Music
The Department of Music offers a music program of exceptional quality and diversity. In this varied course of study — where music is approached as a liberal and fine art rather than as an isolated, separate subject — students may pursue practical and creative music-making or study musical traditions and individual works. Music courses are open to all students at the university.
We offer students the opportunity to develop performance skills in voice or instruments through private instruction or through participation in small or large ensembles. Private music lessons with our prominent faculty, including members of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, are available in voice, piano, organ, guitar, and all orchestral and jazz instruments.
Music majors can explore critical issues of tradition, individual composers, compositional craft, aesthetic interpretation, and music's social and cultural significance through a wide range of courses, from introductory classes to highly specialized seminars. Instruction is available in jazz, popular music, world musics, the history and literature of Western music, ethnomusicology, music theory and analysis, musical composition, and electronic music. All performance, creative, and academic endeavors in music are supported by a thorough grounding in musicianship and keyboard skills.
Music majors may take advantage of music-focused study abroad programs in Italy, England, and France. Summer research projects under faculty direction are also available.
Several options are available for students interested in music: the Bachelor of Arts degree with a major in music, the Bachelor of Music degree, a minor in music, and a minor in jazz studies. Students may take the AB degree in combination with a major in another field or as their primary major in a broad liberal arts education. Majoring in music can prepare students well for graduate work and for a variety of musical careers and other professions.
Performance Opportunities
Ensembles: The department sponsors numerous performing ensembles that draw members from the university and the surrounding community. Students must audition for admission to the ensembles. All ensembles are available for graded credit, for credit/no credit, or off roster. Ensembles give one or more public performances each semester. Students who are enrolled for credit in one of the department's ensembles may be entitled to a scholarship that covers a portion of the fee for music lessons.
Vocal Ensembles: Concert Choir, Chamber Choir
Instrumental Ensembles: Jazz Band, Chamber String Ensembles, Symphony Orchestra, Wind Ensemble, Jazz Combos
Lessons: Students may take lessons in voice, piano, organ, guitar, and all orchestral and jazz instruments in the appropriate course sequences. A separate fee is charged for private instruction. Music majors and minors receive a scholarship to cover all or a portion of the fee, respectively. If students enroll for credit in one of the department's ensembles, they are entitled to a scholarship for a portion of the fee for each semester in which they are enrolled. In addition, the department has a limited number of partial scholarships that are based on need and merit.
Contact Info
Contact: | Jessica Flannigan |
Phone: | 314-935-5566 |
Email: | flanniganj@wustl.edu |
Website: | http://music.wustl.edu/undergraduate |
Chair
Patrick Burke
Professor
PhD, University of Wisconsin
Director of Graduate Studies
Paul Steinbeck
Associate Professor
PhD, Columbia University
Director of Undergraduate Studies
Todd Decker
Paul Tietjens Professor of Music
PhD, University of Michigan
Department Faculty
Christopher Douthitt
Lecturer
MFA, Princeton University
Ben Duane
Associate Professor
PhD, Northwestern University
Lauren Eldridge Stewart
Assistant Professor
PhD, University of Chicago
Amy Greenhalgh
Lecturer
MA, Oxford University
Amanda Kirkpatrick
Senior Lecturer
MM, University of Missouri-Columbia
Esther Kurtz
Assistant Professor
PhD, Brown University
Jeffrey Kurtzman
Professor
PhD, University of Illinois
William Lenihan
Professor of Practice
BMus, University of Missouri-Columbia
Hugh McDonald
Avis H. Blewett Professor Emeritus of Music
PhD, Cambridge University
John McDonald
Lecturer
DMA, University of Missouri-Kansas City
Craig Monson
Paul Tietjens Professor Emeritus of Music
PhD, University of California, Berkeley
Dolores Pesce
Avis Blewett Professor Emerita of Music
PhD, University of Maryland
Robert Snarrenberg
Associate Professor
PhD, University of Michigan
Christopher Stark
Associate Professor
DMA, Cornell University
Alexander Stefaniak
Associate Professor
PhD, Eastman School of Music
Vince Varvel
Lecturer
BM, Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville
Parkorn Wangpaiboonkit
Assistant Professor
PhD, University of California, Berkeley
Visit online course listings to view semester offerings for L27 Music.
L27 Music 100B Brass Lessons: Pre-registration
All students-both new and returning-must enroll if in this course if you are planning to take lessons on a brass instrument this semester. Once registered for this course, new students must sign up for a placement appointment through the department's website (https://music.wustl.edu/lesson-placement-days) to be considered for lessons. After the audition, you will be transferred to the appropriate course and section number once your lessons begin. Enrollment in this pre-registration course and auditioning, does not guarantee a spot in an instructor's studio as there are a limited number of lesson spots. Half-hour lessons are 1 unit and hour-long lessons are 2 units. You may also enroll in 0 credits. Students will be charged the Applied Music Fee according to our Lesson Fee and Rebates Policy (https://music.wustl.edu/rebates-fees-refund-policy), if applicable. All students not placed in a studio will be dropped from this course after the ArtSci Add/Drop deadline.
Credit variable, maximum 2 units.
View Sections
L27 Music 100D Percussion Lessons: Pre-registration
All students-both new and returning-must enroll if in this course if you are planning to take percussion lessons this semester. Once registered for this course, new students must sign up for a placement appointment through the department's website (https://music.wustl.edu/lesson-placement-days) to be considered for lessons. After the audition, you will be transferred to the appropriate course and section number once your lessons begin. Enrollment in this pre-registration course and auditioning, does not guarantee a spot in an instructor's studio as there are a limited number of lesson spots. Half-hour lessons are 1 unit and hour-long lessons are 2 units. You may also enroll in 0 credits. Students will be charged the Applied Music Fee according to our Lesson Fee and Rebates Policy (https://music.wustl.edu/rebates-fees-refund-policy), if applicable. All students not placed in a studio will be dropped from this course after the ArtSci Add/Drop deadline.
Credit variable, maximum 2 units.
View Sections
L27 Music 100P Piano Lessons: Pre-registration
All students-both new and returning-must enroll if in this course if you are planning to take piano lessons this semester. Once registered for this course, new students must sign up for a placement appointment through the department's website (https://music.wustl.edu/lesson-placement-days) to be considered for lessons. After the audition, you will be transferred to the appropriate course and section number once your lessons begin. Enrollment in this pre-registration course and auditioning, does not guarantee a spot in an instructor's studio as there are a limited number of lesson spots. Half-hour lessons are 1 unit and hour-long lessons are 2 units. You may also enroll in 0 credits. Students will be charged the Applied Music Fee according to our Lesson Fee and Rebates Policy (https://music.wustl.edu/rebates-fees-refund-policy), if applicable. All students not placed in a studio will be dropped from this course after the ArtSci Add/Drop deadline.
Credit variable, maximum 2 units.
View Sections
L27 Music 100S Strings Lessons: Pre-registration
All students-both new and returning-must enroll if in this course if you are planning to take lessons on a string instrument this semester. Once registered for this course, new students must sign up for a placement appointment through the department's website (https://music.wustl.edu/lesson-placement-days) to be considered for lessons. After the audition, you will be transferred to the appropriate course and section number once your lessons begin. Enrollment in this pre-registration course and auditioning, does not guarantee a spot in an instructor's studio as there are a limited number of lesson spots. Half-hour lessons are 1 unit and hour-long lessons are 2 units. You may also enroll in 0 credits. Students will be charged the Applied Music Fee according to our Lesson Fee and Rebates Policy (https://music.wustl.edu/rebates-fees-refund-policy), if applicable. All students not placed in a studio will be dropped from this course after the ArtSci Add/Drop deadline.
Credit variable, maximum 2 units.
View Sections
L27 Music 100V Voice Lessons: Pre-registration
All students-both new and returning-must enroll if in this course if you are planning to take voice lessons this semester. Once registered for this course, new students must sign up for a placement appointment through the department's website (https://music.wustl.edu/lesson-placement-days) to be considered for lessons. After the audition, you will be transferred to the appropriate course and section number once your lessons begin. Enrollment in this pre-registration course and auditioning, does not guarantee a spot in an instructor's studio as there are a limited number of lesson spots. Half-hour lessons are 1 unit and hour-long lessons are 2 units. You may also enroll in 0 credits. Students will be charged the Applied Music Fee according to our Lesson Fee and Rebates Policy (https://music.wustl.edu/rebates-fees-refund-policy), if applicable. All students not placed in a studio will be dropped from this course after the ArtSci Add/Drop deadline.
Credit variable, maximum 2 units.
View Sections
L27 Music 100W Woodwinds Lessons: Pre-registration
All students-both new and returning-must enroll if in this course if you are planning to take lessons on a woodwind instrument this semester. Once registered for this course, new students must sign up for a placement appointment through the department's website (https://music.wustl.edu/lesson-placement-days) to be considered for lessons. After the audition, you will be transferred to the appropriate course and section number once your lessons begin. Enrollment in this pre-registration course and auditioning, does not guarantee a spot in an instructor's studio as there are a limited number of lesson spots. Half-hour lessons are 1 unit and hour-long lessons are 2 units. You may also enroll in 0 credits. Students will be charged the Applied Music Fee according to our Lesson Fee and Rebates Policy (https://music.wustl.edu/rebates-fees-refund-policy), if applicable. All students not placed in a studio will be dropped from this course after the ArtSci Add/Drop deadline.
Credit variable, maximum 2 units.
View Sections
L27 Music 101E Introductory Survey of Western Music I
A survey of "art" music in Western culture from the Middle Ages to the mid 18th-century. Emphasis will be on sacred and secular music of the church, court and middle-class society in its historical and cultural context. Regular listening and writing assignments are designed to develop the capacity to hear perceptively and write critically about the music studied. No prior knowledge of musical notation required. This course is not recommended for music minors or majors. For a one-semester course covering Western classical and popular music and music from other cultures, see 114E Exploring Music.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM BU: HUM
View Sections
L27 Music 1021 Musics of the World
This course provides an introduction to the field of ethnomusicology as well as a survey of selected musics from around the world. We will investigate not only musical sound itself but how music interacts with other cultural domains, such as religion/cosmology, politics, economics, and social structure. The course will use case studies from regions around world (such as Indonesia, India, the Middle East, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Latin America) to illustrate the conceptual problems and methodologies raised by the cross-cultural study of music, as well as acquaint you with the rich variety of music around the globe.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM, IS EN: H
View Sections
L27 Music 1022 Popular Music in American Culture
American popular music from 1800s to the present, with emphasis on technology, social and political contexts, and popular music as a realm of interracial encounter. Musics covered include early jazz, classic blues, swing, classic pop, rock and roll, soul, disco, hip hop and the changing relationship between popular music, film, and television.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, SD Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
View Sections
L27 Music 1023 Beethoven in His Time and Ours
Ludwig van Beethoven not only composed some of the most significant works of Western classical music -- he continues to make his mark as the prototypical "troubled genius," symbol for a wide range of political causes, subject of numerous films, and classical music's main representative in American pop culture. We will begin with an exploration of Beethoven's life, music, and historical context and continue by tracing how, after his death, Beethoven became a cultural hero whose image took on a life of its own. Throughout, we will unravel the interaction of music, culture, and mythmaking. No previous musical experience required.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
View Sections
L27 Music 1024 Mozart: Comedy, Science, Politics, Music
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is one of the most recognized composers of classical music and has come to symbolize beauty, "genius," and technical perfection. In this course, we'll peer behind this beauty and discover that Mozart speaks to some of our most complex present-day concerns. Mozart's music reflects the world of the Enlightenment, as well as challenges to its beliefs about reason and human nature. He also created musical comedies that make provocative, strikingly contemporary statements about power, gender, privilege, and sexuality. And, he delighted in musical engineering challenges and thought carefully about how we perceive music. Our focus works will range from symphonies and piano music to musical theatre. We'll also explore Mozart's afterlife: how his music has figured in film and popular culture. This course is open to all - no previous musical experience is required.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
View Sections
L27 Music 1026 First-Year Seminar: You Never Heard Such Sounds in Your Life: American Avant-Garde Music
This first-year seminar introduces students to the fascinating history of avant-garde music making in the United States. A series of case studies will address a number of important avant-garde musicians and schools of thought spanning the early twentieth century to the present. In exploring avant-garde music, students will encounter new ways of thinking about art's place in the world and broaden their notions of music itself. No previous training in music is required. Course is for first-year, non-transfer students only.
Credit 3 units. A&S: FYS A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
View Sections
L27 Music 102E Introductory Survey of Western Music II
A survey of "art" music in Western culture from the middle of the 18th century to the present. Music of composers from Haydn and Mozart to George Crumb and John Cage will be studied in its historical and cultural context. Regular listening and writing assignments are designed to develop the capacity to hear perceptively and write critically about the music studied. No prior knowledge of musical notation required. This course is not recommended for music minors or majors.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM BU: HUM
View Sections
L27 Music 103E Theory I: Introduction to Music Theory
Vocabularies and skills basic to music theory introduced through concentrated work in notation, the development of specific compositional skills, and musical analysis. Concepts of musical structure and aesthetic experience will be explored through the study of music from three periods of the western tradition: medieval liturgical chant, music of the Classical period, and music of the early 20th century. Ability to read musical notation required. Keyboard skills desirable. Music 103E is the entry level course for all music minors and majors.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM BU: HUM
View Sections
L27 Music 104E Music Theory II
A systematic introduction to the basic principles of tonality as manifested in western European music of the 18th and early 19th centuries. Topics include: pitch, time, line and linear elaboration, counterpoint, harmony, phrase, form, and chromaticism. The principles are explored through both musical composition and interpretation of musical artworks. Prerequisite: Music 103E.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM BU: HUM
View Sections
L27 Music 105 History of Jazz
History of jazz to the present, including its African elements.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
View Sections
L27 Music 1091 Jazz Theory I
Jazz Theory I introduces the jazz music language as a preparation for the study of improvisation. The course study consists of basic music theory including music-reading skills and notation, scales, intervals and triads. An introduction to extended tertian chords as derived from the twenty-one modes of the major, melodic and harmonic minor scales forms the basis of the jazz harmonic language. The study of chord progression and chord substitution, song form and the blues prepares the student for a detailed study of the modern jazz language.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
View Sections
L27 Music 1092 Jazz Theory II
Jazz Theory II outlines the harmonic, rhythmic and improvisational practices from the Bebop period of the late 1940's to the jazz music of the present-day. Discussions include intermediate to advanced chord substitution, quartal and bitonal harmony, modal improvisation, pentatonic scales and polyrhythmic drumming, concentrating on the work the major improvisors of the 1950's-1970's. Prerequisite: Music 1091.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
View Sections
L27 Music 109M Mathematics and Music
An elementary introduction to the connections between mathematics and musical sound. Review of integers, ratios, prime numbers, functions, rationality, exponents, logarithms, trigonometry. Review of scales, clefs, key signatures, intervals, time signatures. Frequency and pitch. The connection between intervals and logarithms. Tuning and temperament, just intonation. Scales and modular arithmetic. The mathematics of harmony; the sound of the low prime numbers and their roles in harmony. Harmonics, partials and overtones. Numerical integration and basic Fourier analysis. The nature of complex tones. Analysis of instrument sounds. Human vowels and formants. Prerequisites: 2 years of high school algebra, and trigonometry.
Same as L24 Math 109
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: NSM, AN Arch: NSM Art: NSM
View Sections
L27 Music 114E Exploring Music: Music & Disability: Performing Disability on Stage and Screen
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
View Sections
L27 Music 1150 FYS: Comparative Arts - Intermediality
A variety of topics in comparative literature, designed for first-year students--no special background is required--and to be conducive to the investigation and discussion format of a seminar. Previous topics include: Story Telling Through Sound, Banned Books, Imigrants and Exiles, Literature and Democracy, Literature and the Art of Apology, Hell on Earth: Crime, Conscience, and the Arts, Magical thinknig: Literature and Theory Engage the Occult
Same as L16 Comp Lit 115
Credit 3 units. A&S: FYS A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
View Sections
L27 Music 1165 First-Year Seminar: On Broadway - Musicals, Race, Place
The Broadway theatres are closed, but pressure to make these stages more racially and ethnically diverse when they re-open is strong. This course looks at the history of the Broadway theatres and the ways this coveted theatrical real estate in midtown Manhattan has played host to white and non-white performers in the signature American theatrical genre: the musical. Using digital and archival research tools, including an abundance of maps, our study stretches from the creation of the Theatre District at the turn of the 20th century to the present. We will examine groundbreaking and all-too-typical shows -- from "Show Boat" to "Hamilton" -- and look closely for how systemic racism has played out on Broadway stages for Broadway's mostly white audience. We will produce original research and explore digital humanities methods related to questions of racial inequality in commercial popular culture. This course is for first-year, non-transfer students only.
Credit 3 units. A&S: FYS A&S IQ: HUM, SC BU: BA, HUM EN: H
View Sections
L27 Music 1171 Beethoven and Van Gogh: Myths of Creativity, Genius and Madness
This course draws into dialogue the creative ambitions, artistic production, critical reception and the historical construction of personae and oeuvres of two exceptionally productive and iconic artists who worked in different media: Ludwig von Beethoven (1770-1827) in music and Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) in painting. We will introduce students to methods of musical and art historical analysis, and then build on those skills to examine the historical contexts within which these artists worked, as well as the ways in which their reputations were established. This course will also consider how Beethoven and Van Gogh became exemplars of creativity and genius for later audiences and artists, leading us to explore fundamental and provocative questions in the humanities. Course is for first-year, non-transfer students only.
Same as L01 Art-Arch 1171
Credit 3 units. A&S: FYS A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM EN: H
View Sections
L27 Music 119 Guitar Class I
Intended for students with little to no formal musical training. An introduction to guitar fundamentals through the study of note reading, scales/arpeggios, technique, chord playing, and repertoire from diverse music styles, while integrating basic music theory and listening to historical guitar recordings. Students may self-enroll or be placed by audition. Students will have access to rent an acoustic guitar for the semester or bring their own. Note: If a class does not have 3 students enrolled at the end of the drop/add period, it will be cancelled. Pending studio space, enrolled students may then opt to take private lessons for the remainder of the semester, and the fee will be prorated accordingly.
Credit 1 unit.
View Sections
L27 Music 120 Guitar Class II
A continuation of the topics and techniques introduced in Guitar I: Guitar fundamentals through the study of note reading, scales/arpeggios, technique, chord playing, and repertoire from diverse music styles, while integrating basic music theory and listening to historical guitar recordings. Prerequisite: Guitar I or permission of the instructor. Students will have access to rent an acoustic guitar for the semester or bring their own. Note: If a class does not have 3 students enrolled at the end of the drop/add period, it will be cancelled. Pending studio space, enrolled students may then opt to take private lessons for the remainder of the semester, and the fee will be prorated accordingly.
Credit 1 unit.
View Sections
L27 Music 121C Classical Theory I
This course is the first semester of a yearlong sequence about harmony and voice leading in tonal music. We will cover a number of topics, including scales, intervals, triads, seventh chords, harmonic function, and phrase structure. Ability to read musical notation is desirable. Students who register for Music 121C are required to register for one of the subsections.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
View Sections
L27 Music 121J Jazz Theory I
Introduction to the jazz music language as a preparation for the study of improvisation. The course of study consists of basic music theory including music-reading skills and notation, scales, intervals, and triads. An introduction to extended tertian chords as derived from the twenty-one modes of the major, melodic and harmonic minor scales forms the basis of the jazz harmonic language. The study of chord progression and chord substitution, song form, and the blues prepares the student for a detailed study of the modern jazz language. Students who register for Music 121J are required to register for one of the subsections.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
View Sections
L27 Music 1225 Race, Realism, and Representation from Madama Butterfly to Hamilton
In the Euro-American tradition, operas and musicals have long normalized the portrayal of (usually white) performers as characters of other races. Only in recent decades has the work of activists, performers, and scholars, pushed the cultural conversation to critique these practices as racist, exoticist, and culturally appropriative. On the live stage and on screen, music theater in recent years have paid careful attention to racially sensitive casting as a matter of restorative justice. We intuitively understand today that it is disrespectful for performers to portray themselves as characters of color outside their cultural background, but how has this relatively new idea come to be? How have performers of color engaged with this body of work over the past century? How have imagined narratives about the experiences of marginalized peoples affected the lives of the groups of people being depicted? Who has the cultural authority (or authenticity) to tell stories about others, and how has that authority been constructed and construed across different places and times? This course introduces students to the fraught and complex history of music theater in which performers portray racialized roles outside of their own identities. The syllabus pays particular attention to histories of music-theatrical yellowface as a racialized practice that - unlike brownface and blackface which have become taboo - continues to appear on performing arts stages today. Understanding the historical context in which these works arose and became popular, as well as analyzing the musical and dramatic techniques they utilized, can give us insight into their enduring legacy through to the present day. We will also complicate the easy rejection of this tradition by paying close attention to the history of people of color who, for the past hundred years, participated in, contributed to, and even loved, this body of work.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, SC Arch: HUM Art: HUM, VC EN: H
View Sections
L27 Music 122C Classical Theory II
This course is the second semester of a yearlong sequence about harmony and voice leading in tonal music. We will cover a number of topics, including sequences, tonicization, modulation, chromaticism, and the relationships between phrases and larger musical forms. Students who register for Music 122C are required to register for one of the subsections. PREREQ: Music 121C.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
View Sections
L27 Music 122J Jazz Theory II
A study of the harmonic, rhythmic, and improvisational practices from the Bebop period of the late 1940s to the jazz music of the present day. Discussions include intermediate to advanced chord substitution, quartal and bitonal harmony, modal improvisation, pentatonic scales, and polyrhythmic drumming, concentrating on the major improvisors of the 1950s-1970s. Students who register for Music 121C are required to register for one of the subsections. Prerequisite: Music 121J.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
View Sections
L27 Music 1232 Keyboard Skills I
An introduction to basic techniques of keyboard harmony using intervals, scales, and root position chords. Transposition and sight-reading skills developed. Prerequisite: permission of instructor for nonmajors. One and one-half class hours a week.
Credit 1 unit.
View Sections
L27 Music 1242 Keyboard Skills II
An introduction to basic techniques of keyboard harmony using intervals, scales, and root position chords. Transposition and sight-reading skills developed. Prerequisite: permission of instructor for nonmajors. One and one-half class hours a week.
Credit 1 unit.
View Sections
L27 Music 128 Selected Area for Special Study
In-depth study in areas of special interest.
Credit 3 units. BU: HUM
View Sections
L27 Music 129 Composition Workshop
An introductory course in contemporary music composition, with a 30-minute private lesson and weekly master class.
Credit 2 units.
View Sections
L27 Music 130 Composition Workshop
An introductory course in contemporary music composition, with a 30-minute private lesson and weekly master class.
Credit 2 units.
View Sections
L27 Music 1313 Digital Audio and Multitracking: An Introduction to Electronic Music
An exploration of the foundational techniques of electronic music through hands-on, project-based learning. Our primary goal will be to learn to be creative in the recording studio. To that end, we will build proficiency in audio manipulations, recording and production techniques, sampling, MIDI sequencing, and signal processing. We'll learn to use a variety of technical tools, chief among them the digital audio workstation (DAW), the microphone, and Wash U's unique collection of analog synthesizers. Along the way, we'll train our ears to recognize subtle qualities of recorded sound, and we'll learn to compose with audio as an expressive medium. All genres and musical backgrounds welcome.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
View Sections
L27 Music 159 Piano Class
Intended for students with little to no formal musical training. An introduction to keyboard fundamentals through the study of note reading, intervals, technique, and repertoire. Students may self-enroll or be placed by audition.There is a $150 lab fee for the course. Note: If a class does not have 3 students enrolled at the end of the drop/add period, it will be cancelled. Pending studio space, enrolled students may then opt to take private lessons for the remainder of the semester, and the fee will be prorated accordingly.
Credit 1 unit.
View Sections
L27 Music 160 Piano Class
Continuation of L27 159. Note: If a class does not have three students enrolled at the end of the drop/add period, it will be cancelled. Pending studio space, enrolled students may then opt to take private lessons for the remainder of the semester, and the fee will be prorated accordingly. Prerequisite L27-159 or permission of instructor.
Credit 1 unit.
View Sections
L27 Music 1723 Introduction to Tabla: The Exploration of Indian Rhythm, Oral Tradition, and Improvisation
Tabla - Indian drums - are North India's prominent percussion instrument. Students will learn the foundations of playing tabla. Course goals include learning about the oral tradition associated with tabla, gaining knowledge about the historical and performance practices of the Benares Gharana, understanding Indian rhythmic time cycles, building a foundational approach to improvisation, and delving into the vast musical genre of North Indian classical music. There are no prerequisites for taking the course, and all students are welcome regardless of school or major.
Credit 1 unit.
View Sections
L27 Music 221 Music Theory III
Concentrated study of the principles of tonal counterpoint and their application to the interpretation of Bach keyboard suites. Class work includes both writing and analysis. Prerequisite: Music 104E.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM
View Sections
L27 Music 2213 Singers Performance Workshop: Broadway and Musical Theater
Developing performance skills for young singers in musical theatre that will help students prepare music for rehearsal, performance, and audition. Semester's work includes musical, vocal, and diction coachings, research, and dramatic analysis. The class will culminate in the preparation and performance of both solo and ensemble pieces. Prerequisite: audition and permission of instructor.
Credit 1 unit. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM EN: H
View Sections
L27 Music 221C Classical Theory III
A synthesis of the knowledge gained in Theory I-II as it applies to the detailed analysis of 18th-, 19th-, and selected 20th-century works (Bach through Bartok). Prerequisite: Music 122C or 122J.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
View Sections
L27 Music 222 Music Theory IV
Continuation of Mus 221 with study of 18th- and 19th-century harmonic, textural, and structural procedures (Bach through Brahms). Prerequisite: Mus 221.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM
View Sections
L27 Music 2231 Musicianship I
Basic ear trainng, sight singing, and dictation skills. Three hours a week. Prerequisite: Music 104E.
Credit 1 unit.
View Sections
L27 Music 2232 Keyboard Skills III
Intermediate skills in score reading as well as the introduction of inversions, figured bass, and improvising melodies. Prerequisite: permission of instructor for nonmajors. One and one-half class hours a week.
Credit 1 unit.
View Sections
L27 Music 2241 Musicianship II
Continuation of Music 2231. Intermediate-level ear training, sight singing, and dictation skills. Prerequisite: Music 2231. Two and one-half class hours a week.
Credit 1 unit.
View Sections
L27 Music 2242 Keyboard Skills IV
Intermediate skills in score reading as well as the introduction of inversions, figured bass, and improvising melodies. Prerequisite: permission of instructor for nonmajors. Concurrent registration in Mus 2231 and 2241 required of all music majors. One and one-half class hours a week.
Credit 1 unit.
View Sections
L27 Music 227 Selected Area for Special Study
In-depth study in areas of special interest. Prerequisite: permission of instructor.
Credit 3 units.
View Sections
L27 Music 228 Selected Area for Special Study
In-depth study in areas of special interest. Prerequisite: permission of instructor.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM EN: H
View Sections
L27 Music 230 Composition
An intermediate course in contemporary music composition, with a 30-minute private lesson and weekly master class. Prerequisite: Music 229 or permission of instructor.
Credit 2 units.
View Sections
L27 Music 231C Small Chamber Ensembles
Students interested in performance of chamber music are organized into various ensembles and assigned a coach. A public chamber music concert is given once each semester. May be repeated for credit. Prerequisite: permission of the instructor. Special fee, $135, and special registration procedures. See heading at "Applied Music".
Credit variable, maximum 1 units.
View Sections
L27 Music 232W Wind Ensemble
A group of select woodwind and brass players who form brass and woodwind choirs and smaller ensembles such as quintets and quartets. The weekly rehearsals are coached. The ensembles perform on student recitals and at various campus functions.
Credit variable, maximum 1 units.
View Sections
L27 Music 233 Jazz Band
Study of the literature of big band jazz. Concerts presented each semester. May be repeated for credit. Prerequisite: admission by audition. Two and one-half rehearsal hours a week.
Credit variable, maximum 1 units.
View Sections
L27 Music 234S Symphony Orchestra
Performance and reading of works for orchestra. May be repeated for credit. Prerequisite: admission by audition. Two and one half class hours a week including sectionals.
Credit variable, maximum 1 units.
View Sections
L27 Music 236J Jazz Combo
Students are placed in small combos for regular, weekly coaching. May be repeated for credit. Prerequisite, permission of department.
Credit variable, maximum 1 units.
View Sections
L27 Music 237 Concert Choir
Concert Choir takes an academic and artistic approach to the study and performance of choral literature from a variety of historic and modern sources. May be repeated for credit. Please see the department's website for audition dates.
Credit variable, maximum 1 units.
View Sections
L27 Music 238 Chamber Choir
Study and performance of advanced repertoire for small vocal ensemble from Renaissance to the present. May be repeated for credit. Prereq: audition and consent of instructor.
Credit variable, maximum 1 units.
View Sections
L27 Music 295 Independent Study
Supervised independent study in areas in which there are no current course offerings. Student must submit to the department chair an outline of the work to be covered, the number of credit hours requested for the work, and the name of the instructor who will be asked to supervise the work. Class hours variable, depending on credit.
Credit variable, maximum 3 units.
View Sections
L27 Music 296 Independent Study
Supervised independent study in areas in which there are no current course offerings. Student must submit to the department chair on outline of the work to be covered, the number of credit hours requested for the work, and the name of the instructor who will be asked to supervise the work. Class hours variable, depending on credit.
Credit variable, maximum 3 units.
View Sections
L27 Music 298 Directed Internship
Students receive credit for a faculty-directed and approved internship, usually with a music professional or musical organization. The primary objective of the internship is to obtain professional experience outside the classroom. Students obtain a Learning Agreement from the Career Center and have it signed by the Career Center, the faculty sponsor, and the site supervisor, if appropriate. A final written project is to be agreed upon before work begins and will be evaluated by the faculty sponsor at the end of the internship. Credit should correspond to actual time spent in work activities; e.g., 8-10 hours per week for 13 or 14 weeks to receive 3 units of credit; 1 or 2 credits for fewer hours. Refer to ** section/faculty list at start of this departmental entry for faculty selections in this course.
Credit variable, maximum 3 units.
View Sections
L27 Music 299 Performance Project
Students may contract with a faculty supervisor for credit for work on musical performance projects or research on musical performance. Contracts must be signed by the student, the faculty supervisor, and the department chair before the student's work on the project commences. Refer to ** section/faculty list at start of this departmental entry for faculty selections in this course.
Credit variable, maximum 3 units.
View Sections
L27 Music 3011 Music History I: Music in Europe from the Earliest Notation to 1700
A study of music history and literature from the Middle Ages to 1700. Composers treated include Machaut, Dufay, Josquin, Palestrina, Monteverdi, Vivaldi, Handel, and Bach. Prereq: Music 121 or permission of the instructor.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
View Sections
L27 Music 3012 Music History II: The Invention of Classical Music, 1700-1850
This course is a historical, critical exploration of "classical music." During our focus period-the long eighteenth and nineteenth centuries-musicians and audiences invented what we now know as the culture of classical music, creating some of its canonic musical works and developing its core institutions and belief systems. In this course, we will work inside and beyond the score. We'll engage in intensive listening and analysis, from songs to symphonies. We'll also consider broader cultural issues, particularly: How did the culture of classical music reflect the social ambitions of privileged musicians and listeners? What and who got marginalized within this culture, and how can we discover more inclusive, diverse histories of classical music? Prereq Music 3011 or Music 104E.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD, WI Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
View Sections
L27 Music 3014 Ethnomusicology
This course provides an introduction to the field of ethnomusicology, defined broadly as "the study of music in-or as-culture" or "the study of people making music." We will explore the varied ethnographic, anthropological, historical, and music-analytical approaches that ethnomusicologists have employed to explain the vital role of music-making in diverse human societies. We will seek to understand the social significance of a variety of musical practices, drawing on ethnomusicological scholarship to address music's performance, circulation, and reception. Case studies from around the world will demonstrate the multiple ways that sound shapes-and is shaped by-issues of cultural practice and representation, ideologies of authenticity, intersectional identities, cultural memory, ideas and structures of tradition, colonialism and post-colonialism, transnationalism and globalization. Our case studies will introduce students to a number of important musical genres and traditions, including (in the order in which they appear in the class): Mbira (Zimbabwe), Andean Kena music (Peru), Jazz (U.S.), Samba (Brazil), Gamelan (Java), Funk (U.S.), Egyptian musics, Ottoman-Turkish classical music, Karnatic Music (South India), Gisaeng music (Korea), Ngoma (South Africa), Agbekor (Ghana), Hip Hop (U.S.), and Noise (Japan).
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD, SC, SD Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: BA EN: H
View Sections
L27 Music 3015 American Popular Music and Media
This course considers the history of American popular music as delivered by successive mass media platforms in the industrial and post-industrial eras: from mass-produced sheet music in the mid nineteenth century to digital music and video on the internet. Historical contextualization and in depth analysis of musical scores and various kinds of audio recordings and audiovisual texts will be at the center of the course. Topics to be considered include: the history of sound recording technologies and formats; the role of electronic mass media structures (radio, film, television, the internet); urbanization, national commercial music centers (New York, Hollywood, Nashville), and the importance of regional sounds in a national context; the formation and transformation of select genres (rock, country, various black musics); legal frameworks relating to music as a commodity (copyright, sampling); the impact of visual media on music dissemination, performance, and meanings; and how recorded media of all kinds have transformed the act of listening. Issues of race, gender, sexuality, personal, and national identity will be considered across the course.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
View Sections
L27 Music 3016 Topics in Music History and Culture: Race and Performers of Musical Theatre, 1700 to Now
This course looks at how race has shaped the careers of performers of musical theatre in Europe and the US from the eighteenth-century to today. European and American opera and Broadway musicals will be considered side by side, as will the performance of white, Black, Asian, and Latino identities. Of particular interest are the changing (and stubbornly unchanging) standards and stereotypes that shape individual performing careers in different times and places.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM EN: H
View Sections
L27 Music 3017 Music History III: Classical Music in Flux, 1850 to the Present
A study of music history and literature from 1850 to the present. Composers treated include Mahler, Debussy, Stravinsky, Schoenberg, Bartok, Copland, Shostakovich, Cage, Reich, and Gubaidulina. Prerequisites: L27 3012 or L27 122C.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
View Sections
L27 Music 3018 The Invention of Classical Music
This course explores the historical roots of what we often call "Western classical music": not just the repertoire, but its culture and ideologies. Our chronological scope will extend from the beginning of the eighteenth century through the nineteenth, a time when musicians, intellectuals, entrepreneurs, and audiences developed classical music as we know it.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD, WI EN: H
View Sections
L27 Music 3020 Music of the Caribbean
Wanna get away? This and other tourism slogans depend on a popular conception of regions such as the Caribbean as distant and desirable, simple places out of sync with the modern world. This course critiques constructions of the Caribbean through engaging ethnomusicological literature representing the diversity of the region. It is a topical appraisal of Caribbean music, emphasizing history and memory, tourism, and cultural influence. The chosen readings are not meant to represent the entire region; rather, they are intended to prompt ideas and questions about regional discourses.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
View Sections
L27 Music 3021 Music of the African Diaspora
This course explores musical cross-fertilization between the African continent and South America, the Caribbean, and Europe. Beginning with traditional musics from selected regions of the African continent, the course examines the cultural and musical implications of transnational musical flows on peoples of the African diaspora and their multicultural audiences.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: IS EN: H
View Sections
L27 Music 3022 Native American Musical Traditions of the Western U.S.
Exploration of music and its historical and contemporary contexts among Native American cultures of the southwest and the northern plains, chiefly Navajo and Lakota, but with some considerations of Pueblo, Shoshone, and other nations. Examinations of inter-tribal pow-wow movements, crossover musics, European appropriation and refashioning of Native American culture in Hollywood and elsewhere.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD Art: HUM BU: HUM
View Sections
L27 Music 3023 Jazz in American Culture
This course will address the role of jazz within the context of twentieth-century African American and American cultural history, with particular emphasis on the ways in which jazz has shaped, and has been shaped by, ideas about race, gender, economics, and politics. We will make use of recordings and primary sources from the 1910s to the present in order to address the relationship between jazz performances and critical and historical thinking about jazz. This course in not a survey, and students should already be familiar with basic jazz history.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, SC, SD Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
View Sections
L27 Music 3028 Music of the 1960's
The music of the 1960s played a significant and widely noted role in an era of global political and social upheaval. This course surveys a broad range of music produced during the decade, spanning the world but with emphasis on Anglo-American popular music. While a music course traditionally deals with a single genre such as "world music," classical, or jazz, this course will analyze several genres together to show how each influenced the others and how all were informed by broader social and cultural concerns. The course thus will both familiarize students with diverse musical traditions and introduce them to a new way of thinking about music and culture. Topics to be discussed include the transnational music industry; the contested concept of "folk" and "traditional" music; music and political protest; music and migration; and music's relation to ethnic and class identity.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
View Sections
L27 Music 3029 Game of Thrones, Game of Tones: Medieval Music in the Age of HBO
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD BU: HUM EN: H
View Sections
L27 Music 3030 Love Songs and Laptops: Rediscovering Medieval Music in the Digital Age
Using our laptops as portals into the past, students will gain first-hand experience as historical detectives. In this course, we will explore the world of medieval love-from the chivalrous and courtly to the bodily and obscene-as represented in books of songs from the fifteenth century. Scrumptiously decorated and preserved, five interrelated songbooks from central France, known as the "Loire Valley Chansonniers" contain the majority of love songs from this period. Working from digitized versions of the songbooks, online editions, and modern audio recordings, we will address the following questions: what do the songbooks tell us about the culture in which they were created? How do the graphic decorations that frame each song interact with its music and lyrics? Lastly, by contextualizing these digital sources with respect to the growing interest in the interface between the humanities and digital technology, we will discuss what we can gain from these developments and what-if anything-we stand to lose. (Ability to read music not required.)
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
View Sections
L27 Music 3032 The Science of Singing
Introductory look at the physiology and acoustics of singing. Topics we will study include how the voice works in general and the different ways individual singers use their voices; how understanding this science can improve one's singing; how to maintain vocal health; how the voice changes across the lifespan; and psychological aspects of performing. The ability to read music is not required for this course.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: NSM Arch: NSM Art: NSM BU: SCI
View Sections
L27 Music 3033 Music, Sound, and the Body
How do musicians use their bodies when creating music? How do audiences, listeners, and dancers feel music in their bodies and contribute to making sound? This course explores embodied perspectives on making, sensing, and moving to music and sound. Examining theories of the body and the senses as they relate to sound practices, the course draws on scholarship from ethnomusicology, anthropology, sound, dance and performance studies, music cognition and other fields. Case studies include EDM, reggae, and salsa dance; Afro-Brazilian and Buddhist religious practices; and music healing and therapy. Because centering the body means considering lived experience along intersecting axes of difference, course readings and discussions will focus on issues of race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and (dis)ability. Students will develop their own ethnographic project, and they will be asked to participate in music-movement workshops throughout the course. However, neither previous dance experience nor normative bodily ability are required.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD, SC Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
View Sections
L27 Music 3034 Roots of Lofi Hip Hop: Amateur Music Making, Recording Technology, and Globalization
Lofi hip hop is a style of music made by amateur beatmakers that mixes Japanese and African American aesthetics. It relies on anime visuals, scratchy jazz samples, and repetitive drum loops. It serves primarily as background music. This course is about the sounds and popularity of lofi hip hop in the twenty-first century. But to understand this genre, students will also focus on the genre's roots. We learn about French composers' early attempts to create background music at the turn of the twentieth century. We learn about American teenagers who took over their suburban garages to create an energetic style of rock and roll during the 1960s. We learn about how anthropologists during the 1930s thought that low fidelity recordings of blues and country musicians was evidence of their musical authenticity. And we will learn about how jazz harmonies and samples influenced the music of groups like A Tribe Called Quest and De La Soul. Lofi gives us a jumping off point for exploring a wide range of genres and histories. The final assignment will be a collaborative effort. As a class, students will make and publish a podcast about lofi hip hop and its antecedents. This podcast will feature original lofi hip hop made by the class. The original music will also serve as background music to a study-session event organized by the class towards the end of the semester.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM EN: H
View Sections
L27 Music 3035 Music and Queer Performance
This course examines how music serves as a delightful site for performing, negotiating, and living queerness. Some questions we will ask include: How does queer musical performance inhabit the full gamut between conformity and subversion, irony and sincerity, or camp and authenticity? How do performers use or resist tropes of belonging, passing, and coming out to constitute queer performance? How do singers manipulate the sound of their voice, the gendered associations carried by that sound, and the assumptions about the body which produces it? Are queer musical acts a mode of performance or a way of being, and who decides? We will analyze a range of examples from the past and from contemporary popular culture: soft masculinities, cowboy and country personas, cross-dressing in music theater, lip-syncing drag queens and kings, high-femme divas, and performers of androgynous, cyborg, and post-human aesthetics. The parameters for what counts as queer performance are capacious, and students will have plenty of opportunities to contribute their own examples and case studies to the course.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, SC Arch: HUM Art: HUM EN: H
View Sections
L27 Music 305 Selected Area for Special Study
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
View Sections
L27 Music 3050 Music and Masculinity in the Movies of Martin Scorsese
This course considers the work of American filmmaker Martin Scorsese, with close attention to (1) how Scorsese uses music (and sound) to construct intense cinematic worlds and (2) how his film characters and plots represent various sorts of white American men. The consistent collision between Scorsese's interest in music as a driver of film style and content and his penchant for male-centered, frequently violent narratives makes him an ideal central figure for our study of white American masculinities at the movies over the last five decades. Films to be studied include "Mean Streets," "Taxi Driver," "Raging Bull," "Goodfellas," "Cape Fear," "The Departed," "Shutter Island," and "The Wolf of Wall Street." Required screenings.
Same as L53 Film 305
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, SC Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
View Sections
L27 Music 3091 Jazz Improvisation I
An introduction to improvising music in the jazz tradition, including diatonic and chromatic harmony, extended chords, modes, and jazz scales. Exercises in basic aspects of the blues and in the styles of be-bop and modern jazz. PREREQ: Music 121J or permission of instructor.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
View Sections
L27 Music 3132 Romantic Revolutions in European Music and Culture
The early nineteenth century in Europe witnessed sweeping changes in social, political, and cultural life, but some of the most fascinating happened in music. This course considers intersections between Romantic thinking about music--which inspired an idealistic vision of the art form as a source of quasi-spiritual experience-- and other contemporary "revolutions." To what extent was Romantic music a "holy art" that offered a refuge from the world? In what ways was it a worldly participant in larger currents in society and culture? By exploring these questions and more, students will develop the skills and framework needed to incorporate works of music into their investigation of enduring issues in history and the humanities. Although this course will require listening and viewing of musical works, it is designed for students with intellectual curiosity but without prior musical background. We will also require weekly readings, occasional presentations, three short papers, and spirited class discussion.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
View Sections
L27 Music 313E Introduction to Comparative Arts
Intro to Comparative Arts is an interdisciplinary, multimedia course that explores the relationship among the arts in a given period. In their written work, students will venture beyond the course material, alternately assuming the roles of artist, critic, and consumer. Students will attend (virtual and/or in-person) performances and exhibits. Ability to read music is not required.
Same as L16 Comp Lit 313E
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
View Sections
L27 Music 317 Selected Area for Special Study
In depth study in areas of special interest.
Credit 3 units.
View Sections
L27 Music 320 The American Musical Film
Film musicals were crucial to the success of the American film industry from the dawn of sound film in the late 1920s to the demise of the studio system in the late 1950s. This course examines the American film musical from a variety of aesthetic, critical, and historical perspectives, with particular attention to how the genre interacted with popular music and dance and the major political and social trends of the Thirties, Forties, and Fifties. REQUIRED SCREENING: [day, time].
Same as L53 Film 359
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
View Sections
L27 Music 321T Music Theory IV: Topics in Music Theory
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
View Sections
L27 Music 3221 Music Cognition
An introduction to modern research on music perception and cognition. The course covers four main topics: the perception of key, the psychoacoustics of dissonance, the relationship between attention and musical meter, and the process by which melodies establish, fulfill, and deny expectations. Students read and discuss research from both cognitive science and music theory, in addition to completing several projects.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: NSM Arch: NSM Art: NSM BU: HUM
View Sections
L27 Music 3223 Computational Models of Music Theory and Cognition
We will study computational models that simulate the perception of several aspects of music: phase structure, meter, melody, key, harmony, counterpoint, and texture. In addition to reading about and discussing these models, students will work with them directly by running them on their own. We will also spend some class time on perceptual experiments related to the models we study. Although the course will focus on models of perception, emphasis will be placed on ones that are also pertinent to music theory, and these connections will be discussed.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
View Sections
L27 Music 3231 Advanced Musicianship
Individualized instruction in advanced ear training, sight singing, and dictation skills. Prerequisite: Music 2241
Credit 3 units. BU: HUM
View Sections
L27 Music 3232 Keyboard Skills V
Advanced skills in score reading, figured bass, and improvisation, as well as drills, including seventh chords and modulation. Prerequisites: Mus 2242. One and one-half class hours a week.
Credit 1 unit.
View Sections
L27 Music 3235 Compositional Craft in Film Scores and Musical Theatre
This course examines compositional techniques and aesthetics in two forms of popular music: film/television scores and musical theatre. Popular songs and other musical works associated with film, television, and musicals are analyzed from multiple perspectives, giving students insight into the sonic, visual, and dramatic techniques employed by major composers. Students engage with the material in rigorous yet practical ways, from analytical projects to deep-listening exercises. This approach emphasizes sonic experience and situated musicianship as the primary means of accessing complex concepts from music theory.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
View Sections
L27 Music 3236 Music Arranging for the Multi-Genre Artist
This course examines the practice of music arranging for numerous applications including ensembles in jazz, rock, pop, a cappella, classical music, new music, and new media. Students analyze musical scores for small and large groups and compose arrangements in a variety of genres. Also learned are instrumentation, vocal ranges, basic orchestration, idiomatic instrumental techniques, chord voicings, and textures, all in the contexts of specific styles and genres. Overall, the course provides an introduction to industry-standard techniques of music arranging.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
View Sections
L27 Music 3237 The Art of Popular Song: From Folk and Musical Theatre to Rock and Contemporary A Capella
This course explores the art of songwriting through the lens of American popular music. Students examine landmark songs from multiple eras and create their own original songs in a variety of styles from the precursors of American music to folk, rock, pop, rhythm and blues, Broadway, and a cappella. The course materials include applied popular music theory while examining the musical languages of each genre. Through composing and arranging, listening and analysis, students gain insight into the sonic structure and cultural significance of popular music. The course also responds to students' individual interests and performance backgrounds, offering opportunities to write music for vocal ensembles, singer-songwriter formats, bands and electronic media. Traditional composition and contemporary production practices are examined in detail as students learn to critically listen and find their personal musical styles.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
View Sections
L27 Music 3238 Towards a New Music
Towards a New Music addresses the numerous possibilities for emerging music, including future musics in a reimagined world of the nature of music itself. In our study, music is situated as part of a web of metapatterns that explain the structure and nature of musical materials, the actions in composition and improvisation, and musical phenomena. Students are placed on a listener's journey of discovery to find the nature of music through philosophy, cognitive science, mathematics, biology, architecture and the structure of sound itself. Music theory topics both simple and advanced are discussed in ways appropriate for the novice as well as the advanced student. The course functions as a music theory and music literature study through the lens of the humanities. The course embraces both culture and nature, seeking out the grand-scale patterns that help explain the qualities of our musical endeavor. The course begins with the archetypal patterns of space, both structural/formal and relational, and then turns to the concepts that infuse the workings of time: a virtual sonic reality of space and time and the mind of music, revealed in thought-provoking and new contexts.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
View Sections
L27 Music 325 Instrumentation and Orchestration
A study of the principles of instrumentation and orchestration. In-class assignments will aid in the understanding of the capabilities and limitations of the orchestral instruments. Analysis of orchestral scores will provide insight into efficient and creative use of the orchestra. Prerequisite: Music 121C or permission of the instructor.
Credit 3 units.
View Sections
L27 Music 326 Orchestration
A practicum in writing for orchestra and groups of orchestral instruments. Prerequisite: Mus 325.
Credit 3 units.
View Sections
L27 Music 3271 Analysis and Performance
This course develops music-analysis skills useful to performers, focusing on topics such as form, phrase structure, texture, orchestration, style identification as a stage, and ear training. Students will analyze pieces they are working on in lessons and ensembles and periodically perform these pieces in class. Prerequisite: Music 122C or 122J, as well as concurrent enrollment in lessons or an ensemble.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM EN: H
View Sections
L27 Music 328 History of the Film Score
This course looks at the role of music in Hollywood films from the beginning of the sound era to the present. Larger themes include the importance of technology, industry structures shaping the nature of scores, notable film music composers, the relationship between music, gender and genre, music's role in the adaptation of literary texts to film, the power of directors to shape the content of film scores, and the importance of popular music as a driving economic and aesthetic force in film music history. Films to be screened include From Here to Eternity, Stagecoach, High Noon, The Night of the Hunter, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Born on the Fourth of July, Casino, Jarhead and The Social Network. Required Screenings
Same as L53 Film 360
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
View Sections
L27 Music 329 Advanced Composition Workshop I
A more advanced course in contemporary music composition, with a 50-minute private lesson and weekly master class. Prerequisite: Music 230 or permission of instructor.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM
View Sections
L27 Music 330 Advanced Composition Workshop
A more advanced course in contemporary music composition, with a 50-minute private lesson and weekly master class.
Credit variable, maximum 3 units.
View Sections
L27 Music 3313 Interactivity and DSP: Laptop Music
This course is a project-based exploration of interactive "laptop music" using the Max/MSP programming environment. (Laptop not required; we have class desktops that will work too.) It will cover the composition of interactive computer music as well as the theory and application of MIDI, synthesis, and digital signal processing. We will learn through weekly programming exercises, readings and tutorials, and engagement with scores, recordings, and software. For Midterm and Final Projects, students will design digital instruments and compose interactive pieces for the class to play as an ad hoc "laptop ensemble." Both pieces will be planned in advance and workshopped in class throughout the semester. By permission of instructor.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
View Sections
L27 Music 334 Symphony Orchestra
This is a course for a select ensemble of about 75 players that performs a repertoire from the baroque to the modern periods in four public concerts a year. Collegiate member, American Symphony Orchestra League. May be repeated for credit. Prerequisite: Admission by audition. Four rehearsal hours a week.
Credit 1 unit.
View Sections
L27 Music 339 Introduction to Conducting I
Fundamentals of conducting, including the study of transposing instruments and practice in score reading. Prerequisite: permission of instructor.
Credit 2 units.
View Sections
L27 Music 340 Introduction to Conducting II
Fundamentals of conducting, including the study of transposing instruments and practice in score reading. Prerequisite: permission of instructor.
Credit 2 units.
View Sections
L27 Music 3586 Combat Movie Music and Sound After Vietnam
This course considers the Hollywood combat movie genre after the Vietnam War (post 1975) by listening closely to how these always noisy films use music and sound effects to tell stories of American manhood and militarism. Centering on an elite group of prestige films--actions movies with a message for adult audiences--the course examines thirty-five years of Hollywood representations of World War II, the Vietnam War, the Gulf War, and post-9/11 wars against terrorism. Close analysis of how combat film directors and composers have used music and sound in conjunction with the cinematic image will be set within a larger context of ancillary texts (source materials, soundtrack recordings, published and unpublished scripts), media folios ( press kits, reviews, editorials, newspaper and magazine stories and interviews), and scholarly writing from across the disciplines. Films to be screened include Apocalypse Now, Platoon, Hamburger Hill, Courage Under Fire, Saving Private Ryan, The Thin Red Line, We Were Soldiers, Flags of our Fathers, The Hurt Locker, and Act of Valor, as well as pre-1975 combat films starring John Wayne. The ability to read music is not required. Required Screenings. Prequisites: None
Same as L53 Film 358
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
View Sections
L27 Music 3951 Independent Study
Supervised independent study in areas in which there are no current course offerings. Student must submit to the department chair an outline of the work to be covered, the number of credit hours requested for the work, and the name of the instructor who will be asked to supervise the work. Class hours variable, depending on credit. Refer to ** section/faculty list at start of this departmental entry for faculty selection.
Credit variable, maximum 3 units.
View Sections
L27 Music 3961 Independent Study
Supervised independent study in areas in which there are no current course offerings. Student must submit to the department chair an outline of the work to be covered, the number of credit hours requested for the work, and the name of the instructor who will be asked to supervise the work. Class hours variable, depending on credit. Refer to ** section/faculty list at start of this departmental entry for faculty selection.
Credit variable, maximum 3 units.
View Sections
L27 Music 401 Elementary Technique of Electronic Music: Synth Lab
Individual and small group instruction in "classical" procedures and relevant electronic technology. Prerequisite: open to music majors; to others by permission of instructor. Credit contingent upon completion of Mus 402.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM EN: H
View Sections
L27 Music 402 Advanced Techniques in Electronic Music: Studio Songwriting
How does the act of recording and manipulating sound change the way we write songs? How can the tones and moods of a recording interact with notes and rhythms and words? We'll look for answers through experiments in composition, collaboration, and critical listening. Topics will include beatmaking, sound collage, vocal manipulations, sampling, and virtual spaces. Formal training is not required, though we will engage (and learn) basic music theory concepts. PREREQ: permission of instructor.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM EN: H
View Sections
L27 Music 4052 Music, Sound, and the Body
This course examines theories of the body, embodiment, and the senses as they relate to music and sound practices. Readings draw on scholarship from ethnomusicology, anthropology and geography of the senses, sound studies, dance studies, performance studies, and music cognition. If ethnomusicology is "the study of people making music," this course explores how people make and experience music and sound with their bodies, through the full range of their senses. We will consider questions surrounding the ways in which musicians, audiences, listeners, and dancers perceive and experience music in their bodies and contribute to the making of sound. By centering the body, we will necessarily consider lived experience along intersecting axes of difference such as race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and (dis)ability. Course readings and discussions will therefore focus on the social and political affordances and limitations of body-based practices and their theorization. Case studies will include a broad range of sound-movement practices, from electronic dance music and black social dance to Sufi and Buddhist religious practices, queer taiko drumming, and deaf music-making. Over the course of the semester, students will develop their own project exploring course themes, and they will be asked to participate in music-movement workshops throughout the course. This is an upper-level/graduate-level course, so some knowledge of music and/or dance concepts is assumed, but neither previous music/dance experience nor normative bodily ability are required.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD, SC BU: HUM EN: H
View Sections
L27 Music 411 Music of Medieval Period
An intensive survey of Western monophonic and polyphonic music from the beginnings of Christian chant to circa 1450. Prerequisites: Mus 3011 or permission of instructor.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM EN: H
View Sections
L27 Music 413 Music in the Baroque Era
An intensive survey of the primary musical forms and styles in seventeenth-century Italy, France, Germany, and England. Preqequisite: Music 3012 or permission of instructor.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM EN: H
View Sections
L27 Music 4131 Music in the Eighteenth Century
Musical activity in Europe during the eighteenth century is the subject of this course, which brings the high baroque, galant, and classical eras into a single narrative. Patronage, publishing, star performers,and highly specific musical publics were central to the music-making across the century. How these forces shaped the professional and creative lives of major eighteenth-century composers is a principal theme of the course. A broad range of eighteenth-century instrumental and vocal music will be surveyed, including works by Corelli, F. Couperin, Vivaldi, Rameau, Telemann, Handel, Hasse, Haydn, Mozart, D. Scarlatti, and several members of the Bach family. Extensive listening assignments and score analysis will be supplemented by readings drawn from recent scholarship and examination of eighteenth-century music publishing and other period sources in facsimile.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM EN: H
View Sections
L27 Music 4140 Topics in Embodied Communication
This course is about listening. We will begin by mediated and unmediated listening with the human auditory system and continue into an exploration of multi-modal listening, focusing on vibration and on somatic attention. We will work in the "studio," which will include a music studio, a dance studio, and the environment. Our investigation will include the study of sensing in more-than-human organisms as well as theoretical perspectives from sound studies, critical improvisation and history of science. The course will encourage the perspective that the practice of listening is a political act of tending to the invisible, the non-normative, and the incomplete.
Same as L15 Drama 4140
Credit variable, maximum 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM EN: H
View Sections
L27 Music 415 Music in the Romantic Era: Aesthetics and Ideologies
This course explores pivotal developments in 19th-century thinking about music's cultural and aesthetic significance -- developments that reverberate well beyond that historical period. Rather than surveying repertoire, we will emphasize in-depth exploration of selected issues and music, reading important contemporary writings and grappling with challenging musical works. Our topics will include discourses about musical interiority, the post-Beethovenian symphony, the Lied tradition, performance aesthetics and the creative agency of the performer, intersections of music and literature, and canon formation and its consequences. Our topics will include, to cite but a few examples, discourses about musical interiority, the post-Beethovenian symphony, the Lied tradition, performance aesthetics and the creative agency of the performer, intersections of music and literature, and canon formation and its consequences.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM EN: H
View Sections
L27 Music 416 Contemporary Music
Survey of musical styles from the end of the 19th century to the Postmodernism of the 1980's. Developments in music considered in context of intellectual history of the century with specific attention to parallels with literature and visual arts. Readings from a variety of sources and extensive listening assignments. Prerequisite: 3013 or permission of instructor.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM
View Sections
L27 Music 4221 Introduction to the Analysis of 20th Century Music
An introduction to theory and analysis of music from the 20th-century repertoire. In-class analysis and individual assignments emphasize aural understanding and tools for modeling pitch structures in post-tonal and twelve-tone works. In the latter portion of the course focus turns toward works in which pitch structures play a smaller role. Prerequisite: Music 222 (for undergraduates) or Music 423 (for graduates).
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM
View Sections
L27 Music 423 Analysis I
A study of structural principles underlying music of all periods: motivic usage, melodic shape, varieties of texture and structure with an emphasis on fugue, variation forms and proportional forms such as rondo and sonata-allegro. Prerequisite: graduate standing or permission of instructor.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM EN: H
View Sections
L27 Music 4232 Graduate Keyboard Skills
Graduate Keyboard Skills prepares students to take the Keyboard Skills exam.
View Sections
L27 Music 424 Analysis II
Continuation of Mus 423, concentrating on approaches to larger and more complex works of classically tonal music, including 18th-century symphonies and string quartets, late works by Beethoven, chamber music and symphonies of Brahms and symphonies of Mahler. Prerequisite: Mus 423 or permission of instructor.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM EN: H
View Sections
L27 Music 425 Counterpoint I
Concentrated independent study in 16th-century contrapuntal composition. Prerequisite: Mus 222.
Credit 3 units.
View Sections
L27 Music 426 Counterpoint II
Concentrated independent study in 18th-century contrapuntal composition. Prerequisite: Mus 222.
Credit 3 units.
View Sections
L27 Music 427 Selected Areas for Special Study
In-depth study in areas of special interest. Prerequisite: senior standing, graduate standing, or permission of instructor.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM EN: H
View Sections
L27 Music 428 The Solo Song of Brahms
In-depth study in areas of special interest. Prerequisite: senior standing, graduate standing, or permission of instructor.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM EN: H
View Sections
L27 Music 4282 The "Crossover" Tradition in Anglo-American Music Theater
The musical stage in the United States and Britain has remained a vital artistic and commercial arena over the last hundred years despite the emergence of mass media formats like film and television. Audiences continue to clamor for stage stories where actors sing or singers act and composers, writers, producers and directors have created a stunning variety of musical theater styles to meet the demand. This course surveys important English-language operas, operettas and singer-centered musicals from the turn of the twentieth century to the start of the twenty-first with an emphasis on "crossover" works that blur the lines between opera and the commercial musical stage. All the works included in the course continue to be performed today, forming a core repertory of music theater works in English that emphasize singers and singing. The overlapping, ever changing spheres of the opera house and Broadway and West End theaters provide the geography of the course, which is peopled by performers, creators, and audiences. In class analysis of fourteen works will focus on how the singing voice has been used as an expressive vehicle and how theater singers have adapted to an age of amplification and recording. Works to be studied include Carousel, Sweeney Todd, The Phantom of the Opera, Show Boat, Candide, Street Scene, The Pirates of Penzance, The Light in the Piazza, My Fair Lady, Albert Herring, Porgy and Bess, The Most Happy Fella, Margaret Garner and The Student Prince. In class singing will be encouraged as a means to get inside the musical and dramatic values of these works. Prereq: ability to read music; graduate or upper-division standing.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM EN: H
View Sections
L27 Music 429 Composition
Concentrated independent work in composition and a weekly master class for experienced composers. Prerequisite: Music 330 or permission of instructor.
Credit variable, maximum 3 units.
View Sections
L27 Music 430 Composition
Concentrated independent work in composition and a weekly master class for experienced composers. Prerequisite: Music 429 or permission of instructor.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM EN: H
View Sections
L27 Music 4311 Black Experimental Music
Founded on the South Side of Chicago in 1965, the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) united dozens of African American artists who were interested in experimental approaches to composition and improvisation. Their creative work, often described as black experimental music, would transform black-identified musical styles like jazz as well as white-identified styles of experimental concert music from which African Americans were often excluded-until the AACM intervened. In this course, we will investigate the Association's history by reading and discussing a wide range of texts about the organization, including books and articles written by AACM members themselves. We will also examine a number of important recordings and musical scores created by AACM artists, including Muhal Richard Abrams, Fred Anderson, Anthony Braxton, Joseph Jarman, George Lewis, Nicole Mitchell, Roscoe Mitchell, and Wadada Leo Smith.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, SC Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
View Sections
L27 Music 439 Diction I
Principles of Italian, French, and German pronunciation covered in an interrelated approach; application of these principles to songs. Prerequisite: permission of instructor.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM
View Sections
L27 Music 4530 Presence in Performance: Alexander Technique and Mindful Movement for Performing Artists
This course provides group and individual instruction in principles and methods from Alexander Technique and other somatic arts for training mindful, embodied presence in performance. Mindful movement techniques are widely used by professional dancers, actors, and musicians to enhance performance skill and to address/prevent injury and chronic pain. Through a workshop process of guided learning, students gain awareness of subtle inefficiencies in coordination and balance that cause pain and limit ability. Students gain ability to self-assess and adjust problematic movement patterns to improve freedom and expression. Alexander Technique works at fundamental levels of movement coordination, and its methods are applicable to all performing art genres. Training is tailored to each individual student's needs, skills and goals. This course involves experiential learning supported with related readings, discussion, personal research projects and presentations. Prerequisites: Graduate standing; also open to undergraduate students studying at the 400 level in their discipline with permission of instructor.
Same as L29 Dance 453
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM EN: H
View Sections
L27 Music 4539 Advanced Conducting I
Advanced training in conducting skills, including opportunities to conduct ensembles on campus. Prerequisite: graduate standing or permission of instructor.
Credit 2 units. A&S IQ: HUM
View Sections
L27 Music 4540 Advanced Conducting II
Advanced training in conducting skills, including opportunities to conduct ensembles on campus. Prerequisite: graduate standing or permission of instructor.
Credit 3 units.
View Sections
L27 Music 4550 Senior Colloquium: From Page to Stage: Opera as Omniverse
Team taught course designed for IPH Senior interests and thesis topics.
Same as L93 IPH 455
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM EN: H
View Sections
L27 Music 4571 From Vitaphone to YouTube: Popular Music and the Moving Image
This course considers American popular music as represented in audiovisual media from 1926 to the present. The relationship between the popular music industry (a commercial sphere oriented primarily towards the selling of sheet music and audio recordings) and audiovisual technologies (various screens and formats encountered in changing social and commercial contexts) will be explored along two complementary tracks: popular music performers as presented in performance-centered media and popular music as a narrative topic or resource in feature films. Three related analytical frames will shape our discussions: industrial and technological history (the material conditions for the making and distribution of popular music and moving images) the question of "liveness" in recorded audiovisual media aesthetics of various popular music styles as translated into audiovisual forms and contexts The course is in seminar format. The ability to read music is not required but students with music reading or transcription skills will be encouraged to draw upon these tools. Pre-requisites: graduate status or completion of a 300-level FMS or Music course and permission of the instructor
Same as L53 Film 457
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
View Sections
L27 Music 4621 Ancient Greek and Roman Music
Music played a vital role in Ancient Greece and Rome. New resources and perspectives now allow us to appreciate the ancients' music better than ever before. This course addresses the nature of ancient music (instruments, melody and rhythm, modes), ancient attitudes towards music, and its contribution to public and private life. The focus throughout will be on our ancient sources, both literary and archaeological.
Same as L08 Classics 462
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD Arch: HUM Art: HUM EN: H
View Sections
L27 Music 4991 Senior Project: Musicology or Analysis
Supervised research in music history or analysis culminating in a major paper. Required of Bachelor of Music students whose program focuses on music history or analysis. Prerequisite: senior standing.
Credit 3 units.
View Sections
L27 Music 4992 Senior Capstone: Performance, Composition, or Theory
Supervised work in performance, composition or theory culminating in some combination of a paper, composition, and/or performance. Required of Bachelor of Music students whose program focuses on performance, composition or theory. Prerequisite: senior standing.
Credit 3 units.
View Sections
L27 Music 4993 Senior Honors Capstone: Musicology or Analysis
Prerequisite: senior standing, a grade point average of 3.0 or higher and permission of the faculty supervisor, director of undergraduate studies, and the chair of the department.
Credit 3 units. EN: H
View Sections
L27 Music 4994 Honors Project: Performance, Composition, or Theory
Prerequisite: senior standing, a grade point average of 3.0 or higher and permission of the faculty supervisor, the director of undergraduate studies, and the chair of the department.
Credit 3 units. EN: H
View Sections