This is a full-year course. Prerequisite: MUS 100 or equivalent. Credits: 4, at the completion of two semesters. Department application required.

Exploration and coaching of varied repertory for duos and small ensembles. May be repeated for credit. Open to instrumental students. Instructor permission required.

Each musical tradition is best explained and understood by its own system of theory. This course introduces four musical traditions and their corresponding theories: Tuvan Throat Singing, Dagomba Dance Drumming, Javanese Gamelan and Hindustani classical music. Topics include theory fundamentals, listening methods, compositional approaches and aesthetics. Learning about these traditions will open doors to new modes of listening and to hearing familiar music in a brand new way. (E)

In this course, students evaluate the assumptions and foundations of Western music theory, primarily under the critical guidance of feminist theory. Tonal theory is often a routine part of undergraduate music study. What are the goals and criteria of this kind of analysis? While critically examining Western music theory’s intellectual values, students develop approaches to analysis that are responsive, in a variety of ways, to queer, feminist and antiracist thought.

Heavy metal and punk rock have arguably been the definitive rock-and-roll styles of the post-1970 rock era. In this course, we explore metal and punk as interrelated musical genres, following their history and development and examining a range of social and musical issues along the way. Of particular importance will be the following: How and when did metal and punk emerge? What defines the two genres musically? What defines them socially? Taken together, how do they represent the changing status of rock music as a cultural and commercial form since 1970?

The primary goal of this course is to deepen your understanding of the music you like, while forging connections to music that is unfamiliar to you, making you a more well-informed music consumer. Throughout the course, you hone active listening skills, helping you to identify technical components and to connect with the music on an emotional level. These skills help you describe more specifically what you hear, and decode increasingly complex music. Classes cover folk, popular, jazz, non-western classical and other styles.

An introduction to formal analysis and tonal harmony and a study of pieces in the standard repertory. Regular exercises in harmony. Prerequisites: ability to read standard notation in treble and bass clefs, including key signatures and time signatures and the ability to name intervals. (A placement test is given before the fall semester for incoming students.) One 50-minute ear training section required per week, in addition to classroom meetings. Enrollment limited to 20.

An introduction to formal analysis and tonal harmony and a study of pieces in the standard repertory. Regular exercises in harmony. Prerequisites: ability to read standard notation in treble and bass clefs, including key signatures and time signatures and the ability to name intervals. (A placement test is given before the fall semester for incoming students.) One 50-minute ear training section required per week, in addition to classroom meetings. Enrollment limited to 20.