Global Arc

This course will examine the musical, historical, and cultural aspects of jazz throughout its entire history, looking at the 20th century as the breeding ground for jazz in America and beyond. During this more than one hundred year period, jazz morphed and fractured into many different styles and voices, all of which will be considered. In addition to the readings, the course will place an emphasis on listening to jazz recordings, and developing an analytical language to understand these recordings. A central goal is to understand where jazz was, is, and will be in the future, examining the musicians and the music that has kept jazz alive.

In this course, we'll explore key concepts in arranging, orchestrating, and composing for large jazz ensemble through close study of representative works by important composers and arrangers, including Duke Ellington, Billy Strayhorn, Mary Lou Williams, Gil Evans, Melba Liston, Bill Holman, Frank Foster, Bob Brookmeyer, Thad Jones, Carla Bley, Kenny Wheeler, Maria Schneider, and others, and develop strategies for writing idiomatically for large jazz ensembles of between 13-20 musicians. The final project is an original arrangement or composition for large ensemble, recorded remotely by Princeton faculty and other professionals.

Examines post-World War II blues, rock music mostly of the late sixties and early seventies, and the connections between them. Explores wider musical and extramusical connections.

This course explores the formation of popular music genres throughout the world -- from Johannesburg and Accra, to Mexico City, Istanbul, and Jakarta, among other places. We will analyze the relationship between global processes of music circulation, on the one hand, and highly localized musical styles, on the other. By listening carefully, we will discover that the contemporary "world system" is not always one of smooth integration, but is instead characterized by friction, distortion, and noise.

A "hands-on" course that explores music from before 1600 using the pedagogical methods of the period. Medieval and Renaissance techniques of sight-singing, memorization, improvisation, and harmonization will be learned. Modern computer technology will also be used to investigate the deeper mystical and philosophical content of music from this period. Prerequisite: ability to read modern music notation comfortably.

The Junior Seminar is designed to introduce music majors to the study of music, conceived broadly. What kinds of questions might we ask about music, and what methods and materials can we use to explore these questions? What skills might you develop over the course of the semester that will both allow you to explore your interests and contribute to your professional life in the future? In addition to focusing on composition and musicology, we will also explore other aspects of the music business, such as arts administration, production, editing, performance, music education, and music criticism.

Students will learn and practice techniques to improve aural comprehension of theoretical materials introduced in other music courses. Through exercises in sight singing, conducting patterns, clefs, melodic dictation, improvisation, keyboard harmonization, and harmonic dictation, they will engage in a variety of activities to improve their command of musical notation and materials as well as their overall comprehension as listeners. The aural comprehension of orchestra score reading will also be addressed.

In this course we will try to understand the complex phenomenon of "tonality." We will theorize about harmony, voice leading, scales and study works by Schubert, Chopin, Wagner, Debussy, Ravel, Stravinsky, Reich and contemporary jazz.

An introduction to a variety of 20th-century approaches to composition. Emphasis on understanding different techniques, syntaxes, and musical languages through exercises in compositional emulations and in performance projects of student and studied works, using available performance skills of participants. Prerequisite: 206 or instructor's permission.

The course will deal closely with a small number of works from the tonal repertoire and will serve as a critical introduction to several pertinent and influential analytical methodologies, including motivic, formal, semiotic, and voice-leading analysis. The focus will be on the musical and aesthetic values that each method either enhances or attenuates. Prerequisite: 206 or instructor's permission.