Music Composition

As taught in: Fall 2008

Excerpt from the score for student composition Limit One Per Cussion by Joy Perkinson. See the projects page for the complete score, and additional scores and recordings of student compositions. (Image courtesy of Joy Perkinson. Used with permission.)

Level:

Undergraduate / Graduate

Instructors:

Prof. Peter Child

Course Features

Course Description

Course Features

• Special feature - audio
• Projects and Examples

Course Description

This course features directed composition of larger forms of original writing involving voices and/or instruments. It includes a weekly seminar in composition for the presentation and discussion of work in progress. Students are expected to produce at least one substantive work, performed in public, by the end of the term. Contemporary compositions and major works from 20th-century music literature are studied.

Pupuh Dangdanggula

PUPUH DANGDANGGULA

(Ngagambarkeun katengtreman, kawaasan, kaagungan, kagumbiraan)

MILANG KALA

Dinten ieu estu bingah ati,

ku jalaran panceg milang kala,

kenging kurnia ti Alloh,

rehing nambahan taun,

tepung taun umur sim abdi,

henteu weleh neneda,

ka Gusti Nu Agung,

malar umur teh mangpaat,

tebih bahla turta pinarinan rijki,

sumujud ka Pangeran.

Download Pupuh Dandangula.MP3

Musical Analysis

As taught in: Spring 2008

An excerpt from a bass reduction analysis of J. S. Bach's Chorale Prelude in C Minor, "Jesu meine Freude." (See this and other analysis examples by Prof. Peter Child on the study materials page.)

Level:

Undergraduate

Instructors:

Prof. Peter Child

Course Features

Course Description

Course Features

• Assignments (no solutions)

Course Description

This class is an introduction to the analysis of tonal music. Students develop analytical techniques based upon concepts learned in 21M.301-21M.302. Students study rhythm and form, harmony, line and motivic relationships at local and large scale levels of musical structure. Three papers (totaling 20 pages, one to be revised) and one oral presentation are required.

Introduction to Music Composition

As taught in: Fall 2009

Graphic scores are one of many composition techniques covered in this course. (Photo courtesy of brainflakes.org on Flickr.)

Level:

Undergraduate

Instructors:

Prof. Keeril Makan

Course Features

Course Description

Technical Requirements

Course Features

• Special feature - audio
• Assignments (no solutions)

Course Description

Through a progressive series of composition projects, students investigate the sonic organization of musical works and performances, focusing on fundamental questions of unity and variety. Aesthetic issues are considered in the pragmatic context of the instructions that composers provide to achieve a desired musical result, whether these instructions are notated in prose, as graphic images, or in symbolic notation. No formal training is required; this version of the class is a general elective suitable for a relatively large-enrollment class. Weekly listening, reading, and composition assignments draw on a broad range of musical styles and intellectual traditions, from various cultures and historical periods.

Technical Requirements

Special software is required to use some of the files in this course: .aif and .zip.

Developing Musical Structures

As taught in: Fall 2002

Screen shot of the interface of Impromptu software displaying the theme to "The Lone Ranger." (Image © Oxford University Press.)

Level:

Undergraduate

Instructors:

Prof. Jeanne Bamberger

Course Highlights

Course Description

Technical Requirements

Course Highlights

This course features projects which are completed using the computer music authoring environment Impromptu. An open-source version of Impromptu is available in the tools section of this site.

Course Description

The goal of this class is practical: to interrogate, make explicit, and thus to develop the powerful musical intuitions that are at work as you make sense of the music all around you. Reflecting, we will ask how this knowledge develops in ordinary and extraordinary ways.

Technical Requirements

Special software is required to use some of the files in this course: .midi.

*Some translations represent previous versions of courses.

Introduction to World Music

As taught in: Fall 2006

The kora is a 21-string harp-lute used extensively by Mandigo peoples in West Africa. (Photo courtesy of Premasagar Rose. Used with permission.)

Level:

Undergraduate

Instructors:

Prof. George Ruckert

Course Description

Course Description

This course explores the ways that music is both shaped by and gives shape to the cultural settings in which it is performed, through studying selected musical traditions from around the world. Specific case studies will be examined closely through listening, analysis, and hands-on instruction. The syllabus centers around weekly listening assignments and readings from a textbook with CDs, supplemented by hands-on workshops, lecture/demonstrations and concerts by master musicians from around the world.

Fundamentals of Music

As taught in: Spring 2007

Music is for everyone! (Courtesy of Tilke Judd. Used with permission.)

Level:

Undergraduate

Instructors:

Ms. Pamela Wood

Course Description

Course Description

This class introduces students to the rudiments of Western music through oral, aural, and written practice utilizing rhythm, melody, intervals, scales, chords, and musical notation. The approach is based upon the inclusive Kodály philosophy of music education. Individual skills are addressed through a variety of means, emphasizing singing and keyboard practice in the required piano labs.