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Course Criteria
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3.00 Credits
An introduction to the history of opera, from the genre's birth c. 1600 to the present. At various points in its 400-year development, opera has been considered the highest synthesis of the arts, a vehicle for the social elite, or a form of popular entertainment. Opera's position in European cultural history will be a primary focus of our inquiry. We will also study the intriguing relationship between text and music, aspects of performance and production, and the artistic and social conventions of the operatic world. The multidimensional nature of opera invites a variety of analytical and critical perspectives, including those of music analysis, literary studies, feminist interpretations, and political and sociological approaches. Works to be considered include operas by Monteverdi, Lully, Charpentier, Handel, Gluck, Mozart, Rossini, Donizetti, Verdi, Wagner, Bizet, Puccini, Strauss, Berg, Britten, Glass and Adams. This course may involve a trip to the Metropolitan Opera.
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3.00 Credits
Film composers, once viewed as less serious than their concert music counterparts, have become celebrities today. John Williams, James Horner, Howard Shore, and Carter Burwell are as well known as Stravinsky, Holst, Shostakovich, and Strauss. The only symphony orchestra many people hear today is the one at the movies and when people do attend concerts, the music often reminds them of film scores. The way we perceive cinematic narrative is highly dependent upon the way the composer scores it. We may not always be conscious of the composer?s craft, but we almost always know how we are supposed to feel or think about what is going on in a film because of the powerful musical cues. How did this language of film music evolve and where did many of the iconic musical gestures come from? These questions will be explored along with specific techniques film composers have used over the years to manipulate our perception of the visual narrative. We will look at and listen to films from different periods, observe which techniques evolved, which have changed very little, and consider when an idea is borrowed and when it might actually be new.
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3.00 Credits
This course will examine protest and freedom songs and music from the 1950s and 1960s Civil Rights Movement with an emphasis on the music of John Coltrane (1926-1967). We will begin with a brief historical look at protest and freedom songs from the 1800's through the 1950's, including genres such as jazz and Black classical music. We will focus on the Civil Rights era, and we will ask why the music of John Coltrane became identified with the 1960's movement. Avery Sharpe, a distinguished jazz bassist, spent over 20 years performing with John Coltrane's pianist McCoy Tyner. He will provide for students a first-hand experience with this revolutionary music and its practitioners. He will take students to Harlem, where they will tour the historic Apollo Theater, visit the Abyssinian Baptist Church, and attend a jazz club performance. They will also be given the chance to do original oral interviews with Aisha Tyner and other intimates of the Coltrane circle. Students will also study and experience a public performance of Avery Sharpe's new work based on the life of Sojourner Truth,famous abolitionist, political activist, and freedom fighter. This EDI course explores the musical expressions of the culturally diverse peoples of African descent in the New World, as well as the myriad ways in which representations of jazz and protest music challenge institutional power and dominant U.S. and/or European hierarchies of race, gender and class.
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3.00 Credits
Taking its title from the Wallace Stevens poem, "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird," which interprets the blackbird in different ways, this course similarly explores a more complex, multi-layered perspective on jazz, from jazz and American democracy to jazz in visual art. Accordingly, the course introduces students to several genres, including historical documents, cultural criticism, music, literature, film, photography and art. The course does not draw on a musicological method but rather a socio-cultural analysis of the concept, music and its effect--so students are not required to have any prior musical knowledge or ability. In this writing intensive course, students will write short close analyses of multiple types of media, ultimately building up to an argumentative essay. This EDI course explores the musical expressions of the culturally diverse peoples of African descent in the New World, as well as the myriad ways in which representations of jazz signify on institutional power, reaffirm dominant U.S. and/or European hierarchies of race, gender and class, and signal inequality in order to contest it.
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3.00 Credits
This course explores the lives and music of two great composers of the High Baroque, Johann Sebastian Bach and George Frideric Handel. We will examine their dramatically contrasting life experiences and musical pursuits within the larger social and cultural framework of the period: Bach as a provincial composer, servant to minor German aristocrats and the Lutheran Church, virtuoso organist and pedagogue; Handel as a cosmopolitan celebrity and entrepreneur, creator of operatic and instrumental entertainments for both the Italian and English nobility and the paying public. Development of listening skills and understanding of Baroque music styles, genres, and forms will be stressed. Bach's Brandenburg Concerti and Mass in B-minor, and Handel's opera Giulio Cesare and Water Music Suite are just a few of the works to be discussed and enjoyed.
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3.00 Credits
Why does an opera singer sound different from a rock singer? Why can't one convincingly sing in the style of the other? And why is the former granted a higher status and the latter a wider audience? This course examines the physiological and acoustical properties of singing and explores the varieties of singing style and function including Western classical, jazz, pop and gospel as well as less familiar approaches such as overtone singing, yodeling and belting. The historical development of singing styles will be considered as will the meaning making of specific vocal qualities. Students will learn the basics of several singing styles.
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3.00 Credits
Music 201 continues to greater degrees the study of music techniques from the common practice period by means of analysis, composition, written exercises, sightsinging, keyboard application and dictation. We will expand our understanding of chromaticism. We will learn how chromaticism is used as a voice-leading tool, and how it participates in music events at deeper levels of the structure. We will learn about innovations that occurred from the early 19th century through the beginning of the 20th century and will trace the origins for these new harmonic tendencies. We will also learn how composers create larger formal structures.
Prerequisite:
Music 104
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3.00 Credits
Music 202 proceeds to the study of twentieth-century practices including harmony, scales and modes, rhythmic techniques, new formal ideas, serial procedures, and set theory. It also covers more recent musical developments including aleatorism, minimalism, electronic music, post-modernism, eclecticism, and other techniques.
Prerequisite:
Music 201
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3.00 Credits
A continuation of Music 203, this course builds upon theoretical knowledge, performance and aural skills developed previously. Students will deal with more complex theoretical and performance issues, such as modal interchange and minor key harmony, use of symmetric scales, commonly-used reharmonizations of the blues and "I Got Rhythm" chord progressions, and Coltrane's "Three Tonic" harmonic system.
Prerequisite:
Music 203 (formerly Mus 212) or permission of the instructor
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3.00 Credits
No course description available.
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