(Offered as BIOL 214 and NEUR 214) An introduction to the structure and function of the nervous system, this course explores the basic functions of neurons and synapses as well as neural mechanisms of sensation at molecular, cellular, circuit and system levels. Basic topics in neurobiology and neurophysiology will be covered with emphasis on neuroscience history and understanding how neuroscientists approach the study of the nervous system. Three class hours per week.

Requisite: BIOL 191. Limited to 45 students. Fall semester. Professor Roche.

Independent reading course. A full course.

Fall and spring semesters.

Functioning as a combined seminar and performance workshop, this course explores the theory and practice of musical improvisation. Rather than focus on one specific musical style, we will define “improvised music” in an inclusive way that draws equally from American and European experimental musics, various approaches to post-1965 jazz improvisation, and several musical traditions from around the world that prominently use improvisation. Students will be encouraged to develop new performance practices drawn from and in dialogue with these diverse musical traditions.

(Offered as MUSI 420, EUST 320 and THDA 320) This course examines the three main genres of lyric theater (opera, operetta, and musical) with special attention to composers’ musical characterizations of the women and men who populate them. Beginning with case studies from operas by Mozart, Verdi, and Puccini, an operetta by Johann Strauss II, and a musical by Stephen Sondheim, we will work to acquire a critical vocabulary to understand the ways in which composers work with conventions of vocal type and melodic and rhythmic gesture to define character.

Independent reading course. A full course.

Fall and spring semesters. The Department.

Immersive composition projects according to the needs and experience of the individual student, deepening the experience gained in courses of study like Music 269. One class meeting per week and private conferences. Guest composer presentations in a workshop environment. This course may be repeated.

Requisite: MUSI 269 or the equivalent, and consent of the instructor. Fall semester. Professor Sawyer.

This course will explore compositional techniques continually growing from the numerous traditions that filter through Western art music styles. Innovate works by twentieth and twenty-first century composers that generate new approaches to these traditions (through melody and scale, rhythm and meter, harmony, instrumentation, and musical structure) will be examined and practiced to the best of our collective abilities. The course will employ improvisation as a source of ideas for written compositions and as a primary compositional mode.

(Offered as THDA 254 and MUSI 254) What is the role of sound in live performance, and how is it designed and produced? This course provides an introduction to the fundamentals of sound design in live performance contexts from both technical and artistic perspectives. Throughout the term we will work towards developing skills that lead to a greater awareness and understanding of sound in theatre, media, and our everyday lives.

How does music’s harmonic language work? What principles influence harmonic choices in different styles of music, and what do Bach chorales, Adele’s music, and Broadway showtunes have in common? How do composers and musicians manage the intricate relationship between harmony and melody? In this course, we’ll develop a deeper understanding of conventions of tonal harmony in music from popular and classical traditions, among others.

(Offered as MUSI 223 and EUST 223) This course is the third semester of the Music Department's Music and Culture series. It surveys twentieth-century music starting from Gustav Mahler at the turn of the century Vienna and concluding with Kaija Saariaho's 2000 opera L'amour de loin.