By the time of moderation, music majors will be expected to have successfully completed two semesters of music theory courses and two semesters of music history courses. Please consult your adviser about this.
College and Community Ensembles
Unless otherwise noted, each ensemble is for one credit except where indicated. It is possible to participate in more than one ensemble and receive additional credit accordingly.
CRN |
94279 |
Distribution |
F |
Course No. |
MUS 104 |
||
Title |
Bard College Community Orchestra |
||
Professor |
Joan Tower |
||
Schedule |
Mon 7:00 pm - 10:00 pm OLIN AUDITORIUM |
This is a year-long course. Students earn 2 credits per semester, and an additional two credits for registering in private lessons which are strongly encouraged. Auditions will be held on September 9 from 9:00 to 6:00 in Blum Hall for both old and new members. A sign-up sheet will be posted in Blum at the beginning of the semester. Please be prepared to play two pieces-one slower and lyrical, and one faster.
CRN |
94280 |
Distribution |
F |
Course No. |
MUS 105 |
||
Title |
Bard College Community Chorus |
||
Professor |
James Bagwell |
||
Schedule |
Th 7:00 pm - 9:45 pm Bard Hall |
First rehearsal will be held on Thursday, September 7th at 7:00pm in Bard Hall. Music to be announced.
CRN |
94281 |
Distribution |
F |
Course No. |
MUS 106 |
||
Title |
Bard College Community Chamber Music Program |
||
Professor |
Luis Garcia-Renart |
||
Schedule |
TBA |
The program will select students, alumni, faculty and community performers to present chamber music recitals on and off campus. The program will aim for diversity, both in instrumentation (including voice) as well as in repertoire. Weekly coaching will be given by faculty, and rehearsals between coachings will be expected.
CRN |
94282 |
Distribution |
F |
Course No. |
MUS 108 B |
||
Title |
Ensembles: Contemporary |
||
Professor |
Joan Tower |
||
Schedule |
Tu 10:00 am - 12:00 pm BLM |
Depending on registration students will form their own ensembles (2-5 players) to play a work from the 20th century repertoire.
CRN |
94283 |
Distribution |
F |
Course No. |
MUS 108 C |
||
Title |
Ensembles:Chamber/Wind & Brass |
||
Professor |
Patricia Spencer |
||
Schedule |
Tu 5:00 pm - 6:45 pm BLM 117 Lab: Fr 3:00 pm - 5:00 pm BLM 117 |
CRN |
94284 |
Distribution |
F |
Course No. |
MUS 108 D |
||
Title |
Vocal Ensemble |
||
Professor |
James Bagwell |
||
Schedule |
Mon 7:00 pm - 9:15 pm Bard Hall Tu 7:00 pm - 9:15 pm Bard Hall |
2 credits. This ensemble is for serious singers only, and by audition -a sign-up sheet will be posted at the beginning of the semester. Auditions will be held Friday, September 8th, 9:00-12:30 in Bard Hall.
CRN |
94286 |
Distribution |
F |
Course No. |
MUS 108 F |
||
Title |
Ensembles: Jazz |
||
Professor |
Thurman Barker |
||
Schedule |
Mon 4:00 pm - 6:00 pm Blum Hall |
CRN |
94327 |
Distribution |
F |
Course No. |
MUS 108 G |
||
Title |
Ensembles: Chamber |
||
Professor Schedule |
The Colorado String Quartet - see Joan Tower TBA |
CRN |
94287 |
Distribution |
F |
Course No. |
MUS 108 H |
||
Title |
Ensembles: Balinese Gamelan |
||
Professor |
TBA - see Richard Davis |
||
Schedule |
TBA |
CRN |
94288 |
Distribution |
F |
Course No. |
MUS 108 I |
||
Title |
Ensembles: Live Electronic Performance |
||
Professor |
Richard Teitelbaum |
||
Schedule |
Tu 4:30 pm - 6:20 pm Blum Hall |
MUSIC COURSES
CRN |
94479 |
Distribution |
A |
Course No. |
MUS 112 |
||
Title |
Introduction to Listening |
||
Professor |
James Bagwell |
||
Schedule |
Mon 10:00 am - 11:20 am OLIN 104 Wed 8:30 am - 9:50 am OLIN 104 |
In a recent article in the Atlantic Monthly (March 2000), Bottum writes that "Music made sense when the world did. Now the sense is gone but the melody lingers on-everywhere. We live surrounded by music, from torch songs at Starbucks to the Beatles in the elevator, and the barrage may be turning our minds to mush." This class will be an effort to "de-mush" our minds, specifically as it relates to listening skills. A broad selection of musical works from 1700 to the present will be introduced and studied in both musical and historical/cultural contexts. Key examples from the symphonic, chamber, operatic, jazz, popular, and musical theater genres will be examined primarily from the perspective of developing informed and open listening skills. Students will be evaluated based on a series of short essays and two listening exams. Reading music notation is not required for this course.
CRN |
94289 |
Distribution |
F |
Course No. |
MUS 133 |
||
Title |
Fundamentals of Music I |
||
Professor |
Kyle Gann |
||
Schedule |
Wed Fr 1:30 pm - 2:59 pm BLM 117 |
This course will build up skills (from scratch) in reading music and building up and recognizing basic chords of European music, such as triads and seventh chords. The course will culminate in simple composition assignments.
CRN |
94290 |
Distribution |
F |
Course No. |
MUS 171 |
||
Title |
Jazz Harmony I |
||
Professor |
Thurman Barker |
||
Schedule |
Wed 3:00 pm - 4:20 pm BLM 117 Fr 11:30 am - 12:50 pm BLM 117 |
This course will include acquisition of the basic skills that make up the foundation of all Jazz styles. We will also study the Jazz language from its beginnings early in the 20th century through the 'BEBOP' era.
CRN |
94291 |
Distribution |
C/D |
Course No. |
MUS 205 |
||
Title |
Operas of Verdi |
||
Professor |
Frederick Hammond |
||
Schedule |
Tu Th 10:00 am - 11:20 am OLIN 104 |
A survey of Verdi's Complete Operatic Productions. This course does not require a specialist's knowledge of music and is open to all students with a general interest in music.
CRN |
94292 |
Distribution |
A/B |
Course No. |
MUS 212 |
||
Title |
Jazz in Literature II |
||
Professor |
Thurman Barker |
||
Schedule |
Mon Wed 10:00 am - 11:20 am BLM 117 |
Cross-listed: AADS
This is a continuation course in Jazz in Literature designed for music lovers and readers of literature. This study group will explore literary texts (short stories, novels, plays) that have a jazz theme, with the goal of scrutinizing the synergy of two great American art forms -- literature and jazz in the 20th century. Our reading list will include James Baldwin, Langston Hughes, Ann Petry, Toni Morrison, Maya Angelou, Donald Bathelme, Ralph Ellison and others. Two papers will be expected as well as participation in class discussion.
CRN |
94293 |
Distribution |
C |
Course No. |
MUS 215 |
||
Title |
Topics in the History of Music: Charles Ives and the Definition of an American Music |
||
Professor |
Kyle Gann |
||
Schedule |
Wed Fr 10:00 am - 11:20 am OLIN 104 |
Cross-listed: American Studies
In Danbury, Connecticut, in 1874, Charles Ives was born into a world where American music was divided into two kinds: vernacular and cultivated, and cultivated meant European. Ives was the first composer to wrestle with the problem of creating large instrumental and vocal works analogous to those of Europe yet in harmony with American indigenous traditions of band marches, parlor songs, minstrel tunes, folk songs, and ragtime. Long after he had quit composing, in 1939, Ives's Piano Sonata No. 2: Concord, Mass., 1840-1860 was hailed as "the greatest music composed by an American," and many musicians have continued to believe that he remains the greatest American composer of all. This course will explore Ives' relationship to the vernacular musics he drew from; the incredible list of innovations he achieved without European models, including tone clusters, atonality, different tempos at once, simultaneous layers of music; and the legacy of Ives that still haunts every American composer trying to figure out his or her own path between pop idioms and European tradition. In the superb Ives biography by Jan Swafford and the new editions that are appearing of Ives's irascibly optimistic manifesto Essays Before a Sonata, we will grow closer to learning what it means to be an artist in that unappreciative country, the United States.
No prerequisite; music majors and non-majors welcome.
CRN |
94294 |
Distribution |
A/C |
Course No. |
MUS 219 |
||
Title |
Romantic Harmony |
||
Professor |
Kyle Gann |
||
Schedule |
Tu Th 1:30 pm - 3:00 pm BLM 117 |
This course will explore the Romantic Era in terms of its most colorful characteristic: harmony. Works by Chopin, Schumann, Brahms, Liszt, and Scriabin will be analyzed, and excerpts of larger works by Berlioz, Wagner, and Bruckner - for form and orchestration, but most of all to explore the flowering of ultrachromatic harmonic progressions and modulations. Along with augmented sixth chords, borrowed chords, enharmonic modulations, and chromatic voice-leading, the class will study the wealth of thematic transformation techniques that made late Romanticism such a fluid and often extra musically referential language. This course is intended for music majors, but is open to anyone who has fulfilled the prerequisite, Fundamentals I and II or the equivalent.
CRN |
94295 |
Distribution |
C/D |
Course No. |
MUS 311 |
||
Title |
The Life and Music of Dimitri Shostakovich |
||
Professor |
Frederick Hammond |
||
Schedule |
Tu 1:30 pm - 3:50 pm OLIN 104 |
Cross-listed: Russian and Eurasian Studies
Dimitri Shostakovich (1906-1975) is accepted as one of the most important composers of the twentieth century, yet little of his music is known to the general public. His output embraces all the major genres of Western art music, including fifteen symphonies and string quartets, operas, ballet, and film music. His music ranges in tone from an orchestral transcription of "Tea for Two: to one of the grisliest operas in the current repertory and settings of Yevtushenko's poems on life in the gulag. During Hitler's invasion of Russia in World War II, Shostakovich's music came to symbolize for the West the struggle against the Axis, but it was also hostilely received and subjected to official censure. Shostakovich's career encapsulates many of the problems of the relationship between the State and the individual artist. For the general student; a reading of German or Russian would be helpful.
CRN |
94480 |
Distribution |
A/C |
Course No. |
MUS 314 |
||
Title |
The Literature and Language of Music |
||
Professor |
James Bagwell |
||
Schedule |
Th 1:30 pm - 2:50 pm OLIN 104 |
This course will present a survey of selected musical works composed from 1600 to the present. Works will be placed in a broad historical context with specific focus on stylistic and compositional traits. In addition, musical terminology, composers and historical and theoretical methodology will be introduced and described in relationship to the repertoire. Students will be evaluated on the basis of a series of short essays and two listening exams. As we will be using scores in our discussions, basic skills in music reading are expected. This course is primarily designed for music majors including sophomores.
CRN |
94296 |
Distribution |
F |
Course No. |
MUS 332 |
||
Title |
Jazz: The Freedom Principle II |
||
Professor |
Thurman Barker |
||
Schedule |
Th 10:30 am - 12:50 pm Blum Hall |
Cross-listed: AADS
This is a jazz study of the cross-pollination between Post-Bop in the late fifties and Free Jazz. The course, which employs a cultural approach, is also designed to look at the social climate surrounding the music to examine its effects on the music from 1958 to the mid-sixties. Emphasis will be on artists and composers such as Cecil Taylor, Ornette Coleman, Art Blakey, Thelonious Monk, John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Max Roach, Eric Dolphy, Charles Mingus, and Horace Silver. Illustrated with recordings, films, and videos.
CRN |
94297 |
Distribution |
A |
Course No. |
MUS 337 |
||
Title |
World Music Seminar |
||
Professor |
Richard Teitelbaum |
||
Schedule |
Wed 1:30 pm - 3:50 pm Blum Hall |
This seminar will combine studies of traditional world musics (emphasizing the classical music of India, Indonesia, China, Korea and Japan) with an examination of the 20th century Western musics which they have influenced. These latter include the California School of Cowell, Harrison and Cage, the minimalists La Monte Young, Terry Riley, Steve Reich and Phillip Glass, Europeans such as Messiaen, Xenakis, Ligeti and others. The work of Western-trained Asian composers who have reintroduced traditional Asian materials into their work such as Chou Wen-chung, Toru Takemitsu, Yuji Takahashi and Tan Dun will be studied as well. Finally, the most recent developments in inter-cultural hybridization by younger composer/improvisers (Jin Hi Kim, Miya Masaoka, Ikue Mori, Fred Ho, etc) will be studied in the context of a developing integrated world music culture that promises to be a major musical trend in the 21st century. Students will be encouraged to carry our research projects as well as to experiment with inter-cultural compositions and performances of their own. Enrollment limited.
MUSIC WORKSHOPS
CRN |
94298 |
Distribution |
F |
Course No. |
MUS WKSH A |
||
Title |
Workshop: Composition Seminar |
||
Professor |
Joan Tower |
||
Schedule |
Mon 1:30 pm - 3:50 pm Blum Hall |
This class will compose music that will be written down and passed to players to be rehearsed and taped. Every step of the process is assisted (particularly at the notational level) and discussed. Players in the class, as well as professional players from outside, will join in to help bring each piece to life in sound. In addition, other twentieth-century works are played and discussed and occasional visits to performances of new music are made. Individual meetings are arranged on a regular basis.
CRN |
94300 |
Distribution |
F |
Course No. |
MUS WKSH C1 |
||
Title |
Workshop: Ear Training I |
||
Professor |
Music Faculty |
||
Schedule |
Tu 11:30 am - 12:50 pm BLM 117 Lab: Fri 10:00 am - 11:20 am BLM Hall |
CRN |
94301 |
Distribution |
F |
Course No. |
MUS WKSH C2 |
||
Title |
Workshop: Ear Training II |
||
Professor |
Music Faculty |
||
Schedule |
Th 10:00 am - 11:20 am BLM 117 Lab: Fr 11:30 am - 12:50 pm Blum Hall |
CRN |
94302 |
Distribution |
F |
Course No. |
MUS WKSH C3 |
||
Title |
Workshop: Ear Training III |
||
Professor |
Music Faculty |
||
Schedule |
Th 3:00 pm - 4:20 pm BLM 117 Lab: Fr 10:00 am - 11:20 am BLM 117 |
CRN |
94303 |
Distribution |
F |
Course No. |
MUS WKSH E |
||
Title |
Workshop: Songwriting |
||
Professor |
Greg Armbruster |
||
Schedule |
Th 4:00 pm - 6:20 pm OLIN 104 |
All songwriters, as well as poets, lyricists, singers, instrumentalists, and composers are invited to create and share their original work in this safe forum for collaboration, performance, feedback, discussion, and analysis. The goal is to help participants express more clearly their musical intentions in song form. Lyrics, setting, clarity, musical scene, melody, accompaniment, accompaniment and voice as duet, notation, editing, rewriting, and the collaborative process are examined. Collaborative projects among class participants are organized and writing assignments focus on skill building. Participants present their work with or without self-accompaniment or in collaboration with others. Guests may attend class in order to help participants present their music. Although previously written work may be presented, the focus is primarily on work in progress or work composed during the semester, with the specific goal of writing ten new songs. An open performance is given at the last class meeting.
CRN |
94304 |
Distribution |
F |
Course No. |
MUS WKSH F |
||
Title |
Workshop:Integrated Electronic Music and Art |
||
Professor |
Robert Bielecki |
||
Schedule |
Tu 1:30 pm - 3:50 pm BLM 101 |
Cross-listed: Integrated Arts
A hands-on, multidisciplinary workshop combining diverse arts and media in interactive live performances and installations. The course offers instruction in the mastery of the facilities of the Blum Electronic Music Studios, including digital sampling, MIDI sequencing, and the programming of real-time, interactive, MIDI-based software, extensible to video and other visual domains (lighting, slides, and the like). It is hoped that a broad range of disciplines will be represented. Collaboration among students in Integrated Arts, Film and Electronic Media, Theater, Dance, Visual Arts, Music, and Writing is actively encouraged, as well as among computer-science students interested in real-time interactive systems, and physics students interested in constructing controls systems and interfaces. Enrollment is limited.
CRN |
94305 |
Distribution |
F |
Course No. |
MUS WKSH G |
||
Title |
Workshop:Voice and Vocal Repertoire for Singers and Pianists |
||
Professor |
Arthur Burrows |
||
Schedule |
Mon 10:00 am - 12:00 pm Blum Hall |
In this singing class we explore art songs of America, England, France and Germany, including some opera arias and ensembles depending on the make up of the class. At the same time we learn the necessary technique to perform them successfully. Each class will be divided into two parts. The first will deal with vocal technique, the second with technical issues that arise from individual performance. Requirements: the ability to match pitches, and an adequate vocal range. Pianists will be assigned individual singers to work with and coached in the various musical styles.
CRN |
94306 |
Distribution |
F |
Course No. |
MUS WKSH H |
||
Title |
Workshop: Classical Guitar Seminar and Independent Study |
||
Professor |
Luis Garcia-Renart |
||
Schedule |
Wed 4:00 pm - 6:00 pm Blum Hall |
Once a week a two-hour seminar will be offered to everyone to talk about specific technical and interpretation principals of the classical guitar, as well as to listen and to discuss the repertoire. This seminar is to be taken in conjunction with weekly private lessons offered by guitarist Greg Dinger. There will be a fee for the private instructor to be paid at the beginning of the semester. All levels of playing are accepted, beginners to advanced players welcomed.
CRN |
94307 |
Distribution |
F |
Course No. |
MUS WKSH I |
||
Title |
Workshop: Percussion Discussion |
||
Professor |
Thurman Barker |
||
Schedule |
Tu 1:30 pm - 3:50 pm Blum Hall |
This performance class will explore rhythms that are commonly found in the music of South and Latin America. Songs that are based on Samba Rhythms, Bossa Nova, and Afro-Cuban 6/8 beats will be studied. Also selected Jazz compositions that use some of these rhythms will be studied. At the same time, we will learn the necessary techniques for playing a variety of percussion instruments such as the guiro that is associated with the particular region being studied. Recommended for serious drummers and percussion players interested in learning the techniques in playing percussion and exploring rhythms from around the world. Assignments will include some research and listening. Requirements: an understanding of syncopation. Rhythmic patterns in off meters such as 3/4, 5/4, 6/8. Also an understanding of major and minor scales in required for this class. Limited enrollment.
CRN |
94483 |
Distribution |
F |
Course No. |
MUS WKSH J |
||
Title |
Four Play: The String Quartet |
||
Professor |
Colorado String Quartet |
||
Schedule |
Mon 1:30 pm - 3:30 pm OLIN 104 |
The evolution of the String Quartet through the works of the Great Composers since 1750. The workshop will involve outside listening as well as live performances by the Colorado String Quartet and class members. Ability to read music a plus, but not required.
MUSIC SPECIAL PROJECTS
Special Projects are designed for music majors only, to pursue individual or group projects with a particular professor.
CRN |
94309 |
Distribution |
F |
Course No. |
MUS PROJ T |
||
Title |
Special Projects |
||
Professor |
Richard Teitelbaum |
||
Schedule |
By arrangement |
CRN |
94310 |
Distribution |
F |
Course No. |
MUS PROJ U |
||
Title |
Special Projects |
||
Professor |
Kyle Gann |
||
Schedule |
By arrangement |
CRN |
94311 |
Distribution |
F |
Course No. |
MUS PROJ V |
||
Title |
Special Projects |
||
Professor |
Joan Tower |
||
Schedule |
By arrangement |
CRN |
94312 |
Distribution |
F |
Course No. |
MUS PROJ Z |
||
Title |
Special Projects |
||
Professor |
Thurman Barker |
||
Schedule |
By arrangement |
Private Music Lessons
All matriculated Bard students may be eligible to receive academic credit and scholarships for private instrumental or voice lessons. The choice of teachers is to be worked out on a case by case basis by the student and the Music Department. The teacher and student arrange payments and schedule.
Requirements for academic credit:
Credits awarded for the courses:
Lessons: 2 credits
Performance class 2 credits
Ensembles 1 or 2 credits (check description)
Chorus 1 credit
Requirements for scholarship:
Auditions will be held in Blum Hall on September 6th, 6:30pm - 8:00pm. Please sign up ahead of time at Blum.