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Music and Meditation (RELS 0032)
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Jazz: Race, Power and History
Explores jazz in relation to American history, discussing how economics, war conditionsm regional differences and race relations shaped the music an its public reception. With readings from A. Baraka, L. Levine, R. Ellison, L. Erenberg, E. Lott, G. Early, S. DeVeaux and others, we address how jazz embodies social and political values or expresses national character. Open to non-musicians. Music proficiency preferred but not required. Enrollment limited to 60.
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Musical Youth Cultures (AMST 0170D)
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Under the Beat: Mapping Music in Providence
In this course students will conceptually map music in Providence. From field research in/with music scenes, students will produce multimodal projects through ethnographic, analytic, and poetic writing, mixtape curation, and zine making. Projects will be triangulated on the keyword "under" (see underground, underrepresented, underappreciated, and misunderstood) and will be informed by studies across many disciplines and fields that establish popular music as a site of intersectionality (with ethnicity, race, gender, sexuality, and disability).
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Introduction to Music Theory
An introduction to musical terms, elements, and techniques, including notation, intervals, scales and modes, triads and seventh chords, modulation, melody writing and harmonization, analysis, and composition. Ear-training and sight-singing are included. For students with some musical training. Enrollment limited to 40.
- Primary Instructor
- Jiorle-Nagy
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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
- Steinbach
- 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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Chorus
See Chorus (MUSC 0600) for course description.
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Orchestra
See Orchestra (MUSC 0610) for course description.
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Wind Symphony
See Wind Symphony (MUSC 0620) for course description.
- Primary Instructor
- McGarrell
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Jazz Band
See Jazz Band (MUSC 0630) for course description.
- Primary Instructor
- McGarrell
- Primary Instructor
- McGarrell
- Primary Instructor
- McGarrell
- Primary Instructor
- McGarrell
- Primary Instructor
- McGarrell
- Primary Instructor
- McGarrell
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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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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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Javanese Gamelan
See Javanese Gamelan, MUSC0650, for course description. Enrollment limited to 18 students.
- Primary Instructor
- Perlman
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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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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
- McGarrell
- 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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Romantic and Modern Music
A history of European and American art music from Beethoven to the Postmodernists. Prerequisite: MUSC 0550 or permission of instructor.
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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 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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Jazz Composition and Arranging
A review of jazz theory topics, including rhythmic structures, scales and modes, harmonic progressions and substitutions, improvisation techniques, forms and development. Weekly writing assignments for two to five parts with rhythm section accompaniment. Students compose and orchestrate three works for small and large jazz ensembles. Guest composers review students' compositions and various Brown jazz bands rehearse and record them. Prerequisites: MUSC 0550.
- Primary Instructor
- McGarrell
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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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Studies in Electroacoustic Improvisation
According to Pauline Oliveros, “[i]n improvisation you can’t change your mind […] in composition you can.” This class integrates critical and creative approaches in order to develop individual and collective improvisation, a practice which values presence and listening over traditional accuracy. We will consider scholarship by prominent improvisers and undertake a variety of exercises to practice and improve at improvisation. As a class we will give several performances at Brown and in Providence over the course of the semester. Instrumental and/or music software experience preferred. Interested students strongly recommended to attend first day; final class list determined by questionnaire.
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Composing with Ableton
In Composing with Ableton, we will study and use the well known music-making software Ableton Live. We will consider sound in Ableton from a variety of perspectives, ranging from popular music vocabularies to experimental sound practices. This project-based class emphasizes development of technical knowledge in pursuit of individual style and genre-crossing dialogue. Topics include: fundamental techniques of electronic composition, sonic approaches to genre-bending work, real-time interaction and control, and interfacing with MaxMSP via Max for Live. Final class list determined by questionnaire distributed on first day.
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Electronic Music Aesthetics, Perception and Analysis
This advanced production seminar investigates new ideas and developments in electronic music from 1990-present. Consists of discussing seminal texts and compositions, and investigating various analysis methods. Students respond to materials with a series of compositions. The purpose is to provide a wide variety of perspectives that students integrate into their artistic practice. Students undertake a research project resulting in a paper, presentation and original composition. Open to upper-level undergraduates and graduate students with significant electronic music experience. Enrollment limited to 16. By permission of the instructor. The final class list will be determined based on a questionnaire on the first day.
- Primary Instructor
- Carroll
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Analog/Digital Hybrids
This course is focused on advanced synthesis techniques and analog/digital hybrid systems. Students will engage with the university’s hardware synth equipment and examine how digital tools, such as the “Max” programming language can be used to supplement them. Emphasis will be placed on generative "real time," systems in order to create complex, evolving synth patches capable of producing non-repeating musical gestures. We will also explore "feedback," and how it can be utilized as both an audio and control signal.
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Major Masters of Music: Olivier Messiaen
This seminar explores Messiaen’s life, theoretical writings, and above all his music. Listening and analysis will focus on Messiaen’s idiosyncratic harmonic and rhythmic language as well as performance practice issues. We will investigate Messiaen’s use of color, plainsong, “modes of limited transposition,” “personages rhythmic,” birdsong, serialism, Greek modes, and Indian ragas via representative works. We will also examine Messiaen’s formation and his legacy as teacher/composer/performer. Final project is either student performance/analysis or a theoretical/historical paper. Prerequisite MUSC 0560. Class size limited to 16.
- Primary Instructor
- Steinbach
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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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Choral Conducting
An introduction to the art of conducting, with emphasis on choral training. A study of the relationship of gesture to sound will be combined with a survey of the choral repertoire, beginning with Gregorian Chant and covering renaissance motets, masses and madrigals, Baroque works with instruments, excerpts from Mozart's vespers, 19th- century Romantic partsongs, and selected 20th-century. Issues of basic vocal production, warm-ups, rehearsal planning, editing, programming and concert production will also be included. Prerequisite: MUSC 0400 or 0550. Written permission required. May be repeated for credit.
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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
- McGarrell
- 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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Echoes of the Everyday: Telling Stories with Sound
This course explores the many modes of nonfiction story-telling made with sound (sonic ethnography, audio documentary, sound art, and audio internet archives). Students will learn the tools of audio technology to record, edit, and produce critically aware sound works that interpret culture and everyday lived experience. Students will make location sound recordings, critically analyze those recordings, and re-present them through their own independent audio works. Exploring fine-grained aesthetic and ethical details between artistic and ethnographic representation, students will offer and receive constructive feedback throughout their process. Student projects will be contextualized with readings that help them interrogate everyday sonic praxis.
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Music in the Andean Countries: From Cumbia to Carnavalito
This course provides an introduction to the music of South America’s Andean countries. Through texts, listenings, and hands-on instruction, students will explore the social histories and stylistic principles of genres like Colombian and Peruvian cumbia, Afro-Peruvian festejo and landó, Chilean nueva canción, and the sikuri and huayno music of South Andean Quechua and Aymara peoples. Class sessions balance cultural analysis with opportunities to play, and students are expected to develop some facility with key songs and rhythms. No experience is necessary, though inexperienced musicians can expect to focus on instrumental or vocal parts that present a lower bar to participation.
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Sound Studies
Explores the field of sound studies through readings of exemplary texts and discussions of the debates that enliven this interdisciplinary field of inquiry. Drawing on philosophical, musicological, anthropological, and other kinds of writings, it explores issues like the way that relations between sound, noise, silence, and music have formed in different cultures and different historical periods; ideological structures that determine the place of sound in artistic practice and in everyday life; the power relations that are implicated in the design of local soundscapes; and the place of aural perception within the sensorium, among other potential topics.
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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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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
- Primary Instructor
- Jaeger
- 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
- Primary Instructor
- Seto
- 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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Digital Media and Virtual Performance
This seminar investigates digital media practices at the intersection of virtual and embodied
experience, exploring overlapping genres of play, performance, pedagogy, and participatory
culture. Topics include digital games, viral videos, online music and dance lessons, and the
performative aspects of virtual communities. Theoretical approaches draw on scholarship
in media ethnography, performance studies, human-computer interaction studies, gender studies, and ethnomusicology. We will give equal attention to production, circulation, and
reception practices, and consider their contemporary convergence. The course requires
critical engagement with a diverse range of media, genres, and cultural contexts,
encouraging students to examine their own media practices. Registration permission granted based on questionnaire distributed at first class meeting.
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Designing-Large-Scale Multimedia Projects
A production seminar designed for students working on a single, large project in Multimedia and/or Computer Music. The course covers planning and implementation strategies, with group critiques of proposals and works-in-progress. The class structure includes individual lessons for students working on a graduate or undergraduate thesis project. Permission will be granted based upon a questionnaire given in the first class.
- Primary Instructor
- Winkler
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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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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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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
