Global Arc

Are you a performer with no experience composing but have a willingness to try? Are you a composer who does not often perform but are game? Rarely do the neatly defined job descriptions of composer and performer translate in the wonderfully messy music world of today. This course will explore different ways to view the composer/performer roles, and the class will morph into an ensemble to perform the music of its members. Over the course of the term the ensemble will put together a show that will be performed as an end-of-term project.

In this class we will consider a variety of strategies for combining improvisation and notated music, drawing on both contemporary concert music and jazz. We will look at the works of musicians such as Lutoslawski, Shostakovich, Coltrane, Stockhausen, and others, and will consider how technology might allow us to expand our musical possibilities (e.g. using iPads to facilitate harmonic coordination). The ultimate goal will be to imagine hybrid musics drawing on both classical and jazz traditions.

This course examines the repertoire and performance practices associated with the music of "Krazy Kat" (John Carpenter), "The Toy Box: La Boîte à Joujoux" (Claude Debussy), "Oil and Vinegar" (John Carpenter; performed by Bix Beiderbecke), as well as the big band music of composers Oliver Nelson and Mary Lou Williams. Performance assignments will be prepared for weekly rehearsals in preparation for several public performances.

A course designed to provide instrumental and vocal students with opportunities to reimagine the process of creative music-making through the use of improvisational concepts and activities in group collaboration. Course will feature several guest lecturers/performers and concert presentations focusing on the creation of collectively improvised performances.

This course introduces students to the issues involved in analyzing popular music, including rock, soul, funk, hip-hop, reggae, and electronic dance music from the late 1950s to the present. Listening closely without a score, we will discuss form, timbre, production, harmony and voice leading, rhythm, and music videos. Each week, we will read analytical articles dealing with a particular theoretical issue and analyze two to three songs in class.

Particular works or groups of works by a single composer but with reference to other music, either by the same or by related composers. Two 90-minute lectures. Prerequisite: 206.

A survey of piano music in the 19th century, including works for solo piano, songs for piano and voice, and concerti. Topics include the piano as instrument and innovation, piano genres and idioms, social contexts for piano performance, virtuosity. Prerequisites: 105, or experience as performer, or permission of instructor. One three-hour seminar.

This course presents a rare opportunity to get a close-up experience of a professional production of a new opera. Andrew Lovett's one-act opera The Analysing Engine will be performed in November. Contributing to this activity will be the main focus of the first part of the course. Alongside this we will look at examples of chamber operas since 1945, such as Britten's The Turn of the Screw and Bernstein's Trouble in Tahiti. We will think about how music and drama are combined to create a unified artistic work. The course is aimed at anyone interested in opera, composing (or writing) or opera/theater production.

An exploration of Beethoven's style through model composition and analysis. We will consider a series of idioms or "schemas" that are central to Beethoven's style, including specific routines for handling parallel and contrary motion in the classical tradition, favorite sequences, and idioms that defy standard analysis. Students familiarize themselves by writing a series of model composition exercises, starting with small phrases and progressing to an entire sonata-form movement. We will consider how these patterns are embedded in specific Beethoven compositions. We may also explore the use of idioms in classical-style improvisation.

The course will explore the connections between composition and performance in a group and solo context. It is the goal of the course to help the student find his/her optimal and personal balance among concerns including but not limited too: abstract compositional technique and practical performance values; organization and spontaneity, surface and structure, strengths and obligations, material and effect, aural and visual. Activities in the class will include analysis, study of compositional techniques, performing, improvisation, collaboration.