ABOUT THE MAJOR

COURSE DESCRIPTIONS

MUSC 111: Music of Western Civilization  

An introduction to the great music of Western civilization from the Middle Ages to the present. The course begins with a discussion of the elements of music and proceeds with a chronological overview of music history. Musical masterworks from all style periods are studied. May not be taken for credit by students who have taken MUSC 151

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MUSC 211: Song, Symphony, Stage: Music in Western Civilization  

An accelerated version of MUSC 101 intended for performing musicians or other students with fair experience as listeners. After a quick review of the history of Western music, the course proceeds to consider topics such as the many manifestations of songs through the centuries, music and dance, music and politics, and musical exoticism/globalization. In addition to songs, other genres under consideration include symphonies, concertos, sonatas, operas, and musicals. Students take an active role in selecting music for discussion. May not be taken for credit by students who have taken MUSC 101.

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MUSC 160: Music Fundamentals: Keyboard Skills  

A general introduction to the language of music, using the keyboard as tool kit. Students with little or no experience in keyboard practice and acquire the ability to play basic piano compositions. They also learn the essentials of accompanying melodies with harmonies. Along with keyboard skills, the student learns fundamental theoretical concepts (melodic and rhythmic notation, intervals, major and minor key signatures, major and natural minor scales, and simple and compound meters) while gaining fluency in reading conventional musical notation. Includes an additional studio practicum session.

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MUSC 260: Introduction to Part Writing  

An introduction to the harmonic theory of the common practice period, the course begins with a review of music fundamentals and then examines the nature of triads and seventh chords, basic principles of voice-leading and harmonic progression, chord inversion, and non-chord tones. Skills such as ear-training and keyboard harmony are simultaneously cultivated.

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MUSC 360: Advanced Chromatic Harmony  

Advanced chromatic sonorities, chromatic modulation, and extended tertian harmonies are studied. Aspects of twentieth-century and pre-Baroque music theory and analytic vocabulary are introduced. Exercises in free composition are undertaken.

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MUSC 312: From Court Dances to Sacrificial Dances: Cultural Transformations in Music  

An examination of representative canonic works composed between the mid-eighteenth century and the beginning of World War I. During this period music traces the socio-political changes seen more broadly in the West, from aristocracy to democracy, with musicians pursuing ever greater freedom of individual expression. Large-scale and chamber works by composers such as Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, and Stravinsky are addressed from an analytical, historical, and critical perspective.

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MUSC 313: From Ragtime to Radiohead: Music in the Era of Recordings  

Recording technologies, which date back to the late nineteenth century, have affected music more profoundly than any other musical change since the adoption of music notation. This course traces the development of those technologies, with particular attention to the performers, composers, and repertories that have exploited them. Many important figures and movements in twentieth and twenty-first century music are addressed: ragtime, blues, jazz, and rock; Copland, Varèse, Reich; the Beatles, Pink Floyd, Radiohead. Different recording formats - from piano rolls to mp3s - receive particular attention.

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MUSC 301: Topics in Early Music  

An introduction to musicology that considers music of the medieval, Renaissance, and baroque periods. While the course surveys the music of these periods and its historical contexts, the primary focus is on the theoretical and critical approaches of recent scholarship. The course assumes substantial previous contact with music history on the part of the student.