Music (MUSIC-GA)

Performance ensemble concentrating on the music of pre- and early-modern Europe and on neglected works or genres from other periods.

Proseminar in current research methodology and musicological thought. Topics discussed include techniques for the examination of primary source materials; principles of musical text criticism and editing; and current issues in musicological thought.

A broad intellectual history of the discipline, surveying landmark studies and important figures. Examines major paradigms, issues, and frameworks in ethnomusicology; the relation of ethnomusicology to other disciplines; and the relations of knowledge and power that have produced them. Serves as an introduction to the field of ethnomusicology.

Examination of techniques of music composition as they are applied to the creation of musical works. Compo-sitional practice is studied and evaluated both from the standpoint of craft and aesthetics. Students create compositions, and works are performed in public concerts.

Code-based and graphic-user-interface languages for digital signal processing and event processing. Filtering, analysis/resynthesis, digital sound editing, granular synthesis. Study of computer music repertoire of past 20 years.

Pragmatic instruction in field and laboratory research and analytical methods in ethnomusicology. Emphasizes the urban field site. Topics include research design, fieldwork, participant observation, field notes, interviews and oral histories, survey instruments, textual analysis, audiovisual methods, archiving, urban ethnomusicology, applied ethnomusicology, performance as methodology and epistemology, and the ethics and politics of cultural representation. Students conceive, design, and carry out a limited research project over the course of the semester.

In the minds of many scholars, music is a significant expressive form precisely because it is a tangible product of human activity through which individuals and groups tell themselves and others who they are and what they value. In addition to providing aesthetic pleasure, music is frequently the site and subject of social and political struggle, debate, and activism. In many cases, music is a practice through which definitions of identity and relations of power are articulated and contested, reproduced and reconfigured. In this course we will read an interdisciplinary array of recent texts in order to survey and consider the research questions, theoretical frameworks, and methodological approaches of ethnomusicologists, musicologists, and other musically-inclined scholars whose research documents and analyzes the artistic, social, political, and cultural significance of music created by African Americans, past and present. We will explore the various ways African American musicians and audiences use music and music-making and consider the cultural, social, and political impact of these creative processes. We will relate our discussions to issues of identity formation, representation, power, authenticity, gender, and sexuality. As we read and discuss the assigned texts, we will consider the authors’ methodological approaches, theoretical tools and frameworks, sources, archives, and modes of discourse. What are the assumptions that underpin the questions that the authors address? How do they present their ideas and how does their form of presentation (scholarly vs. informal voices, for example, or polemical/positioned vs. “objective” voices) affect our responses to their work? How effective are their experiments in research and writing? How do they handle the challenge of writing about musical sound and how effective are their approaches? A goal of the course is to prepare students to conduct research and write about music, politics, and identity, particularly in relation to African American music, by exposing them to a range of topics, perspectives, and methods. An additional objective is to expose students to the history and debates associated with a range of African American music genres and to introduce them to the scholarship of contemporary scholars working in the field of African American music studies.

A substantial proportion of doctoral seminars are offered each year under this heading

A substantial proportion of doctoral seminars are offered each year under this heading

This year-long, zero-credit course will be open to students in their fifth, sixth, and seventh years and will run with a workshop format in which students share their dissertation progress in regularly occurring meetings. A workshop format means that students will be expected to bring in early drafts in the first half of the semester and then more polished versions later in the semester, taking into account the feedback from their peers, professor, and advisor. All seminar participants will be required to read each other's chapter drafts and expected to provide feedback. The instructor may designate one or two students to be "respondents" to a draft and will be required to read the text in more detail and to prepare questions and feedback.

Independent study with a faculty supervisor. Must have the approval of the director of graduate studies and the proposed supervisor.

Independent study with a faculty supervisor. Must have the approval of the director of graduate studies and the proposed supervisor.