Global Arc

A composition course for independent, self-directed composers. Most of the class will be spent working on a single piece. Students will present their work-in-progress to the class weekly or biweekly depending on enrollment. We will have a concert of final projects at the end of the semester, with all student pieces to be performed by So Percussion, the music department's world-renowned ensemble-in-residence.

An introduction to the fundamentals of computer and electronic music in the context of the Princeton Laptop Orchestra (PLOrk). The music and sound programming language ChucK, developed here at Princeton, will be used in conjunction with Max/MSP, another digital audio language, to study procedural programming, digital signal processing and synthesis, networking, and human-computer interfacing.

Music 315 focuses on computer programs that input and output musical symbols--including scores, MIDI files, and directions for synthesizers to play. The course is aimed at students with interest in music theory and analysis, installations and game design, and algorithmic or computer-assisted composition. The first six weeks will introduce basic techniques, focusing on Python, music21, Pygame, and Pd (or its commercial variant, Max/MSP). The rest of the course will survey more advanced topics in preparation for substantial final projects chosen by students.

Compositional projects involving computers and synthesizers. Some work may involve interactions between live and electronic sounds. Prerequisite: 314 or instructor's permission.

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.

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.

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.

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.