A topical approach to the concepts and practices of music in relation to other arts in the development of Asian civilizations.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Prerequisites: approval prior to registration; see the director of undergraduate studies for details. A creative/scholarly project conducted under faculty supervision.
This seminar will focus on love poetry in the medieval western Mediterranean. Readings will consist primarily of medieval lyric in Old Occitan, Galician Portuguese, Old French, Italian, and Castilian in conversation with concurrent kindred forms of the lyric in classical Arabic and medieval Hebrew from medieval Iberia and Italy. Most weeks will include listening examples but a background in music is not a prerequisite. All texts will be available in translation; originals will also be made available. We will emphasize close reading and analysis, often addressing the relationship between text and music.
This advanced seminar builds on the Introduction to Music Cognition (MUSIC UN2320) with an in-depth inquiry into selected key topics in the field of Music Cognition. Specific topics vary each year, depending on interest and availability of instructors, and include human development; evolution; communication and music’s relation to language; embodied knowledge; first-person awareness; metaphor; ineffability; neuroscience; mental representations; memory and anticipation; cross-cultural studies; emotions; musical aesthetics; artificial intelligence; agency; creativity; and music’s relation to other art forms. Each semester the course delves into recent research on 3–4 of these topics, focusing in particular on how this research can be applied to questions of musical knowledge. Advanced readings are drawn from fields as diverse as music theory, psychology, biology, anthropology, philosophy, and neuroscience. They include general works in cognitive science, theoretical work focused on specific musical issues, and reports of empirical research.
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.
This course will address hands-on making through creative projects reinforced with critical and historical readings to contextualize work. Coursework will explore fabrication, gears and motors, homemade instruments, 3d printing, amplifiers and transducers, circuit bending, and getting comfortable soldering and reading circuits. The course engages creative uses of audio technology within and beyond the concert hall, instrumental acoustics and organology, and movement, gesture, and space as elements of structuring sound work. Fluency, troubleshooting,
and self-reliance regarding basic audio hardware, signal flow, and technical requirements for supporting the addition of amplification, fixed media, or interactive electronics to sound work will be a focus throughout. We’ll explore instrument building and modification, installation
design and construction, and physical interfaces to software instruments through hands-on projects supported by readings and repertoire and will culminate in a creative project of your own design.
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.
Prerequisites: W4525 (Instrumentation) and Orchestration and recommendation of Orchestration instructor for undergraduates. Graduate students (other than composition graduate students) must obtain the instructors permission. The Advanced Orchestration class explores orchestrational techniques under the light of our current knowledge of acoustics and sound analysis. It will focus on the late romantic era and on the 20th and 21st centuries. The most recent techniques (micro-tonality, extended instrumental techniques, electronics) will also be studied.
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.)
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.
This course explores both analogue and digital tools for the sound reinforcement of concerts in all formats. Through hands-on experience, the course addresses the impact and potential of contemporary tools on the aesthetic choices of musical projects. The course supports artists (performers, composers, improvisers, sounds artists, etc.) by providing a solid foundation and a working knowledge of live sound concepts in order to improve the realization of their creative audio work. A significant feature of the course is direct experience producing live concerts in order to fully understand the implications of the transition between the pre-concert studio preparation and live concert execution. Under the supervision of the instructor, students are expected to oversee the audio-related technical aspects of two to three music department events, including the doctoral composition work of the Columbia Composers concert series. Topics include the practice and theory behind analog and digital mixing, live sound processing, concert diffusion, spatial audio, sound reinforcement, mixed music techniques, concert recording, and efficient equipment set-up and tear-down. Please note that students must be available for two whole-day Saturday events whose dates will be determined and distributed by the instructor at the start of the semester.
Sec. 1: Ethnomusicology; Sec. 2: Historical Musicology; Sec. 3: Music Theory; Sec. 4: Music Cognition; Sec. 5: Music Philosophy.
Sec. 1: Ethnomusicology; Sec. 2: Historical Musicology; Sec. 3: Music Theory; Sec. 4: Music Cognition; Sec. 5: Music Philosophy.
Sec. 1: Ethnomusicology; Sec. 2: Historical Musicology; Sec. 3: Music Theory; Sec. 4: Music Cognition; Sec. 5: Music Philosophy.
Individual projects in composition.
Prerequisites: MUSI G8412. A study of the theoretical and practical aspects of ethnomusicological field work, using the New York area as a setting for exercises and individual projects.
Interdisciplinary group work as part of Dissertation Proposal Seminar series.