Music

MUS 103 is an introduction to Western music, involving works from around 1200 to the present. The course explains the basic elements of Western music -- rhythm, pitch, melody, harmony, form -- and historically significant styles and genres of composition. The course includes lectures on the symphony, ballet, and opera.

An introduction to the fundamental materials of a variety of musics, including Western concert music, jazz, and popular music. Course activities center around interrelated theoretical, compositional, and analytical projects that serve to explore issues of music theory, style, and creativity. Two lectures, two preceptorials.

An introduction to the procedures, structures, and aesthetics of tonal music. Composing, singing, playing, analysis of music such as 18th-century chorale, and 18th- and 19th-century piano music. Emphasis on fluency in handling tonal materials as a means of achieving a variety of formal and expressive ends. Two lectures, two classes, one session in practical musicianship.

An introduction to the procedures, structures, and aesthetics of tonal music. Composing, singing, playing, analysis of music such as 18th-century chorale, and 18th- and 19th-century piano music. Emphasis on fluency in handling tonal materials as a means of achieving a variety of formal and expressive ends. Two lectures, two classes, one session in practical musicianship. Prerequisite: ability to read music.

An introduction to the principles of voice leading and linear construction through a series of systematic compositional exercises. Two lectures, two classes. Prerequisite: 106 or equivalent.

An introduction to the syntactic structure of the music of the 18th and 19th centuries through exercises in analysis and composition. Two lectures, two classes. Prerequisite: 205 or equivalent.

A continuous cycle of creation, discussion, and response based on the creative musical activity of the students. Varieties of kind and style--notated composition, multimedia music, multitracking, and improvisation--are encouraged. Prerequisite: instructor's permission. Two 90-minute classes.

An introduction to opera. Lectures deal with works by major composers, conventions of libretto poetry, singers and voice types, musical forms and dramatic pacing, and opera staging. Classes are devoted to close study of two works and the plays on which they were based. Two lectures, one class. Prerequisite: any music course, or some musical background, or instructor's permission. Open to freshmen.

A survey of vocal literature (excluding opera) from the fifteenth century to the present day. Lectures focus on representative works that illustrate historical developments in musical style, vocal texture, and text-music relationships; attention is also given to choral music's role as an institution of social engagement, an expression of collective identity, and the societal ability to rejoice, celebrate, critique, and mourn on an impersonal level.

A study of the development of the symphony from its origins in the mid-18th century through the first half of the 20th. Representative works will be chosen for detailed study in the class meetings. Two lectures, one class. Prerequisite: any music course, some musical background, or instructor's permission.

Major developments of Western music up to about 1400, including some of the following: the origin and growth of chant, its liturgical context and musical properties; medieval secular song; early polyphony and Parisian organum; the French ars nova and Machaut; the Italian trecento; English medieval music. Prerequisite: a year of theory or instructor's permission.

Introduction to the history and current scholarship of European music in the period 1400-1600. The principal thread is compositional history; in addition, the course includes extensive coverage of these topics: aesthetics, orality/literacy, improvisation, gender and sexuality.

An introductory survey of style developments, aesthetic trends affecting music, and principal vocal and instrumental genres (opera, cantata, concerto, sonata, and suite) of the period 1600-1750. Major figures to be considered include Monteverdi, Schütz, Lully, Corelli, Vivaldi, Handel, and J. S. Bach. Two lectures, one preceptorial. Prerequisite: any music course or instructor's permission.

Introduction to the history of 18th-century music, giving equal attention to pre-Classical and Classical periods, and covering France, England and Italy as well as Germany. The course features Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and numerous other significant figures. The chief narrative thread is the history of musical style and taste. A separate storyline running alongside this is the imaginative retelling of Dr. Charles Burney's musical journeys through Europe in the early 1770s. Extensive playlist and readings of contemporary texts (diaries, letters, travel accounts, music treatises, opera libretti, translated into English). Two lectures, one class.

An introduction to modern music, beginning with its origins in late Romanticism, up to World War II. Composers considered include Mahler, Stravinsky, Debussy, Ravel, and Berg. Topics range from urban centers for modern music (Paris and Vienna), the relationship of musical modernism to contemporary literature and visual arts, music and politics, to the impact of recording technology and cinema on musical arts. Prerequisite: any music course, some classical music background, or instructor's permission. Two lectures, one preceptorial.

European and American music since World War II. Study of many recent approaches to music and their cultural, social, and philosophical bases. Topics include: postwar European avant-garde, American extensions of serialism, technological developments, influences of popular and folk cultures, American avant-garde. Prerequisite: any music course, some musical background, or instructor's permission. Two lectures, one preceptorial.

Course explores aesthetic principles and social context underlying traditional and popular musics of various world regions, drawing on examples from South Africa, Japan, India, and Indonesia, among other places. Issues explored include conception of melody and rhythm in culture; the impact that language, pedagogical methods, patronage systems, gender, and ethnic or class identity have had on musical composition and performance; and the role of migration, globalization, and politics in the development of musical style.

An examination of the effect of different compositional practices and different sound technologies on the film viewer. The course will focus on three parameters of film music: music that has a visual point of origin on the screen (diegetic music), music that does not have a visual point of origin on the screen (nondiegetic music, also called background scoring), and music that floats between these two realms. Prerequisite: 103, or 105, or permission of instructor. One three-hour seminar.

Introduction to the vocal and instrumental music of Africa south of the Sahara. Topics include the place of music in society, the influence of language on musical composition, principles of rhythmic organization, urban popular music, "art" music as a response to colonialism, and the impact of African music on the earliest forms of African American music. Two 90-minute lectures.

This course will delve into the many historical themes, social issues, and musical aspects that arise from surveying and comparing the diverse musical traditions of Mexico, the U.S., and Canada.

An introduction survey examining the historical development of jazz from its African origins through the present. The course will place emphasis on the acquisition of listening skills and explore related musical and social issues.

Examines post-World War II blues, rock music mostly of the late sixties and early seventies, and the connections between them. Explores wider musical and extramusical connections. Two lectures, one class.

A "hands-on" course that explores music from before 1600 using the pedagogical methods of the period. Medieval and Renaissance techniques of sight-singing, memorization, improvisation, and harmonization will be learned. Modern computer technology will also be used to investigate the deeper mystical and philosophical content of music from this period. Two 90-minute classes. Prerequisite: ability to read modern music notation comfortably.

Offers students the opportunity to gain a working knowledge of the ways in which dance, dance/theater, and body-based art are created and performed today. Primarily a studio course that stresses learning through doing. Students will have the opportunity to work with leading experimental creators. Topics, prerequisites, and formats will vary from year to year.

An introduction to a variety of 20th-century approaches to composition. Emphasis on understanding different techniques, syntaxes, and musical languages through exercises in compositional emulations and in performance projects of student and studied works, using available performance skills of participants. Prerequisite: 206 or instructor's permission. One three-hour seminar, one preceptorial.