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Applied Music Program: Instruction in Vocal or Instrumental Music - Voice
Half credit each semester. Restricted to skilled musicians. Openings are limited. Enrollment and re-enrollment is by audition and jury. Lessons are given by consultants to the Applied Music Program. A fee is charged for enrollment. Copies of the Applied Music Program Guidelines giving detailed information are available online at www.brown.edu/music. May be repeated up to four times for credit.
- Primary Instructor
- Jodry
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Cole
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Finkel
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Plouffe
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Tucker
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Rovan
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
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Applied Music Program: Instruction in Vocal or Instrumental Music - Voice
Half credit each semester. Restricted to skilled musicians. Restricted to skilled musicians demonstrating mastery of an advanced repertory in their fields. Openings are limited. Enrollment and re-enrollment is by audition and jury. Lessons are given by consultants to the Applied Music Program. MUSC 0830, 0840 is prerequisite to this course. A fee is charged for enrollment. Copies of the Applied Music Program Guidelines giving detailed information are available online at www.brown.edu/music. Prerequisite: MUSC 0400, or MUSC 0550, MUSC 0560. Written permission required. May be repeated up to four times for credit.
- Primary Instructor
- Jodry
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Cole
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Finkel
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Plouffe
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Tucker
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Rovan
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
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Individual Independent Study
Directed undergraduate research for advanced students. Prerequisite: permission of the instructor. Section numbers vary by instructor. Please check Banner for the correct section number and CRN to use when registering for this course.
- Primary Instructor
- Warren
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Cole
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Momeni
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- McGarrell
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Obeng
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Perlman
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Rovan
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Nathan
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Winkler
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Moses
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Miller
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Tucker
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Steinbach
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Jodry
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Osborn
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Gooley
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Wang
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
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Reading and Research
Directed graduate research. Section numbers vary by instructor. Please check Banner for the correct section number and CRN to use when registering for this course.
- Primary Instructor
- Nathan
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Wang
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Cole
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Osborn
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- McGarrell
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Obeng
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Perlman
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Rovan
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Warren
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Winkler
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Moses
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Miller
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Tucker
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Jodry
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Gooley
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
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Preliminary Examination Preparation
For graduate students who have met the tuition requirement and are paying the registration fee to continue active enrollment while preparing for a preliminary examination.
- Schedule Code
- E: Grad Enrollment Fee/Dist Prep
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Thesis Preparation
For graduate students who have met the residency requirement and are continuing research on a full time basis.
- Schedule Code
- E: Grad Enrollment Fee/Dist Prep
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Seminar in Composition
This is a seminar-based course with a creative component focusing on specific compositional techniques such as writing transitions and motivic development, and writing for specific kinds of ensembles. These techniques are applicable to all kinds of music, from concert music to popular genres. The course will also address aesthetic issues, trends and influences and how they affect living composers’ individual voices. Besides studying notated repertoire from the concert tradition, we will also examine approaches to film scoring, improvisation, and environmental sound worlds outside of the traditional concert hall.
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From the Blues to Beyoncé: Popular Music in America
This course seeks to view American cultural and social history of the last century through the lens of popular music. We will investigate the history popular music from its roots in the early twentieth-century to the present. We will examine the social, cultural and political contexts that gave birth to various genres of popular music by exploring the music through the lenses of race, class, gender, advances in technology, and developments in the music business. No musical background is required. There are conference sections for this course that meet every week.
- Primary Instructor
- Nathan
- Schedule Code
- C: Conference
- Primary Instructor
- Nathan
- Schedule Code
- C: Conference
- Primary Instructor
- Nathan
- Schedule Code
- C: Conference
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Miles Davis: An Evolution in Jazz
This seminar examines the life, music, and iconic status of Miles Davis, the most complex and varied figure in the history of jazz. From the mid-40s, when he emerged as a sideman to bebop virtuoso Charlie Parker, to his death in 1991, Davis was often on the cutting edge of jazz's evolution, spurring on the development of cool jazz, hard bop, progressive jazz, modal jazz, post-bop, and various forms of fusion. He was at the same a powerful though elusive personality who continues to inspire critical controversy. We will examine his creative evolution in the context of the history of popular music taste, race relations, gender roles, and social class in America. Readings include biographies, studies of his music, and collections of critical essays. There will be extensive listening assignments and occasional required video screenings.
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Musical Performance: Theatricality, Body, and Spectacle
Explores the visual and theatrical dimensions of music performance--both recent and historical--through the analysis of live performances, video clips, and historical documents. Using the critical methods of performance studies, we seek to uncover those aspects of musical experience that have become transparent or normalized by their familiarity, and which are eluded by a traditional focus on music as "sound alone." We concentrate on five genres--rock, classical, pop, jazz, and experimental--and consider figures such as Arturo Toscanini, David Bowie, Jimi Hendrix, Louis Armstrong, Miles Davis, Pauline Oliveros, John Zorn, Diamanda Galás, Madonna and Michael Jackson. Enrollment limited to 24. First year students require instructor permission.
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American Roots Music
This seminar offers a critical and comparative exploration of American roots music, a category comprising folk, traditional, and popular genres that have been labeled "heritage music" or "ethnic music" in the context of American multiculturalism. Major case studies include African American, Mexican American, and Anglo American traditions/repertoires, with geographical emphases in Appalachia, the city of Chicago, and the state of California. Readings draw on both historical and ethnographic scholarship. Some background coursework in ethnomusicology, cultural anthropology, American Studies, and/or ethnic studies is required. Prerequisite: MUSC 1900 or ETHN 1000 (formerly ETHN 0500) or instructor permission. Registration permission granted based on questionnaire distributed at first class meeting.
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History of Jazz
The development of jazz from its roots to the present. Focuses on the study of style types (including New Orleans style, early piano jazz, swing, bebop, and cool jazz) and their major instrumental and vocal exponents. Jazz as a social phenomenon is studied in relation to contextual aspects of folk, popular, and art music traditions in the U.S.
- Primary Instructor
- McGarrell
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Advanced Musicianship II
Continuation of MUSC 1010. Prerequisite: MUSC 1010 or permission of the instructor.
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Seminar in Electronic Music: Recording Studio as Compositional Tool
A study of advanced studio techniques taught in parallel with topics in psychoacoustics. Students will create original studio work while developing listening and technical skills for audio production. Technical topics include recording, signal processing and mixing software, microphone technique, and live sound engineering. Class size is limited. Preference will be given to students who have completed MUSC 0200. Students will be evaluated for potential future work in the MEME program (Multimedia and Electronic Music Experiments) and past participation in MEME. Admission is determined by an entrance questionnaire completed at the first class meeting. Prerequisite: MUSC 0200
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Theory of Tonal Music
See Theory Of Tonal Music (MUSC 0550) for course description. Prerequisite: MUSC 0550 or permission of the instructor.
- Primary Instructor
- Cole
- Schedule Code
- L: Lab
- Primary Instructor
- Cole
- Schedule Code
- L: Lab
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Jazz and Pop Harmony
For students with knowledge of rudiments of music, including scales, intervals, key signatures, rhythm and meter. Keyboard skills strongly recommended. Intensive study of chord scales, chord progressions, modulation, voice leading, melody writing, harmonization, reharmonization, chord symbols, and lead sheet construction. Lab sessions will focus on ear training, keyboard exercises, and sight singing. Emphasis will be on the vocabulary of jazz theory and the repertoire will be American popular song.
- Primary Instructor
- Tomassi
- Primary Instructor
- Sanfilippo
- Schedule Code
- L: Lab
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Composing with Ableton
In Composing with Ableton, we will study and use the well known music-making software Ableton Live and its subsidiary Max for Live (M4L). We will consider sound in Live and M4L from a variety of perspectives, from popular music vocabularies to experimental sound practices. This project-based class teaches production techniques in tandem with critical investigation of genre and development of personal style. Topics include: DAW-style production, control information, interactivity, and digital signal processing. Override codes required; interested students must attend first day and complete questionnaire, only after which will override codes be distributed.
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Orchestra
See Orchestra (MUSC 0610) for course description.
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Chorus
See Chorus (MUSC 0600) for course description.
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Wind Symphony
See Wind Symphony (MUSC 0620) for course description.
- Primary Instructor
- Plouffe
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Jazz Band
See Jazz Band (MUSC 0630) for course description.
- Primary Instructor
- Tomassi
- Primary Instructor
- Tomassi
- Primary Instructor
- Tomassi
- Primary Instructor
- Tomassi
- Primary Instructor
- Tomassi
- Primary Instructor
- Tomassi
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Javanese Gamelan
See Javanese Gamelan, MUSC0650, for course description. Enrollment limited to 18 students.
- Primary Instructor
- Perlman
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World Music Ensemble
This ensemble focuses on global percussive and song traditions, especially those of the African diaspora (based on instructor's vast musical experiences). Here western instrumentalists fuse with traditional musicians from every culture: bongo, gyil, ukulele, tabla, etc. Students will grow and develop their musical skills by learning new techniques on their own instrument, exploring a range of repertoire representing genres such as highlife, reggae, salsa, afrobeat, Afro-jazz, and global fusions. There will be unique opportunities to work on improvisation taking influence from Steve Reich, Tito Puente, Randy Weston, Hugh Masekela, Paul Simon, Miriam Makeba, Ghanaba, and Milton Nasimiento.
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Ghanaian Drumming and Dancing Ensemble
A dynamic introductory course on drumming, dancing, and singing of Ghana and the diaspora. Students learn to perform diverse types of African music, including Ewe, Akan, Ga, and Dagomba pieces on drums, bells, and shakers. No prerequisites. May be repeated for credit. Enrollment limited to 15. Instructor permission required.
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Haydn and Mozart
This course explores the music of Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) and Wolfgang Amadé Mozart (1756-1791): two remarkable composers, who led powerfully contrasting but intertwined lives. Our focus will be Mozart’s three operas that he produced with the librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte—Le Nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni, and Così fan tutte, Haydn’s twelve London Symphonies, and his grand oratorio, The Creation. Through these works we can access a wealth of issues and themes of the late Enlightenment style: questions of voice, affect, register, eighteenth-century listening, comedy, form, dance, naturalness, mimesis, the sublime, orchestral effect, and musical modernity.
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Analysis of Romantic Musics
This is an analysis course focusing on music of 19th -century Western concert tradition. The primary goal is to improve and introduce new analysis skills related to chromatic harmony and form. The course proceeds by distinctive genres, including examples of solo piano works, lieder, string quartets and other chamber works, symphonies, tone poems, and opera. Though the emphasis is primarily on analyzing purely musical elements, we will also touch on broader issues of Romantic aesthetics and cultural contexts, such as fragmentation, virtuosity, nostalgia, and the debate over absolute and programmatic music.
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Music in China Since 1900
From the early 20th century until now, war, political movements, ideological and cultural shifts, and later economic booms have dramatically impacted music and musical life in China. This course examines various genres of music in China, both native and imported, including traditional instrumental music, propaganda songs, opera, ballet, standard and contemporary classical music, pop music, and communal activities like amateur choruses and calisthenics. This course will exercise critical listening and thinking and comparative analysis skills, with a mix of source readings, recordings, and historical background. No background in music or Chinese history is required.
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Analog Practice
Analog sound is uniquely tactile, expressive, and flexible. Through a series of solo, collaborative, recorded, and live-performed projects, this class explores the practice of creating analog sound. We will use a wide array of modular and semi-modular analog synthesizers, including the rare ARP 2500. Beginning with broad concepts of voltage flow and modulation, we will expand into considering the unique affordances of various synths, addressing questions such as tone color, ease of sound production and variation, and conduciveness to combination with other sound sources. Interested students strongly recommended to attend first day; final class list determined by questionnaire.
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Old-Time String Band
See Old-Time String Band (MUSC 0670) for course description. Enrollment limited to 20 students.
- Primary Instructor
- Astrausky
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Chamber Music Performance
See Chamber Music Performance (MUSC 0680) for course description.
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Popular Music Studies (AMST 2220R)
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Seminar In Sonic Practice
This studio and seminar course provides an exploration of contemporary sonic practice, facilitates the development of sound-based creative work, and encourages a critical approach to producing work in the field. Through discussion, reading, listening exercises, independent research, creative production and critiques, we will examine a number of intersecting areas of sonic practice including sound as a cultural, environmental, and artistic medium, phonography, sound installation, mobile audio, noise as strategy and material, linguistic and other sonic narrative structures. Students will develop sound-based pieces individually and in groups which function as creative research into the subjects areas of the course.
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Advanced Ghanaian Drumming and Dancing Ensemble
Students with experience in African and related musical traditions perform drumming, dancing, and singing of Ghana and the diaspora. Focus on a more challenging repertoire with emphasis on multi-part, lead, and improvisational playing. Prerequisite: audition. May be repeatable for credit. Instructor permission required. Enrollment limited to 15 students.
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Introduction to Music Theory
An introduction to musical terms, elements, and techniques. Topics include notation, rhythm and meter, intervals, scales, chords, melody writing, harmonization, and form. Students will develop their musicianship skills, including sight-singing and keyboard, in labs which meet twice weekly. No prior musical experience is necessary. MUSC 0400A or 0400B may fulfill part of the theory requirement for the music concentration. Enrollment limited to 40. Permission granted based on questionnaire given in first class. Preference given to lower-level students.
- Primary Instructor
- Jiorle-Nagy
- Primary Instructor
- Jiorle-Nagy
- Schedule Code
- L: Lab
- Primary Instructor
- Jiorle-Nagy
- Schedule Code
- L: Lab
- Primary Instructor
- Jiorle-Nagy
- Schedule Code
- L: Lab
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Introduction to Popular Music Theory and Songwriting
An introduction to musical terms, elements, and techniques, with an emphasis on how they apply to Western popular music. Topics include notation, rhythm and meter, intervals, scales, chords, melody writing, harmonization, and form. Students will develop their musicianship skills, including sight-singing and keyboard, in labs which meet twice weekly. No prior musical experience is necessary. MUSC 0400A or MUSC 0400B may fulfill part of the theory requirement for the music concentration. Enrollment limited to 40. Permission granted based on questionnaire given in first class. Preference given to lower-level students.
- Primary Instructor
- Tan
- Schedule Code
- L: Lab
- Primary Instructor
- Tan
- Schedule Code
- L: Lab
- Primary Instructor
- Tan
- Schedule Code
- L: Lab
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History and Theory of Listening
This upper-level seminar will explore the phenomenon of listening as related to musical works and musical experience. How do we listen to music, how do we understand musical works to be listening, and how do we listen to musical works as they seem to us to be listening to themselves, their pasts and their futures? We will examine spaces for music (architecture and acoustics) as well as cultures of listening including religious, psychological, and political contexts.
- Primary Instructor
- Steinberg
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MEME Ensemble: Anti-Fascist Drum Machines
Anti-Fascist Drum Machines is a group improvisation course that evolves around the idea of the “drum machine:” machines that make beats and which exist in complex relationships with their human users. We will use political metaphors, such as conforming to versus resisting a dominant force, to critically develop schemes for musical improvisation with rhythm. Machines of all sorts will serve as our instruments: analog synthesizers and drum modules, objects like old metronomes, megaphones, and our phones, and we will also build our own drum modules using software such as Max, PureData, and Phython3. Interested students must come to first class.
- Primary Instructor
- Sagesser
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Governing Culture: Music and the Arts in Political Life (HMAN 1974K)
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Medieval and Renaissance Music
Western Music 1000-1700
Topics addressed - among many others!
How was music notated before the staff was invented? What repertoire developed when Notre Dame was built- 1099? What did the Crusaders sing? What is Polyphony? What was sung for the dedication of the Florence Duomo in 1440? How did the rise of printing change music? What music drove the Pilgrims to distraction? What did Bach hear as a child? Why did Opera develop, and what sort of music was written for its first 100 years? A few of the composers studied: Hildegard, Machaut, Dufay, Josquin, Palestrina, Byrd, Gesualdo, Schütz, Purcell, and Monteverdi.
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Introduction to Generative Animation
Interactive graphics are used in a variety of artistic pursuits from audiovisual performance to interactive installation. Students in this production course learn to program real-time animations and video processing in the Max/MSP/Jitter environment and apply these skills through the creation of video and multimedia work. Topics include video synthesis, audio-reactive visuals, OpenGL programming and generative art. This course does not have any prerequisites, though class size is limited and admission is determined by an entrance questionnaire completed at the first class meeting.
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The Technique of Orchestration
The study of orchestration includes the ranges, sounds, and idiosyncrasies of the individual instruments, and the combination of those instruments into ensemble textures. A series of graduated assignments, including pieces for solo cello, string quartet, wind quintet, wind ensemble, and full orchestra, form the basis of this course. Prerequisite: MUSC0560 or permission of the instructor. Not open to first year students.
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Making the 21st Century Musical (TAPS 1251A)
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Feminist Sonic Futures
This course is a weekly discussion seminar that examines the intersections of feminist praxis and sound studies. Students will survey a range of feminist discourses that inform and are informed by various sonic practices—from the production of pop songs to the documentation of disappearing soundscapes. Over the course of the semester students will critically engage with the work of feminist and womanist scholars, activists, sound engineers, performers, and composers who are largely concerned with the ways in which the sonic is deeply implicated in the coproduction and resistance of categories of difference like gender, race, class, sexuality, and ability.
- Primary Instructor
- Lumumba-Kasongo
