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 class, we’ll develop a deeper understanding of conventions of tonal harmony in music from popular and classical traditions, among others.
(Offered as MUSI 238 and FAMS 312) This course is about exploring, participating in, and documenting the musical communities and acoustic terrain of the Pioneer Valley. The first part of the course will focus on local histories and music scenes, ethnographic methods and technologies, and different techniques of representation. The second part of the course will involve intensive, sustained engagement with musicians and sounds in the Pioneer Valley.
(Offered as MUSI 221 and EUST 221) One of three courses in which music is studied in relation to issues of history, theory, culture, and performance, with the focus of the course changing from year to year. In 2018-19, this course will serve as an introduction to European music in the Medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque eras.
How does a composer create music for a wedding set in 2048 or a designer invent sounds of life on an imaginary planet? How do science fiction authors describe the music and sounds of alternate universes?
A course designed to explore jazz harmonic and improvisational practice from both the theoretical and applied standpoint. Students will study common harmonic practices of the jazz idiom, modes and scales, rhythmic practices, the blues, and understand the styles of jazz in relation to the history of the music. An end-of-semester performance of material(s) studied during the semester will be required of the class. A jazz-based ear-training section will be scheduled outside of the regular class times. Two class meetings per week. This course is considered a point of entry to MUSI 241.
Fall semester: Through composition, analysis, and performance, we will build a solid working understanding of basic principles of melody and harmony common in Western musical traditions. Assignments include harmonizing melodies, writing short melodies and accompaniments, and composing in several forms such as 12-bar blues, classical minuets, and "Broadway"-style 32-bar AABA form. On several occasions we will use our instruments and voices to bring musical examples to life in the classroom. Two class meetings and one lab session per week.
This course is intended for students with little or no background in music who would like to develop a theoretical and practical understanding of how music works. Students will be introduced into the technical details of music such as musical notation, intervals, basic harmony, meter and rhythm. Familiarity with basic music theory will enable students to read and perform at sight as well as provide an introduction to the composition of melodies with chordal accompaniment.
Fall and spring semesters. The Department.
The quadratic formula shows us that the roots of a quadratic polynomial possess a certain symmetry. Galois Theory is the study of the corresponding symmetry for higher degree polynomials. We will develop this theory starting from a basic knowledge of groups, rings, and fields. One of our main goals will be to prove that there is no general version of the quadratic formula for a polynomial of degree five or more. Along the way, we will also show that a circular cake can be divided into 17 (but not 7) equal slices using only a straight-edged knife.
Independent reading course.
Fall and spring semesters. The Department.
