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From the Blues to Beyoncé: Rock, A Portrait of America
This course seeks to view American cultural and social history of the last century through the lens of rock music. We will investigate the history of rock and 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 the various genres of rock 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 in alternating weeks. At the beginning of the semester, Professor Nathan will communicate with enrolled students with information regarding the process of enrolling in the conferences and will provide the override codes needed to enroll in a conference. (Please note: the course is currently full and is managing a waitlist – if you would like to be added to the waitlist, please write to Professor Nathan directly. To get in off the waitlist you will be given an override code to enroll in the main course).
- Primary Instructor
- Chapin
- Schedule Code
- C: Conference
- Primary Instructor
- Achondo
- Schedule Code
- C: Conference
- Primary Instructor
- Achondo
- Schedule Code
- C: Conference
- Primary Instructor
- Chapin
- Schedule Code
- C: Conference
- Primary Instructor
- Deck
- Schedule Code
- C: Conference
- Primary Instructor
- Deck
- Schedule Code
- C: Conference
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The Guitar: Sound, Society, and Six String Studies
This course treats the guitar as a point of entry into key sonic, social, and technical developments that have shaped music-making around the world over the last two centuries. Through reading, viewing, and listening assignments, we will study topics such as the craft of guitar making; its ecological relation to natural and synthetic materials; the sheer variety of guitar traditions that have emerged in Europe, North America, Latin America, and Africa; the meaning of virtual and video game guitars; and the instrument’s ever-shifting ties to race, class, gender, and sexuality. FYS WRIT
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MEME Ensemble: Microphone as Instrument
In this course, the idea that ‘microphones are instruments’—instruments both capable of extending our perception and of being ‘played’—will guide our explorations. Students will be introduced to microphones and recording techniques designed to capture sound waves traveling through air, liquids, and solids—beginning with in-class experiments and moving to large-scale, site-specific recording projects. Students will compose ‘scores’ for each site, devise recording strategies, and participate actively in each recording session. Participants will also hone their critical listening skills by engaging both historical and contemporary works of sonic art. Enrollment is limited to 12. Permission of instructor is required.
Interested students must attend the first class on January 29th.
- Primary Instructor
- Vistein
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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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The Humanities in Context: Literature, Media, Critique (HMAN 0800A)
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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
- Mann
- 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
- 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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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. DPLL
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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
- 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
- Primary Instructor
- Plouffe
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
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Medieval and Renaissance Music
A history of western European music to Monteverdi's Orfeo (1607), with emphasis on the analysis of individual works supported by reading and listening. Among the major composers studied are Byrd, Dufay, Josquin, Machaut, and Palestrina. Strongly recommended for freshmen and sophomores considering a concentration in music. Limited to students who can read music. 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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Tonal Counterpoint
The contrapuntal techniques of the 18th century with emphasis on music of Bach. Written exercises in and analysis of several genres including fugue. Prerequisite: MUSC 0560 or permission of instructor.
- Primary Instructor
- Steinbach
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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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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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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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Site and Sound (VISA 1710)
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Networked Systems for Musical Performance
This seminar expands the notion of an independent real-time system into a collective network, where information is transmitted between two or more computers. Transmitting data across the network reveals emergent properties. We will study these properties as the basis for musical performance, by defining different typologies of data transmission and the qualities of latency and jitter they produce.
Over the course of the semester, students will create a number of collaborative network experiments and develop them through an ensemble created specifically for this course: BLIP (The Brown Laptop Improvisation Project). The course culminates in a concert of networked laptop performances.
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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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Canary in A Coalmine:How The Music Industry Destroyed Itself & How Your Business Can Avoid Its Fate
The historic music industry provides a cautionary case study for artists and entrepreneurs. For musicians and artists of any genre, understanding the traditional music industry--from copyright - marketing - ethics--provides baseline “rules” that allow optimal decision making with respect to artistic careers. For entrepreneurs, models utilized from the music industry provide both a cautionary tale and line of sight; as goes the music industry, so goes all other industries..eventually. Students will learn fundamental principles of the historic music industry and will review both historic and current music industry practices to develop strategies and tactics applicable to other industries and entrepreneurial activities.
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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 reading and discussion of seminal texts in the field, “deep” listening of exemplary work, and investigating various methods for analysis. Students respond to the materials with a series of creative composition assignments. The purpose is to provide a wide variety of perspectives that students integrate into their own artistic practice. Each student undertakes a term research project resulting in a paper, presentation and original composition. Open to upper-level undergraduates and graduate students with significant experience in electronic music. Enrollment limited to 16. By permission of the instructor. The final class list will be determined based on a questionnaire handed out on the first day.
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Women in Music
This course comprises a chronological survey of female art music composers from the ninth century to the present day. This will include the study of many pieces of music by women, accompanied by readings addressing the social, economic, cultural, and political circumstances that surrounded their composition. Additional readings address the larger context for women’s composition and its reception over time as well as the development of a feminist perspective in music scholarship. DPLL
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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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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.
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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.
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Cole
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- 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
- Phillips
- 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.
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Music, Nation, and Nationalism
This course explores the relation between music and nationhood, as a historically particular form of collective identity, and a dominant political category in late modern societies. Students will work with key texts in the study of nationhood and nationalism, applying them to musical case studies from different world regions. Touching upon art and popular music, these cases will explore the use of nationalist rhetoric to draw citizens into state projects; the appropriation of minority expressions in defining a national self; efforts by postcolonial societies to forge national sentiment from the fragments left by decolonization; and the nation's fate after globalization.
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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
- Primary Instructor
- Phillips
- 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 tuition requirement and are paying the registration fee to continue active enrollment while preparing a thesis.
- Schedule Code
- E: Grad Enrollment Fee/Dist Prep
