Music (MUSIC-UH)

This course is designed for anyone interested in producing music on computer using virtual instruments, samples and microphones. Regardless of style, this course provides an overview of the wide range of tools available to the modern music production. This is an "all-in-one" course for (almost) everything related to music technology, the basics of digital audio, physic of sound, music recording, binaural audio, musical acoustics, signal flow, sound synthesis, music production, game audio, post- production and mixing. Students will also study the elements of production design, composition, song form, and how to arrange, edit, build and shape a song using different D.A.Ws. In this course students will also learn the fundamentals of digital audio, studio and location recording, mixing, MIDI sequencing using Logic Pro X, Pro Tools 12, Ableton Live, music production, and audio programming using Max. Students will be briefly introduced to a wide-range of applications (and careers) in music technology.

This course will introduce students to a foundational level of knowledge of music composition by producing work across a wide variety of different genres, styles, media and aesthetic traditions. Departing from an approach that looks at different musical systems, the course will guide students through different ways of organizing musical discourse. The emphasis will be on the practical creation of music using different approaches including improvisation and electronics, besides the more traditional paper composition. Students will be actively encouraged to perform their work, and to present other performances, including planned and free improvisation, approaches to the interpretation of contemporary music, installation work, graphic scores and other non-standard notations, as appropriate.

This course introduces students to readings and lectures on current topics in the fields of music studies and musicology with a focus on historiography, which is the study of the way history has been written. Within this broad framework, the course will engage with the study of music and its history under a number of different guises, including the historical study of music, addressing both research methodologies as well as the historical narratives used to tell the different "stories" about music history. While the course is organized thematically - providing an examination of music at its intersection with issues related to gender and sexuality, social justice and conflict, race, popular music, as well as media and technology - it is structured historically, providing a forum for an examination of music and musical practices across a wide range of historical and cultural situations from ancient times to the present. Engaging with diverse readings, this course provides a broad critical framework for the exploration of the field of music studies as a discipline that integrates the central concerns of different approaches to musicological and historical research.

This course introduces the study of music as culture, variously called the anthropology of music or ethnomusicology. The first part of the course will look broadly at the anthropological study of music and musicological study of humanity, delving into scholarly writings from the early twentieth century to the present. Students will examine how music has been conceptualized as a human endeavor, and how anthropological thinking on music has shaped scholarly and public conversations on culture, race, and ethnicity. The second part of the course will focus on the key anthropological method of ethnography, the recording and analysis of human practice, and its use in music studies. Students will read three full-length ethnographic books on musical topics to examine the utility of ethnographic research methods in music studies and explore the insights and dilemmas these methods present. Students will also try their own hands at ethnographic research and writing on music.

Thinking and Writing About Music is a foundational course for the NYUAD Music Program that helps students to develop skills in writing and critical/analytical thinking about music as a sonic and social phenomenon. Students will be introduced to different approaches to thinking and communicating about music; ways of listening closely and analytically to musical sound; and selected themes in music studies, such as musical meaning and the intersection of music and politics. By the end of the semester, students are expected to have developed fluency in writing about music and musical phenomena, critical perspectives on music in society and culture, and a familiarity with questions and approaches in the various strands of music studies.

This course provides an introduction to fundamental musical structures and practices that occur widely across many global genres. These include aural skills, dictation, listening, basic keyboard skills, notation, score reading, and applied aspects of music theory. Students participate in extensive in-class musical exercises and assignments in analysis and composition, developing proficiencies related to pitch, rhythm, and form in a wide array of musics. Students acquire hands-on skills and understandings that will support them in virtually every area of potential future musical study, including music practice (both performance and composition), music studies, and music technology.

This course builds on the introductory course Musicianship Skills I, extending and solidifying competencies with fundamental musical structures and practices that occur widely across many global genres. These include aural skills, dictation, listening, basic keyboard skills, notation, score reading, and applied aspects of music theory. Students participate in extensive in-class musical exercises and assignments in analysis and composition, developing proficiencies related to pitch, rhythm, and form in a wide array of musics. Students acquire hands-on skills and understandings that will support them in virtually every area of potential future musical study, including music practice (both performance and composition), music studies, and music technology.

This course will introduce students to performance practice and performance cultures in a global context. Through weekly lectures, workshops, and labs, students will explore the ways in which musicking functions as a creative practice for its practitioners, its 'users', and its listening cultures. Students will examine topics including the interface between performance and composition; performance as composition; musicking with technology; musicking as a crucible of experimentation and how to formulate practice research questions and frameworks. Each week will include extensive practical music experiences, such as listening exercises; guided readings and viewings; all in the service of facilitating music making and documenting.

Beginning Group Music Instruction - Cello is designed to introduce students to a new musical instrument. The course focuses on establishing basic technical competencies, along with musical literacy skills, which will serve as the basis for developing performance skill and increasing musical mastery.

Beginning Group Music Instruction - Clarinet is designed to introduce students to a new musical instrument. The course focuses on establishing basic technical competencies, along with musical literacy skills, which will serve as the basis for developing performance skill and increasing musical mastery.

Beginning Group Music Instruction - Flute is designed to introduce students to a new musical instrument. The course focuses on establishing basic technical competencies, along with musical literacy skills, which will serve as the basis for developing performance skill and increasing musical mastery.

Beginning Group Music Instruction - Oud is designed to introduce students to a new musical instrument. The course focuses on establishing basic technical competencies, along with aural skills, which will serve as the basis for developing performance skill and increasing musical mastery.

Beginning Group Music Instruction - Piano is designed to introduce students to a new musical instrument. The course focuses on establishing basic technical competencies, along with musical literacy skills, which will serve as the basis for developing performance skill and increasing musical mastery.

Beginning Group Music Instruction - Saxophone is designed to introduce students to a new musical instrument. The course focuses on establishing basic technical competencies, along with musical literacy skills, which will serve as the basis for developing performance skill and increasing musical mastery.

Beginning Group Music Instruction - Trumpet is designed to introduce students to a new musical instrument. The course focuses on establishing basic technical competencies, along with musical literacy skills, which will serve as the basis for developing performance skill and increasing musical mastery.

Beginning Group Music Instruction - Arab Percussion is designed to introduce students to a new musical instrument in an ensemble setting. The course focuses on establishing basic technical competencies, along with aural skills, which will serve as the basis for developing performance skill and increasing musical mastery.

Students in this course work creatively with concepts of sound, space, and narrative. The course illustrates how to record, produce, and diffuse immersive audio pieces using a variety of approaches, ranging from binaural stereo systems to more complex multichannel techniques.

Beginning Group Music Instruction - Violin is designed to introduce students to a new musical instrument. The course focuses on establishing basic technical competencies, along with musical literacy skills, which will serve as the basis for developing performance skill and increasing musical mastery.

Beginning Group Music Instruction - Guitar is designed to introduce students to a new musical instrument. The course focuses on establishing basic technical competencies, along with musical literacy skills, which will serve as the basis for developing performance skill and increasing musical mastery.

Beginning Group Music Instruction - Percussion: is designed to introduce students to a new musical instrument. The course focuses on establishing basic technical competencies, along with aural skills, which will serve as the basis for developing performance skill and increasing musical mastery.

A diverse array of ensembles is offered each semester. Participants develop skills in active musicianship: performance, listening, communication, and collaboration. Ensembles are offered at beginner, intermediate, and advanced performance levels. Ensemble formations include, for example, NYUAD Vocal Ensemble, A Capella group, or chamber music ensembles.

Individual Instruction in Music is designed for students willing to develop their skills in one or more musical instruments, vocal performance, or wanting to learn compositional techniques and strategies to help them create musical work under supervision.

This course is designed for students wanting to continue with Individual Instruction in Music, either in composition, vocal performance, or a specific instrument.

Arab music culture, understood as an assemblage of ideas, practices, instruments, and traditions of sounding and listening, flourishes across the Arab world and in other places where Arabs have settled. This course provides a thorough overview of Arab music culture in the contemporary world, by investigating a number of its iterations within and beyond the Middle East and North Africa. Course materials, including sound recordings and films as well as written works, utilize music as a prism to view other aspects of society, such as religion, nationalism, and diaspora. By engaging critically with these materials, students cultivate ways of speaking and writing about music and culture in Arab and other contexts. The course thus prepares students for further work in ethnomusicology, the study of music as culture.

This course combines theory with intensive listening to examine popular songs in the Arabic-speaking world from the 1950's to the present. Students will develop familiarity with a wide range of Arab singers and their work by way of audiovisual playlists, scholarly and journalistic writing, and social media commentary. The course will introduce basic theoretical issues in popular music studies to provide students with tools for engaging in analysis and writing. We will begin with an exploration of cross-linguistic classification of musical genres and ideologies of the popular and continue to study the ways in which music is linked to political, cultural, religious, and economic forces. The primary forms of assessment are weekly listening quizzes, periodic entries in a shared class blog, and a mid-term and final paper. We will begin with an exploration of cross-linguistic classification of musical genres and ideologies of the popular and continue to study the ways in which music is linked to political, cultural, religious, and economic forces. The primary forms of assessment are weekly listening quizzes, periodic entries in a shared class blog, and a mid-term and final paper.

This interdisciplinary course meets at the intersections of applied ethnomusicology, performance studies, and heritage studies and contemporary Khaleeji Musical heritage with a focus on Kuwaiti Pearl Diving music between roughly 1900 and the present. With influences spanning from Zanzibar to Bombay to Kuwait and the coastal civilizations in between, this hybrid and cosmopolitan music was born of trade and cultural exchange. As a music of the Indian Ocean civilizations trade, it is also extra-Khaleeji and extra-Arabic. It changed with each pearling and trading season as sailors and divers played music with the locals as they waited for monsoon winds to change direction before sailing home, eager to share the new sounds and instruments upon their return. What happens to this tradition as it is appropriated into the realm of heritage performance as static national-capital? How does this music exist today as a dialogic and fluid expression of the pre-national past? How does cosmopolitanism play with national discourse? The class will also create a virtual Modern Khaleeji ensemble where we will collectively and virtually perform music.

The musical has become one of the most globally popular forms of entertainment, illuminating the ways in which society understands itself by showcasing changing issues of politics, economics, gender, sexuality and ethnicity. This course examines these themes through a framework of lectures, detailed analytical viewings and practical performance workshops. Topics will include: the economic and political satires of Offenbach and Gilbert and Sullivan, changing attitudes to race and conflict in 'Showboat', 'South Pacific', 'Oh, What a Lovely War' and 'Miss Saigon', issues of cultural identity in 'Beyond Bollywood', gender and sexuality in 'Sweet Charity' and 'Rent', the grand historical spectacle of 'Evita' and 'Les Miserables', Disney comes to Broadway, satire in the 21st century through the lens of 'Urinetown' and 'Avenue Q' and the postmodernist fantasies of Sondheim. Lectures are supported by a practical workshop or an analytical viewing each week. Practical sessions allow students to workshop scenes and individual numbers from examples of the genre studied in the previous lecture, allowing for an in-depth exploration of music, text and interpretation for the actor/singer.

This section of Group Instruction is designed for students who already have a basic level of competency with the instrument. The focus of this course is to build upon established musical skills, while working toward mastering more challenging musical repertoire.

How might we hear and critique representations of gender through song? And how does a global approach – highlighting similarities and differences across cultures – enrich our understanding of what song can be and do? This dual emphasis on gender and globalism will inform our exploration of song around the world, with stops in Europe, the Americas, East Asia, Southwest Asia and North Africa. We will engage gender as a critical lens through which to interpret musical and textual meanings across diverse styles and genres: from the German Lied, through the Chilean Nueva Canción (“New Song”) movement, to iconic singer-songwriters in the Arab world and K-pop. We will explore, on the one hand, how musicians have constructed gender through song culture, with a particular emphasis on women’s perspectives, and, on the other, the ways in which gender plays out in the reception of song across scholarship, performance, and the popular imagination. This will lead to a deepened appreciation of song not only as a musical genre, but also as a vehicle for socio-cultural critique through the ages and across the globe.

This course explores the historical, theoretical, and practical dimensions of Arab music. Through a curriculum encompassing ear training, compositional analysis, improvisation techniques, and musical practice, students will embark on a journey through the intricate Maqam system, from foundational maqamat like Bayyati to the complex nuances of Sikah and beyond. Students will gain a thorough understanding of fundamentals of Arab music, through both critical exploration and creative inquiry. The course serves as a platform for further academic inquiry and artistic exploration within the realm of Arab music. Note: while there is no formal prerequisite, students must already possess the ability to read music.

This course is designed for students wanting to continue with Individual Instruction in Music, either in composition, vocal performance, or a specific instrument.

This course is designed for students wanting to continue with Individual Instruction in Music, either in composition, vocal performance, or a specific instrument.

This course exposes students to the art of music production, engineering and recording, as well as fundamentals of audio theory and engineering, audio production technique in both the studio environment and location specific recording, playback, post -production applications, and musical acoustics. As a sound engineers and producers, your job is ensuring that your production creates strong emotional impact. In this course students will be exploring the intersection where technical skills and creative ideas meet in order to create a song. Students will be exposed to a variety of topics including, to multitrack recording, microphone techniques, live recording sessions, advanced editing techniques, advanced topics on musical acoustics. Students will gain analytical and professional skills needed for a variety of music production-focused careers. This course will as well expose students to a variety of production and sound engineering techniques that can be applied on different music styles ranging from pop, funk, jazz and orchestral acquiring knowledge and expertise using Pro Tools in conjunction with Dante Network and Nuendo working on unique orchestral/ ensemble recordings.

Sound lends depth and expands space to the two-dimensional image on screen, while locating us within the scene. A crucial difference between visual and aural manipulation of the audience is that even sophisticated audiences rarely notice the soundtrack. Sounds can speak to us emotionally, and subconsciously put us in touch with a character. This course focuses on the importance of audio as a narrative medium in film. Students study how audio creation, manipulation, restoration, and mixing can go beyond the simple techniques of sound design to profoundly alter the cinematic experience. Students learn the complicated practice of making sound for multichannel in surround, down mix, and audio restoration using Izotpe RX, all as applied to international loudness standards and deliverables. Working with Pro Tools as a creative medium, students practice non-linear content, editing to Timecode SMPTE, working in conjunction with the AVID S6 mixing board. The aim for this course is to give students numerous opportunities to apply creative techniques learnt in class to make films, from capstone projects to films nominated for international film festivals.

The Computational Approaches to Music and Audio I will introduce students to programming for the development of applications of generative music and audio, ranging from standalone musical compositions to fun and engaging musical games or intelligent musical instruments. These applications will be developed mostly in Max, a widely used and very popular graphical programming environment for electronic music and interactive media. By the end of this course students will have become familiar with current approaches to audio and music programming namely in the Max programming environment, plug-in creation for Ableton Live, as well as have acquired a strong foundation in the field that will prepare them for the second course in the sequence.

In today's increasingly visual culture, the significance of listening is easily overlooked. Unlike vision, which is constrained by our field of view and can be intentionally interrupted by closing the eyes, hearing is immersive, three-dimensional, and continuous - there are no "earbrows" to shield us from sound. This aspect makes listening a powerful tool for perception and understanding. This course will reveal how attentive listening provides unique information about places and communities. Departing from acoustemology - a field that views sound not merely as a sensory experience but as a primary method for understanding environments, relationships, places, and histories - we will investigate Madrid through its diverse soundscapes by capturing field recordings across the city. Inspired by projects such as Locus Sonus, SONYC, and Favorite Sounds, the class will collaboratively create a public sound map of Madrid, shared via freesound.org - the world’s largest open repository for sound recordings. To further gain insight about sound as a conveyor of meaning, emotion, and narrative, students will compose musical works that will exclusively use Madrid’s sound as the musical material. This course is offered in NYU Madrid.

This course examines the interplay of music, technology, and law in capitalist societies. Developments in intellectual property law - particularly in the area of intellectual property law known as copyright - have profoundly shaped how music is created, experienced, and conceptualized. At the same time, technology-driven changes in music production and consumption have profoundly shaped intellectual property law. This course critically examines this dialectical relationship between music and law and its ramifications for both, by drawing together perspectives from music studies, legal studies, and a range of other disciplines. In addition to the central concerns of musical authorship, creativity, and piracy, topics include music copyright and institutionalized racism; the legal facets of musical heritage and repatriation; and copyright in music economies of the Global South.

This course begins with a history of Jazz as it originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans during the early 1900s; and continues by investigating the influences that modern globalization has had on this genre, (starting with the Afro-Cuban Jazz movement of the 1950s). In addition to providing a historical context about the origins and the evolutionary trajectory of Jazz, this course also takes a cross-cultural perspective in addressing particular migratory influences that spurred the diverse branches of contemporary Global Jazz, including: Afro-Cuban Jazz, Jazz Manouche (Gypsy Jazz) and Flamenco, Brazilian Jazz, South Asian Jazz, Highlife and Afrobeat, South African Jazz, Gnawa Fusion, Gypsy Jazz, Oriental Jazz, and Khaleeji Jazz. Central questions: What is "Global Jazz"? How does global jazz manifest itself as an expression of cosmopolitanism within the context of transnational encounters? and What does the term "Global Jazz" do that "Jazz" does not? What does it make possible?

This course explores the intersection of popular music and politics in Africa. In recent years, studies of African popular music have offered up some of the most revealing analyses of public culture and politics in postcolonial Africa. This course examines African popular music genres as resonant spaces where publics are produced and mobilized, where the symbolic girders of the postcolonial state are reinforced and/or attacked, and where cosmopolitanism confronts the conceits of nationhood. In addition to engaging with essential literature on the nation, popular culture, globalization, and postcoloniality in Africa, students will become familiar with the histories and contexts of African musical genres such as Nigerian Afrobeat, Swahili taarab, Zimbabwean chimurenga, South African mbaqanga, and the hip hop-derived genres that emerged across the continent at the turn of the twenty-first century.

Music Theory and Analysis I introduces the fundamental elements of Western tonal music through intermediate study of pitch, rhythm, harmony, and form, with an emphasis on developing analytical and introductory compositional skills. Students will examine repertoire from the common-practice period (mid-17th to mid-20th century) alongside selected examples of contemporary tonal music to deepen their understanding of musical structure and style. The course also provides an introduction to key theoretical concepts in Arab music. Given our unique cultural and geographic context, the course places particular emphasis on the study of Arab music. Students will engage with the region’s rich musical heritage, including its modal system (maqām), rhythmic cycles (īqāʿāt), ornamentation practices, and performance aesthetics. By integrating Western and Arab perspectives, this course offers students a broad and culturally informed understanding of how music operates within both regional and international contexts. Through listening, analysis, and creative work, students will develop cross-cultural musical literacy and gain a deeper appreciation for the vibrant musical landscape of the Middle East.

Further exploration of melody, harmony, and counterpoint in tonal and modal musics through projects in directed composition and analysis, transitioning into 20th-century and contemporary musical developments. Topics include small-and large-scale musical forms, modulation, mixture, chromaticism, and an array of modernist and post-modernist compositional practices.

This course is designed for students wanting to continue with Individual Instruction in Music, either in composition, vocal performance, or a specific instrument.

This course is designed for students wanting to continue with Individual Instruction in Music, either in composition, vocal performance, or a specific instrument.

Mixing is a creative musical and technological expression that builds on a collaboration between and among those who compose, perform, and those who know how to play the studio as a musical instrument. As mix engineers, we must create music based on a deep knowledge of the informing disciplines such as music, acoustics, electrical engineering, computer science, and digital signal processing. This course provides students with a deeper understanding of mixing and mastering tools and techniques that can be applied to a wide variety of styles. This course has an in-depth hands-on examination of several mixing techniques. It explores the many creative and technical considerations necessary to mix in today's music production environment. Through weekly critical listening training, analysis of classic recordings, and comparative studies of different styles of mixing, students will learn to identify width and depth, frequency range, dynamics and the different mix approaches used in various musical genres. Mixing isn't just having the tools, it's really knowing how to use them in service of the art of music. Be ready to take a deeper look of what's behind what you listen to everyday.

An intensive, project-driven course designed to develop skills in sound synthesis techniques and procedural music, with a focus on their specific application in composition, sound design, New Instruments of Musical Expression, and games. The course will consist in extensive exploration of analog modular synthesis, Max, and SuperCollider, in recreating algorithms used by synthesis and computer music pioneers such as Xenakis, Chowning, and Risset as well as new talents in electronic music such as Agostino Di Scipio, Alessandro Cortini or Richard Devine. Previous knowledge of working with Max and/or SuperCollider is required for this course or students may have to take a complementary lab in order to be able to follow the class. By the end of the semester, students will have built a small portfolio of musical works employing the techniques learned during the semester.

Innovative and rigorous courses in music theory, developed in accordance with the expertise and interests of the faculty.

The Music Program Capstone Seminar is the space where students deepen their proposed Capstone project proposals in either track for the major. This consists of weekly meetings with the Capstone advisor, complemented by a series of periodic lectures given by each full-time faculty member in the Music Program. The lecture topics relate to issues found pertinent to the development of a solid, well-grounded and rigorous project and accompanying paper. Towards the end of the semester, students are required to formally present the projects to be completed in the following semester.

The Music Capstone Project provides seniors with the opportunity to work closely with a faculty mentor and to produce a senior thesis project. Projects may range from an original artistic practice to a theoretical, historical or ethnographic research project. This course is where the project proposal developed and presented in the Music Capstone Seminar is finally accomplished, presented publicly, and defended before a jury.

Individual Instruction in Music is designed for students willing to develop their skills in one or more musical instruments, vocal performance, or wanting to learn compositional techniques and strategies to help them create musical work under supervision.

Individual Instruction in Music is designed for students willing to develop their skills in one or more musical instruments, vocal performance, or wanting to learn compositional techniques and strategies to help them create musical work under supervision.

Individual Instruction in Music is designed for students willing to develop their skills in one or more musical instruments, vocal performance, or wanting to learn compositional techniques and strategies to help them create musical work under supervision.

Individual Instruction in Music is designed for students willing to develop their skills in one or more musical instruments, vocal performance, or wanting to learn compositional techniques and strategies to help them create musical work under supervision.