MUSIC

College and Community Ensembles

Unless otherwise noted, each ensemble is for one credit. It is possible to participate in more than one ensemble and receive additional credit accordingly. If private lessons are taken in conjunction with an ensemble, additional credit may be added.

CRN 10357

Distribution

 F
Course No. MUS 104
Title Ensemble: Orchestra
Professor TBA
Schedule Mon 3:40 pm -6:40 pm OLIN AUDITORIUM
2 credits

CRN 10358

Distribution

 F
Course No. MUS 105
Title Bard College Community Chorus
Professor Luis Garcia-Renart
Schedule Th 7:00 pm -9:15 pm

CRN 10359

Distribution

 F
Course No. MUS 108 C
Title Ensembles: Chamber-Wind & Brass
Professor Patricia Spencer
Schedule Tu 7:00 pm -9:00 pm Blum 117

LAB: Fr 3:00 pm -5:00 pm Blum 117

CRN 10360

Distribution

 F
Course No. MUS 108 D1
Title Ensembles: Vocal A
Professor Arthur Burrows
Schedule Mon 7:00 pm -9:15 pm BARD HALL

CRN 10361

Distribution

 F
Course No. MUS 108 D2
Title Ensembles: Vocal B
Professor Arthur Burrows
Schedule Tu 7:00 pm -9:15 pm BARD HALL

CRN 10362

Distribution

 F
Course No. MUS 108 F
Title Ensembles: Jazz
Professor Thurman Barker
Schedule Mon 7:30 pm -9:30 pm Blum Hall

CRN 10363 Distribution F
Course No. MUS 108 G
Title Ensembles: Chamber
Professor Luis Garcia-Renart
Schedule TBA

CRN 10364

Distribution

 F
Course No. MUS 108 H
Title Ensembles: Balinese Gamelan
Professor Ni Ketut Suryatini
Schedule Tu 7:00 pm -9:00 pm OLIN 305

CRN 10365

Distribution

 F
Course No. MUS 108 I
Title Ensembles: Live Electronic Performance
Professor Richard Teitelbaum
Schedule Tu 4:00 pm -6:20 pm Blum Hall

COURSES:

CRN 10366

Distribution

 F
Course No. MUS 134
Title Fundamentals of Music II
Professor Kyle Gann
Schedule Tu Fr 1:30 pm -2:50 pm Blum 117
Continuation of Fundamentals I, introduction to harmony, various seventh chords, secondary dominants, basics of modulation, four-part writing and voice-leading. End result: ability to write a hymn, song or brief movement of tonal music. Prerequisite: Fundamentals I or equivalent (knowledge of scales and keys).

CRN 10367

Distribution

 F
Course No. MUS 172
Title Jazz Harmony II
Professor Thurman Barker
Schedule Mon Wed 1:30 pm -2:50 pm Blum 117
This is a continuation of Jazz Harmony that will help to identify and understand chords and chord progressions that are most commonly used in jazz.

CRN 10368

Distribution

 B
Course No. MUS 211
Title Jazz in Literature I
Professor Thurman Barker
Schedule Mon Wed 10:00 am - 11:20 am Blum 117
This course in Jazz Literature is designed for music lovers and readers of literature. This course will focus on the work of Langston Hughes and the autobiography of Duke Ellington, "Music is my Mistress".

CRN 10356

Distribution

 A
Course No. MUS 214
Title Music & Identity in the Caribbean: An Ethnomusicological Approach
Professor Kenneth Bilby
Schedule Mon Wed 4:30 pm -5:50 pm OLIN 104
Cross-listed: Anthropology

The music of the Caribbean region has had a profound impact on world music. Cuban son and rumba Jamaican ska and reggae, Trinidadian calypso and soca, Haitian compas and mizik rasin, and French Antillean beguine and zouk are among the Caribbean musical genres that are performed, marketed, and consumed internationally. This course will explore the complex history that produced this rich and enormously diverse regional musical culture, which has roots in Africa, Europe, and several other parts of the world. Special attention will be given to the ways in which Caribbean musical styles, both at home and when exported to new contexts (such as Europe, the U.S., and Africa), have come to express and embody a multiplicity of identities defined by notions of race, ethnicity, gender, class and various kinds of nationalism. The significant related questions of resistance, accommodation, and musical appropriation will also be examined. The course will incorporate perspectives from music history, anthropology, cultural studies, and especially, ethnomusicology ( a field that has produced a growing and increasingly sophisticated literature on the close association between music and identity), using these to shed light on readings and musical examples from across the region. Students will also be expected to attend performances of Caribbean music in the area, and to analyze and interpret these, drawing on the ethnomusicological methodologies discussed in the course.

CRN 10369

Distribution

 A/C
Course No. MUS 216
Title The Arithmetic of Listening
Professor Kyle Gann
Schedule Tu Th 3:00 pm -4:20 pm Blum 117
Cross-listed: Integrated Arts

An introduction to the overtone series and the history of tuning. Learn how tuning shapes the course of a culture's music; trace the parallel development of music and the number series back 2500 years to the teachings of Pythagoras. Hear how Bach's and Beethoven's music sounded in its original tunings. Learn how to discriminate the pitch subtleties that differentiate Indian music; Balinese music, and even the blues from our conventional European tuning. Discover the possible uses of music in meditation; most importantly, sensitize yourself to aspects of listening that we 20th century Westerners have been trained to filter out. Learn to hear what is actually there, not just what you think is there! Final project in this class may take the form of a tuning-based analysis of either European (pre-20th century) or world music; design and/or construction of a musical instrument; or a performance of original work involving alternate tunings. Basic ability to read music is strongly recommended for this course, though it may be compensated for by a background in mathematics or acoustics.

CRN 10370

Distribution

 A/C
Course No. MUS 241
Title The History and Literature of Electronic and Computer Music
Professor Richard Teitelbaum
Schedule Tu Wed 1:30 pm -2:50 pm Blum Hall
Beginning with a brief survey of the earliest electronic instruments such as the Theremin and Ondes Martenot, this course examines the post-war development of the French School of Musique Concrete, German Elektronische Musik and American Tape Music, among others. Computer Music from early sound synthesis experiments at Bell Labs and elsewhere; Live Electronic Music from Cage and Tudor's pioneering work to recent and current PC-based interactive "live" computer music; and multi-media works from '60's "classics" to the present. Music studied will be drawn from the works of Varese, Schaeffer, Henry, Stockhausen, Cage, Leuning, Ussachevsky, Babbitt, Arel, Davidovsky, Boretz, Berio, Nono, Boulez, Pousseur, Xanakis, Martirano, Young, Reich, Oliveros, Subotnik, Musica Elettronica Viva (Rzewski, Curran, Teitelbaum) Takemitsu, Josugi, Takahashi, Amacher, Sonic Arts Union ( Mumma, Ashley, Lucier, Behrman) Matthews, Risset, Tenney, Laurie Spiegel, Laurie Anderson, Brian Eno, George Lewis, Laetitia Sonami and other recent and current developments, including the Ambient, Illbient and DJ scenes. Assignments will include extensive listenings, reading, research and analysis, as well as possible recreations of "classical" pieces from the repertoire and original compositional and performance projects inspired by these studies. The class is a continuation/complement to Music 240 and is strongly recommended as a preparation for all electronic music studio courses.

CRN 10371

Distribution

 A
Course No. MUS 320
Title Musical Electronics: Analog Synthesis and Processing
Professor Robert Bielecki
Schedule Tu 10:30 am - 12:50 pm Blum
This course concentrates on the theory, design and creative use of the basic components found in Analog Electronic Music Systems. We will examine some of the original circuits used by Moog, Bode, Serge, Theremin and others. Discussions will include voltage control techniques, synthesis and processing. As class projects, we will recreate some of the classic circuits and patches. Enrollment limited.

CRN 10373

Distribution

 A/C
Course No. MUS 328
Title Orpheus the Singer
Professor Frederick Hammond
Schedule Th 10:30 am - 12:50 pm OLIN 104
Cross-listed: Italian Studies

No other classical myth has so captured the power of music as the myth of Orpheus, who by his singing charmed the rulers of Hades to release his dead wife. In conjunction with the Bard College production of Claudio Monteverdi's L'Orfeo of 1607, the first great opera, we will examine the origins of the Orpheus myth in the poetry of Ovid and Virgil. Among the musical settings of the Orpheus story - in addition to Monteverdi's - we will study the Orfeoof Angelo Poliziano (1480) and Mantegna's Camera deli sposi, the L'Euridice settings of Giulio Caccini and Jacopo Peri (1600) and the wedding of Maria de'Medici and Henri IV, Antonio Sartorio's L'Orfeo (1672) and Venetian opera, Christoph von Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice (1764/74) and opera reform, Jacques Offenbach's Orphee aux Enfers (1874) and opera-comique, Igor Stravinski's ballet Orpheus, (1947), and Jean Cocteau's film Orphee (1949).

CRN 10372

Distribution

 F
Course No. MUS 331
Title Jazz: The Freedom Principle I
Professor Thurman Barker
Schedule Th 10:30 am - 12:50 pm Blum Hall
Cross-listed: American Studies, MES

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 10374

Distribution

 F
Course No. MUS / IA 336
Title Interpreting, Observing, Experiencing
Professor Benjamin Boretz
Schedule Th 10:30 am - 12:50 pm Blum
A non-historical, non-theoretical, non-ideological encounter with a series of interesting expressive phenoma and artifacts (including music and other expressive forms), as well as with texts which address them. The project engages its objects first and foremost in order to know them, but also to consider how the three interfaces of engagement I am calling 'interpreting', 'observing', and 'experiencing', involve radically distinct issues, constitute radically different activities in receiving, discriminating, and processing sensory input - make, in fact, different 'facts' of the same source materials, and hence offer a rich diversity of alternative ways to take in expressive phenoma. The music of Dmitri Shostakovich has been interpreted as a body of subversive attacks on and exposes of Stalinist society. It also has been observed in its stylistic and formal individuality. And experienced in its frequently extreme expressive intensities. Some of this music and a book about it are a possible starting point for this workshop - which may thus be considered a 'theory course' in 'analog form'. The actual choice of phenoma and texts beyond the starting point will be dictated by the evolution of the discussion, and of course by the interests and inputs of the students.

Enrollment limited to 8 students.

SPECIAL PROJECTS

CRN 10334

Distribution

 F
Course No. MUS PROJ P
Title Special Projects
Professor Ni Ketut Suryatini
Schedule TBA .

CRN 10381

Distribution

 F
Course No. MUS PROJ R
Title Special Projects
Professor Luis Garcia-Renart
Schedule TBA .

CRN 10382

Distribution

 F
Course No. MUS PROJ T
Title Special Projects
Professor Richard Teitelbaum
Schedule TBA .

CRN 10383

Distribution

 F
Course No. MUS PROJ U
Title Special Projects
Professor Kyle Gann
Schedule TBA .

CRN 10384

Distribution

 F
Course No. MUS PROJ Z
Title Special Projects
Professor Thurman Barker
Schedule TBA

MUSIC WORKSHOPS

CRN 10475

Distribution

 F
Course No. MUS WKSH A
Title Workshop: Composition Seminar
Professor Lawrence Wallach
Schedule Fri 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 later 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 in New York are made. Individual meetings are arranged on a regular basis.

CRN 10375

Distribution

 F
Course No. MUS WKSH B
Title Workshop: Performance Class
Professor Luis Garcia-Renart
Schedule Th 1:30 pm -4:00 pm Blum Hall
This class is conceived as a unifying workshop for performing musicians within the department. Please meet with the instructor prior to or during registration. (Private lessons can be taken for credit by registering for this course. See below)

CRN 10376

Distribution

 F
Course No. MUS WKSH C1
Title Ear Training I
Professor Music Faculty
Schedule Tu 11:30 am - 12:50 pm Blum 117

Fr 11:30 am - 12:50 pm Blum 117

 

CRN 10377

Distribution

 F
Course No. MUS WKSH C2
Title Ear Training II
Professor Music Faculty
Schedule Th 11:30 am - 12:50 pm Blum 117

Fr 11:30 am - 12:50 pm Blum 117

 

CRN 10378

Distribution

 F
Course No. MUS WKSH C3
Title Ear Training III
Professor Music Faculty
Schedule Wed 3:00 pm -4:20 pm Blum 117

Fr 10:00 am - 11:20 am Blum Hall

 

CRN 10379

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
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 10380

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.

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. Payments and schedule are arranged by the teacher and student.

Requirements for academic credit:

  1. Registered, matriculated Bard College student
  2. Assignment of grade, based on performance in a departmental concert or audition by Evaluating Panel at the end of each semester.
  3. Participation in a music course that provides the student a larger forum of music making. A waiver of this requirement is possible in certain circumstances and is subject to Music Department review.

Credits awarded for the courses:

Lessons: 2 credits

Performance class 2 credits

Ensembles 1 credit

Chorus 1 credit

Requirements for scholarship:

  1. Selection for scholarship by departmental evaluating panel, either through performance in a departmental concert or through audition.
  2. Registration in an ensemble or performance class.
  3. Maximum of $20.00 per lesson (towards lesson cost) available, applied as credit to student's Bard account.

Auditions will be held in Blum Hall. Please sign up ahead of time at Blum.