15459

CNSV  100   

 Studio Instruction

John Halle

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PART

This course consists of 13 one-hour private lessons with members of the Bard College Conservatory faculty.  Class size: 25

 

15460

CNSV  102   JT

 Composition Tutorial

Joan Tower

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PART

Class size: 10

 

15461

CNSV  104   

 Secondary Piano

Frank Corliss

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PART

Class size: 15

 

15462

CNSV  110   

 Chamber Music

Marka Gustavsson

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Primary chamber music assignments consist of one or more groups made up of 2 to 9 players, for each student, every semester of their enrollment in the Bard Conservatory. The groups meet for a minimum of two 90 minute rehearsals each week, and have regular coachings with faculty through the semester, roughly 10 times. In addition to performance opportunities through the semester such as noon concerts and student recitals, the Conservatory presents a weekend Chamber Music Marathon. The groups are expected to perform complete works at a polished professional level.  Class size: 20

 

15463

CNSV  112   

 Orchestral Training & Repertoire

Erica Kiesewetter

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7:00pm-9:30pm

FISHER PAC

 

This class will focus on training and performance of orchestral literature (standard and also unusual and contemporary). Bi-annual auditions help familiarize students with this process, and sectionals are held by members of the American Symphony orchestra, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and other faculty. 4 programs a year including opera, and extra performances in major US cities and abroad. Maestro Leon Botstein is the music director, and guest conductors appear for two programs a year.  Class size: 20

 

15464

CNSV  130   

 Orchestral repertoire

Edward Carroll

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4:30pm-6:30pm

BITO

PART

The process of composing involves examining several pieces of each formal type, extracting from them the basic principles of their construction. Then, you will immediately compose sections of the work submitting them  for suggestions for revision, reworking each section until a musically satisfying and coherent piece within the basic style is achieved.  Class size: 20

 

15465

CNSV  211   

 Alexander Technique for Musicians

Alexander Farkas

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9:00am-1:00pm

BITO

PART

Class size: 20

 

15466

CNSV  220   

 Music, Language, & Mind

John Halle

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1:30pm-3:50pm

OLIN 106

AART

A survey of recent work in musical cognition focusing on the connections between language and music. Aniruddh Patel's recent "Language, Music and the Brain” will serve as the main text augmented with additional readings by Lerdahl, Baker, Jackendoff, Meyer, Hayes and others. Among the broad questions we will attempt to address are the following. Does the shared terminology we employ to refer to the basic elements of music and language- e.g. accent, rhythm, phrase, stress, etc.- point to underlying similarities in the two mental systems or does it obscure fundamental differences? What aspects of music are elucidated by the cognitive approach which forms the foundation of contemporary linguistics and what important characteristics of musical experience are, in principle, unanswerable by viewing music as a Chomskyan "natural object"? Does the evidence offered by contemporary neuropsychological research indicate that linguistic and musical syntax make use of overlapping or distinct neural circuitry? What kinds of empirical results would a definitive answer to this question require? What evidence is there for a musi-language in our evolutionary history, which would later bifurcate into language and music as distinct expressive and cognitive systems? What are the connections between poetic meter as a formal pattern (as defined in traditional prosody), rhythmicized speech (as in rap, chant and nursery rhymes), settings of metrical poetry by composers and song form? Some fluency with musical notation will be helpful but is not required. Open to college and conservatory students. Class size: 14

 

15467

CNSV  309   

 Aural Skills IV

Benjamin Laude

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10:45am-11:30am

OLIN 104

 

This is the fourth of four levels of Aural Skills courses offered at Bard. The course aims to continue developing skills that were acquired from Aural Skills I-III. Advanced topics including aural identification of medieval modes, sight-singing of atonal melodies in various clefs, complex rhythm control, modulation, and extended harmonic progressions will be covered, in addition to general reinforcement of previously learned skills. Class size: 20

 

15468

CNSV  310   

 Keyboard Skills

Frank Corliss

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PART

Class size: 20

 

15469

CNSV  330   

 Composition FOR PERFORMERS

(Formerly Conservatory Seminar IV)

Joan Tower

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10:10am-12:30pm

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Core Sequence in Theory, Analysis, and Composition. The composition seminar is taught by two of our most celebrated composers and teachers of composition. Students will produce several original compositions to be performed by themselves and others at a final concert. Exemption policy: Students can petition for exemption based on their having produced substantial original works. (Of course, those with an interest in composition will be unlikely to pass up the opportunity to study with two major figures in contemporary music.) Class size: 15

 

15470

CNSV  332   

 Conservatory Seminar

(Formerly Conservatory Seminar II)

John Halle

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1:30pm-2:50pm

BITO 210

 

The signature class of the core sequence in theory, analysis and composition, Conservatory Seminar examines pieces from the conservatory orchestra repertoire, either current or recently performed, addressing broad questions such as how these works were received by audiences, the political and social context in which they were composed and understood, the relationship between the formal structure of the work and others of a similar general type, how the form of the work conveys meaning for particular sets of listeners, how these meanings have evolved through time etc. As an indication of some of these topics, in previous years, we have examined Tschaikovsky's Manfred Symphony investigating the influence of Lord Byron's Manfred both on formal aspects of the symphony, as well as how the character of Manfred was (and was not) relevant to Tschaikovsky's experience in Tsarist Russia negotiating his non-standard sexual preference-(a biographical fact now being denied by the Russian political establishment). We also examined Mahler's Fifth Symphony in comparison to Ives's Decoration Day and Three Places in New England addressing the role of quotation in each, and how the source materializes are defamiliarized, along lines suggested in an essay by Robert Morgan. Last we discussed how the Copland Third and Shostakovich's Fifteenth Symphonies functioned in the context of the cold war politics and broad modernist and post modernist currents in the music and the arts. It is strongly recommended that students delay taking the Conservatory Seminar as they will find that the knowledge which they have acquired in other classes at Bard having to do with historical events, literary styles and techniques and trends within the arts, politics and culture will serve as crucial background to in class discussions and allow them to develop their own perspective on the repertoire. There are assigned readings, frequent short written assignments and two midterm exams where students will demonstrate familiarity both with the pieces and the literature surrounding them as well as helping them refine and sharpen personal reactions to the works under consideration.  Class size: 20

 

15471

CNSV  403   

 Conservatory Project

Peter Laki / John Halle

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Class size: 20