SPRING '08 COURSE LISTINGS
Complete Course Listings * (Office of
the Registrar)
1. American Music
A survey of some of the major influences, societal shifts, great works,
important styles, and prominent musicians in American music. Lectures,
listening assignments, and live performances focus on the amalgam of social and
artistic influences that have shaped music in the United States and on the
diverse musical languages that constitute it. At the discretion of the
instructor, the class will cover some or all of the following topics: popular
music from the eighteenth century to the present (melodrama, Stephen Foster,
Tin Pan Alley, bluegrass, country, rock ‘n’ roll, folk, punk, alternative,
grunge, electronic); the concert music tradition, both populist and avant-garde
(Billings, Ives, Copland, Crawford Seeger, Cage, Wolff, Reich); the influence
of black music (minstrelsy, blues, ragtime, jazz, R&B, Motown, hip-hop);
sacred music (shape note singing, Shaker music, gospel, Native American ritual
and ceremonial music); the contributions of ethnic and regional subcultures
(the Spanish influence in the early West, Appalachia, et al.).
4. Global Sounds
A survey of music and music-making whose origins are in the non-European
world. Examples include Indian raga, Middle Eastern maqam, West African
drumming, Javanese gamelan, and Tuvan throat-singing. A central issue in the
course is the present-day intermingling of non-Western and Western musical
styles and performance practices. Course work will include listening, reading
and critical writing assignments. Where possible, visiting musicians will be
invited to demonstrate and discuss the music under consideration.
5. Harmony and Theory I
This course begins a sequence in harmony and theory and is intended for
those who may consider a music major or minor. Topics include music notation,
interval identification, common-practice scales and modes, harmonic function,
melodic construction, and formal analysis. In addition, students will have an
opportunity to improve skills in rhythmic, melodic, and harmonic dictation,
sight singing, and score reading.
8. Special Topics in Music: Music and Film
An examination of the history and aesthetics of music in cinema. Our primary
texts consist of a wide variety of films, centered on the classical Hollywood
cinema (of the 1930s-50s) but extending back t o silent film (and its live
musical accompaniment) and forward to today's audio technologies and globalized
entertainment industries. Orchestral scores and popular-music soundtracks will
both be considered; American movies will be juxtaposed to internation al
cinema; and the conventions of Hollywood will be contrasted with critiques and
alternatives to its norms.
10. Basic Keyboard Skills
This class aims to provide basic skills for those with limited or no
previous training in piano. Two sections are offered: Basic Keyboard (10a), for
those with no piano experience, covers the basics of note reading, hand
coordination, scales, chords, and beginning piano music. Intermediate Keyboard
(10b) is for those with some previous training in piano, and covers scales,
chords, pedaling, phrasing, and beginner-intermediate piano music. The class,
which uses advanced keyboard and computer technology, consists of three terms
of study (eight sessions each), with one course credit offered for the combined
three terms. Each section is limited to four students; priority will be given
to music majors seeking to fulfill their proficiency requirement.
INDIVIDUAL INSTRUCTION PROGRAM (IIP)
11. Keyboard Individual Instruction: Classical and Jazz Piano.
12. Woodwind Individual Instruction: Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, Bassoon,
Saxophone
13. Brass Individual Instruction: Trumpet, French Horn, Trombone, Tuba
14. String Individual Instruction: Violin, Viola, ’Cello, Bass Viol,
Electric Bass, Classical and Electric Guitar
15. Voice Individual Instruction
19. Composition
This course is for those intending to pursue serious compositional studies
of any genre, style, or type of music at either the basic, intermediate, or
advanced levels. Students will engage in extended creative projects designed in
conjunction with the instructor during which they will receive intensive
private instruction and participate in composition seminars. Projects may be
undertaken involving any of the following contexts: acoustic, avant-garde,
culturally-grounded, experimental, folk, inter- or multi-media, jazz, popular,
rock, technology, and traditional, or any other creative interest of the
students enrolled. The term’s work will include analyzing literature pertinent
to the current session, and writing essays involving the aesthetic, creative,
and technical issues at hand. It will culminate in a public concert of the
compositions written in the seminar. Music 19 may be repeated once for
credit.
21. Counterpoint
A study of the traditional theory and practice of combining two or more
melodies in a conventional tonal or modal framework. The course begins with
sixteenth-century modal counterpoint in the styles of Palestrina, Lassus, and
their contemporaries. The course then proceeds to a study of Baroque tonal
counterpoint, particularly as practiced by J. S. Bach, and the extension of the
tradition into the Classical, Romantic, and twentieth-century eras. Students
will also analyze the essential Baroque forms of two- and three-part invention,
canon, passacaglia, choral prelude, fughetta, and especially, fugue. The final
project will be the composition of a fugue. Assignments will include
composition to models, analysis of works from the literature, and listening.
Laboratory: sight-singing in treble and bass clefs, singing single lines and in
parts; melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic dictation; score-reading of simple
keyboard works; chord progressions, modulations, and counterpoint exercises at
the keyboard.
24. Introduction to the Composition of Electro-Acoustic Music
The course is intended for students who demonstrate a serious interest in
creative work with electro-acoustic music. The study of relevant acoustics,
equipment design and function, and the analysis of examples of electronic music
are covered in weekly class meetings. In addition, students are given weekly
individual instruction and are provided with regular hours for work in the
studio.
31. Western Art Music of the Middle Ages, the Renaissance and the Early
Baroque
A historical and stylistic survey that begins with the development of
liturgical chant and secular song in the Middle Ages (ca. 800) and ends with
the emergence of a seconda prattica that provides the foundation for Western
musical languages after 1600. The course syllabus focuses on music from the
Cathedral of Notre Dame and other French music, as well as on Italian, English,
Flemish and German traditions. Representative composers include Machaut, Dufay,
Dunstable, Ockeghem, Josquin, Palestrina, Byrd, Gabrieli and Monteverdi.
35. Beethoven in Context
This course examines the life and music of Ludwig van Beethoven. In the
hands of critics, historians, and visual artists of his own time, Beethoven was
elevated to the status of a genius, a perception that persists today.
Nineteenth-century representations of Beethoven as a towering persona will be
compared with modern biographies, recordings, and video-tape productions in
order to construct an accurate picture of Beethoven, the creative artist and
the man. Students will listen to and discuss works that illustrate the
developments in Beethoven’s compositional style. Performers will present
in-class recitals of Beethoven’s music, and attendance at selected Hopkins
Center concerts featuring Beethoven’s music will be required.
51. Oral Tradition Musicianship
Through disciplined practice of West African, Afro-Caribbean, and
Afro-Brazilian percussion-based music under the leadership of a master drummer,
students will enter a musical world in which creating, mentoring, and
communicating are all rooted in oral tradition. Weekly music-making is
integrated with discussions and audio-visual material that culturally
contextualize the musical traditions being performed.
