MUS 133 Fundamentals of Music I

Professor: L. Garcia-Renart

CRN: 92516

Distribution: F

Time: Tu F 1:30 pm - 3:00 pm BLM 117

Exploring the elements of music-making through analysis, compositions, and performance.


MUS 171 Jazz Harmony I

Professor: T. Barker

CRN: 92517

Distribution: F

Time: M 10:30 am - 12:30 pm BLM 117

An introductory course in Jazz Harmony that will help to identify and understand chords and chord progressions that are most commonly used in Jazz.


MUS 203 Intermediate Italian/Opera

Professor: F. Hammond

CRN: 92518

Distribution: A/D

Time: Tu 1:30 pm - 3:30 pm OLIN 104

Cross-listed: Italian Studies
Study of four operas include: Cosi fan tutte, Falstaff, Gianni Schicchi and Barber of Seville. We read carefully the four libretti and view video versions of these operas. Frequent oral and written assignments. For intermediate or advanced students, or consent of the instructor.


MUS 211 Jazz in Literature I

Professor: T. Barker

CRN: 92519

Distribution: B

Time: Th 10:30 am - 12:30 pm BLM 117

Cross-listed: MES
Cross-listed: MES
This course is designed for music lovers and readers of literature. We 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.


MUS 215 Topics in the History of Music: Beethoven

Professor: Kyle Gann

CRN: 92671

Distribution: A/C

Time: M W 1:20 pm - 2:40 pm OLIN 104

One figure still stands out as the archetypal composer: Ludwig Van Beethoven, who represents not only the end of the great contrapuntal tradition, but also the beginning of the modern era, the era of music as commercially valuable entertainment. As such, his music epitomizes issues of populism versus elitism that we still argue about today. This course will examine Beethoven's life, his world, and especially his music: the inheritance of high Viennese classicism in his early period; the populist myth of the hero embodied in his French-revolution-inspired middle period; and the turn away from subjectivity toward transcendence in the unparalleled works of his late period. The course is open to both music majors and non-majors.


MUS 228 Renaissance Counterpoint

Professor: Kyle Gann

CRN: 92817

Distribution: A/C

Time: Tu 10:30 am - 11:50 am Blum 117
Th 10:30 am - 11:50 am Blum Hall

The ancient musical technique of counterpoint seems of questionable relevance today. And yet, its premise - that human attention is riveted when a unified impression is created via maximum variety - is a fertile psychological principle relevant to many fields. Overall, this course will follow classical species counterpoint as outlined by the eminent Knud Jeppesen, based on the style of Palestrina. However, we will also examine the freer styles of earlier composers such as Josquin and Ockeghem, and generalize from contrapuntal concepts to such derivatives as the dissonant counterpoint of Charles Seeger and others. Basic knowledge of musical terminology (intervals, cadences) is a prerequisite.


MUS 233 Harmonic Strategies of the Sonata I

Professor: Kyle Gann

CRN: 92815

Distribution: A/C

Time: M 3:30 pm - 4:50 pm Blum Hall
W 10:30 am - 11:50 am Blum Hall

Sonata form is so distant from today's musical aesthetics that we have to approach it as ethnomusicologists, enquiring into the mind of a foreign culture. And yet, it was also the basis of the most successfully entertaining body of instrumental music ever made, and may hold secrets we can still benefit from. This course will examine sonata forms from Scarlatti through Schubert - revealing, meanwhile, the nature of European musical logic, and offering a critical examination of European concepts of musical continuity. The primary aim will be to compose movements in sonata form, to try to get inside the mind of the classical-era composer. The course is basically an approach to second-year music theory, and is open to those who have had first-year theory or the equivalent.


MUS 240 Introduction to Experimental and Electronic Music

Professor: R. Teitelbaum

CRN: 92520

Distribution: F

Time: Tu 3:30 pm - 5:30 pm BLM HALL

Cross-listed: Integrated Arts
Beginning with the radical innovations of such revolutionary figures as Charles Ives, Henry Cowell and Edgar Varese early in the twentieth century, the experimental music tradition in the United States and elsewhere will be examined. In addition to studying the body of work this tradition has produced, as well as discussing its aesthetic and philosophic underpinnings, students will be encouraged to actively realize and perform works by the composers and artists studied. Examples of some possible performance projects: Ives' quartertone pieces, Cowell's piano music, graphic scores by Feldman. Brown and Cardew, chance and intermediate scores of Cage, live electronic pieces by Tudor, Lucier or Behrman; realization of a Nancarrow player piano score on Disklavier, event pieces by Fluxus, Paik and Kusogi, meditations piece by Oliveros, phase pieces of Steve Reich, notated and text pieces by Rzewski, game pieces by Wolff and Zorn, etc. This course is intended to provide a prefatory foundation for Electronic Music Workshop. Course open to First-Year students who have some background in the subject.


MUS 250 20th Century Music

Professor: F. Hammond

CRN: 92521

Distribution: A

Time: Th 10:30 am - 12:30 pm OLIN 104

This course will attempt to present a better-balanced picture of twentieth-century music be examining more than the Sacred Monsters, Stravinsky and the Second Viennese School. Time and stamina permitting, we will also listen to music of the German craftsmen, the Nationalists, Les deux and Les Six, the post- and post-post- Romantics, electronic and aleatorial music, performance art, American music, and the Bard School. Guest lecturers will supply some of the inadequacies of the instructor. For music majors or with the consent of the instructor.


MUS 335 Jazz: The Freedom Principle III

Professor: T. Barker

CRN: 92522

Distribution: F

Time: M 1:30 pm - 3:00 pm BLM 117 W 1:30 pm - 3:00 pm BLM HALL

Cross-listed: American Studies, MES
This is a continuation of the spring course. This 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, film and videos.


MUS 362 Score Reading and Instrumentation

Professor: L. Botstein/M. Mandarano

CRN: 92670

Distribution: A/C

Time: M 9:30 am - 12:00 pm OLIN 104

This course will explore a number of orchestral works that have been chosen because they are being performed by the American Chamber Symphony Orchestra. The purpose of the course is to introduce students to the skills of score reading, analysis, and interpretation. In addition to the regular class sessions, students will be expected to attend rehearsals and performances. The works to be included and the dates of rehearsals and concerts will be announced at a later date. Registration for the course is limited, and permission of the instructor is required. Although this course is designed primarily for music majors, it is also for non-majors with a serious intent.