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Freshman Seminar
Twelve Masterworks of 20th-century Music - V50.0397
Monday & Wednesday 2:00 - 3:15 (Waverly 365)
Instructor: Stanley Boorman
The last hundred years have seen radical changes in classical music,
not only in the sound-world, but also in aesthetic and technique --
ranging from the breakdown of tonality and the use of electronic and
computer resources in performance to questions of the relationship of
composer and performer, of the place of noise, and even of what music
is or could be.
This course presents outstanding works by a range of composers (among
them Stravinsky, Carter, and Messiaen) both because of their
importance, and as illustrations of ideas about music. Each
composition will be explored for itself, and also as a stimulus to
discussion about one or more of these issues: each will be one that has
stood the test of time, and been hailed as a major work -- and those
criteria will also need discussion.
The course will involve considerable listening, alongside readings: it
will require a willingness to re-assess conventional views about music,
and to accept unconventional solutions.
The
Art of Listening - V71.0003
Tuesday & Thursday 9:30 - 10:45 (Silver 318)
Please refer to Albert for lab sections
Instructor: TBA
Students acquire a basic vocabulary of
musical terms, concepts, and listening skills in order to describe
their responses to musical experiences.
Elements of
Music - V71.0020
Monday & Wednesday 9:30 - 10:45 (Silver 320)
Please refer to Albert for lab sections
Instructor: TBA
Explores the underlying principles and inner workings of the tonal
system, a system that has guided all of Western music from the years
1600 to 1900. It includes a discussion of historical background and
evolution. The focus is on concepts and notation of key, scale,
tonality, and rhythm. Related skills in sight-singing, dictation, and
keyboard harmony are stressed in the recitation sections.
History of
European Music: Medieval & Renaissance - V71.0101
Monday & Wednesday 11:00 - 12:15 (Silver 218)
Instructor: TBA
Topics include the music of the medieval church; the codification and
extension of the plainsong repertory and the emergence and development
of polyphony; music of the medieval court (troubadours,
trouvères, and
minnesingers); the ascendancy of secular polyphony in the 14th century
and the subsequent Renaissance balance between sacred and secular; mass
and motet, and chanson and madrigal; the beginnings of an autonomous
repertory for instruments in the 16th century.
History of
European Music: I9th Century and the Post-Romantics - V71.0103
Tuesday & Thursday 9:30 - 10:45
(Silver 218)
Instructor:
Rena Mueller
The works of major composers from Beethoven to the death of Mahler.
Topics include the effect of romanticism on musical genres (symphony,
sonata, lieder, opera); the central importance of Wagner and his legacy
(musical, dramatic, narrative); concepts of virtuosity; musical
criticism.
Topics
in 20th Century Music - V71.0111
Tuesday & Thursday 2:00 - 3:15
(Silver 218)
Instructor:
Rena Mueller
Exploring the World's Music Traditions:
Introduction to Music of the Middle East - V71.0151
Tuesday and Thursday 3:30 - 4:45 (Silver 320)
Instructor: Walter Feldman
The students of this course will
be exposed to the major
traditional musical forms of both urban and some rural cultures of the
Eastern Arab world, North Africa, Turkey and Iran. Cultural and
historical readings will encourage them to make connections with
broader cultural currents, while those with a musical specialization
will be able to analyze specific musical forms and pieces.
The area of the world known
today as the "Middle East" offers rich material for the study of
musical issues, both in relation to particular human cultures, and as
phenomena in universal human expression. As the home of the three
Abrahamic religions it has pondered the role of music as an expression
of faith and, in Sufi mysticism, as a tool both for catharsis and for
moral growth of the individual and the community. It is the epicenter
of various types of organization of music in time, especially the
opposition of metrical rhythm versus flowing rhythm. The flowing rhythm
concept is fundamental to the chanting of the Quran, and to a great
many poetic and folkloric genres. The modal systems, their microtonal
elaborations, their varying concepts of flowing rhythm, have at times
resulted in more or less codified forms of improvisation or performance
generation. The primary vehicle for musical expression has been the
human voice, whose timbre and tessitura are bounded within a system of
cultural values. The modern Middle East (that emerged since the 17th
century) is divided into cultural zones whose primary interaction has
been internal. And each zone has interacted in its own way with the
presence of Western music since the 19th century.
Syllabus
Anthropology
of Music: Understanding Music as Culture - V71.0153
Monday & Wednesday 3:30 - 4:45 (Silver 218)
Instructor: Joe Schloss
To the best of our
knowledge, there has never been a culture
that did not have music. Why is music such a fundamental part of the
human
experience? This class will attempt to answer that question. Using case
studies
from diverse traditions around the world, we will explore a wide range
of
perspectives on the nature, purpose and significance of musical
practice. The
new course will be an invigorating introduction to some of the powerful
theories that scholars have developed to understand the significance of
music
within various cultural contexts. While we strongly encourage music
majors to
take this course, we also recommend it to anyone who is interested in
thinking
through the complicated ways in which music is imbricated into
individual lives
and societies.
Introduction
to Celtic Music - V71.0182
(cross-listed with Irish Studies - V58.0152)
Monday & Wednesday 12:30 - 1:45 (Silver 320)
Instructor: Mick Moloney
This course provides a comprehensive introduction to the traditional
and contemporary music of the Celtic areas of Western Europe—Ireland,
Scotland, Wales, Brittany, and Galicia. Recordings and live
performances present the extraordinary range of singing styles and the
musical instruments employed in each culture, including harps, bagpipes
and a variety of other wind, free reed, keyboard and stringed
instruments. Forms and musical styles are explored in depth along with
a study of their origin, evolution, and cultural links.
Topics:
Latin Music: From Rumba to Reggaeton - V71.0541
(cross-listed with Social and Cultural Analysis - V18.0152)
Tuesday & Thursday 9:30 - 10:45
Instructor: Juan Flores
Salsa, mambo, rumba, merengue, Tex-Mex, reggaeton - in recent years
Latin music has become an integral part of the soundscape of our times,
and has gained a firm foothold in repertoires of American and world
popular music. In this course we will study the range of styles,
movements and practices of U.S. Latin music in historical perspective.
Starting with the "roots" -- traditional folkloric musical genres like
the rumba cubana, the bomba from Puerto Rico, and analogous styles from
other Caribbean and Latin American national heritages -- we will trace
the emergence and diffusion of popular rhythms like tango, mambo,
cumbia and salsa. While we will look closely at selected musical texts
and practitioners, primary emphasis will be devoted to understanding
the social contexts and cultural significance of changing musical
practices during the course of the 20th century and down to the
present. To what extent do theses instances of collective artistic
taste reflect struggles to affirm ethnic and racial identities? What
has been the historical relationship between these styles and the
development of popular music in the United States? How has the diaspora
experience of Latino communities served to preserve and at the same
time transform traditions rooted in Latin American and Caribbean home
countries? How are gender, racial and class relations reflected in and
expressed through the music? These and related political and
sociological questions will be at the center of our readings and
discussion throughout the semester.
Harmony
&
Counterpoint I - V71.0201
Monday & Wednesday 11:00 - 12:15 (Silver 318)
Instructor: TBA
Monday
& Wednesday 3:30 - 4:45 (Silver 318)
Instructor:
TBA
Please
refer to Albert for lab sections
General principles underlying tonal
musical organization. Students
learn concepts of 18th- and 19th- century harmonic, formal, and
contrapuntal practices. Weekly lab sections are devoted to skills in
musicianship and are required throughout the sequence.
Harmony &
Counterpoint III - V71.0203
Tuesday & Thursday 3:30 - 4:45 (Silver 318)
Instructor: Louis Karchin
Please
refer to Albert for lab sections
The continuation of V71.0201-002 covers
chromatic extensions of
tonality, intensive analysis of representative works from the tonal
literature, and more advanced contrapuntal practices of the 18th and
19th centuries. V71.0204 also includes an introduction to 20th-century
music theory and popular music.
Principles
of
Composition -
V71.0209
Monday & Wednesday 2:00 - 3:15 (Silver 318)
Instructor: Arthur Kampela
Internship -
V71.0981
Open to music majors and minors, in each
case with permission from the director of undergraduate
studies or music department chair.
Independent
Study - V71.0998
Seniors majoring in music who, in the
opinion of the department, possess unusual ability are permitted to
carry on individual work in a selected specialized area under the
supervision of a department member.
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