MUSI

This course, part of the Social Sciences Civ core, looks at musics in different moments of Euro-American history and the social contexts in which they originated, with some comparative views on other world traditions. It aims to give students a better understanding of the social contexts of European music over this period; aids for the basic sound structures of pieces from these different moments; and convincing writing in response to prompts based on source readings or music pieces. Our first quarter (MUS 12100 etc.) spans roughly the period between Charlemagne’s coronation as Holy Roman Emperor (800 CE) and the dissolution of the Empire (1806) with the triumph of Napoleon across Western Europe.

This course aims to develop students' analytical and critical tools by focusing on a select group of works drawn from the Western European and American concert tradition. The texts for the course are recordings. Through listening, written assignments, and class discussion, we explore topics such as compositional strategy, conditions of musical performance, interactions between music and text, and the relationship between music and ideology as they are manifested in complete compositions.

This introductory course in music is intended for students who are interested in exploring the language, interpretation, and meaning of music through coordinated listening, analysis, and creative work. By listening to and comprehending the structural and aesthetic considerations behind significant written and improvised works, from the earliest examples of notated Western music to the music of living composers and performers, students will be prepared to undertake analytical and ultimately creative projects. The relationship between cultural and historical practices and the creation and reception of music will also be considered. The course is taught by a practicing composer, whose experience will guide and inform the works studied. No prior background in music is required.

This course is a selected survey of classical, popular, and folk music traditions from around the world. The goals are not only to expand our skills as listeners but also to redefine what we consider music to be and, in the process, stimulate a fresh approach to our own diverse musical traditions. In addition, the role of music as ritual, aesthetic experience, mode of communication, and artistic expression is explored.

This one-quarter course is designed to enrich the listening experience of students, particularly with respect to the art music of the Western European and American concert tradition. Students are introduced to the basic elements of music and the ways that they are integrated to create works in various styles. Particular emphasis is placed on musical form and on the potential for music to refer to and interact with aspects of the world outside.

Listening to trans*, raced, and castrato voices, "Errant Voices: Gender and Performances beyond Measure" will explore voices that escape their confines perforce or by choice, trying to make sense of resistant, insurgent, and resilient voices. Students from various disciplines are invited to join the seminar, thereby helping to advance its themes but working from their own strengths and orientations. Our common goal will be to develop shared theoretical language among differing cases that can lead to new insights into wider paradigmatic shifts across gender and race in our historical moment. The project turns on performances inasmuch as they reveal the workings of bodies, intentions, and interactions. It depends on collective thinking because it is intersectional and thus concerns emergent shared languages developed by encountering questions collaboratively.

The composition seminar is a weekly session designed for graduate students in composition. It is an open forum for composers to listen to recent music, including their own, and to discuss issues connected with trends, esthetics, and compositional techniques. The entire composition faculty takes part in these sessions. The composition seminar often hosts well-known visiting composers whose works are performed in the city by various groups or ensembles, as well as performers specializing in new music and contemporary techniques.

Ethnographic methods generally pertain to the principal qualitative research methods of participant observation, fieldnote writing, ethnographic interviewing, and the ethnographer's participation in music and dance as formal and informal processes for the study of musical actions and behaviors. This seminar examines these methods, while critically considering the central connections between methods and the ethics of fieldwork and ethnographic representation as related to ethnographic intent, researcher reflexivity, notions of power and privilege, authority, hearing and representing individual voices, and politics of positionality, which refers to the ethnographer's conduct throughout the research and writing process. Selected ethnomusicological and anthropological scholarship on ethnography and (recent) musical ethnographies highlight such ethical concerns and responsibilities while introducing fieldwork settings, analytical renderings, and theoretical framing. Focusing on ethnography as methodological practice, and as text, this seminar includes writing labs to practice processes of data analysis, interpretation, and the transformation of field data into written and other ethnographic representations. The seminar further introduces fieldwork technology, visual sociology/ethnography, filmmaking, and examples of virtual ethnographic presentation and dissemination. Focusing on how scholars represent musical experiences further exposes methods and theories of critical ethnography, auto-ethnography, and performance ethnography while highlighting examples of music-making that center not only on artistic activity but also on social interactions.

This course looks at themes and moments of music in Europe and the European abroad, with some comparisons of other musical traditions. Students will engage source readings, notation/improvisation, and cultural contexts, along with trans-continental links and disjunctures. Requirements include: dealing with sources, one class report, a mock single-sheet exam, and a take-home final. It is possible that we might interact with the Haymarket Opera Company's production of Monteverdi's *Poppea* in June.