Introduction to Music Cognition

Intro to Music Cognition

The aim of music cognition is to understand the musical mind. This course is an introduction to a variety of key topics in this field, including human development, evolution, neural processing, embodied knowledge, memory and anticipation, cross-cultural perspectives, and emotions. The course explores recent research on these topics, as well as ways in which this research can be applied to music scholarship. Readings are drawn from fields as diverse as music theory, psychology, biology, anthropology, and neuroscience, and include general works in cognitive science, theoretical work focused on specific musical issues, and reports of empirical research.

• MW 10:10 a.m.-11:25 a.m.
• Instructor: Mariusz Kozak
  CULPA: 4 h-index: 5 Info
• 3 points

Musicianship: Rhythm

In this course, students at all levels of experience and musical interest will participate in solo and group activities and projects with a focus on musical beat, meter, and rhythm patterns, developing a sense of steady and changing tempo, and an understanding how rhythm contributes to style in music. Rhythmic articulation, nuance, and interpretation will be developed through the impact of agogic, metric, tonal, and dynamic accent. This course combines the standards of conservatory musicianship with standards of critical thinking, here represented as critical listening. The repertoire for Musicianship: Rhythm covers vocal and instrumental music, and is open to classical, pop, jazz, folk, music theatre, computer, and international music styles and genres.

• MW 12:05 p.m.-12:55 p.m.
• TR 12:05 p.m.-12:55 p.m.
• Instructor: Peter M Susser
  CULPA: 20 Info
• Instructor: Michael Joviala
  Info
• 1 points

Musicianship: Melody

In this course, students at all levels of experience and musical interest will participate in solo and group activities and projects with a focus on scales, intervals, melodic contour and phrasing, and how they contribute to style in music. The repertoire for Musicianship: Melody covers vocal and instrumental music, and is open to classical, pop, jazz, folk, music theatre, computer, and international music styles and genres.

• MW 12:05 p.m.-12:55 p.m.
• TR 12:05 p.m.-12:55 p.m.
• Instructor: Ramin Amir Arjomand
  CULPA: 8 Info
• Instructor: Mary Asti
  Info
• 1 points

Musicianship: Harmony

In this course, students at all levels of experience and musical interest will examine the phenomenon of simultaneous sound with chords and chord progressions, and experience harmony’s impact on musical structure and style. Harmonic articulation, nuance, and interpretation will be developed through the exploration of agogic, metric, tonal, and dynamic accent. The repertoire for Musicianship: Harmony covers vocal and instrumental music, and is open to classical, pop, jazz, folk, music theatre, computer, and international music styles and genres.

• TR 12:05 p.m.-12:55 p.m.
• Instructor: Peter M Susser
  CULPA: 20 Info
• 1 points

History of Western Music: Middle Ages to

Hist of West Mus: Mid Age

Topics in western music from Antiquity through Bach and Handel, focusing on the development of musical style and thought, and analysis of selected works. Pre-req: Music Theory II or permission of instructor.

• TR 2:40 p.m.-3:55 p.m.
• Instructor: Russell J O'Rourke
  Info
• 3 points

Undergraduate Composition

Comp for String Quartet

This course provides an immersive experience in music composition, focusing on both practical and theoretical aspects within a given instrumentation. Please refer to the topic for the instrumentation for this semester’s course. This class is open to students with no prior experience in composition. Students of varying music backgrounds are welcome. Permission of the instructor may be required for enrollment. The class will explore a variety of compositional approaches, including traditional, experimental, and interdisciplinary methods. During the semester, students will complete several creative and theoretical exercises ranging from short composition projects to analytical responses to diverse works. Students will also engage in individual and group feedback sessions as well as in-class readings of selected compositional projects by the performers. The final project will be an original work between 5 and 7 minutes, which will be workshopped, rehearsed, performed in a public concert, and recorded by professional musicians towards the end of the term.

• MW 10:10 a.m.-11:25 a.m.
• Instructor: Suzanne Farrin
  Info
• 3 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 8:40 a.m.-9:55 a.m.
• TR 10:10 a.m.-11:25 a.m.
• TR 5:40 p.m.-6:55 p.m.
• Instructor: Thomas T Wetmore
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• Instructor: Gabriel Lavin
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• Instructor: Nandini R Banerjee-Datta
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• Instructor: Nina Fukuoka
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• 3 points

MUSIC THEORY III

Intermediate analysis and composition in a variety of tonal idioms.

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

MUSIC THEORY IV

Intermediate analysis and composition in a variety of tonal and extended tonal idioms.

• 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: Aaron A Fox
  CULPA: 7 Info
• 3 points

HONORS RESEARCH

Prerequisites: a formal proposal to be submitted and approved prior to registration; see the director of undergraduate studies for details. A creative/scholarly project conducted under faculty supervision, leading to completion of an honors essay, composition, or the equivalent.

• Instructor: Zosha Di Castri
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• Instructor: Julia Doe
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• Instructor: Kevin Fellezs
  CULPA: 4 Info
• Instructor: Aaron A Fox
  CULPA: 7 Info
• Instructor: Walter M Frisch
  CULPA: 17 Info
• Instructor: Bradford G Garton
  CULPA: 14 Info
• Instructor: Giuseppe Gerbino
  CULPA: 12 Info
• Instructor: Georg Friedrich Haas
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• Instructor: Marcos Balter
  Wikipedia Info
• Instructor: Mariusz Kozak
  CULPA: 4 h-index: 5 Info
• Instructor: George Lewis
  CULPA: 10 Wikipedia h-index: 18 Info
• Instructor: Jeffrey Milarsky
  CULPA: 6 Wikipedia Info
• Instructor: Seth Cluett
  h-index: 4 Info
• Instructor: Elaine Sisman
  CULPA: 13 Wikipedia Info
• Instructor: Benjamin A Steege
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• Instructor: Magdalena Baczewska
  CULPA: 4 Info
• Instructor: Peter M Susser
  CULPA: 20 Info
• Instructor: Christopher J Washburne
  CULPA: 31 Info
• Instructor: Knar Abrahamyan
  Info
• Instructor: Ruth Opara
  Info
• 2-3 points

SUPERVISED INDEPENDENT STUDY

Prerequisites: approval prior to registration; see the director of undergraduate studies for details. A creative/scholarly project conducted under faculty supervision.

• Instructor: Zosha Di Castri
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• Instructor: Julia Doe
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• Instructor: Aaron A Fox
  CULPA: 7 Info
• Instructor: Kevin Fellezs
  CULPA: 4 Info
• Instructor: Walter M Frisch
  CULPA: 17 Info
• Instructor: Bradford G Garton
  CULPA: 14 Info
• Instructor: Giuseppe Gerbino
  CULPA: 12 Info
• Instructor: Georg Friedrich Haas
  Info
• Instructor: Marcos Balter
  Wikipedia Info
• Instructor: Mariusz Kozak
  CULPA: 4 h-index: 5 Info
• Instructor: George Lewis
  CULPA: 10 Wikipedia h-index: 18 Info
• Instructor: Jeffrey Milarsky
  CULPA: 6 Wikipedia Info
• Instructor: Seth Cluett
  h-index: 4 Info
• Instructor: Elaine Sisman
  CULPA: 13 Wikipedia Info
• Instructor: Benjamin A Steege
  Info
• Instructor: Magdalena Baczewska
  CULPA: 4 Info
• Instructor: Peter M Susser
  CULPA: 20 Info
• Instructor: Christopher J Washburne
  CULPA: 31 Info
• Instructor: Knar Abrahamyan
  Info
• Instructor: Ruth Opara
  Info
• 2-3 points

LATE STYLE&EARLY ROMANTICISM

Historians point to the self-conscious awareness of a new age and a new temporality, but also a sense of belatedness, in the decades after the French Revolution of the 1790s. In this course we will study the ideas of lateness and late style across the generational breaks of late Classicism and early Romanticism (1798-1830) represented by Haydn’s late oratorios, Beethoven’s heroic and post-heroic styles, and Schubert’s overlapping private and public concerns during the 1820s. Classes will combine historical, analytical, and hermeneutic perspectives as we study innovative compositions completed under conditions of illness, disability, and cultural estrangement. Schubert completed his last symphony within a year of Beethoven’s—both of them “Ninths”— and their final string quartets were written at the same time, but the different fates of these works tell their own story.

• W 12:10 p.m.-2 p.m.
• Instructor: Elaine Sisman
  CULPA: 13 Wikipedia Info
• 3 points

Music Production & Studio Composition

This course explores the recording studio and Digital Audio Workstations (DAWs) as tools for diverse compositional practices. By exploring a range of recording and editing techniques to craft new musical works beyond the limitations of live performance, this class encourages a seamless blend of composition and music production. Various genres, artists, and techniques that push the boundaries of music recording will be studied, such as Jamaican dub, musique concrète, hyper-pop, jazz fusion, and more. Students will gain hands-on experience with DAWs, exploring tools like effects processing, layering, and spatial placement. They will learn to listen closely to pieces exemplifying these techniques, building a shared analytic vocabulary to describe them. Students will also create original pieces, applying and building on the techniques studied in class, while engaging in constructive feedback with peers.

• M 1:10 p.m.-4 p.m.
• Instructor: Anna Meadors
  Info
• 3 points

Music and Global Women

This course offers a comparative exploration of women music practitioners from cross-cultural perspectives, examining their music, oral histories, and lived experiences as well as the impact of these experiences on their music-making in a global context. By tracing the journeys and analyzing the music of specific selected women musicians from various regions, the course investigates their participation in art music, traditional music, popular music, and sacred music from women’s perspectives. Engaging primarily with their music and interviews, the course particularly examines the comparative roles of women as active creators, performers, sponsors, and consumers of music, highlighting how their lived experiences shape their musical contributions. Students will be introduced to critical concepts for analyzing representations of gender, class, ethnicity, nationalism, race, and globalization in music while exploring these women’s sounds, identities, and performances.

• M 2:10 p.m.-4 p.m.
• Instructor: Ruth Opara
  Info
• 3 points

POST-1965 JAZZ

This course will focus on the developments in jazz after 1965, particularly within its discursive formation as an art movement, a political position, and a cultural force. The course will not follow a chronological survey but will engage various critical issues that jazz has confronted since 1965. These questions focus on the definition and constitution of jazz; the music’s relationship to popular culture broadly, particularly with popular music genres; and the nature of contemporary jazz.

• W 2:10 p.m.-4 p.m.
• Instructor: Kevin Fellezs
  CULPA: 4 Info
• 4 points

JAZZ TRANSCRIPTION & ANALYSIS

Prerequisites: the instructors permission. A progressive course in transcribing, proceeding from single lines to full scale sections and ensembles. Stylistic analysis based on new and previously published transcriptions.

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

• T 11:40 a.m.-2:30 p.m.
• Instructor: David Adamcyk
  CULPA: 1 Info
• 3 points

Sound: Foundations

SOUND: FOUNDATIONS

This foundational course in sounding media will begin by exploring how listening happens as well the tools necessary to capture and present that listening. Through hands-on experimentation and demonstration, this seminar will examine both the technical and semiotic use of sound as a material within creative practice.  Fundamental acoustic and electronic principles, studio techniques, and the building blocks of analog and digital processes for the creation of sound will be explored creatively and critically. Through hands-on projects that implement these ideas we will examine critical terms through praxis.  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. Readings will be assigned and we will look and listen to a lot of work, all of which will generate material to engage actively in discussions.

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

SUPERVISED INDEPENDENT STUDY

• Instructor: Seth Cluett
  h-index: 4 Info
• Instructor: Georg Friedrich Haas
  Info
• 1-3 points

PROSEMINAR-HISTORICL MUSICOLGY

Introduction to Historical Musicology: the history of the discipline, major areas of research, source materials, and methodological problems.

• R 2:10 p.m.-4 p.m.
• Instructor: Julia Doe
  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

Practicum in Music Composition

This course provides an opportunity for students in the Music Department’s Composition DMA program to engage in off-campus practicum or internships in music composition for academic credit that will count towards the requirements for the degree.

• Instructor: Marcos Balter
  Wikipedia Info
• 1 points

TOPICS IN THE HISTORY OF MUSIC THEORY

Explores varying themes in the history of music theory from antiquity to the present. Topics include the development of genres of musical analysis and description, problems in the historiography of music theory, musical discourse in relation to the human sciences, and other special issues.

• W 10:10 a.m.-noon
• Instructor: Benjamin A Steege
  Info
• 3 points

MUSIC SINCE 1900

Prerequisites: the instructor's permission. Investigation and analysis of styles and techniques of music since 1900, carried out in part through individual projects. (Prior to Spring 2008, the course was titled 20-Century Styles and Techniques.)

• T 12:10 p.m.-2 p.m.
• Instructor: George Lewis
  CULPA: 10 Wikipedia h-index: 18 Info
• 3 points

PROSEMINAR-ETHNOMUSICOLOGY I

Introduction to Ethnomusicology: the history of the discipline and the evolution of theories and methods. G6412, Proseminar in Ethnomusicology II: Contemporary Ethnography is offered Fall 2012.

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

INDIV PROJECTS IN MUSICOLOGY

INDIV PROJECT IN MUSICOLOGY

Sec. 1: Ethnomusicology; Sec. 2: Historical Musicology; Sec. 3: Music Theory; Sec. 4: Music Cognition; Sec. 5: Music Philosophy.

• Instructor: Julia Doe
  Info
• Instructor: Kevin Fellezs
  CULPA: 4 Info
• Instructor: Aaron A Fox
  CULPA: 7 Info
• Instructor: Walter M Frisch
  CULPA: 17 Info
• Instructor: Giuseppe Gerbino
  CULPA: 12 Info
• Instructor: Knar Abrahamyan
  Info
• Instructor: Mariusz Kozak
  CULPA: 4 h-index: 5 Info
• Instructor: George Lewis
  CULPA: 10 Wikipedia h-index: 18 Info
• Instructor: Elaine Sisman
  CULPA: 13 Wikipedia Info
• Instructor: Benjamin A Steege
  Info
• Instructor: Christopher J Washburne
  CULPA: 31 Info
• 3 points

INDIV PROJECTS IN MUSICOLOGY

Sec. 1: Ethnomusicology; Sec. 2: Historical Musicology; Sec. 3: Music Theory; Sec. 4: Music Cognition; Sec. 5: Music Philosophy.

• Instructor: Ruth Opara
  Info
• 3 points

SEM-HIST MUSICOLOGY:MUSIC,MIND

SEM-HIST MUSICOLOGY:RENAISSANC

• M 4:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
• 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 II

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 “just intonation” and with music independent from Western traditions.  Students are free to enroll for “Music beyond 12 tone temperament II” before “Music beyond 12 tone temperament I”.  Knowledge of the harmonic row’s intonation, at least until the 17th partial, is mandatory.

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

SEM-ETHNOMUSICLGY:FLD MTHDS I

A study of the theoretical and practical aspects of ethnomusicological fieldwork, using the New York area as a setting for exercises and individual projects.

• T 2:10 p.m.-4 p.m.
• Instructor: Christopher J Washburne
  CULPA: 31 Info
• 3 points

Dissertation Proposal Seminar I

Individual work with an adviser to develop a topic and proposal for the Ph.D. dissertation.

• Instructor: Julia Doe
  Info
• Instructor: Joseph P Dubiel
  CULPA: 3 Info
• Instructor: Kevin Fellezs
  CULPA: 4 Info
• Instructor: Aaron A Fox
  CULPA: 7 Info
• Instructor: Walter M Frisch
  CULPA: 17 Info
• Instructor: Giuseppe Gerbino
  CULPA: 12 Info
• Instructor: Knar Abrahamyan
  Info
• Instructor: Mariusz Kozak
  CULPA: 4 h-index: 5 Info
• Instructor: George Lewis
  CULPA: 10 Wikipedia h-index: 18 Info
• Instructor: Elaine Sisman
  CULPA: 13 Wikipedia Info
• Instructor: Benjamin A Steege
  Info
• Instructor: Christopher J Washburne
  CULPA: 31 Info
• 3 points