Music (MUSIC-GA)

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

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

Performance ensemble specializing in musical repertoires from outside the Western classical tradition. The ensemble concentrates on a different repertoire each semester. Examples have included Chinese classical music, Caribbean music, Irish music, and Klezmer.

Performance ensemble specializing in musical repertoires from outside the Western classical tradition. The ensemble concentrates on a different repertoire each semester. Examples have included Chinese classical music, Caribbean music, Irish music, and Klezmer.

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.

Different aspects of Verdi?s manner of approaching and writing operas. Topics include the scenarios, librettos, musical sketches, skeleton scores, and revisions. Operatic conventions and censorship in the mid- and late-19th century, as well as Verdi?s thoughts on performance, are treated as they relate to the compositional process.

Developments in the United States and Europe since 1945; close examination of the writings of composers and theorists as well as of the music itself. Topics include post-Webern aesthetics, serialism, electronic music, musique concr?te, aleatoric tendencies, and stochastic music. May be presented as a concentrated study of a small group of composers.

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.

Exploration of the relation between the materiality of sound, political theory and philosophy, and the expediency of culture in a globalized world.

Introduction to the study of 19th-century composers? autographs and revisions. Techniques of conservation; problems of connoisseurship and attribution. Types of autographs, their relation to initial publications, and the musical questions they raise or practical problems they may help to solve. Problems of revision and recomposition.Introduction to the study of 19th-century composers? autographs and revisions. Techniques of conservation; problems of connoisseurship and attribution. Types of autographs, their relation to initial publications, and the musical questions they raise or practical problems they may help to solve. Problems of revision and recomposition.

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.

In-depth discussion of selected 20th-century works and composers. Covers established masterpieces from the early part of the century by Schoenberg, Bart?k, and Stravinsky to the most recent music of Elliott Carter, John Cage, Peter Maxwell Davies, and others.

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

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.