FUNDAMENTALS OF MUSIC

 

Introduction to music, including notation, written and aural skills, and basic conceptual resources of music theory. Exploration of scale, mode, rhythm, meter, texture and form, with reference to a diverse range of musics.

• MW 1:10 p.m.-2:25 p.m.
• 3 points

INTRODUCTORY EAR-TRAINING

This course is an introduction to basic skills in sight reading. Instruction includes reading rhythms in simple meter, solfege recitation, and sight-singing simple melodies.

• MW 12:10 p.m.-1 p.m.
• 1 points

COLLEGIUM MUSICUM

 Collegium Musicum is a performing group dedicated primarily to the study and performance of early music, broadly defined.

• M 7:30 p.m.-9:30 p.m.
• 1 points

UNIVERSITY ORCHESTRA I

Founded by composer Edward MacDowell in 1896, the Columbia University Orchestra is the oldest continually operating university orchestra in the United States. The principal mission of the Orchestra is to expose talented student musicians to the highest level of orchestral repertoire. An audition is required.

• T 6:30 p.m.-9:30 p.m.
• Instructor: Jeffrey Milarsky
  CULPA: 6 Wikipedia Info
• 2 points

WORLD MUSIC ENSEMBLE

ARAB MUSIC ENSEMBLE

In collaboration with the Center for Ethnomusicology, MESAAS, Institute for Medieval Japanese Studies and the Louis Armstrong Jazz Performance Program, the Music Performance Program (MPP) offers students the opportunity to participate in various world music ensembles: Arab Music, Bluegrass, Japanese Gagaku/Hogaku, Klezmer and Latin American Music. Each ensemble requires different levels of experience, so please refer to the World Music section of the Music Performance Program website for more info. Please note the Latin American Music Ensemble focuses on two different Latin music traditions: The Afro-Cuban Ensemble meets in the Fall and the Brazilian Ensemble meets in the Spring.

• R 5 p.m.-7 p.m.
• Instructor: Taoufik Ben-Amor
  CULPA: 11 Info
• 1 points

Performance MasterClass

Performance Masterclass is open to classical musicians of any instrument(s) with the highest commitment to performance. Students are admitted via live audition during the first week of classes in the Fall. Each week, two students perform repertoire of their choice for the class and receive feedback from everyone present. The discussions, moderated by the director of the Music Performance Program, Dr. Magdalena Stern-Baczewska, are designed to provide constructive criticism to the performers and to pose questions related to performance from the perspectives of musical interpretation, career management, professional collaboration, and pedagogy.

• W 4:10 p.m.-5:25 p.m.
• Instructor: Magdalena Baczewska
  CULPA: 4 Info
• 1 points

ROCK

How did Elvis become the “King of Rock’n’Roll” instead of, for example, Chuck Berry? Who are LaVern Baker, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, and Etta James and what do they have to do with rock and roll? Why and how did “rock and roll” become “rock”? What are the relationships among rock, rhythm and blues, soul, and funk? What do classical music composers such as J.S. Bach, Modest Mussorgsky, and Philip Glass have to do with rock? How many times has rock “died”? What is rock music’s relevance both historically and today? This course will introduce you to popular music studies, a field of inquiry that draws scholars from a number of different disciplines, including musicology, sociology, philosophy, anthropology and literature. Examining rock music in an interdisciplinary way has opened the genre to increasing attention beyond musicological methodologies and assumptions. First, however, we must ask some fundamental questions: for instance, what, exactly, 
is
 popular music as well as, importantly, what differentiates rock music from other genres? Our definitions will reveal some of the assumptions we bring to any discussion of popular music. Throughout this semester, we will question our assumptions about rock music culture through an investigation into a series of keywords. Each keyword will focus our attention on various aspects of rock music in order to think through the complexities of what might, on the surface, seem self-evident. Terms such as “genre” or “the everyday” will be examined to help us gain critical analytical tools with which to assess various rock music productions, artists, and processes. 

• M 4:10 p.m.-6:40 p.m.
• Instructor: Kevin Fellezs
  CULPA: 4 Info
• 3 points

SALSA, SOCA & REGGAE

Salsa Soca Reggae is an introduction to Caribbean popular music that surveys music from 1800 to the present. The course focuses on the cultural and social history of the music and traces its influence on global cultural and musical expression.

• TR 1:10 p.m.-2:25 p.m.
• Instructor: Christopher J Washburne
  CULPA: 31 Info
• 3 points

MUSIC IN CONTEMP NATIVE AMER

Music in Contemporary Native America is a historical, ethnographic, and topical examination of contemporary Native American musical practices and ideologies. The course emphasizes popular, vernacular, and mass mediated musics, and calls into question the simple distinction between traditional and modern aspects of Native American cultures. Our readings and class guests (several of whom will be Native American scholars) emphasize the importance of understanding Native 2 American perspectives on these topics. Three short papers and one substantial final project are required. Approximately 100-150 pages of reading per week.

• TR 1:10 p.m.-2:25 p.m.
• Instructor: Aaron A Fox
  CULPA: 7 Info
• 3 points

INTRODUCTION TO DIGITAL MUSIC

An introduction to the potential of digital sound synthesis and signal processing. Teaches proficiency in elementary and advanced digital audio techniques. This course aims to challenge some of the tacet assumptions about music that are built into the design of various user interfaces and hardware and fosters a creative approach to using digital audio workstation software and equipment.  Permission of Instructor required to enroll. Music Majors have priority for enrollment.

• TR 1:10 p.m.-2:25 p.m.
• MW 11:40 a.m.-12:55 p.m.
• Instructor: Anna Meadors
  Info
• 3 points

History and Practice of Electronic Music

History & Practice of Ele

This course will provide a critical survey of the development of electronic and computer music and sound from around the globe. From early experiments and precursors in the late 19th century through to modern-day experimental and popular music practices, this course aims to trace the development of technologies used in the production of electronic and computer derived sound and music alongside the economic, cultural, and social forces that contribute to the development of audiences. The course will focus intently on listening through a series of curated playlists in an effort to unpack style and genre distinctions. Readings and listening examples will be paired with small, hands-on assignments, that demonstrate the effect of music making tools on the process and structure of musical genres and styles ranging from the experimental practices of musique concrete, drone, and harsh noise to the mainstream practices of dub, techno, vaporwave, hyperpop, and hip hop and more.

• TR 2:40 p.m.-3:55 p.m.
• Instructor: Seth Cluett
  h-index: 4 Info
• 3 points

EAR-TRAINING I

Designed to improve the students basic skills in sight-singing, and rhythmic and melodic dictation with an introduction to four-part harmonic dictation.

• TR 12:10 p.m.-1 p.m.
• MW 12:10 p.m.-1 p.m.
• 1 points

EAR-TRAINING II

Techniques of sight-singing and dictation of diatonic melodies in simple and compound meter with strong emphasis on harmonic dictation.

• TR 12:10 p.m.-1 p.m.
• 1 points

MUSIC THEORY I

Elementary analysis and composition in a variety of modal and tonal idioms. A one-hour weekly lab is required, to be scheduled at the beginning of the term.  Course to be taken in conjunction with the Ear-Training sequence, up through Ear-Training IV. 

• TR 1:10 p.m.-2:25 p.m.
• Instructor: Peter M Susser
  CULPA: 20 Info
• 3 points

MUSIC THEORY II

Elementary analysis and composition in a variety of tonal idioms.  A one-hour weekly lab is required, to be scheduled at the beginning of the term.  Course to be taken in conjunction with the Ear-Training sequence, up through Ear-Training IV.

• MW 1:10 p.m.-2:25 p.m.
• Instructor: Cheng W Lim
  Info
• 3 points

SCHUBERT'S ROMANTIC CYCLES

• TR 2:40 p.m.-3:55 p.m.
• Instructor: Elaine Sisman
  CULPA: 13 Wikipedia Info
• 3 points

HIST-WEST MUS: MID AGE-BAROQUE

Prerequisites: MUSI UN2318 - MUSI UN2319. May be taken before or concurrently with this course. Topics in Western music from Antiquity through Bach and Handel, focusing on the development of musical style and thought, and analysis of selected works.

• TR 2:40 p.m.-3:55 p.m.
• 3 points

Bach Interpretation for Performers

Bach Inter for Performers

This course will explore the music of Johann Sebastian Bach from the perspective of performance. Attention will be given to Baroque dance forms and the social significance of dance in the 18th century, the art of rhetoric as a driving force for convincing delivery, an exploration of period instruments, and the study of elements of style such as articulation and ornamentation. The course consists of lectures, discussions, guided listening, score analysis, reading assignments, and performance projects. Aside from Bach’s scores, we will examine three key 17th- and 18th-century vocal and instrumental treatises, and a wide array of literature on rhetorical style and performance practice. Upon successful completion of the course, students will gain a deeper understanding of
interpreting the music of J.S. Bach and Baroque music in general, both as listeners and as performers.

• MW 2:40 p.m.-3:55 p.m.
• Instructor: Magdalena Baczewska
  CULPA: 4 Info
• 3 points

ADVANCED COMPOSITION I

Composition in more extended forms. Study of advanced techniques of contemporary composition. Readings of student works.

• MW 10:10 a.m.-11:25 a.m.
• Instructor: Zosha C Di Castri
  Info
• 3 points

EAR-TRAINING III

Sight-singing techniques of modulating diatonic melodies in simple, compound, or irregular meters that involve complex rhythmic patterns. Emphasis is placed on four-part harmonic dictation of modulating phrases.

• MW 12:10 p.m.-1 p.m.
• Instructor: Peter M Susser
  CULPA: 20 Info
• 1 points

EAR-TRAINING IV

Techniques of musicianship at the intermediate level, stressing the importance of musical nuances in sight-singing. Emphasis is placed on chromatically inflected four-part harmonic dictation.

• TR 12:10 p.m.-1 p.m.
• Instructor: Peter M Susser
  CULPA: 20 Info
• 1 points

MUSICS OF INDIA & WEST ASIA

A topical approach to the concepts and practices of music in relation to other arts in the development of Asian civilizations.

• MW 10:10 a.m.-11:25 a.m.
• MW 5:40 p.m.-6:55 p.m.
• TR 10:10 a.m.-11:25 a.m.
• TR 5:40 p.m.-6:55 p.m.
• Instructor: Thomas T Wetmore
  Info
• Instructor: Nandini R Banerjee-Datta
  Info
• 3 points

MUSIC THEORY III

Intermediate analysis and composition in a variety of tonal idioms.  A one-hour weekly lab is required, to be scheduled at the beginning of the term.  Course to be taken in conjunction with the Ear-Training sequence, up through Ear-Training IV.

• MW 1:10 p.m.-2:25 p.m.
• Instructor: Joseph P Dubiel
  CULPA: 3 Info
• 3 points

MUSIC THEORY IV

Intermediate analysis and composition in a variety of tonal and extended tonal idioms.  A one-hour weekly lab is required, to be scheduled at the beginning of the term.  Course to be taken in conjunction with the Ear-Training sequence, up through Ear-Training IV.

• TR 1:10 p.m.-2:25 p.m.
• Instructor: Cheng W Lim
  Info
• 3 points

TOPICS IN MUSIC & SOCIETY

This course seeks to approach the study of music and society by comparatively studying repertories from different parts of the world, how the history of ideas and methods of studying such repertoires shaped them, the practices that constitute them and the ways they are understood and used by different peoples. Central to this course is the interrelationship between the constitution of a repertoire and the history of the construction of knowledge about it.

• TR 4:10 p.m.-5:25 p.m.
• Instructor: Ruth Opara
  Info
• 3 points

Critical Approaches to Opera Studies

Why opera now? In what ways can a 400-year-old art form speak to the needs of contemporary society? This seminar provides an introduction to critical opera studies: we will analyze a broad range of lyric repertory (spanning from Monteverdi to Saariaho) while interrogating the debates these works have generated, both historically and in the present day. Topics to be considered include: operatic institutions and conventions; gender and voice; theories of “text” and liveness; modernist staging; the troubling legacies of Empire and exoticism; and the intersections of opera and multimedia (opera on/as film, opera in HD, site-specific opera). Wherever possible, this course will incorporate live performance in New York, engaging the Metropolitan Opera as well as institutions for “indie” opera and new music. While completion of Music Humanities is a suggested pre-requisite, this class welcomes interdisciplinary perspectives. Individual assignments may be tailored to accommodate student interests and backgrounds outside of the field of music.

• R 4:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
• Instructor: Julia Doe
  Info
• 3 points

SONGS OF THE TROUBADOURS

Prerequisites: HUMA W1123, MUSI V3128. This interdisciplinary seminar approaches the songs of the troubadours as poetic and musical traditions. Together we will develop methods for analysis and interpretation, situate the songs within literary and social history, and address broad issues such as the nature of performance, the interplay between orality and writing, the origins of troubadour poetry, finamor, and gender. Students will learn to analyze the poetic and musical structure of the songs and to transcribe and edit them from medieval manuscripts. Weekly assignments in Padens Introduction to Old Occitan will familiarize students with the language of the texts; one hour a week will be devoted to going over texts in the original language using Padens book. Individually designed paper assignments will take students backgrounds into account; students from all departments are welcome.

• F 1 p.m.-3 p.m.
• Instructor: Susan Boynton
  CULPA: 18 Info
• 4 points

Theory and Analysis of Jazz and Improvis

Theory & Anal of Jazz & I

This course explores diverse approaches to analyzing jazz and improvisation.  Students will engage with analytical methods stemming from both scholars and improvisers, learn to apply traditional analytical approaches, examine critical issues underlying them, and develop new applications of heretofore underexamined ones.  We will focus alternatively on harmony, solos, interaction, cognition, rhythm, and pedagogy, among other issues, and the survey will afford students insight into the priorities, methodologies, outcomes, and shortcomings of each of them.  Additionally, the course covers theoretical texts produced by improvising musicians, as well as instances where improvisers engage with preexisting theoretical texts.  Finally, we will also examine intersections between identity—encompassing issues such as race, ethnicity, gender, and class among others—and music theory.  We will investigate characterizations of music theory, composition, and improvisation in terms of identity and suggest ways that we might incorporate the diverse range of theorists and analysts in our course into larger intellectual and musical histories. 

• MW 4:10 p.m.-5:25 p.m.
• Instructor: Ole Mathisen
  Wikipedia Info
• 3 points

Music and Fashion

Fashion has been integral to musical performance practices, and music continues to influence fashion. As a result, specific music genres and practitioners are linked to particular fashion trends and movements that represent their persona and appearance. In various cultures around the world, music and fashion play a significant role in marking identity, as practitioners’ cultural heritage impacts the choice of costumes they wear during performances in different spaces and times. Spread through live performances and mass-mediated technology, consumers and fans of these practitioners also adopt and integrate these fashion trends into their everyday styles. This class explores Some of the questions: How does fashion become a visual representation of specific music cultures, subcultures, genres, movements, and artists? How does fashion reflect, influence, inspire, evolve, spread, sustain, represent, affect, and communicate musical ideas? To answer these questions, musical fashion icons such as Beyoncé, Prince, Rihanna, Lady Gaga, and David Bowie, and genres like Hip Hop, rock, Opera, K-pop, Afrobeats, and other global genres are examined through written scholarships, analysis of music performances and costumes, and their appearances in events and everyday life. This class explores how fashion trends influence sounds and vice versa, how they mark identity through music, embody symbolic sounds, and attract music consumers and fans who perpetuate these trends.

• T 12:10 p.m.-2 p.m.
• Instructor: Ruth Opara
  Info
• 3 points

INSTRUMENTATION

Prerequisites: extensive musical background. Analysis of instrumentation, with directional emphasis on usage, ranges, playing techniques, tone colors, characteristics, interactions and tendencies, all derived from the classic orchestral repertoire. Topics will include theoretical writings on the classical repertory as well as 20th century instrumentation and its advancement. Additional sessions with live orchestral demonstrations are included as part of the course.

• TR 1:10 p.m.-2:25 p.m.
• Instructor: Jeffrey Milarsky
  CULPA: 6 Wikipedia Info
• 3 points

RECORDED SOUND

Prerequisites: The instructors permission. As music moves into the 21st century, we find ourselves surrounded by an ever-evolving landscape of technological capability. The world of music, and the music industry itself, is changing rapidly, and with that change comes the opening – and closing – of doorways of possibility. What does this shift mean for today’s practicing artist or composer? With big label recording studios signing and nurturing fewer and fewer artists, it seems certain that, today, musicians who want to record and distribute their music need to be able to do much of the recording and production work on their own. But where does one go to learn how to do this – to learn not only the “how to” part of music production, but the historical underpinnings and the development of the music production industry as well? How does one develop a comprehensive framework within which they can place their own artistic efforts? How does one learn to understand what they hear, re-create what they like and develop their own style? This class, “Recorded Sound,” aims to be the answer. It’s goal is to teach artists how to listen critically to music from across history and genres in order to identify the production techniques that they hear, and reproduce those elements using modern technology so they can be incorporated into the artist’s own musical works.

• M 1:10 p.m.-4 p.m.
• Instructor: David Adamcyk
  CULPA: 1 Info
• 3 points

Sound: Foundations

SOUND: FOUNDATIONS

This foundational course in sound will begin by exploring how listening happens as well the tools necessary capture and present that listening. Through hands-on experimentation and demonstration, this seminar will examine both the technical and semiotic use of sound as amaterial within creative practice. Fundamental studio techniques will be explored including soldering for building cables, microphones, and loudspeakers. We will also explore the building blocks of analog and digital processes for the creation of sound, including microphones (types, patterns, and placement), basic synthesis, and techniques for recording, mixing, editing, and mastering. Through creative projects that implement these skills we will learn by doing. We will study theories of sound and listening that determine or are determined by technology, from the physical and social dimensions of the sounds we use to create, language (sound as a symbol or object), acoustics (sound in space), acousmatics (sound without a visual reference), and psycho-acoustics (sound as cognitive process). This class assumes no prior knowledge or technical skill. Some reading will be assigned and we will look and listen to a lot of work, students are encouraged to participate actively in discussions.

• M 2:10 p.m.-4 p.m.
• Instructor: Seth Cluett
  h-index: 4 Info
• 3 points

Analytical Perspectives in New Music

Analytical Persp in New M

This course will explore plausible analytical responses to a selection of diverse sonic works from the past five decades, with emphasis on works that expand or challenge existing analytical methodologies and assumptions. The goal of this course is not to offer strict analytical models or standard procedures, but to foster analytical conversations that are pertinent to their subjects while broadening the understanding of what music analysis as it relates to new music can offer. 

• R 10:10 a.m.-noon
• Instructor: Marcos Balter
  Wikipedia Info
• 3 points

PROSEMINAR IN MUSIC THEORY

Overview of current work in Music Theory, an analysis, perception, and philosophy. Major areas of research and methodological challenges.

• R 12:10 p.m.-2 p.m.
• Instructor: Knar Abrahamyan
  Info
• 3 points

SOUND: ADVANCED TOPICS I

This class explores advanced topics relating to the production of music by computer. Although programming experience is not a prerequisite, various programming techniques are enlisted to investigate interface design, algorithmic composition, computer analysis and processing of digital audio, and the use of computer music in contexts such as VR/AR applications. Check with the instructor for the particular focus of the class in an upcoming semester. Some familiarity with computer music hardware/software is expected. Permission of instructor is required to enroll.

• W 6:10 p.m.-8 p.m.
• Instructor: Bradford G Garton
  CULPA: 14 Info
• 3 points

SEM-HIST MUSICOLOGY:MUSIC,MIND

SEM-HIST MUSICOLOGY:RENAISSANC

• W 10:10 a.m.-noon
• Instructor: Giuseppe Gerbino
  CULPA: 12 Info
• 3 points

SEM IN MUSIC COMPOSITION I

Individual projects in composition.

• W 3:10 p.m.-5 p.m.
• 3 points

Music Beyond 12 Tone Temperament I

This class is intended for students to develop composing skills for creating music “between the keys” (or “outside the keys”) of a traditionally tuned piano or organ. We will be analyzing relevant works and techniques of the present and of the past. Students compose and perform/present their own music influenced by these works and techniques.  We will start with quartertones and with music independent from Western traditions.

• T 4:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
• Instructor: Georg Friedrich Haas
  Info
• 3 points

SEMINAR IN MUSIC THEORY

A study of the meanings and cultural significance of music and music theory; integration of music theory with areas outside of music, such as aesthetics, literary criticism, cognitive psychology, sociology of music, semiotics, phenomenology, theories of narrative, hierarchy theory, and linguistics.

• M 2:10 p.m.-4 p.m.
• Instructor: Benjamin A Steege
  Info
• 3 points

ADV ETHNO SEMINAR

POPULAR MUSIC AESTHETICS

• W 4:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
• Instructor: Kevin Fellezs
  CULPA: 4 Info
• 3 points

SEXUALITY IN MUSIC/DANCE CULTRS

• R 2:10 p.m.-4 p.m.
• Instructor: Alessandra M Ciucci
  CULPA: 1 Info
• 3 points