Global Arc

How did musicians like Mozart churn out a seemingly endless stream of imaginative compositions? This question drove a revolutionary rethinking of music theory in the 21st century, creating a new discipline of music studies called schema theory. With the aid of cognitive science, schema theorists ask how musicians learn the skills they need to succeed in a competitive marketplace. This class explores what schemas are and their impact on the music we create and consume. Through reading, listening, and compositional exercises, we will explore the schematic basis of two disparate musical styles: 18th-century court music and 20th-century salsa.

Detailed examination of the principal genres of Italian secular music of the late 16th and early 17th centuries, using the works of Monteverdi as a main point of reference. Some attention to placing musical issues in a context of political and social history. Classes will concentrate on a close analysis of selected works by Monteverdi and his contemporaries, with emphasis on the relationship between text and music. Two lectures, one class. Prerequisite: one year of theory or permission of instructor.

The contrasting careers and oeuvres of the two greatest representatives of the late baroque in music will be considered both individually and comparatively. Prerequisite: a year of theory or instructor's permission.

This course examines over a millennium of music, art, literature, and culture in Venice, using as its lens the theatricality of the city's unique topography, environment, and geographic position. Moving between modern and medieval, from the stage to the street, this course explores the lasting fascination of this ephemeral, implausible place. Topics include: public opera; civic ritual; tourism; Venice in fiction and film. An excursion to Venice will take place over the spring break.

A study of the integration of music, language, and drama through close reading of the seven completed operas of Mozart's maturity. One three-hour class-seminar. Prerequisite: one year of music theory or instructor's permission.

A survey of Beethoven's works, touching in addition upon his life, the music of his contemporaries, and his influence upon later composers. Two 90-minute classes. Prerequisite: a year of theory (105/106) or instructor's permission.

An introduction to Richard Wagner's operas, to Wagner as a revolutionary presence in 19th-century musical and aesthetic thought, to Wagner's theoretical and polemical prose writings, and contemporary writings about him. Three hours. Prerequisite: a year of theory or instructor's permission. Ability to read German helpful but not necessary.

A detailed survey of Russian national and international composers. Topics of discussion and analysis will include magic opera, realism, orientalism, the relationship between composers and poets of the Russian Symbolist era, the World of Art movement and the Ballets Russes, Soviet film music, Soviet arts doctrine, and musical aesthetics (especially as they pertain to authorship and identity). Prerequisites: 105 or permission of instructor. Two 90-minute classes.

This course will help students to develop new approaches as an improviser via transcribing solos of various jazz icons and analyzing their melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic content. We will also implement analytical tools from modern classical music (not typical used in jazz) and discuss how these techniques can be reverse-engineered to create fresh ideas and new modalities in how we organize improvisational scenarios.

We will study Beethoven's thirty-two piano sonatas with a special emphasis on the later ones. The class is centered on theoretical analysis that requires an advanced knowledge of tonal syntax.