William Harper

This course is offered for those students interested in developing skills in the creation and application of digital audio. Using Apple's Logic software, students interested in exploring sound or music are introduced to audio manipulation techniques that allow them to create soundtracks, to record and produce songs or dance tracks, realize abstract sound pieces or manipulate sound for installations.
Techniques of sound manipulation are introduced, including audio recording and editing, looping, and sound destruction. MIDI, drum programming, the use of software synthesis and basic music and composition techniques are addressed according to the needs of individual students.
The class is structured to encourage the interaction of students with a wide range of technical ability in audio from beginners to advanced artists in the early stages of a professional practice.

This course introduces students to the fundamental materials of music composition, the structures used to shape these materials, and techniques and strategies students can use to create fully formed pieces of music. Referencing traditional and experimental practices from many cultures and histories, we examine the basic musical elements of rhythm, meter, tonal organization, harmony, and timbre. These are applied in a digital studio environment via sampling, sound synthesis, looping, and live recording using Apple's Logic digital audio workstation.
Musical works by artists from diverse backgrounds and identities are analyzed to understand how these materials and concepts are used to sculpt emotional expressions, narrative forms, abstract constructions, or conceptual statements. Students work with these references, elements, and materials to make their own work in genres of their own choice. No style of music is off limits.
Course work will vary but typically includes participation in weekly experiments and the presentation of self-devised projects at midterm and the end of the semester. Students work with the materials, structures, and techniques introduced to make their own work in genres of their own choice.

Form and structure from Western classical music traditions have much in common with that of contemporary popular music. The forms, performance practices, and rhythmic and harmonic structures established long ago in the music of the streets and courts of Europe were conveyed by colonial and economic forces into the musical cultures of many continents where they were absorbed and transformed into the diverse and vibrant popular music of today. This course is a study of the astonishing historical consistencies underlying the formal construction, performance, and social functions of contemporary dance music, songs, and instrumental music. With the music you listen to today as the starting point of our studies, we will examine the musical structures of creators like Bach, Mozart, Stravinsky, Son House, Duke Ellington, The Beatles, Joni Mitchell, Imogen Heap, Beyonce, and Steve Reich to reveal the underlying architecture which ties all of these traditions to the music on your own playlist. We will also study how those forms of music illustrate the social and economic systems which sustain them. Much of our work and assignments will be in deep listening, the practices of musical analysis, and the visualization of musical forms.