Music

MUSI BC1001 AN INTRODUCTION TO MUSIC I. 3.00 points.

Prerequisites: no previous knowledge of music is required. A survey of the development of Western music from 6th-century Gregorian Chant to Bach and Handel, with emphasis upon important composers and forms. Extensive listening required

MUSI BC1002 AN INTRODUCTION TO MUSIC II. 3.00 points.

Prerequisites: no previous knowledge of music is required

MUSI BC1501 VOICE INSTRUCTION. 2.00 points.

Entrance by audition only. Call Barnard College, Department of Music during registration for time and place of audition (854-5096)

MUSI BC1502 VOICE INSTRUCTION. 2.00 points.

Entrance by audition only. Call Barnard College, Department of Music during registration for time and place of audition (854-5096)

MUSI UN1593 BARNARD-COLUMBIA CHORUS I. 1.00 point.

Prerequisites: auditions by appointment made at first meeting. Contact Barnard College, Department of Music (854-5096). Membership in the chorus is open to all men and women in the University community. The chorus gives several public concerts each season, both on and off campus, often with other performing organizations. Sight-singing sessions offered. The repertory includes works from all periods of music literature. Students who register for chorus will receive a maximum of 4 points for four or more semesters

MUSI UN1594 BARNARD-COLUMBIA CHORUS II. 1.00 point.

Prerequisites: auditions by appointment made at first meeting. Contact Barnard College, Department of Music (854-5096). Membership in the chorus is open to all men and women in the University community. The chorus gives several public concerts each season, both on and off campus, often with other performing organizations. Sight-singing sessions offered. The repertory includes works from all periods of music literature. Students who register for chorus will receive a maximum of 4 points for four or more semesters

MUSI UN1595 BARNARD-COLUMBIA-CHAMBR SINGER. 1.00 point.

Prerequisites: auditions by appointment made at first meeting. Contact Barnard College, Department of Music (854-5096). Membership in the chorus is open to all men and women in the University community. The chorus gives several public concerts each season, both on and off campus, often with other performing organizations. Sight-singing sessions offered. The repertory includes works from all periods of music literature

MUSI UN1596 BARNARD-COLUMBIA-CHAMBR SINGER. 1.00 point.

Prerequisites: contact Barnard College, Department of Music (854-5096). Membership in the chorus is open to all men and women in the University community. The chorus gives several public concerts each season, both on and off campus, often with other performing organizations. Sight-singing sessions offered. The repertory includes works from all periods of music literature

MUSI BC3139 INTRODUCTION VOCAL REPERTOIRE. 3.00 points.

This course is designed for developing singers. Group vocalizing, learning of songs and individual workshop performances are aimed at improving the students technical skill and the elements necessary to create a meaningful musical and dramatic experience. Attention to text, subtext, emotional and psychological aspects of a piece and the performers relationship to the audience are included in the work. Repertoire is predominantly in English and comes from both classical and popular traditions Individual coaching sessions are available with the class accompanist and help strengthen the students confidence and skill. The class culminates with an in-class performance

MUSI BC3140 VOCAL REPERTOIRE, TECHNIQUE. 3.00 points.

Vocal exercises and exploration of wide-ranging repertoires, styles, and languages of the Western European song tradition. The rich variety of English, French, Italian and German poetry and music from the Baroque period through the Twentieth Century allows the student to experience both the music and the cultural environment of each of these styles. Attention is given both to meaning oftext and musical interpretation. Individual coaching sessions are available with the class accompanist and help strengthen the students confidence and skill. The class culminates with an in-class performance

MUSI BC3145 WORLDMUSE ENSEMBLE. 3.00 points.

Worldmuse Ensemble delves into compelling music from many genres such as world music, gospel, classical--old and new. We perform without a conductor, increasing awareness and interaction among ourselves and our audience. We collaboratively integrate music, dance, and theatre traditions (masks etc.). For experienced singers, and instrumentalists and dancers who sing

MUSI BC3990 SENIOR PROJ:RESEARCH FOR MUSIC. 3.00 points.

Working with her advisor, a student will expand the research project initiated in the Fall Senior Seminar for Music Majors (BC3992x). In order to satisfy the requirement, the student will complete a fifty page research paper

MUSI BC3991 SENIOR PROJ: MUSIC REPERTORY. 3.00 points.

Working with her advisor, a student will develop a vocal or instrumental recital program with representative musical works from a variety of historical periods. In order to satisfy the requirement, the student will present an hour long public performance of the recital program. Students may also satisfy this requirement by composing original vocal or instrumental works

MUSI BC3992 SENIOR SEM FOR MUSIC MAJORS. 4.00 points.

The goals of this seminar are a) to introduce senior music majors to ethnographic, bibliographic, and archival research methods in music and b) to help the same students develop, focus, implement, draft, revise, and polish a substantive, original piece of research (25-30 pages) which will serve as the senior project. The course will begin with a survey of academic literature on key problems in musicological research and writing, and will progress to a workshop/discussion format in which each week a different student is responsible for assigning readings and leading the discussion on a topic which s/he has formulated and deemed to be of relevance to her own research

MUSI UN1002 FUNDAMENTALS OF MUSIC. 3.00 points.

Corequisites: Introductory Ear-Training (V1312, or higher, as determined by placement exam).
Introduction to music, including notation, written and aural skills, and basic conceptual resources of music theory. Exploration of scale, mode, rhythm, meter, texture and form, with reference to a diverse range of musics

HUMA UN1123 MASTERPIECES OF WESTERN MUSIC. 3.00 points.

Analysis and discussion of representative works from the Middle Ages to the present

MUSI UN1518 KEYBOARD HARMONY/MUSICIANSHIP. 1.00 point.

Prerequisites: Instructor Permission
Prerequisites: Instructor Permission This course is only open to Music Theory students who did not pass the piano proficiency exam. Sign up in 109 Dodge

MPP UN1521 UNIVERSITY ORCHESTRA I. 2.00 points.

Prerequisites: Auditions are required. Sign up for an audition on the MPP website: www.mpp.music.columbia.edu or on the CUO website: http://cuo.music.columbia.edu/
Prerequisites: Auditions are required. Sign up for an audition on the MPP website: www.mpp.music.columbia.edu or on the CUO website: http://cuo.music.columbia.edu/ Auditions are required. Sign up for an audition on the MPP website: www.mpp.music.columbia.edu or on the CUO website: http://cuo.music.columbia.edu/ Accepting NEW STUDENTS in FALL semester ONLY unless otherwise noted. All accepted MPP students must register for ensembles by the change-of-program deadline every semester in order to be allowed to participate. Petitioning students or students not able to register must notify MPP staff prior to this deadline. Contact Music Performance Program at mpp@columbia.edu Weekly meetings with ensemble and end-of-semester performance required

MPP UN1531 CHAMBER ENSEMBLE. 1.00 point.

Prerequisites: Auditions are required. Sign up for an audition on MPP website: www.mpp.music.columbia.edu
Prerequisites: Auditions are required. Sign up for an audition on MPP website: www.mpp.music.columbia.edu Prerequisites: Audition Required: Sign up for an audition time on MPP website: www.mpp.music.columbia.edu Accepting NEW STUDENTS in FALL semester ONLY. All accepted MPP students must register for lessons and ensembles by the change-of-program deadline in order to be allowed to attend lessons that semester. Petitioning students must notify MPP staff prior to this deadline. Contact Music Performance Program at mpp@columbia.edu

MPP UN1541 COLUMBIA UNIV JAZZ ENSEMBL. 1.00 point.

Prerequisites: Auditions are required. Sign up for an audition on MPP website: www.mpp.music.columbia.edu
Prerequisites: Auditions are required. Sign up for an audition on MPP website: www.mpp.music.columbia.edu Prerequisites: Audition Required: Sign up for an audition time on MPP website: www.mpp.music.columbia.edu Accepting NEW STUDENTS in FALL semester ONLY. All accepted MPP students must register for lessons and ensembles by the change-of-program deadline in order to be allowed to attend lessons that semester. Petitioning students must notify MPP staff prior to this deadline. Contact Music Performance Program at mpp@columbia.edu

MPP UN1551 WORLD MUSIC ENSEMBLE. 1.00 point.

Prerequisites: Auditions are required. Sign up for an audition on MPP website: www.mpp.music.columbia.edu
Prerequisites: Auditions are required. Sign up for an audition on MPP website: www.mpp.music.columbia.edu Prerequisites: Audition Required: Sign up for an audition time on MPP website: www.mpp.music.columbia.edu Accepting NEW STUDENTS in FALL semester ONLY. All accepted MPP students must register for lessons and ensembles by the change-of-program deadline in order to be allowed to attend lessons that semester. Petitioning students must notify MPP staff prior to this deadline. Contact Music Performance Program at mpp@columbia.edu

MUSI UN2021 MUSIC IN CONTEMP NATIVE AMER. 3.00 points.

Music in Contemporary Native America is a historical, ethnographic, and topical examination of contemporary Native American musical practices and ideologies. The course emphasizes popular, vernacular, and mass mediated musics, and calls into question the simple distinction between traditional and modern aspects of Native American cultures. Our readings and class guests (several of whom will be Native American scholars) emphasize the importance of understanding Native 2 American perspectives on these topics. Three short papers and one substantial final project are required. Approximately 100-150 pages of reading per week

MUSI UN2023 BEETHOVEN. 3.00 points.

Prerequisites: HUMA UN1123 or the equivalent.

A study of the life and works of Ludwig van Beethoven, with emphasis on selected symphonies, string quartets, and piano sonatas. Also consider the changing nature of the critical reception of Beethoven and issues of classicism and romanticism in music.

MUSI UN2025 THE OPERA. 3.00 points.

Prerequisites: HUMA W1123 or the equivalent.

The development of opera from Monteverdi to the present.  IN FALL 2011, THE OPERA WILL BE OFFERED MON/WED 2:40-3:55 in 622 DODGE.

MUSI UN2030 JEWISH MUSIC IN NEW YORK. 3.00 points.

Prerequisites: Music Humanities (Columbia University) or An Introduction to Music (Barnard).
Prerequisites: Music Humanities (Columbia University) or An Introduction to Music (Barnard). With the arrival of the first Jewish immigrants in New York in the mid-1600s until today, Jewish music in the City has oscillated between preserving traditions and introducing innovative ideas. This course explores the variety of ways people have used music to describe, inscribe, symbolize, and editorialize their Jewish experience. Along these lines, it draws upon genres of art music, popular music, and non-Western traditions, as well as practices that synthesize various styles and genres, from hazzanut to hiphop. Diverse musical experiences will serve as a window to address wider questions of identity, memory, and dislocation. We will also experience the Jewish soundscape of New York’s dynamic and eclectic music culture by visiting various venues and meeting key players in today’s music scene, and thus engage in the ongoing dialogues that define Jewishness in New York. A basic familiarity with Judaism and Jewish culture is helpful for this course, but it is by no means required. You do not need to know Jewish history to take this class, nor do you need to be able to read music. Translations from Hebrew and Yiddish will be provided, and musical analysis will be well explained

MUSI UN2205 INTRODUCTION TO DIGITAL MUSIC. 3.00 points.

Prerequisites: Permission of Instructor required to enroll. Music Majors/Music Concentrations have priority for enrollment.
An introduction to the potential of digital sound synthesis and signal processing. Teaches proficiency in elementary and advanced digital audio techniques. This course aims to challenge some of the tacet assumptions about music that are built into the design of various user interfaces and hardware and fosters a creative approach to using digital audio workstation software and equipment. Permission of Instructor required to enroll. Music Majors have priority for enrollment

MUSI UN2230 History and Practice of Electronic Music. 3.00 points.

This course will provide a critical survey of the development of electronic and computer music and sound from around the globe. From early experiments and precursors in the late 19th century through to modern-day experimental and popular music practices, this course aims to trace the development of technologies used in the production of electronic and computer derived sound and music alongside the economic, cultural, and social forces that contribute to the development of audiences. The course will focus intently on listening through a series of curated playlists in an effort to unpack style and genre distinctions. Readings and listening examples will be paired with small, hands-on assignments, that demonstrate the effect of music making tools on the process and structure of musical genres and styles ranging from the experimental practices of musique concrete, drone, and harsh noise to the mainstream practices of dub, techno, vaporwave, hyperpop, and hip hop and more

MUSI UN2314 EAR-TRAINING I. 1.00 point.

Designed to improve the students basic skills in sight-singing, and rhythmic and melodic dictation with an introduction to four-part harmonic dictation

MUSI UN2315 EAR-TRAINING II. 1.00 point.

Techniques of sight-singing and dictation of diatonic melodies in simple and compound meter with strong emphasis on harmonic dictation

MUSI UN2318 MUSIC THEORY I. 3.00 points.

Prerequisites: Passing score on the placement exam administered prior to the first day of class or Fundamentals of Music/UN1002.
Elementary analysis and composition in a variety of modal and 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

MUSI UN2319 MUSIC THEORY II. 3.00 points.

Prerequisites: Passing score on the placement exam administered prior to the first day of class or Music Theory I/UN2318
Corequisites: one course from Ear-Training I-IV (V2314, V2315, V3316, or V3317, as determined by placement exam.)
Elementary 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

MUSI UN2582 JAZZ IMPROVISTN:THRY,HIST,PRAC. 3.00 points.

This course offers an introduction to jazz improvisation for instrumentalists. Through recordings, transcriptions, daily performance and selected readings, students will actively engage the history of jazz through their instruments and intellect. The idea of improvisation will be explored in an historical context, both as a musical phenomenon with its attendant theory and mechanics, and as a trope of American history and aesthetics. This class is for instrumentalists who wish to deepen their understanding of the theory, history and practice of jazz improvisation. The history of jazz will be used as a prism through which to view approaches to improvisation, from the cadences of the early Blues through the abstractions of Free Jazz and beyond. The student will be exposed to the theory and vocabularies of various jazz idioms, which they will also learn to place in their social and historical contexts

MUSI UN3023 Late Beethoven. 3 points.

Prerequisites: MUSI UN2318-UN2319 MUSI UN2318-UN2319 or the instructor's permission.

An examination of the visionary works of Beethoven's last dozen or so years as a composer, beginning with the revision of his only opera, Fidelio, in 1814, and continuing with the late piano sonatas, cello sonatas, string quartets, Diabelli variations, Ninth Symphony, and the Missa Solemnis. Topics will include late style, romanticism, politics, deafness, and the changing nature of the musical work and its performance.

MUSI UN3127 BACH'S SACRED MUSIC. 3.00 points.

Bach’s sacred music in its historical, theological, and social context

MUSI UN3128 HIST-WEST MUS: MID AGE-BAROQUE. 3.00 points.

Prerequisites: MUSI UN2318 - MUSI UN2319. May be taken before or concurrently with this course.
Prerequisites: MUSI UN2318 - MUSI UN2319. May be taken before or concurrently with this course. Topics in Western music from Antiquity through Bach and Handel, focusing on the development of musical style and thought, and analysis of selected works

MUSI UN3129 HIST-WEST MUS:CLASSICAL-20TH CENTURY. 3.00 points.

Prerequisites: MUSI V2318-2319. May be taken before or concurrently with this course.
Topics in Western music from the Classical era to the present day, focusing on the development of musical style and thought, and on analysis of selected works

MUSI UN3171 PARIS FOR ROMANTICS. 3.00 points.

Prerequisites: Completion of Music Humanities (or the consent of the instructor) is a pre-requisite for this course.
Prerequisites: Completion of Music Humanities (or the consent of the instructor) is a pre-requisite for this course. This course explores Parisian musical life during the long nineteenth century, situating musical discourses, institutions, and forms within the broader landscapes of literary and artistic Romanticism. Topics to be considered include: the musical echoes of the Revolution; operatic genres and theaters; the music of the salons; cultures of consumerism and domestic performance; and issues of nationalism and historicism after 1870. Composers to be considered include: Berlioz, Chopin, Liszt, Gounod, Saint-Saëns, Franck, Massenet, and Debussy. Completion of Music Humanities (or the consent of the instructor) is a pre-requisite for this course

MUSI UN3239 INTRODUCTION TO COMPOSITION I. 3.00 points.

Composition in shorter forms. Students will compose new works for the cello, with a focus on diverse approaches to the instrument. Student pieces will be workshopped, rehearsed, and performed (and/or recorded)

MUSI UN3241 ADVANCED COMPOSITION I. 3.00 points.

Composition Faculty

Prerequisites: UN3239/Intro to Comp I
Composition in more extended forms. Study of advanced techniques of contemporary composition. Readings of student works

MUSI UN3310 TECHNIQUES OF 20TH CENTURY MUSIC. 3.00 points.

Prerequisites: MUSI UN2319 or the instructor's permission.
Materials, styles, and techniques of 20th and 21st century music. Musical concepts and compositional techniques related to serialism and atonality, timbre, orchestration, indeterminacy, rhythm and temporality, electronic and electro-acoustic music, site-specific composition, graphic notation, recomposition, minimalism, and spectralism

MUSI UN3316 EAR-TRAINING III. 1.00 point.

Sight-singing techniques of modulating diatonic melodies in simple, compound, or irregular meters that involve complex rhythmic patterns. Emphasis is placed on four-part harmonic dictation of modulating phrases

MUSI UN3317 EAR-TRAINING IV. 1.00 point.

Techniques of musicianship at the intermediate level, stressing the importance of musical nuances in sight-singing. Emphasis is placed on chromatically inflected four-part harmonic dictation

AHMM UN3321 MUSICS OF INDIA ＆ WEST ASIA. 3.00 points.

CC/GS/SEAS: Partial Fulfillment of Global Core Requirement

A topical approach to the concepts and practices of music in relation to other arts in the development of Asian civilizations

MUSI UN3321 MUSIC THEORY III. 3.00 points.

A one-hour weekly lab is required, to be scheduled at the beginning of the term.

Prerequisites: MUSI V2319.
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

MUSI UN3322 MUSIC THEORY IV. 3.00 points.

Prerequisites: Music Theory II/UN3321
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

MUSI UN3342 Beyond Boundaries: Radical Black Experimental Music. 3 points.

This discussion seminar focuses on African American composer/improvisers in the twentieth- and twenty-first centuries whose work rejects and critiques simplistic compartmentalization in terms of improvisation, composition, genre, gender, race, and place. On the contrary, these musicians embody Duke Ellington’s famous dictum regarding great music being “beyond category.” Students will critically discuss some of the common threads in this network—musicians’ means of creating and performing their original music, its distribution in the marketplace and surrounding critical discourse, their engagement with issues of race, gender, and class within and outside of their communities, and interdisciplinary and community-based collaboration. Musical communities such encompassed in this course include the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), Sun Ra’s Arkestra, and the Jazz Composers Guild and extends up to the current day to include contemporary artists such as Nicole Mitchell, Matana Roberts, and Tyshawn Sorey. The incredibly rich multifarious pieces and performances that we will listen to and discuss reference and incorporate elements of improvisation, theatre, twelve-tone serialism, aleatoric composition, bebop, electro-acoustic and computer music,conduction, popular music, the voice, free jazz, Afrofuturism, the blues, orchestral music, opera, and graphic notation

MUSI UN3343 Shades of Brown: Music in the South Asian Diaspora . 3 points.

This course explores the musical world of the South Asian diaspora in Europe and North America. We will read ethnographic accounts of diasporic musics and experiences and develop methods for analysis and interpretation of such accounts, situating the songs of the South Asian diaspora within its broader social history. We will address the concepts of belonging and identity, nostalgia and affect, and the dismantling or upholding of dominant discourses such as gender, race, and caste. Our focus will be on the last half century, although deeper histories will need to be considered. Students will learn to analyze instrumentation and lyrics in various genres and traditions of South Asian music, including both art, folkloric, and popular idioms, and to correlate these with aspects of the social context of diaspora. While the specific focus of the course is on a particular diasporic history, the class will help students understand and think critically about the broader phenomenon of “diaspora” and its cultural dimensions, and through this to engage critically with important aspects of cultural globalization and migration.  

Students from all departments are welcome. Reading music not required.

MUSI UN3344 Curating Popular Music: From Song Pluggers to Spotify. 3 points.

How is popular music made popular? And who makes it popular? This discussion-based course seeks to answer these questions by focusing on the critical role that music industry professionals—song pluggers, sheet music publishers, producers, talent scouts, record executives, and content curators—have played in shaping the markets of production, circulation, and consumption of popular music in the United States from the beginning of the twentieth century to the present day. Readings, listening selections, and class discussion will address a number of key genres of American popular music—Tin Pan Alley, folk, blues, country, rock, pop, and hip hop—while individual assignments (including a final project centered on creating and producing a podcast) will allow students to apply the knowledge gained in class to genres, styles, and works of their own choosing. Students will not be required to have prior knowledge of music theory or to be able to read music. Completion of Masterpieces of Western Music: “Music Humanities” (HUMA UN 1123) is preferred, but not required.

MUSI UN3400 TOPICS IN MUSIC ＆ SOCIETY. 3.00 points.

Music Majors and Concentrators.

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

MUSI UN3410 The Polycultural Roots of U.S. Popular Music. 3.00 points.

This course will explore the rich hybrid development of U.S. popular music genres and vernacular music traditions. Focusing on the contributions of Indigenous, Latinx, Asian, and African American musicians and musical traditions in addition to European American musicians and musical traditions, in genres as various as country music, hip hop, jazz, reggaeton, and rock, students will enlarge their sense of the multiracial and crosscultural makeup of the music that constitutes “American popular music.”

MUSI UN3425 Music, Sound and the Law. 3.00 points.

This course is a historical overview of the relationship between music and the law in which students will employ both critical listening skills and critical thinking to understand how sound came to be understood as property, how the law impacts creativity, identity and labor, and how music has been used as a tool for enforcing and challenging legislative and political processes. We will discuss the origins of copyright law in the Enlightenment, how music has been used as a tool of colonization through formation of archives, examples of Native American conceptions of cultural property and modes of repatriation, the birth of the music industry and its segregationist history, how the law impacts creativity through the study of sampling, infringement and extension of rights, the ways in which musicians and listeners subvert legal strictures, how music can influence policy as protest or as propaganda, musical bans, noise ordinances, the relationship between music and the First Amendment, alternatives to copyright law in the digital age, music piracy, and the recent changes in the music industry to focus on data gathering as the primary model for music distribution. Music is our point of departure, and students will learn ways in which sonic practices shaped and challenged legislative paradigms. Our focus is on American musics such as Native American music, blues, country, jazz, rhythm and blues, rock and roll, experimental music, hip hop, pop, as well as some European classical music, “world” music, and EDM. Students will read and analyze legal primary sources such as the Music Modernization Act, as well as landmark court cases, critical legal literature, and musicological texts. Students will learn debate skills, acquire practical knowledge of the law through concepts such as fair use, the public domain and mechanical and performance rights, and develop listening skills to understand legal concepts such as infringement. This course is open to students of all majors and will be of particular interest to musicians, students with plans to pursue a law degree in IP or technology law, as well as those interested in working in the music industry. There are no prerequisites and no previous knowledge of music, music theory, or the law is necessary. Masterpieces of Western Music or Asian Music Humanities are recommended

MUSI UN3995 HONORS RESEARCH. 2.00-3.00 points.

Open to honors candidates in music only.

Prerequisites: a formal proposal to be submitted and approved prior to registration; see the director of undergraduate studies for details.
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

MUSI UN3998 SUPERVISED INDEPENDENT STUDY. 2.00-3.00 points.

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

MUSI GU4060 MEDIEVAL MUSIC DRAMA. 3.00 points.

In this seminar we will study examples of music drama from the tenth century to the fourteenth, taking into account both the manuscript sources and methodological questions raised by performative works at the intersection of literature, music, and ritual

MUSI GU4108 Critical Approaches to Opera Studies. 3.00 points.

Why opera now? In what ways can a 400-year-old art form speak to the needs of contemporary society? This seminar provides an introduction to critical opera studies: we will analyze a broad range of lyric repertory (spanning from Monteverdi to Saariaho) while interrogating the debates these works have generated, both historically and in the present day. Topics to be considered include: operatic institutions and conventions; gender and voice; theories of “text” and liveness; modernist staging; the troubling legacies of Empire and exoticism; and the intersections of opera and multimedia (opera on/as film, opera in HD, site-specific opera). While completion of Music Humanities is a suggested pre-requisite, this class welcomes interdisciplinary perspectives. Individual assignments may be tailored to accommodate student interests and backgrounds outside of the field of music. Note: While the original description for this course emphasized live concert attendance, the present circumstances have clearly rendered this impossible! Our meetings will now make use of Columbia's extensive resources for online streaming (Met Opera on Demand, medici.tv); feature zoom discussions with prominent figures from the opera world; and take care to critically consider the ways that the art form and its practitioners have responded to the crises of the spring and summer

MUSI GU4230 Sounding Alternative Perspectives in Electronic Music. 3.00 points.

In this seminar we will explore examples of electronic music composition and practice as propositions that centered situated perspective and dialogic world-making in the creative space as a means of resistance. We will look at historical and contemporary figures that animated alternative identity articulations, proposed distributed power dynamics, and challenged environmental bifurcations from the grounded and speculative province of music making. We will engage feminist methodologies in our approach, as they uphold the supposition that practice is praxis and scholarship, and support collective learning techniques. Readings in critical theory, musicology, and media studies will support our research as well as practice-based projects. With this seminar we will ask how electronic music functioned(s) as place or form of identity formation and challenge to normative expression. Can electronic music work as an experience that resists patriarchal and/or colonial structures or disciplines? What strategies have been taken that reset or rescript techno-masculinist spaces, tools and practices? And how can we create an analysis method that makes these qualities legible? No in-depth experience with either computers or electronic music is required, though music and sound will be the principle focus of our inquiry. Interdisciplinary methods of critical response and analysis will be explored in this class

MUSI GU4325 Introduction to Cognitive Musicology. 3.00 points.

This course is an introduction to a variety of key topics in the field of cognitive musicology, 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

MUSI GU4360 ANALYSIS OF TONAL MUSIC. 3.00 points.

Detailed analysis of selected tonal compositions. This course, for advanced undergraduates and beginning graduates, is intended to develop understanding of tonal compositions and of theoretical concepts that apply to them, through study of specific works in various forms and styles

MUSI GU4407 Songs and Sounds of Protest of Latin America and the Caribbean: Relistening to the 1960s and 1970s. 3.00 points.

This course is a topical (not comprehensive) survey of musical-poetic manifestations from Latin America, the Caribbean and their diasporas that emerged during the 1960s and the 1970s. The course revisits this time period by exploring the contributions of myriad countries among which Puerto Rico, Brazil, Nicaragua, Cuba, Québec, Haiti, Chile, Argentina, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Martinique/Guadeloupe, and the United States (with a strong emphasis on New York). It analyzes objects and experiences engaged in contesting colonialism, settler colonialism, imperialism, patriarchy, racism, capitalism and Eurocentrism highlighting as well the limits (and limitations) of these radical discourses. Using a decolonial/postcolonial lens and an ethnomusicological approach, the course pays careful attention to the politics of these musics, their historical context and aesthetics, and the social imaginary of those who made them possible

MUSI GU4308 Theory and Analysis of Jazz and Improvisation. 3.00 points.

This course explores diverse approaches to analyzing jazz and improvisation. Students will engage with analytical methods stemming from both scholars and improvisers, learn to apply traditional analytical approaches, examine critical issues underlying them, and develop new applications of heretofore underexamined ones. We will focus alternatively on harmony, solos, interaction, cognition, rhythm, and pedagogy, among other issues, and the survey will afford students insight into the priorities, methodologies, outcomes, and shortcomings of each of them. Additionally, the course covers theoretical texts produced by improvising musicians, as well as instances where improvisers engage with preexisting theoretical texts. Finally, we will also examine intersections between identity—encompassing issues such as race, ethnicity, gender, and class among others—and music theory. We will investigate characterizations of music theory, composition, and improvisation in terms of identity and suggest ways that we might incorporate the diverse range of theorists and analysts in our course into larger intellectual and musical histories

MUSI GU4425 SOUNDING ISLAM. 3.00 points.

The objective of this course is to explore the relationship between sound, music and Islam and, in doing so, to focus on a philosophy of listening (sama‘) which is deeply embedded in the experiential. The course aims to analyze how sound and music directly or indirectly associated with Islam are produced, circulated, and listened to by a wide variety of audiences in local and transnational settings; to explore the ways in which multiple sonic dimensions of Islam have affected the public sphere in different historical moments and contexts (particular in relation to ideas about nationalism, secularism and modernity); and to examine the effect of these sonic dimensions on Muslim and non-Muslim listeners in a local and a transnational perspective

MUSI GU4505 JAZZ ARRANGING ＆ COMPOSITION. 3.00 points.

Prerequisites: MUSI UN2318 - MUSI UN2319 Diatonic Harmony or equivalent.

Course designed to train students to arrange and compose in a variety of historical jazz styles, including swing, bebop, hard bop, modal, fusion, Latin, and free jazz.

MUSI GU4515 CONDUCTING MUSIC. 3.00 points.

Prerequisites: advanced music major and extensive contemporary music background.
Prerequisites: advanced music major and extensive contemporary music background. Analysis of the modern repertory of contemporary music with directional emphasis on actual conducting preparation, beating patterns, rhythmic notational problems, irregular meters, communication, and transference of musical ideas. Topics will include theoretical writing on 20th-century conducting, orchestration, and phrasing

MUSI GU4525 INSTRUMENTATION. 3.00 points.

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

MUSI GU4630 RECORDED SOUND. 3.00 points.

Prerequisites: The instructor's permission.
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

MUSI GU4802 Sound, Music and Death. 3 points.

This seminar is an exploration of the roles of sound and music play in people’s attempts to grapple with death and its many auras. We will read literature from ethnomusicology, anthropology, and sound studies, and listen to musics from many parts of the world, so as to investigate how 1) the processes of aging, decay, and mourning; 2) metaphorical deaths including war and exile; and 3) imaginations of afterlives resound among the living.

MUSI GU4810 Sound: Foundations. 3.00 points.

This foundational course in sound will begin by exploring how listening happens as well the tools necessary capture and present that listening. Through hands-on experimentation and demonstration, this seminar will examine both the technical and semiotic use of sound as amaterial within creative practice. Fundamental studio techniques will be explored including soldering for building cables, microphones, and loudspeakers. We will also explore the building blocks of analog and digital processes for the creation of sound, including microphones (types, patterns, and placement), basic synthesis, and techniques for recording, mixing, editing, and mastering. Through creative projects that implement these skills we will learn by doing. 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. Some reading will be assigned and we will look and listen to a lot of work, students are encouraged to participate actively in discussions

MUSI GU4998 SUPERVISED INDEPENDENT STUDY. 1.00-3.00 points.