Music
Music is a unique form of human expression that transcends boundaries of language, culture, time, and place. The study of music, especially in a liberal arts context, is inherently interdisciplinary, drawing on the sister arts and other fields in the humanities as well as the social sciences and sciences. The Department of Music provides a tremendous variety of opportunities to explore, experience, and perform music both inside and outside the classroom.
We offer all students the opportunity to nurture and develop their own particular love of music, while providing music majors with rigorous, sustained training. Our academic courses explore the history, theory, technology, and performance of music and class topics reach back through history and around the globe. Our program of private vocal and instrumental instruction offers students private lessons, coaching, and master-classes with exceptional performers drawn from across the country. Our ensembles bring students together to collaborate and perform a diverse repertoire.
Whether you are interested in classical, popular, or world music, in music of the past or the present, in creating, performing, or simply listening, Holy Cross provides a rich context for engagement with music and the arts. Our varied and dynamic curriculum has something for everyone: for students who wish to major in music and for those who wish to explore music one course — or one concert — at time.
Facilities
Facilities in the Department of Music include the newly renovated Brooks Concert Hall; fully equipped classrooms; practice rooms with pianos; and lockers for student instruments. The Fenwick Music Library houses a sizeable collection of scores, books, sound recordings, and DVDs, as well as computers and state-of-the-art audio/visual stations. A rich variety of technology resources include the Brooks Recording Studio, equipped with professional software and hardware complemented by a wide selection of microphones, digital and analog mixers, and studio monitors; the Brooks Media Studio, containing 12 dedicated student workstations furnished with industry standard software and hardware used for computer music coding and hacking, audio recording and mastering, composing for film and video, and the creation of electronic, electroacoustic, and new media projects; and several music-notation and ear-training workstations housed in the Fenwick Music Library.
Scholarships
The department offers two merit-based scholarships. The Brooks Music Scholarship is a four-year scholarship offered annually to an incoming student who will major in music or double major in music and another discipline. Candidates must demonstrate outstanding achievement in the area of instrumental/vocal performance or composition in addition to a significant academic record. The recipient is granted full tuition, independent of need. The scholarship is renewable annually, provided that the student maintains a strong academic record and continues to be a highly active music major. Candidates should address inquiries to:
Chair
Department of Music
College of the Holy Cross
1 College Street
Worcester, MA 01610
The application deadline is January 15. The Organ Scholarship is a four-year, full tuition, scholarship, renewable on a yearly basis, offered to an incoming student who will major in music or double major in music and another discipline. Applicants should already be advanced organists who have studied organ seriously for several years, have experience in church music, and have a strong background in keyboard studies and good sight-reading skills. As the Holy Cross Organ Scholar, the recipient will assist the College Organist in all aspects of the chapel music program and will have available the 1985 four manual, fifty-stop mechanical action organ located in the beautiful St. Joseph Memorial Chapel. The Organ Scholar will also be expected to study organ privately for four years and have a career goal in church music and/or organ. Please note: the organ scholarship is not offered every year. Applicants for the organ scholarship must apply for early decision and December 1 is the deadline for those applying for the organ scholarship. Organ scholarship applicants should apply as early as possible because the live audition at Holy Cross must be completed no later than December 18.
Study Abroad
Many majors choose to study abroad and up to two electives may be completed abroad with approval, though required theory and history courses may not be taken abroad. All majors who wish to go abroad should consult the Department’s Study Abroad Advisor for approval of courses taken aboard to count toward the major.
Advanced Placement Credit
Holy Cross awards credit for Advanced Placement exams taken through the College Board Advanced Placement Program and the International Baccalaureate Program and will accept some Advanced Level General Certificate of Education (A-Level) exams. One unit of credit is awarded for an Advanced Placement score of 4 or 5 in any discipline recognized by the College. One unit of credit is awarded for a score of 6 or 7 on a Higher Level International Baccalaureate Examination in a liberal arts subject. One unit of credit is awarded for a score of A/A* or B on an A Level exam in a liberal arts subject. The College does not award credit for the IB Standard Exam or the A-Level Exam. AP, IB, and A-Level credit may be used to satisfy deficiencies and common area requirements. Each academic department has its own policy regarding the use of AP or IB credit for placement in courses and progress in the major. The Department Chair must also review the A-Level score to determine placement in courses and progress in the major. See departmental descriptions for further information.
Students with AP Credit in Music Theory, prior course work in, or knowledge of music theory may earn advanced placement in the department’s theory sequence. These students may be eligible for advanced placement in the major and should consult with the chair of the department. Please note: even in these cases, AP Credit does not count toward the number of courses required for the major.
Performance Program
The Department of Music invites all students to participate in our extensive performance program, which includes ensembles (such as College Choir, Chamber Orchestra, Balinese Gamelan), chamber music, and private instruction.
With options for every student, our performance ensembles are both diverse and inclusive. They offer students the chance to learn music of different cultures and styles, running the gamut from early music to new (see the website for a complete list). All are open to both majors and non-majors. Ensembles that may be taken for performance credit include the College Choir, Chamber Singers, Chamber Orchestra, Jazz Ensemble, Concert Band, and Schola Cantorum. Students who wish to may take eligible ensembles for lab credit for up to two years.
Our Chamber Music Program provides interested students the opportunity to play in small chamber ensembles such as duets, string quartets, or mixed ensembles (strings with piano or winds). Each ensemble receives weekly coaching by music department faculty. Select groups have the opportunity to perform at department recitals.
The department provides the opportunity for all students (including beginners) to take private lessons in either instrumental or vocal performance. Students may choose either ten half-hour or one-hour lessons per semester. For music majors and non-majors who qualify, lessons may be taken for lab credit (pass/no pass) for up to two years.
Junior or Senior Music Majors who wish to enroll in one of the Performance Courses (MUSC 331 Intermediate Performance 1/MUSC 332 Intermediate Performance 2, MUSC 431 Intermediate/Adv Performance 1/MUSC 432 Intermediate/Adv Performance 2, or MUSC 433 Advanced Performance 1/MUSC 434 Advanced Performance 2) to receive individual instruction on an instrument or voice for full course credit must have successfully completed four semesters of one-hour lessons for credit, four courses in the major, and be in good standing in the department (have at least a B average in the major and B- overall). Interested students may audition for the Director of Performance and must obtain the signatures of both the Director of Performance and the Chair of the Department in order to enroll. Performance Course requirements include:
- Meeting specific goals worked out in advance with a private instructor,
- Participating in department recitals during both terms of enrollment,
- Successful completion of final jury examinations administered by music department faculty at the end of each semester.
Students must register for the class as a fifth course in the first semester of enrollment. At the end of this first semester, they will be assigned an IP (In Progress). During the second semester of enrollment they may register for Performance as a fourth or fifth course with a letter grade. Students may only claim a maximum of two units of Performance with letter grade toward graduation. No student may enroll in more than one upper-division Performance course each semester.
Jessica P. Waldoff, Ph.D., Professor
Chris Arrell, D.M.A., Associate Professor
Daniel J. DiCenso, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Chair
Jacqueline H. Georgis, Ph.D, Assistant Professor
Schuyler Whelden, Ph.D., Assistant Professor
Ezequiel Menendez, D.M.A., Lecturer, Professor of Practice and Distinguished Artist in Residence in Organ
Sergio I Munoz Leiva, D.M.A., Lecturer, Professor of Practice in Music and Director of Chamber
Matthew J. Jaskot, Ph.D., Lecturer
Michael Monaghan, M.A., Lecturer, Director Jazz Ensemble
Joseph Nelson, Ph.D., Visiting Assistant Professor
Instrumental and Vocal Instructors
William Cotton, voice
Joseph Halko, oboe
Jonathan Hess, percussion
Bruce Hopkins, trumpet
Ona Jonaityte, flute
Aleksandra Labinska, violin
William Kirkley, clarinet
Ulysses Loken, piano
Julia Lyons, cello
Jeffrey Nevaras, guitar
Evan Perry, viola
Douglas Weeks, trombone
Jonathan Yasuda, piano
A one-semester introduction to art music in the Western tradition, its forms and history, with an emphasis on the major composers of the common practice period. Assignments focus on developing critical listening skills and an appreciation and understanding of Western art music.
GPA units: 1
Common Area: Arts
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring
Introduction to the rudiments of music theory (notation, scales, intervals, chords, rhythm and meter) and basic musicianship (keyboard skills, score reading and ear training). Enrollment is limited to students with no previous background in Music.
Enrollment is limited to students with no previous background in Music.
GPA units: 1
Common Area: Arts
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring
Beginning/intermediate students enroll in a first semester of individual instruction on an instrument or voice with an appropriate instructor. Ten private lessons are given at a mutually convenient time to be arranged. This course is taken pass/no pass as an overload and does not count toward graduation.
GPA units: 0.25
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring
Beginning/intermediate students enroll in a second semester of individual instruction on an instrument or voice with an appropriate instructor. Ten private lessons are given at a mutually convenient time to be arranged. This course is taken pass/no pass as an overload and does not count toward graduation.
Prerequisite: MUSC 105
GPA units: 0.25
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring
Beginning/intermediate students enroll in a third semester of individual instruction on an instrument or voice with an appropriate instructor. Ten private lessons are given at a mutually convenient time to be arranged. This course is taken pass/no pass as an overload and does not count toward graduation.
Prerequisite: MUSC 106
GPA units: 0.25
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring
Beginning/intermediate students enroll in a fourth semester of individual instruction on an instrument or voice with an appropriate instructor. Ten private lessons are given at a mutually convenient time to be arranged. This course is taken pass/no pass as an overload and does not count toward graduation.
Prerequisite: MUSC 107
GPA units: 0.25
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring
Students attend all regularly scheduled rehearsals, dress rehearsals, and concerts during the period of enrollment. This course is taken pass/no pass as an overload and does not count toward graduation. Students may repeat this course and/or other ensemble courses.
GPA units: 0.25
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring
Students attend all regularly scheduled rehearsals, dress rehearsals, and concerts during the period of enrollment. This course is taken pass/no pass as an overload and does not count toward graduation. Students may repeat this course and/or other ensemble courses.
GPA units: 0.25
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring
Students attend all regularly scheduled rehearsals, dress rehearsals, and concerts during the period of enrollment. This course is taken pass/no pass as an overload and does not count toward graduation. Students may repeat this course and/or other ensemble courses.
GPA units: 0.25
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring
Students attend all regularly scheduled rehearsals, dress rehearsals, and concerts during the period of enrollment. This course is taken pass/no pass as an overload and does not count toward graduation. Students may repeat this course and/or other ensemble courses.
GPA units: 0.25
Typically Offered: Spring
Students attend all regularly scheduled rehearsals, dress rehearsals, and concerts during the period of enrollment. This course is taken pass/no pass as an overload and does not count toward graduation. Students may repeat this course and/or other ensemble courses.
GPA units: 0.25
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring
Students attend all regularly scheduled rehearsals, dress rehearsals, and concerts during the period of enrollment. This course is taken pass/no pass as an overload and does not count toward graduation. Students may repeat this course and/or other ensemble courses. Department consent required.
GPA units: 0.25
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring
Intro to Audio Recording explores, through traditional and experiential learning, the role of the recording studio in music. Through the study of recording studio theory, critical listening and analysis, classroom discussions, and in-depth examinations of seminal repertoire, students will gain insight into the critical role of the recording studio in sparking innovation, and, perhaps paradoxically, shaping musical aesthetics. Through exercises in microphone selection and placement, frequency filtering, audio mixing, and signal processing, as well as a final cumulative creative project, students will engage with the recording studio as a living laboratory. By the end of the course, students will gain an understanding of how to apply the potential of the recording studio to their own creative work, as well as an appreciation of how the recording studio has fundamentally changed the way musicians and listeners alike experience music.
GPA units: 1
Common Area: Arts
Typically Offered: Fall
This course explores the power of song in Western culture drawing on both classical and popular traditions. Songs of love, songs of war, songs of worship, songs of protest - every human emotion has been expressed in song. The focus is on questions of expression and shared values in over four centuries of music.
GPA units: 1
Common Area: Arts
Typically Offered: Annually
Historical survey of American popular song-Stephen Foster, blackface minstrels, sentimental parlor songs, songs of the Civil War, gospel hymns, vaudeville, Tin Pan Alley, Broadway musicals, Jerome Kern, George and Ira Gershwin, jazz-band songs and singers, country music, rhythm and blues, rock-n-roll, rock, popular "folk" songs, and more.
GPA units: 1
Common Area: Arts
Typically Offered: Alternate Years
Survey of rock music from its beginnings in earlier forms of popular music to the twenty-first century. Attention is given to the relationship of rock music to its cultural, political, and economic contexts.
GPA units: 1
Common Area: Arts
Typically Offered: Annually
Disability Studies is an interdisciplinary field that approaches the study of disability not as a medical pathology but as a pervasive human condition and identity category subject to social, cultural, and political constructions, much like gender, race, and sexuality. This course pursues various intersections of this field with the study of music, with topics covering disability's role in shaping musical identities (especially those of composers and performers), disability's expansion of categories of musical knowledge and experience, and representations of disability within musical discourses and narratives.
GPA units: 1
Common Area: Arts
Typically Offered: Annually
Surveys three main repertoires of music in the United States: folk and traditional music of urban, rural, and ethnic origin; jazz; and art music from Charles Ives to the present, with particular attention to the influence of science and technology on recent developments.
GPA units: 1
Common Area: Arts
Typically Offered: Alternate Years
An introduction to the rich and varied musical traditions of Latin America, this course will explore a range of issues including social function, political context, literature, and religion as they assist in understanding music in and as culture. We will study the musics of several regions without attempting a comprehensive survey. The focus will be on listening critically and appreciating music as a vehicle through which to understand culture and society. Lecture and discussion will feature audio and visual performances of many genres.
GPA units: 1
Common Area: Arts, Cross-Cultural Studies
This course will introduce students to a range of global popular musics, in particular twentieth and twenty-first century genres such as afrobeats, bhangra, K-pop, and funk carioca, among others. We will investigate musical sounds and performances, as well as the roles that music plays in social and cultural life. Our approach will be primarily ethnomusicological, but we will also draw on scholarship and theories from musicology, anthropology, and cultural studies. The course is designed to help students develop listening skills, as well as an awareness of the ways that cultural particularity informs musical production and consumption. This requires that we consider questions of community, musical genre, commerce and industry, gender performance, race, and cross-cultural exchange alongside sounds and performances. Students can expect to engage with scholarly and journalistic literature, performance videos and, above all, listen to a lot of music. No prior musical training is required.
GPA units: 1
Common Area: Arts, Cross-Cultural Studies
Typically Offered: Annually
This course will survey the music related to military conflicts, political movements, and peace making efforts from the Middle Ages to the 21st century. Students will explore how folk music, popular music, and art music have been used to depict war, express pro- and anti-war sentiments and promote political and ideological positions. Throughout the semester students will examine the broader relationship between music and society, and how world events shape musical styles and genres.
GPA units: 1
Common Area: Arts
Typically Offered: Alternate Years
Music Theory for Digital Music is designed for students who are interested in creating music in the electronic music studio but have little or no background in music theory. The course will introduce the basics of music theory, including staff and MIDI notation, scales and melody, chords and harmonic progression, musical time, and song structures. Students will engage with the concepts through traditional music theory exercises and hands-on creative projects realized in the electronic music studio. No prior familiarity with the electronic music studio and music-writing software is necessary to enroll in this course. While Music Theory for Digital Music will touch on some common music production techniques used in the electronic music studio, the main focus of this course is music theory. Students interested in a more in-depth exploration of electronic music production are encouraged to consider MUSC 121: Intro to Audio Recording, MUSC 241: Intro to Electroacoustic Music, and/or MUSC 242: Coding Music.
Students who have taken MUSC 103, 201, 202, or 203 may not enroll in this course.
GPA units: 1
Common Area: Arts
Movie soundtracks define some of the most important moments of our lives and our history. The music for film, while originating in Western art music from Europe, has grown into a distinct style and a distinctly American tradition of classical music. Music in film can play an integral role in storytelling, envelope and integrate a listener into the action on screen, and even act as a character in a scene. This course surveys the history of music in film from the advent of talkies until the present day. Students will learn key concepts in analyzing the use of music in film, different styles of music, their uses in film, and develop critical listening skills. The class will involve assigned readings, film viewing, short weekly writing assignments, and a midterm and final project. No musical training is required, though helpful.
GPA units: 1
Common Area: Arts
Ever wonder how music works? This course offers an integrated approach to music theory that is applicable to a broad range of styles from the classical symphony to popular song. Through analysis, musicianship exercises, and creative projects, students learn how composers and songwriters use common elements such as rhythm, scales, chords, melody, and counterpoint as building blocks to create unique musical styles. Music 201 is suitable for students from all majors and class years.
Lecture required, Lab (MUSC 202) required.
GPA units: 1
Common Area: Arts
Typically Offered: Annually Fall
A corequisite of Music Theory 1, this lab offers an introduction to ear training, sight singing, and keyboard skills. Active participation is required. This lab is taken pass/no pass as an overload and does not count toward graduation.
GPA units: 0.25
Typically Offered: Annually Fall
The second semester of the two-semester Western music theory sequence devoted to the underlying principles of tonal music, Music Theory 2 explores the musicals elements of chromatic music through listening, discussion, analysis, and musical composition. Topics include advanced chromaticism, extended counterpoint, and large-scale musical forms. Students must have the ability to read one or more musical clefs.
Prerequisite: MUSC 201 or permission of the instructor and Chair. Lecture required with Lab (MUSC 204).
GPA units: 1
Common Area: Arts
A co-requisite of Music Theory 2, this lab offers intermediate to advanced training in aural skills, sight-singing, and keyboard skills. Active participation is required. This lab is taken pass/no pass as an overload and does not count toward graduation.
GPA units: 0.25
Intermediate level students enroll in a first semester of individual instruction on an instrument or voice with an appropriate instructor. Ten private lessons are given at a mutually convenient time to be arranged. This course is taken pass/no pass as an overload and does not count toward graduation.
GPA units: 0.25
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring
Intermediate level students enroll in a second semester of individual instruction on an instrument or voice with an appropriate instructor. Ten private lessons are given at a mutually convenient time to be arranged. This course is taken pass/no pass as an overload and does not count toward graduation.
Prerequisite: MUSC 205
GPA units: 0.25
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring
Intermediate level students enroll in a third semester of individual instruction on an instrument or voice with an appropriate instructor. Ten private lessons are given at a mutually convenient time to be arranged. This course is taken pass/no pass as an overload and does not count toward graduation.
Prerequisite: MUSC 206
GPA units: 0.25
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring
Intermediate level students enroll in a fourth semester of individual instruction on an instrument or voice with an appropriate instructor. Ten private lessons are given at a mutually convenient time to be arranged. This course is taken pass/no pass as an overload and does not count toward graduation.
Prerequisite: MUSC 207
GPA units: 0.25
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring
This course offers a survey of music in Western Europe from the earliest Chants in the Roman Catholic Church to the music of Vivaldi, Handel, and Bach in the 18th Century. To study the European heritage in music allows us to discover an extraordinary variety of musics from earlier times and faraway places and to connect these distant musics from long ago to our present. In this class, we will study broad traditions and individual works of the Medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque periods with an emphasis on aspects of the surrounding culture as well as a range of issues and activities that are involved in the writing of music history. Emphasis will be placed on the development of musical styles, genres, compositional procedures, and performance traditions from many different periods, places, and repertories.
GPA units: 1
Common Area: Arts, Historical Studies
Typically Offered: Annually Fall
This course offers a survey of music in the Western tradition from 1750 to the present time. Our focus will be on musical works, styles, and genres that were influential as well as on the people who created, performed, and listened to this music. We will study important trends, figures, and moments from the Classical, Romantic, and Modern periods with an emphasis on understanding the music in its surrounding culture. Emphasis will be placed on the development of musical style, compositional procedures, and performance traditions from many different periods, places, and repertories.
GPA units: 1
Common Area: Arts, Historical Studies
Typically Offered: Spring
Introduces students to the fundamentals of jazz harmony and improvisation. Topics include chord and scale construction, harmonic progression, symbols used in improvisation, jazz scales and modes. These theoretical concepts are applied to the analysis and performance of standard jazz tunes. A portion of the class is devoted to performance and improvisation.
GPA units: 1
Common Area: Arts
Typically Offered: Annually Fall
Examination and analysis of contemporary jazz improvisation techniques. Students are required to play their own instruments in class. Recorded jazz solos by jazz artists will be analyzed and discussed.
Prerequisite: MUSC 218
GPA units: 1
Common Area: Arts
Independent study on a topic in any field of music conducted under the direction of a faculty director. Weekly meetings and a student-designed term project are customary. Permission of faculty member and the department chair required.
GPA units: 1
Typically Offered: Annually
This course explores the many ways in which the Jesuits have been involved in the field of music over time and space. While it is now well-known that the Jesuits have been important composers and patrons of music, the many ways in which the Society of Jesus has used music as a tool of its mission across all contexts remains less well understood. The goal of the course is to construct a more robust sense of the many ways the Jesuits have engaged with music as art and music as a tool of mission. The course will also examine the many sites of Jesuit music culture around the globe, then and now, to draw a better understanding of Jesuit religious/missionary work, Jesuit engagement in and proximity to slavery and colonialism, and the complex cultural legacy of the Society of Jesus.
GPA units: 1
Common Area: Arts, Studies in Religion
Typically Offered: Alternate Years
Introduces students to Balinese music through the performance of selected pieces from the Gong Kebyar repertory. Instruction provided in the technique of playing the instruments that make up the Gamelan.
GPA units: 1
Common Area: Arts, Cross-Cultural Studies
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring
Introduces students to more advanced techniques of playing the instruments in the Gamelan.
Prerequisite: MUSC 231
GPA units: 1
Common Area: Arts, Cross-Cultural Studies
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring
Introduction to music of selected African, Asian, and American cultures. Each culture is approached through its social and cultural context, its theoretical systems and musical instruments, as well as its major musical and theatrical genres.
GPA units: 1
Common Area: Arts, Cross-Cultural Studies
Typically Offered: Annually
This course is a survey of African-American music from the early 20th century to the present day. This course will consider various musical styles, with special emphasis on developments since 1950, including blues, gospel, R&B, rock and roll, doo-wop, soul, funk, disco, hip-hop, and rap-from the rural south to the urban north; from the east coast to the west coast; from the live stage to the recording studio. Though the primary function of the course will be to consider the development of musical style (that is, the music itself), we will also consider broader questions concerning the influences on and influences of African-American music, issues of cultural appropriation and race, and the agency of such music in social movements from the civil-rights era to the present day.
GPA units: 1
Common Area: Arts
Typically Offered: Annually
Brazil, the world's fifth largest nation by both population and area, is home to wide variety of musical traditions. Brazilian musical practice has contributed to the formation of local and national identities, accompanied religious ceremonies and rites, been subject to the possibilities and pitfalls of industrial and neoliberal capitalism, and served as a vehicle for protest and political organizing. In this course, we will examine many of the country's major musical styles and practices, particularly as they are bound up with social and cultural trends, changes, and issues. Musics to be covered include capoeira, samba, bossa nova, MPB, tropicália, sertanejo, funk carioca, tecnobrega, and hip hop. We will also learn about the history and culture of Brazil, situating musical practices and meanings within their particular contexts and uses. Students will learn critical listening and music interpretation skills, which they will use to complete a research paper on a Brazilian music topic. No prior language or musical training is required.
GPA units: 1
Common Area: Arts, Cross-Cultural Studies
Designed for all students interested in the electronic music studio, this survey course provides a comprehensive overview of the techniques, literature, and materials of electroacoustic music. Topics include musical acoustics, classic musique concrète techniques, digital music, sound design, and production. Course goals include gaining fluency in appropriate technologies and strengthening interpretive and creative skills through the completion of original musical compositions.
GPA units: 1
Common Area: Arts
Typically Offered: Annually Fall
Coding Music welcomes all majors interested in DIY instrument design and collaborative performance of live electronic music. An experiential class, students learn the science of sound synthesis by designing digital synthesizers that react in real-time to human interaction (pressing keys on a computer keyboard, tilting a cellphone accelerometer, toggling a hacked gaming joystick, etc.). These synthesizers are then used to create musical compositions that the class performs live for the end of the semester H-CLEF (Holy Cross Laptop Ensemble Federation) concert. Using technology to create both instruments and repertoire, students broaden creative capacity while exploring how technology can expand artistic expression.
GPA units: 1
Common Area: Arts
Explores the role of digital media in the world of music and teaches how digital tools are utilized by the contemporary composer. Students get "hands-on" experience with digital audio, MIDI, the internet, and a host of computer applications (PowerPoint, Photoshop, Dreamweaver, ProTools, Audacity, Adobe Premier), that are essential for the aspiring musician.
GPA units: 1
Common Area: Arts
Typically Offered: Annually Fall
This seminar is designed for students interested in exploring community engagement (and career paths in the arts). Majors and non-majors interested in music performance or composition, visual and creative arts, sound installation, video, technology, creative writing, business, performance art and theatre as well as other related fields are especially encouraged to enroll.
GPA units: 1
In this course students will come to understand the history of Gregorian chant, both as a religious phenomenon and as a repertory of music. The course will begin in the Early Christian era and trace the history of Gregorian chant through the Middle Ages all the way to the present. Students will consider the role chant was made to play in asserting theological and cultural disagreements that historically led the rise of a variety of forms of Christian worship in the early centuries, some of which continue to be preserved and practiced in the present. The course will also consider chants role as art music and popular music, from the History of Western Music to film and popular song.
GPA units: 1
Common Area: Arts, Studies in Religion
Typically Offered: Annually
Study of representative works of this century, illustrating their compositional techniques and relationship to the past (i.e., the music of Bartok, the different styles of Stravinsky, the atonal and serial music of Schoenberg and his followers). This course also includes selected readings on contemporary music theory and practice.
GPA units: 1
Common Area: Arts
Introduction to the orchestra, its instruments, and repertory from the inception of public concerts in the 18th century to the present day.
GPA units: 1
Common Area: Arts
Beethoven was the most celebrated composer in Europe during his lifetime and his fame has only increased over the last two centuries. His heroic perseverance in the face of deafness--an almost unthinkable affliction for any musician--has transformed his biography into a story of struggle and triumph. In this course we will study some of his most famous works in depth, with an emphasis on the development of his musical style, the immediate socio-cultural context, and reception history.
GPA units: 1
Common Area: Arts
Typically Offered: Alternate Years
This course will serve as an introduction to the history of African and Afro-diasporic music cultures and their corporeal, musical, visual, and literary manifestations. This course will expand students musical worldview and equip students with the tools to contextualize and understand a variety of musical styles, from electronic music genres like batida in Lisbon and Jamaican dub music to traditional music styles such as Angolan semba and Cape Verdean morna. Through engagement with music, literature, and film, students will critically engage with musical and cultural issues involved in the study of music of the Black Atlantic from the mid-1970s onward, which include, but are not limited to, the relationship between music and politics; music-making in post-colonial and diasporic contexts; varying notions of cultural authenticity, and the musical implications of globalization.
GPA units: 1
Common Area: Arts, Cross-Cultural Studies
Musical practice has served as an important component in the formation and expression of national identity throughout Latin America, particularly in the Twentieth Century. Genres like samba, merengue, tango, and cumbia have come to engender feelings of national belonging, establish sonic borders, and attract tourists. Because of the contingent and multivalent nature of musical meaning, though, these genres and traditions are also spaces of contestation, where musicians, audiences, politicians, and others debate and work out the nature of national identities. In this course, we will explore musical styles that have become associated with particular nations in Latin America. We will read scholarship that situates these styles historically and culturally and listen to a variety of examples of the traditions in question. Class meetings will be discussion focused, supplemented by participatory musical activities and presentations of student work. No music training is required. Translations of lyrics will be provided.
GPA units: 1
Common Area: Arts, Cross-Cultural Studies
What does power look like? What does it sound like? This class explores the relationship between power both political and social and the arts (music, visual art, literature). We will survey key musical works from the late sixteenth to the mid-eighteenth centuries, including Italian intermedii, English court masques, French ballet de cour, and opera. Along the way, we will consider the roles race, gender, sexuality, and class play in the visual and musical language of these spectacles and how such works helped shape public opinion and national identity.
GPA units: 1
Common Area: Arts
What does it mean to be human? What are the limits of the human? And how do we confront the unknown and overcome our fears and nightmares? Monsters and madness feature prominently in music history, from opera to orchestral works and film scores. these represent a variety of trans historical fears that include the fragility of the human mind, atrocities committed during political conflicts, our powerlessness in the face of natural disasters, and, ultimately, confronting death and the unknown. This class explores different types of monsters and monstrosity depicted in musical works, from mythology to murdering parents. Each week we will listen to or watch musical performances and discuss related readings documentaries, and podcasts that help to explain our fascination with these themes. Weekly assignments include discussion posts on central questions and writing assignments building toward the midterm and final projects. this is an interdisciplinary seminar, and you are not required to have musical training to take this class, though it will help. A background in Sociology, Gender Studies, Art History, or critical theory would also prove helpful.
GPA units: 1
Common Area: Arts
Women have been making music in the West since antiquity, and yet still today our textbooks and concert programs leave us wondering: Where are the women? This course explores the many roles women have played as composers, performers, patrons, and consumers to trace a compelling history from medieval times to the present. To appreciate the musical achievements of women in diverse social, cultural, and historical contexts, we will ask questions about public and private performance, constraints imposed by secular and religious institutions, as well as social conventions and market forces. A focus on gender, sexuality, and representation provides a new way of understanding music and society, past and present.
GPA units: 1
Common Area: Arts
Music 305 focuses on 20th-century musical systems with an emphasis on the study of compositional theory and the analysis of selected works. Original composition is required.
Prerequisite: MUSC 203.
GPA units: 1
Typically Offered: Annually Fall
Topics-oriented seminar in advanced music theory and analysis open to students who have completed Music Theory 1-3 or by permission of the instructor. May be used as an upper-division elective for the music major.
Prerequisite: MUSC 305 or permission of Instructor.
GPA units: 1
Typically Offered: Every Third Year
This course explores music history from a methodological perspective. How do we construct and make sense of the music of the past? How does this activity inform our understanding and appreciation of music today? With an emphasis on critical reading, listening, analysis, discussion, and writing. Topics, materials, and course format vary from year to year.
Prerequisite: MUSC 211 or MUSC 212, or permission of instructor.
GPA units: 1
Independent study on a topic in any field of music conducted under the direction of a faculty director. Weekly meetings and a student-designed term project are customary. Permission of faculty member and the department chair required. Advanced.
GPA units: 1
Typically Offered: Annually
Instrumental or vocal lessons for students of intermediate competency. Interested students must have completed four semesters of individual instruction, perform at the intermediate level and obtain the permission of the Director of Performance and the Chair of the department.
GPA units: 0
Typically Offered: Annually
Instrumental or vocal lessons for students of intermediate competency. Interested students must have completed four semesters of individual instruction, perform at the intermediate level and obtain the permission of the Director of Performance and the Chair of the department.
Prerequisite: MUSC 331
GPA units: 1
Typically Offered: Annually
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (17561791) was a child prodigy, musical innovator, virtuoso performer, and compelling dramatist whom biographers later dubbed the Shakespeare of Music. The world in which he composed and struggled at times was a vibrant, competitive, multilingual, multicultural hotbed of enlightenment debate and revolutionary tension. It turns out that many of the themes and conflicts Mozart wrote about in his time still matter in ours: human affection in society, reconciliation, gender, identity, and difference. This course offers an in-depth exploration of Mozarts music that draws on historical context to engage Mozart today. Musical scores, recordings, videos, primary sources (including the Mozart family letters), and a rich variety of readings will frame discussion of familiar works and rarely performed gems.
GPA units: 1
Common Area: Arts
Typically Offered: Alternate Years
Where once popular music was considered to be merely a reflection of social change, today, scholars regard popular music to be a powerful agent of change itself. It is thus that we have come to celebrate artists and musicians among the very architects of the civil rights and women's rights movements of the 1960s and 1970s. However, the role of music in various gay rights movements remains less well understood. This course will consider the complex relationship between popular music and gay rights over the last fifty years. Examining the fraught notion of gay music in musical, historical, and aesthetic terms, the course will also explore the role music has played in building up and breaking down certain conceptualizations of sex, gender, and sexuality in American popular culture; in shaping distinct forms of gay identity (inclusive of LGBTQIAPK+ identity) in the popular media; in drawing attention to issues of voice-formation and cultural appropriation; and in forging political agency via song. The ability to read musical notation is not required and while this course has no specific prerequisite, students should be prepared to engage at an upper intermediate to advanced level. A prior course in music, sociology, cultural studies, or GSWS may be helpful, but is not required.
GPA units: 1
Common Area: Arts
Is climate change audible? What role does music play in environmental conservation? What is sound pollution? Is birdsong music? This course will explore how sound mediates the relationship between humans and the environment, what some researchers describe as an acoustic ecology. Combining interdisciplinary approaches from sound studies, disability studies, environmental studies, and musicology, we will contemplate how we come to know our environment through deep listening, consider how people communicate their relationship to the environment through their musical creations, and reflect on the sound relations between humans, plants, and creatures. Finally, we will ponder the role that music and sound play in our experience of climate change and as a resource for building connection with the natural world.
Enrollment is limited to 3rd and 4th year students only.
GPA units: 1
Common Area: Arts
This seminar is designed for students interested in studying composition/songwriting at an advanced level. It is a project-based course, including both smaller-scale creative exercises as well as a substantial final creative project. Through these projects, students will develop composing/songwriting skills within an environment that fosters discussion about contemporary composition/songwriting and the creative process. Course materials will be delivered via lecture, analysis and discussion, and workshopping of materials.
Prerequisites: Completion of the Music Theory sequence MUSC 201, MUSC 203, MUSC 301 or equivalent experience and permission from the instructor.
GPA units: 1
Common Area: Arts
Required for music majors. This course is designed to provide an opportunity for juniors and seniors to integrate the knowledge and skills they have acquired in the major by drawing on multiple methodologies (musicology, ethnomusicology, theory, historical performance practice, and popular music studies, among others) to study selected musical works in depth. Topics and repertory vary from year to year. The culmination of this course is a capstone project designed by the student.
Prerequisite or Corequisite: MUSC 212 and MUSC 302 or 305
GPA units: 1
GPA units: 1
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring
Instrumental or vocal lessons for students of intermediate to advanced competency. Interested students must have completed four semesters of individual instruction, perform at the intermediate or advanced level and obtain the permission of the Director of Performance and the Chair of the department.
GPA units: 0
Typically Offered: Annually
Instrumental or vocal lessons for students of intermediate to advanced competency. Interested students must have completed four semesters of individual instruction, perform at the intermediate or advanced level and obtain the permission of the Director of Performance and the Chair of the department.
Prerequisite: MUSC 431
GPA units: 1
Typically Offered: Annually
Instrumental or vocal lessons for students of advanced competency. Interested students must have completed four semesters of individual instruction, perform at the advanced level and obtain the permission of the Director of Performance and the Chair of the department.
Prerequisite: MUSC 432
GPA units: 0
Typically Offered: Annually
Instrumental or vocal lessons for students of advanced competency. Interested students must have completed four semesters of individual instruction, perform at the advanced level and obtain the permission of the Director of Performance and the Chair of the department.
Prerequisite: MUSC 433
GPA units: 1
Typically Offered: Annually