The course will deal closely with a small number of works from the tonal repertoire and will serve as a critical introduction to several pertinent and influential analytical methodologies, including motivic, formal, semiotic, and voice-leading analysis. The focus will be on the musical and aesthetic values that each method either enhances or attenuates. Prerequisite: 206 or instructor's permission. One three-hour seminar.
Topics in Tonal Analysis
Professor/Instructor
Daniel Laurence TruemanAdvanced Workshop in Musical Composition
Professor/Instructor
Dmitri TymoczkoA composition course for independent, self-directed composers. Most of the class will be spent working on a single piece. Students will present their work-in-progress to the class weekly or biweekly depending on enrollment. We will have a concert of final projects at the end of the semester, with all student pieces to be performed by So Percussion, the music department's world-renowned ensemble-in-residence.
Jazz Theory through Improvisation and Composition I
Professor/Instructor
An exploration of the melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic principles of the bebop paradigm. The course includes analysis of representative works by various jazz masters and will place a strong emphasis on student projects in improvisation and composition. Prerequisites: 105 or permission of instructor. Two 90-minute classes.
Jazz Theory through Improvisation and Composition II
Professor/Instructor
An examination of the theoretical principles found in modal jazz through analysis of representative works by such composers as Wayne Shorter, Joe Henderson, and Herbie Hancock. The course will place a strong emphasis on student projects in improvisation and composition. Prerequisites: 105 or permission of instructor. Two 90-minute classes.
Computer and Electronic Music through Programming, Performance, and Composition
Professor/Instructor
Daniel Laurence Trueman, Jeffrey Owen SnyderAn introduction to the fundamentals of computer and electronic music in the context of the Princeton Laptop Orchestra (PLOrk). The music and sound programming language ChucK, developed here at Princeton, will be used in conjunction with Max/MSP, another digital audio language, to study procedural programming, digital signal processing and synthesis, networking, and human-computer interfacing.
Computer and Electronic Music Composition
Professor/Instructor
Daniel Laurence Trueman, Jeffrey Owen Snyder, Tyondai Adaien BraxtonCompositional projects involving computers and synthesizers. Some work may involve interactions between live and electronic sounds. Two 90-minute classes. Prerequisite: 314 or permission of instructor.
Special Topics in Performance Practice
Professor/Instructor
A special topics course designed to build upon and/or enhance existing program courses, taking into consideration the strengths and interests of program concentrators and the availability of appropriate instructors. Topics, prerequisites, and formats will vary from year to year.
Bach and Handel
Professor/Instructor
Wendy HellerThe contrasting careers and oeuvres of the two greatest representatives of the late baroque in music will be considered both individually and comparatively. Prerequisite: a year of theory or instructor's permission.
Russian Music
Professor/Instructor
Simon Alexander MorrisonA detailed survey of Russian national and international composers. Topics of discussion and analysis will include magic opera, realism, orientalism, the relationship between composers and poets of the Russian Symbolist era, the World of Art movement and the Ballets Russes, Soviet film music, Soviet arts doctrine, and musical aesthetics (especially as they pertain to authorship and identity). Prerequisites: 105 or permission of instructor. Two 90-minute classes.
Topics in History, Analysis, and Interpretation
Professor/Instructor
Topics chosen from, but not limited to: a group of works by a single composer (Leonin's organa, Monteverdi's madrigals, Brahms's symphonies); a certain genre (19th-century choral works, Hindustani Khayal, contemporary rock, late 16th-century madrigal); a specific theoretical or historical problem (atonal theory, composers' sketches and musical analysis, the origins of opera). One three-hour seminar.
Topics in History, Analysis, and Interpretation
Professor/Instructor
Topics chosen from, but not limited to: a group of works by a single composer (Leonin's organa, Monteverdi madrigals, Brahms's symphonies); a certain genre (19th-century choral works, Hindustani Khayal, contemporary rock, late 16th-century madrigal); a specific theoretical or historical problem (atonal theory, composers' sketches and musical analysis, the origins of opera). One three-hour seminar.
Medieval Musical Style and Notation
Professor/Instructor
Jamie L. ReulandExamines musical notation along paleographic, semiotic, and aesthetic lines, and addresses theoretical and practical problems of transcription. Focuses on earliest notations of the Christian east and west and later, the emergence of rhythmic notation.
Topics in Medieval Music
Professor/Instructor
Rob C. WegmanSource-critical, historical, and stylistic studies of one of the late medieval polyphonic repertories are studied.
Topics in 19th- and Early 20th-Century Music
Professor/Instructor
Simon Alexander MorrisonText-critical and analytic studies in the works of one or several of the major figures are studied.
Topics in 19th- and Early 20th-Century Music
Professor/Instructor
Simon Alexander MorrisonText-critical and analytic studies in the works of one or several of the major figures are studied.
Topics in the History of Opera
Professor/Instructor
Wendy HellerCritical, historical, and analytic studies of music, language, and drama in the European operatic tradition are studied.
Topics in Music from 1600 to 1800
Professor/Instructor
Wendy HellerThis seminar explores one or more topics in the history, analysis, and interpretation of music of the seventeenth and/or eighteenth century. Recent seminars have included: Handel in Italy; Gender and Sexuality in the Music of Early Modern Italy; Francesco Cavalli: Sources and Interpretation; J.S. Bach.
Topics in Music from 1600 to 1800
Professor/Instructor
Wendy HellerThis seminar explores one or more topics in the history, analysis, and interpretation of music of the seventeenth and/or eighteenth century. Recent seminars have included: Handel in Italy; Gender and Sexuality in the Music of Early Modern Italy; Francesco Cavalli: Sources and Interpretation; J.S. Bach.
Topics in Music from 1400 to 1600
Professor/Instructor
Studies in one or more of the major vocal or instrumental repertories of the 15th and 16th centuries are explored.
Seminar in Musicology
Professor/Instructor
Gavin SteingoOriginal work in areas of current musicological significance are presented to and reviewed by the seminar as the occasion arises. Emphasis is given to student projects, but work in progress by any member of the seminar may be discussed or a topic of particular controversy examined.
Seminar in Musicology
Professor/Instructor
Rob C. WegmanOriginal work in areas of current musicological significance are presented to and reviewed by the seminar as the occasion arises. Emphasis is given to student projects, but work in progress by any member of the seminar may be discussed or a topic of particular controversy examined.
Composition
Professor/Instructor
Donnacha Matthew Dennehy, Daniel Laurence Trueman, Juri SeoEmphasis is placed on the individual student's original work and the study and discussion of pieces pertinent to that work.
Composition
Professor/Instructor
Barbara Ann White, Dmitri Tymoczko, Daniel Laurence TruemanEmphasis is placed on the individual student's original work and the study and discussion of pieces pertinent to that work.
Ends and Means: Issues in Composition
Professor/Instructor
Steven Mackey, Juri SeoA consideration of the more elusive but fundamental aspects of composition: continuity; change (goal-directed, circular, sudden); tempo and texture; rhythms of harmony, contrapuntal interaction, succession of ideas, and surface attack; the "extra-musical;" contextual logic and ad hoc systems; and sonic image, form, and idea.
Points of Focus in 20th-Century Music
Professor/Instructor
Juri SeoSelected areas in 20th-century music are chosen for detailed examination and study. Representative works are subjected to critical scrutiny, and an attempt may be made to draw conclusions regarding larger theoretical, analytical, and social issues.