Kramer tok doktorgrad i musikkvitenskap ved University of California, Berkeley i 1969; han var bl.a. student av Karlheinz Stockhausen. Han var professor i komposisjon og musikkteori ved Columbia University fra 1988 til sin død i 2004. Han arbeidet mye med temporalitet i musikk og med postmoderne musikk, og er særlig kjent for boken The Time of Music. Han rakk akkurat å skrive ferdig boken Postmodern Music, Postmodern Listening før han døde, men den ble først utgitt i 2016. Ved Columbia University er to stipender oppkalt etter ham.[3]
Bibliografi
The Time of Music (New York: Schirmer Books, 1988)
Listen to the Music (New York: Schirmer Book, 1988); spansk oversettelse Invitacion a la musica (Buenos Aires: Vergara, 1993)
ed. Time in Contemporary Musical Thought, special issue of Contemporary Music Review (1989–93)
"The Nature and Origins of Musical Postmodernism," Current Musicology 66 (Spring 1999). Også publisert i Postmodern Music/Postmodern Thought, red. Judy Lochhead and Joseph Auner (New York: Routledge, 2002)
"Postmodern Concepts of Musical Time," Indiana Theory Review 17 (1997)
"Durations from Nested Ratios and Summation Series: Toward an Approach to Rhythm Appropriate to Computer Composition," in Proceedings of the ACMA 1995 Conference (Melbourne: ACMA, 1995)
"Beyond Unity: Toward an Understanding of Postmodernism in Music and Music Theory," i Concert Music, Rock, and Jazz since 1945: Essays and Analytical Studies (Rochester: U. of Rochester Press, 1995)
"Unity and Disunity in Carl Nielsen's Sixth Symphony," i A Nielsen Companion (Portland, OR: Amadeus Press, 1994)
"Discontinuity and Proportion in the Music of Stravinsky," i Confronting Stravinsky (Berkeley: U. of California Press, 1986)
Musikkverk
About Face, orchestra (1989), pub. MMB
Another Sunrise, mixed septet (1990), pub. MMB
Atlanta Licks, mixed sextet (1984), pub. MMB
Cincy in C, orchestra (1994), pub. MMB
Licks, double bass trio with voice (1981), pub. MMB
Moments in and out of Time, orchestra (1983), pub. G. Schirmer
Music for Piano, Number 5 (1980), pub. G. Schirmer
Musica Pro Musica, orchestra (1987), pub. MMB
No Beginning, No End, chorus with orchestra (1983), pub. MMB
Notta Sonata, 2 pianos with 2–3 percussion (1993), pub. MMB