| Digital Music: Concepts, Structures, Materials |
Art & Technology / Sound Practices |
3005 (001) |
Spring 2027 |
|
Description
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.
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Class Number
1120
Credits
3
|
| Western Experimental Music: Disrupting the Canon |
Liberal Arts |
3213 (001) |
Spring 2027 |
|
Description
A critical survey of Western music from 1950 to the present, this course investigates the western experimental music tradition with a focus on issues of representation. Where are the women and BIPOC composers in studies on western experimental music? What are the implications of classifying certain forms of experimental music over others as `classical¿ music and `fine art¿ music? What do these classifications tell us about cultural values, power, and the privileging of certain musics and voices over others? As we identify the supposed `canonic¿ figures of the period, the techniques they used, the processes they employed, and the creative motivations that drove them, we will note the collapse of tonality, and the influence of popular and `world¿ music styles on Western `art music.¿ We will look at the role of `silence¿ in music, aleatoric or `chance¿ music, total serialism, musique concrète, minimalism, jazz, emerging popular styles, and the appropriations of Black American, Pacific Islander, and Hindustani music traditions. We will study the music and thinking of composers like John Cage, Karlheinz Stockhausen, and Steve Reich, while asking ourselves why so much more has been written about their work than the work of composers like Daphne Oram. We will also discuss why the works of saxophonist John Coltrane and rapper Kendrick Lamar are not typically classified as 'art' music in Western music studies. The course includes weekly reading and listening, 3 short writing assignments as well as experimental creative analysis, a term paper, and an in-class presentation.
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Class Number
1474
Credits
3
|
| America's Musical Roots |
Liberal Arts |
3234 (001) |
Summer 2026 |
|
Description
This course examines the unique role that music has played in the cultural development of the United States, taking a critical look at the historical and geographical context for the development of American musical styles, including the role of slavery. We will critically engage the role that 19th Century blackface and minstrelsy played in providing the framework for both the foundations of the popular culture industry, and the conditions that resulted in the construction of cultural 'blackness.' We will examine the various regional styles of music that have developed in the United States, including the blues, ragtime, spirituals, country, jazz, bluegrass, and folk music, noting the manner in which style and gesture is traded back and forth. We will identify the musical characteristics of the primary styles of early American music, what distinguishes each, and trace their evolution to the music we listen to today. By spotting the way a note is bent or how the backbeat is played, we will map the route from the churches of the early frontier to the songs of Kendrick Lamar. Assignments may include weekly readings, approximately 3 short papers, one term paper, a final exam, and an in-class presentation, presented either alone or in a small group.
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Class Number
1302
Credits
3
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| America's Musical Roots |
Liberal Arts |
3234 (001) |
Fall 2026 |
|
Description
This course examines the unique role that music has played in the cultural development of the United States, taking a critical look at the historical and geographical context for the development of American musical styles, including the role of slavery. We will critically engage the role that 19th Century blackface and minstrelsy played in providing the framework for both the foundations of the popular culture industry, and the conditions that resulted in the construction of cultural 'blackness.' We will examine the various regional styles of music that have developed in the United States, including the blues, ragtime, spirituals, country, jazz, bluegrass, and folk music, noting the manner in which style and gesture is traded back and forth. We will identify the musical characteristics of the primary styles of early American music, what distinguishes each, and trace their evolution to the music we listen to today. By spotting the way a note is bent or how the backbeat is played, we will map the route from the churches of the early frontier to the songs of Kendrick Lamar. Assignments may include weekly readings, approximately 3 short papers, one term paper, a final exam, and an in-class presentation, presented either alone or in a small group.
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Class Number
1645
Credits
3
|
