MUSC - Music

A study of the basic building blocks of music: note reading, scales, intervals, keys, triads, rhythms and meters. Geared toward those who want to learn how to read music and build on basic skills. Note: students must either pass this course or its exemption exam in order to register for MUSC 101.

Prerequisite: MUSC 100 or Level I placement on the Music Fundamentals Placement Test. A study of diatonic music: concepts, terminology and skills. Topics include diatonic chords in major and minor keys, voice-leading, part-writing, harmonic progressions, intro to formal analysis, non-chord tones. Musicianship portion to include recognition of scales, intervals, triads, seventh chords, and rhythms, plus executing rhythms and sight-singing with solmization.

Prerequisite: MUSC 101. A continuation of MUSC 101.

A study of the materials of music from a listener’s point of view, the styles and composers of the various periods, and the relationship of music to the other arts and to its social and historical background.

Prerequisite: MUSC 101. A study of chromatic music: concepts, terminology and skills. Topics include secondary functions, modulation, binary and ternary forms, sonata form, rondo form, mode mixture, Neapolitan chords, augmented sixth chords. Aural skills to include recognition of compound intervals, seventh chords in inversion, two-part dictation, plus executing rhythms and sight-singing with solmization.

Occasional special courses, taught on a one-time basis. Topics have included study trips to Europe, a Beethoven research class, and opera history and literature.

Prerequisites: MUSC 201. A study of advanced, late, and post-tonal harmony and various twentieth-century systems including atonal and serial techniques, plus study of counterpoint and fugal analysis and formal analysis of works. Each student will undertake analysis of a large work for a report and class presentation. Aural skills to include recognition of form and chord progressions, plus executing rhythms and sight-singing with solmization.

Prerequisites: Junior standing and completion of the Aesthetic Appreciation section of the Core curriculum, or by permission of the instructor. A survey of the Non-Western musical cultures of Africa, East Asia, India, Latin America and North America within the context of ethnomusicology, aesthetics, cultural anthropology and ethnic diversity.

Prerequisites: MUSC 201. This class surveys Western art music from 800 A.D. to 1800, covering the Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, and early Romantic periods. We will discuss the major composers of these periods alongside major historical milestones such as the Reformations, the Age of Enlightenment, and the French Revolution.

Prerequisites: MUSC 201 This class surveys Western art music from 1800 to the present, covering the late Romantic, modern, and postmodern periods. We will discuss the major composers of these periods alongside major historical milestones such as the revolutions of 1848, the First and Second World Wars, the Civil Rights Era, and the internet age.

Prerequisites: Completion of the Literary Analysis and the Visual and Performing Arts areas of the core. In this class we will survey the writings of philosophers, artists and other figures who attempted to explain why music appeals to us and what the musical experience says about human nature. Readings will be taken from antiquity, the distant past, and the present day. Our goal will be: (1) to study how philosophers have attempted to explain what the musical experience says about human nature; (2) to study what these explanations say about the time periods and cultures from which they came.

(May be repeated for a maximum of 4 credits) An opportunity for qualified juniors or seniors to assist in the teaching of music theory or history. Interested students are selected by the department. Grading is on a satisfactory/unsatisfactory basis.

Prerequisite: Permission of the department. A special project or the intensive study of the music of an individual composer, periods or type, involving independent, first-hand examination of the music. May be conducted in a group when several students pursue the same study. Note: Music History and Literature Minors will pursue a topic in American or non-Western music.

An upper-level special topics course offered at the discretion of the department. The content and methods vary with the interest of students and faculty members

Prerequisite: Open to junior and senior music majors, with permission of the department. Supervised part-time work in a musical setting approved by the department. Grading is on a satisfactory/unsatisfactory basis.

Prerequisites: Completion of all music theory and music history requirements for the major in music history and literature. The course may, if necessary, be taken in conjunction with the last semester of theory and the last 3 credits of music history. A capstone research project in which the student will work one-on-one with a professor in writing a significant historical paper in music history and literature. The student will present his or her findings in a public reading at the end of the semester of study.

Prerequisites: Completion of at least 8 credits of applied piano and all other requirements for the concentration in piano pedagogy. This course is usually taken in the senior year. A capstone experience for the piano pedagogy track. Students will observe and critique piano lessons in the department, write several chapters of a sample method book and teach several students of varying ability, under the supervision of a faculty member. The piano students will perform their pieces for a panel of faculty pianists for evaluation.

Prerequisites: Student must be a declared music major in performance, must have completed at least 6 credits of applied music in the area of the recital, and must have department approval. A formal, public recital, sponsored by the music department, in which the student presents a 25-minute solo recital. The recital would normally be given in the junior year. For vocalists and pianists, the recital must be performed from memory, though one work, especially a chamber piece, may be played with the score. Piano Pedagogy students are required to play one work or a short group of pieces from memory.

Prerequisites: MUSC 474 and completion of at least 8 credits of applied music in the area of the recital and taken in conjunction with the last two credits of applied music. Senior recital is normally given in the senior year; students must have departmental approval of the recital program and must adhere to the senior recital guidelines as set forth by the department. A formal, public recital, sponsored by the Department of Music, in which the student presents a 50-minute representative recital in one area of applied music.

Prerequisite: By invitation of the department. The departmental honors paper is a two-semester senior-year program designed for students who wish to pursue intensive research or special projects in close coordination with faculty advisers. Departmental honors students are known as the Christine P. Tischer Scholars and receive 6 credits for this work.