception of Intrinsic Formal Functionality,” in Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Music Perception and Cognition, ed. K. Miyazaki, M. Adachi, Y. Hiraga, Y. Nakajima and M. Tsusaki (Sapporo, Japan, 25-29 August 2008), 179-188.
“Zur Klassifizierung harmonischer Fortschreitungen.” In Musiktheorie zwischen Historie und Systematik: 1. Kongreß der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Musiktheorie, Dresden 2001, ed. Ludwig Holtmeier, Michael Polth, and Felix Diergarten, 245-54. Augsburg, 2004.
“Harmonic Variants of the ‘Expanded Cadential Progression.’” In A Composition as Problem II: Proceedings of the Second International Estonian Music Theory Conference,” ed. Mart Humal, 49–71. Tallinn: Estonian Academy of Music, 2000.
“Analysis Symposium: The Andante of Mozart’s Symphony No. 40 in G Minor.” In A Composition as Problem II: Proceedings of the Second International Estonian Music Theory Conference,” ed. Mart Humal, 155–62. Tallinn: Estonian Academy of Music, 2000.
Book reviews
The Rhythms of Tonal Music, by Joel Lester. Journal of the American Musicological Society 41/2 (1988): 382–92.
Viennese Harmonic Theory from Albrechtsberger to Schenker and Schoenberg, by Robert Wason. Music Theory Spectrum 8 (1986): 140–43.
The Strict Art of Musical Composition, by Johann Philipp Kirnberger, trans. David Beach and Jurgen Thym. Journal of Music Theory 28/1 (1984): 124–28.
Beyond Schenkerism, by Eugene Narmour. Zeitschrift für Musiktheorie 9/2 (1978): 52–54.<I