Undergraduate Program
Selected Course Offerings:
Music Theory
A number of electives in Music Theory are offered on a regular basis. They include:
Music 110: Introduction to the Elements of Music.
Professor Richard Lalli.
A practical and humanistic introduction to the fundamental principles of musical language (notation, rhythm, scales, keys, melodies, chords, cadences). Emphasis on writing, analysis, singing and dictation. Intended for students who have no music reading ability.
Music 205: Tonal Harmony and Form.
Professor Patrick McCreless.
A thorough review of musical rudiments - scales, keys, chords, rhythm, notation - followed by a study of the fundamentals of tonal harmony and form. Emphasis on listening skills - how to hear what is happening harmonically and formally in tonal pieces without following a score. Intended for non-music majors who proficiency in reading music. Students who have not taken MUSI 110a or b must take the music theory placement test at 3:00 p.m. on Monday, September 1, 2008, in or at 6:00 pm Tuesday, September 2, 2008, in 119 WLH, or 6.30 p.m. on Monday, January 12, 2009, in 119 WLH. To be followed by Musi 205a or b.
Music 210: Elementary Studies in Analysis & Composition I.
Professor Richard Cohn.
Practical investigation of the basic principles of tonal harmony, counterpoint, and composition through exercises in analysis, motivic development, phrase rhythm, texture, form, performance, and model composition. Recommended to be taken concurrently with Musi 218a or b or 219a or b. Admission after Musi 205a or b or by the music theory placement test, given at3:00 p.m. on Monday, September 1, 2008, in or at 6:00 pm Tuesday, September 2, 2008, in 119 WLH, or 6.30 p.m. on Monday, January 12, 2009, in 119 WLH. To be followed by Musi 205a or b. To be followed by Musi 211a or b.
Music 211: Elementary Studies in Analysis & Composition II
Professor Eve Poudrier.
Continuation of MUSI 210a or b. Investigation of further applications in tonal
harmony, counterpoint, and composition through exercises in analysis, motivic
development, phrase rhythm, texture, form, performance, and model composition. Recommended to be taken concurrently with Musi 218a or b or 219a or b. Admission after Musi 210a or b or by the music theory placement test, given at 6:30 p.m. on Monday, September 1, 2008, in 119 WLH, or 6 p.m. on Tuesday, September 2, 2008, in 119 WLH, or 6.30 p.m. on Monday, January 12, 2009, in 119 WLH.
Music 306: World Music Theories: Practice and Aesthetics.
Professor Sarah Weiss
Survey of the musical processes of various mode-based musical systems, selected from the Indian raga, Arabic maqam, Irish tune-family, Javanese pathet, Persian dastgah, and Vietnamese Dieu. Survey of the musical cultures; notation and analysis of the music; related aesthetics systems.
Music 307: Jazz Harmony.
Professor Brian Kane
An intensive study of the language of jazz, with a focus on jazz harmonies, scale-chord relationships, improvisational syntax, reharmonization, and transcription. Students analyze and transcribe solos, write model compositions, and acquire basic jazz piano skills.
Prerequisites: MUSI 211a or b and 219a or b.
Music 308: Rhythm and Temporality in Music of the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries.
Professor Eve Poudrier
A survey of compositional techniques dealing with rhythm, meter, and tempo in twentieth- and twenty-first-century music. Exploration of analytical tools that have been devised to investigate the resulting musical objects. Introduction of compositional and analytical approaches dealing with rhythm since the rise of modernism; critical thinking about musical temporality, analytical methods, and their practical applications.
Music 343: Music Cognition.
Professor Ian Quinn.
A survey of historical and current approaches to questions about the perception and cognition of music. Topics include psychoacoustics; the cognitive neuroscience of music; relationships between music and language; the nature of musical knowledge; and debates about aesthetics, evolutionary psychology, and musical universals.
Music 426: Chamber Music of Robert Schumann.
Professor Michael Friedmann.
A study of selected chamber works by Schumann, coupling analytical research with practical performance issues. Advanced violinists, violists, cellists, clarinetists, oboists, hornists, and pianists admitted by audition.
Music 442: Rhythm, Meter, and Musical Time.
Professor Richard Cohn.
Analytical models of rhythm and meter and their applications to nineteenth- and twentieth-century Western classical repertory (Beethoven, Brahms, Dvorák, Bartók, Reich), with extensions to jazz and to genres from Ghana, India, Indonesia, and southeastern Europe.
Music 463: Arrangement and Transcription.
Professor Daniel Harrison.
Techniques of arrangement, transcription, and recomposition from the sixteenth century to the present, studied from analytical, historical, and compositional perspectives.
Music 469: The Music of Dimitri Shostakovich.
Professor Patrick McCreless.
An examination of the works of Shostakovich, including analytical studies and consideration of cultural background, with attention to the composer's position in twentieth-century music.
