Graduate Courses

This course is geared toward students who would like to improve their music literacy skills and strengthen their overall musicianship through intensive sight-singing practice. In this supportive environment, we will explore not only a wide range of musical concepts (including rhythm, meter, musical symbols, note-names, solfege, scales, intervals, and harmony), but we’ll also learn to recognize common pitfalls, tackle anxiety surrounding sight-reading, and learn to trust our instincts so that we may keep pushing forward after faltering. This course will sharpen students’ aural skills as we work on listening and notating what we hear. We will go beyond the confines of Western Classical traditions to explore other systems of musical notation, and learn how singing music from oral traditions can help us to become stronger musicians.

Note: This course is recommended for students who have had at least some experience singing or playing an instrument, but who wish to strengthen their skills and confidence. Students should be able to match pitch.

Bob Dylan (b. 1941) is one of the most celebrated artists of the postwar era, a musician who revolutionized popular songwriting, whose lyrics won him a Nobel Prize in Literature, and whose idiosyncratic voice and performance style have thrilled his fans—and baffled everyone else—for over six decades. Now, as a result of the film A Complete Unknown, starring Timothée Chalamet, a new generation is discovering Dylan’s music. In 2020, he released one of his most critically acclaimed albums in years. His mystique, allure, and enigma show no sign of waning; he continues to perform prolifically in this, his 86th year.

What makes Bob Dylan tick? Why has his curious combination of highly ambitious lyrics and ramshackle music making so captivated so many? This course addresses those questions, focusing on both famous tracks and deep cuts, with a particular emphasis on the ways his songs change in performance. We will engage Dylan’s music as carefully as we do his words, but no formal music training is required for the course.