MUSIC
(AS) {MUSC}
054. (AFRC054, ENGL054) MUSIC AND
LITERATURE.
This course examines the extraordinary influence of musical
expression on literary works in the African American tradition. Drawing on a
wide range of texts from fiction and poetry to autobiography, musicology,
literary criticism and reportage, we will pay particular attention to how music
figures as a sign of authenticity in black literature as slavery, the Great
Migration of the early 20th century, class mobility and gender identities put
pressure on the politics of belonging. Throughout the course the relationship
between African American culture and the wider Black Atlantic will remain a
crucial concern. We'll begin with the role of music as memory in accounts of
remembered Africa songs in autobiographical work by W.E.B. Du Bois, Toni
Morrisons Song of Solomon, and a film tracing a mourning song in the Gullah
islands of South Carolina to its corollary among the Mende people of Sierra Leone. We'll then spend some time listening to vernacular music (spirituals,
work-songs, and blues) and explore the politics of how and why these forms
found varying degrees of acceptance, particularly in the milieu of the Harlem
Renaissance and the New Negro movement. Students need not have an extensive background
in musicology, but should be prepared to devote time to weekly listening.
Undergraduate Studies
Freshman Seminars
014. Songwriting in the 20th
Century. (M)
Weesner.
This course will alternate between an analytical approach
and a critical approach to the study of a wide range of songs composed
throughout the 20th century. We will study musical techniques such as melody,
harmony, form, rhythm, instrumentation, style, and text-setting. We will also
pose far-ranging questions, such as, what makes a song a song? What makes a
song a good song? What is the difference between an art song and a pop song?
This course will occasionally focus on specific composers, such as Cole Porter,
Charles Ives, John Harbison, and Liz Phair, and will also consider the musical
ramifications of collaboration, covers and re-makes.
SM 015. What Music Means. (M) Kallberg.
This course will explore how music takes on meaning in
cultures of the present and the past. To this end we will consider a number of
basic and important questions: What is music? What kinds of functions has it
served in the past, and what kinds does it serve today? What is the nature and
significance of musical value? How does music inform notions of society and
personal identity? Students will listen to a variety of music
("classical" music will be in the forefront of our investigations,
but we will also explore various popular and ethnic music), and will read
selected critical texts about these musics. The course will combine lecture
and discussion; students will write a series of interpretive papers.
SM 016. (COML016) Global Pop Music.
(M) (FALL 2009)
Revuluri.
Freshman Seminar. The seminar's small class-size will
insure all students the opportunity to participate in lively discussions. Topics
vary from term to term. Please contact department for current offerings or
refer to the Freshman seminar brochure. Music 016 may be counted toward the
Music minor.
SM 018. Origins of Music. (M) Tomlinson.
Music-making seems to be as universal an expressive mode
among humans as language itself. Historical evidence points to the emergence
of music early in human cultures, and, more strikingly, recent findings in
paleoanthropology and cognitive studies suggest that musical capacities lie
deep in the brain and extend far back in hominid evolution. The seminar will
take up the age-old questions of when, how, and why music began. We will
scrutinize this problem from the vantage of recent scientific findings in a
variety of fields, including cognitive studies, language acquisition studies,
and archaeology. We will attempt to relate these findings to our experience of
music in the world today. Prior musical experience is not required for this
seminar.
History of Music
021. 1000 Years of Musical Listening.
(M) Arts &
Letters Sector. All Classes. Dillon/Dolan. Open to all students.
"In this historical survey, students learn to listen
analytically, historically, and creatively to music from the Middle Ages to the
present day. A wide range of musical repertories including plainchant, opera,
orchestral music, and chamber music is covered. Composers studied include
Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Verdi, and Wagner. No prior musical knowledge is
required.
025. Mahler's World. (C) Kallberg.
027. Haydn and Mozart. (M) Staff. Prerequisite(s): Music 021.
[Formerly Music 119]. The creative careers of Haydn and
Mozart. Genres to be studied include the symphony, string quartet, concerto,
and opera.
SM 028. Beethoven. (M) Kallberg. Prerequisite(s): Music
021.
An exploration of the music of Beethoven.
SM 029. Romantic Music. (M) Kallberg. Prerequisite(s): Music
021. Open to all students.
Manifestations of Romanticism in the music of the nineteenth
century, exclusive of Beethoven.
030. History of Opera. (M) Dillon. Open to all students.
This course aims to introduce students to the history of
opera, from its beginnings in sixteenth-century Italy down to the present day.
It will treat the main conventions of opera at each stage of its development
and the social contexts in which opera was and is listened to, and aim to
develop technical skills for the appreciation of opera. Detailed study of
operas by Monteverdi, Handel, Mozart, Donizetti, Verdi, Wagner, Puccini and
Stravinsky will leave students with a context and a vocabulary for
understanding and talking about opera, designed to enhance their future
encounters with opera.
040. History of the Symphony. (M) Bernstein, Staff. Open to all
students.
A survey of representative symphonies by such composers as
Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Berlioz, Schumann, Brahms, Tchaikowsky, and
Mahler. Historical developments will be considered, along with the effects upon
symphonic literature of such major sociological changes as the emergence of the
public concert hall. But the emphasis will be on the music
itself--particularly on the ways we can sharpen our abilities to engage and
comprehend the composers' musical rhetoric.
120. History of Music - Medieval.
(M) May be counted
as a General Requirement Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 &
prior only. Dillon.
European music from the 9th to the 15th century, from
Gregorian chant through Dunstable.
121. History of Music -
Renaissance. (M) May
be counted as a General Requirement Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009
& prior only. Bernstein.
European music from the 15th to the early 17th century.
122. History of Music - 1600 to
1750. (M) May be
counted as a General Requirement Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009
& prior only. Staff. Prerequisite(s): Music 070.
European music of the Baroque period, through the middle of
the 18th century.
123. History of Music - 1750 to
1850. (M) May be
counted as a General Requirement Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009
& prior only. Kallberg. Prerequisite(s): Music 071.
European music from the mid-18th to the mid-19th century.
124. History of Music - 1850 to
present. (M) May be
counted as a General Requirement Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009
& prior only. Kallberg. Prerequisite(s): Music 071.
European and American classical music from the late
19th-century to the present.
130. Introduction to the History
of Western Music. (M)
Staff. Prerequisite(s): Music 070. Fulfills the requirements of the Music
Major.
This course will introduce music majors and minors to the history
of western music. Focusing on the development and transformation of musical
styles from medieval plainchant through the works of J.S. Bach, the course
will also explore the cultural and social resonances of the repertories in
question.
131. Introduction to the History
of Western Music. (M)
Staff. Prerequisite(s): Music 070. Fulfills the requirements of the Music
Major.
The continuation of Music 130, focusing on the development
and transformation of musical styles from the classical period through the
present.
SM 330. Honors in History I. (M) Staff.
Individual study under the supervision of a faculty member
430. Seminar in Music History.
(M) Staff.
Advanced study in selected topics in music history.
American Music
044. Interpreting Popular Music.
(M) Butler.
An exploration of diverse styles of popular music from
historical, cultural, and musical perspectives. Students will use their
critical thinking and writing skills to develop a sophisticated understanding
of the roles popular music plays in modern life. Ability to read music is not
required.
075. (AFRC077, FOLK075, GSOC075)
Jazz: Style and History. (M) Ramsey, Parberry. Open to all students.
Music 075 401 (Dr. Ramsey): Exploration of the family of
musical idioms called jazz. Attention will be given to issues of style, to
selected musicians, and to the social, cultural, and scholarly issues raised by
its study. Music 075 601 (Professor Parberry): Development of jazz from the
beginning of the 20th Century to present. Analysis of the stylistic flux of
jazz, such as the progression from dance music to bebop and the emergence of
the avant-garde and jazz rock. Attention will be given to both the artists who
generated the changes and the cultural conditions that often provided the
impetus.
140. Introduction to the Musical
Life in America. (M)
Arts & Letters Sector. All Classes. Ramsey. Prerequisite(s): Music 070.
Fulfills the requirements of the Music Major.
This course surveys American musical life from the colonial
period to the present. Beginning with the music of Native Americans, the
European legacy, and the African Diaspora, the first part of the course treats
the social and political milieu that shaped America's musical landscape.
Working from this foundation, the course moves to 19th-century figures in
musical composition, education, performance, and promotion. The establishment
of a popular sphere, the development of concert music, and the subsequent
cultural hierarchies that resulted from each realm form important threads of investigation.
The course concludes with 20th-century topics, including the appearance of
jazz, the trajectory of western art music in the United States, and the
eventual dominance of American popular music.
145. Jazz Improvisation. (M) Ramsey, Primosch. Prerequisite(s):
Music 070.
This introductory "hands-on" course surveys and
applies various theoretical approaches to playing specific idioms of jazz and
related musical styles. Our approach will be eclectic, including the study of
written scores, recordings, transcriptions, live performances, and selected
theoretical treatises.
146. (AFRC147, ANTH156, CINE146,
FOLK106) Studies in African American Music. (M) Ramsey.
This course explores aspects of the origins, style
development, aesthetic philosophies, historiography, and contemporary
conventions of African-American musical traditions. Topics covered include:
the music of West and Central Africa, the music of colonial America, 19th century church and dance music, minstrelsy, music of the Harlem Renaissance,
jazz, blues, gospel, hip-hop, and film music. Special attention is given to
the ways in which black music generates "meaning" and to how the
social energy circulating within black music articulates myriad issues about
American identity at specific historical moments.
440. Seminar in American Music.
(M) Staff.
Advanced study in selected topics in American Music.
Anthropology of Music
050. (AFRC050, AFST050, FOLK022)
World Musics and Cultures. (C) Arts & Letters Sector. All Classes. Muller.
This course examines how we as consumers in the
"Western" world engage with musical difference largely through the
products of the global entertainment industry. We examine music cultures in
contact in a variety of ways-- particularly as traditions in transformation.
Students gain an understanding of traditional music as live, meaningful
person-to-person music making, by examining the music in its original site of
production, and then considering its transformation once it is removed, and
recontextualized in a variety of ways. The purpose of the course is to enable
students to become informed and critical consumers of "World Music"
by telling a series of stories about particular recordings made with, or using
the music of, peoples culturally and geographically distant from the US. Students come to understand that not all music downloads containing music from
unfamiliar places are the same, and that particular recordings may be embedded
in intriguing and controversial narratives of production and consumption. At
the very least, students should emerge from the class with a clear
understanding that the production, distribution, and consumption of world music
is rarely a neutral process.
150. Introduction to Global
Music. (M) Arts
& Letters Sector. All Classes. Muller, Rommen. Fulfills the requirements of
the Music Major.
This course introduces students to the field of
ethnomusicology through a series of case studies that explore a range of
traditional, popular, and art musics from around the world. The course takes
as a point of departure several works of musical ethnography, musical fiction,
and musical autobiography and, through in-depth reading of these texts, close
listening to assigned sound recordings, and in- class case studies, generates a
context within which to think and write about music.
157. (AFRC157, FOLK157, LALS157)
Accordions in the New World. Rommen.
This course focuses on the musical genres and styles (both
traditional and popular) that have grown up around the accordion in the New World. We will begin our explorations in Nova Scotia and move toward the Midwest, travelling though the polka belt. From there, our investigation turns toward Louisiana and Texas--toward zydeco, Cajun, and Tex-Mex music. We will then work our way
through Central and South America, considering norteno, cumbia, vallenato,
tango, chamame, and forro. Our journey will include in the Caribbean, where we
will spend some time thinking about merengue and rake-n-scrape music.
Throughout the semester, the musical case studies will be matched by readings
and films that afford ample opportunity to think about the ways that music is
bound up in ethnicity, identity, and class. We will also have occasion to think
about the accordion as a multiply meaningful instrument that continues to be
incorporated into debates over cultural politics and mobilized as part of
strategies of representation through the New World.
158. (AFRC158, FOLK158, LALS158)
Music of Latin America. (M) Rommen.
This survey course considers Latin American musics within a
broad cultural and historical framework. Latin American musical practices are
explored by illustrating the many ways that aesthetics, ritual, communication,
religion, and social structure are embodied in and contested through
performance. These initial inquiries open onto an investigation of a range of
theoretical concepts that become particularly pertinent in Latin American
contexts--concepts such as post-colonialism, migration, ethnicity, and
globalization. Throughout the course, we will listen to many different styles
and repertories of music and then work to understand them not only in relation
to the readings that frame our discussions but also in relation to our own,
North American contexts of music consumption and production.
250. (ANTH257, ANTH657, FOLK255,
MUSC650) Field Methods in Ethnomusicology. (M) Muller, Rommen.
This course explores various methodological problems and
theoretical constructs that confront us during the course of ethnomusicological
fieldwork. How can we approach writing about our ethnographic work without
silencing the voices of those who should be heard? In what ways might
transcription and notation complicate power structures and reinforce our own
musical values? What special challenges need to be negotiated in the process of
documenting ethnographies on film? How do ethical and economic dilemmas inform
our approach to making sound recording? A series of readings in
ethnomusicology and anthropology will suggest some answers to these
questions--answers that will, in turn, be tested by means of several
interconnected fieldwork projects focused on gospel music in West Philadelphia.
Our readings and fieldwork experiences will shape our classroom discussions,
leading not only to be a better understanding of ethnomusicological methods,
but also to a deeper appreciation of the "shadows" that we cast in
the field.
253. (AFRC253, AFST253, ANTH253,
FOLK253, GSOC253) Music and Performance of Africa. (M) Muller.
This class provides an overview of the most popular musical
styles, and discussion of the cultural and political contexts in which they
emerged in contemporary Africa. Learning to perform a limited range of African
music/dance will be part of this course. No prior performance experience
required, though completion of MUSC 050 is recommended.
258. (AFRC258, ANTH227, FOLK259,
LALS258) Caribbean Music & Diaspora. (M) Rommen.
This survey course considers Caribbean musics within a broad
and historical framework. Caribbean musical practices are explored by
illustrating the many ways that aesthetics, ritual, communication, religion,
and social structure are embodied in and contested through performance. These
initial inquiries open onto an investigation of a range of theoretical concepts
that become particularly pertinent in Caribbean contexts <-concepts such as
post-colonialism, migration, ethnicity, hybridity, syncretism, and
globalization. Each of these concepts, moreover, will be explored with a view
toward understanding its connections to the central analytical paradigm of the
course <- Diaspora. Throughout the course, we will listen to many different
styles and repertories of music, ranging from calypso to junkanoo, from rumba
to merengue, and from dancehall to zouk. We will then work to understand them
not only in relation to the readings that frame our discussions but also in
relations to our own North-American contexts of music consumption and
production.
450. Seminar in the Anthropology
of Music. (M) Staff.
Advanced study in selected topic in the Anthropology of
Music.
Theory & Composition
070. Theory & Musicianship I.
(C) Primosch,
Weesner. Required of music majors and minors.
An introduction to the basic notational and theoretical
materials of music, complemented by work in ear-training and sight-singing.
Topics covered include the notation of time and pitch, scales, intervals,
chords, progressions, melodic and formal construction, and key change. Open to
all students.
L/L 071. Theory and Musicianship II.
(C) Staff.
Prerequisite(s): MUSC 070. Required of music majors.
Intermediate tonal harmony and musicianship
L/L 170. Theory & Musicianship
III. (A) Staff.
Prerequisite(s): MUSC 071. Required of music majors.
Advanced tonal harmony and musicianship.
L/L 171. Theory and Musicianship IV.
(B) Staff. Prerequisite(s):
MUSC 170. Required of music majors.
Counterpoint I and advanced musicianship.
172. Music and Technology. (M) Lew. Prerequisite(s): Music 070.
This course provides an overview of various aspects of the
field of music technology, with an equal emphasis on conceptual knowledge and
technical skills. The course offers a practical introduction to the
application of computer systems in musical composition, recording, performance,
instruction, multi-media design, and research.
270. Sixteenth-Century
Counterpoint. (M)
Staff. Prerequisite(s): MUSC 071. MUSC 170 may be taken at the same time.
16th century techniques. Analysis of the principal styles
of sixteenth century music. Frequent composing assignments in all styles.
271. Eighteenth Century
Counterpoint. (M)
Staff. Prerequisite(s): MUSC 170.
18th-Century techniques. Analysis of the principal styles
of 18- century music. Frequent composing assignments in all styles.
272. Analytical Techniques and
Methods. (M) Staff.
Prerequisite(s): MUSC 170.
Advanced analytic techniques. Study of contemporary
techniques in music theory and analysis. Special projects and frequent writing
assignments.
273. Twentieth-century styles and
techniques. (M)
Staff. Prerequisite(s): MUSC 071.
Advanced study in selected 20th-century styles and
techniques. Frequent composing assignments in all styles.
274. Topics in Theory. (M) Staff. Prerequisite(s): MUSC 170.
Advanced study in selected topics in music theory and
composition.
285. Orchestration. (M) Primosch, Reise. Prerequisite(s):
Music 070, 071.
An introduction to writing for the instruments of the
orchestra. Course will include study of individual instruments and various
instrumental combinations, including full orchestra. Representative scores
from the 18th century to the present day will be analyzed. Students will be
responsible for several scoring projects and will have opportunities to hear
readings of their projects. Prerequisite: at least two semesters of music
theory or permission of instructor.
286. Introduction to Electronic
Music. (M) Primosch.
Prerequisite(s): Music 070, 071.
This hands-on course will cover basic MIDI sequencing and
patch editing, as well as the rudiments of sampling, digital recording, and
software synthesis. Students will complete projects using hardware and software
in the Music Department's Undergraduate Computer Lab. Musical examples from
the classic and popular literatures of electronic music will be analyzed and
discussed. Although basic musical literacy is assumed, prior experience in
electronic music is not required.
370. Honors in Theory I. (M) Narmour.
Advanced study in selected topics in music theory. Fall
2006: This class will survey some of the connections between music and art.
The two have been linked throughout history. The geometric scaling of musical
tones and color relations in psychological experiments offer tantalizing clues
why this may be so. In music we will analyze tonal melodies from the
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In art we will analyze the use of color
in abstract and minimalist paintings. Prerequisite: Ability to read music.
470. Seminar in Theory and
Composition. (M)
Staff. Prerequisite(s): Music 170.
Advanced study in selected topics in music theory and
composition.
Other Undergraduate Courses
007. Ensemble Performance. (E) Staff.
Successful participation in a music department sponsored
group for two consecutive semesters (i.e. one academic year). Ensemble groups:
University Orchestra, University Wind Ensemble, Choral Society, University
Choir, Ancient Voices, Baroque and Recorder Ensemble, Chamber Music Society and
Jazz Combo. This course must be taken for a letter grade (Pass/Fail
registration option may not be utilized for this course).
010. Applied Music. (E) Staff. Prerequisite(s): Must be a
music major or minor.
Instruction in vocal and instrumental performance for music
majors and minors only. Students must demonstrate in an audition that they
have already attained an intermediate level of musical performance.
011. Chamber Music. (E) Staff. Prerequisite(s): Must be a
music major or minor.
Instruction chamber music performance for music majors and
minors only. Students must demonstrate in an audition that they have already
attained an intermediate level of musical performance.
SM 012. Chamber Music: Performance
and Analysis. Staff.
Participation in the course in contingent upon a successful
audition. This course must be taken for a letter grade (pass/fail option may
not be utilized for this course). This weekly seminar will explore chamber
music from the past and present through class discussions of both performance
and analytical aspects of the music led by the Daedalus Quartet. The chamber
groups will prepare for a final performance at the end of the semester as well
as a paper/presentation.
017. Leadership Issues in the
Performing and Visual Arts. (M)
An exploration and study of contemporary issues, trends and
conditions (factors) affecting the creating and production in the performing
and visual arts. Factors may include politics, philanthropic behavior,
demographics, technological innovation, the new economy, and changing audience
characteristics. Students and faculty will identify factors, contextualize
them and develop strategies to address them. Lectures, group problem-solving
and field study, plus documentation and a final project will comprise the
activities of this course. For more information regarding this course please
contact College of Liberal and Professional Studies.
060. (SAST104) Beginning Tabla I. (M) Staff.
An introduction to the tabla, the premier drum of north
Indian and Pakistani classical music traditions.
061. (SAST106) Indian Musical
Performance A: Elementary. (C) Nalbandian.
Introduction to the fundamentals of Indian music; instruction
in performance on the sitar.
062. (SAST105) Tabla II. (B) Staff.
Continued study in Tabla
063. (SAST107) Beginning Sitar II. (C) Nalbandian. Continuation of MUSC
061.
090. (PSYC413) Psychology of
Music. (M) Narmour.
Prerequisite(s): Psychology 001.
This course brings together two seemingly very different
subjects, the art of music and the science of psychology. Parallel theories,
empirical evidence, and demonstrations of how fundamental psychological
processes are used in the music repertory will explore common convergences
between the two fields. Major subjects covered include psychophysics;
perception and cognition of melody, rhythm, harmony, and timbre; musical
structures; learning, memory, tonality, and musical style; development; emotion,
affect, and aesthetics; performance, social psychology; neural processing; and
the biological origins of music.
099. Guided Research. (C) Staff. Department honors.
Individual research under the supervision of a member of the
faculty.
161. (SAST108) Intermediate Sitar
I. (C) Miner.
North Indian classical music is performed in a format shared
by stringed, bowed and wind instruments. intermediate North Indeian
Instrumental performance is open to students who play a Western or Indian
instrument with at least an intermediate degree of proficiency and to those who
have completed Beginning Sitar. The course will cover North Indian methods of
composition, rhythm and improvisation and focus on two or three performance pieces.
A group performance will be given at the end of the semester.
164. (SAST115) India's Classical Musics. (M) Miner. Hindustani and Karnatak music
are among the great classical music systems of the world. Developed in temple,
shrine, court, and concert stage environments in North and South India, they
have a strong contemporary following in urban South Asia and a significant
international presence. This course is an introduction to theory, structures,
instruments, and aesthetics. We will work with primary and secondary texts,
recordings, videos, and live performances. Topics will cover selected aspects
of raga, tala, composition, improvisation and social contexts. The course aims
to give students analytical and listening skills with which to approach and
appreciate India's classical music. No prior music training is required.
Graduate Studies in Music
Musical Analysis
505. Advanced Chromatic Harmony.
(M) Reise.
Analytical Studies in Harmony.
SM 515. Analysis of
Twentieth-Century Music. (M) Primosch.
Analytical studies of twentieth-century music.
516. Analysis of 20th Century
Music II. (M) Staff.
Analytical Studies of 20th century music focusing on post
World War II music.
SM 620. Analytical Methods: Tonal
Music. (M) Narmour.
Current methods in the analysis of tonal music.
SM 621. Analytical Methods:
Twentieth-Century Music. (M) Staff.
Current methods in the analysis of twentieth-century music.
SM 622. Analytical Methods: Early
Music. (M) Staff.
Analytical methods in early music.
Proseminars in the History, Theory,
and Anthropology of Music
SM 600. The Interpretation of
Evidence. (M)
Bernstein.
The nature of evidence; basic methods of musicological
research.
SM 601. The Interpretation of
Written Traditions. (M) Staff.
Topics may include notation, codicology, editing and print
culture.
SM 602. The Interpretation of
Theoretical Treatises. (M) Staff.
A consideration of theoretical principles based upon the
reading and interpretation of selected treatises.
SM 603. Aesthetics and Criticism.
(M) Staff.
Topics may include hermeneutics, methods of formulating
value judgments, the relationship of evaluation to interpretation, and the role
of aesthetics in history.
SM 604. Historiography. (M) Staff.
Theories and models of historical investigation. Analysis of
both historiographic writings and musicological works exemplifying particular
approaches.
SM 605. (ANTH605, COML605, FOLK605)
Anthropology of Music. (M) Muller, Rommen. Open to graduate students from all departments.
Worlds of Music/Music Worlds This seminar will require
in-depth reading, listening, and writing about a group of musical cultures
often included in teaching about "World Music." In other words, this
seminar will require students to read a monograph a week, listen closely to
related music, and write responsively to this material. We begin with thinking
about the musical "exotic" and move onto a series of musical cultures
from a wide range of places. The seminar will end with a discussion of the
larger music, intellectual, and methodological issues and challenges to
thinking about worlds of music/music worlds as a comparative project. Those
who imagine they will have to teach a course on "World Music and
Cultures" at the undergraduate or graduate level, either sooner or later,
will benefit from this class.
SM 606. (AFRC606, FOLK616) The
Interpretation of Oral Traditions. (M) Staff.
Topics may draw on methodologies derived from jazz studies,
chant studies, and ethnomusicology.
SM 608. Writing About Music. (C) Bernstein, Butler, Dillon, Dolan,
Kallberg, Muller, Ramsey, Rommen, Tomlinson.
Writing about music is team-taught course, designed to
introduce first year graduates to a broad spectrum of ideas and approaches to
music, and to develop their skills for writing about music. This course is not
about establishing fixed models and methodologies; nor does it set out to
debate disciplinarily, or to give students full coverage of any one field.
Rather, it will examine music in its fullest definition (as sound, text,
memory, belief and so on), selecting materials from the broadest possible
temporal and geographic range. Taught by four faculty (two per semester), there
will be the chance to work both in depth on materials with individual
professors, and also collaboratively and comparatively during sessions in which
faculty teach side-by-side. As well as helping students to develop new skills
(archival, analytical, critical), and to engage with musical traditions and
materials foreign to them until now, this course also encourages students to
experiment with new approaches to their own fields of interest. The class will
meet twice per week for two hours each time. There will be a substantial
written component, with four written assignments during the semester in
addition to a longer project.
SM 610. Musical Notation. (M) Dillon.
Concepts and systems of the notation of medieval and
Renaissance music. Chant, monophonic song, and polyphony through the
mid-thirteenth century.
650. (ANTH257, ANTH657, FOLK650,
MUSC250) Field Methods in Ethnomusicology. (M) Muller, Rommen.
The goal of the seminar is to give students a compressed
dissertation research experience--taking them from the beginnings of
"researching" a community and its music, through the documentation
and representation stages. Students do background and methods reading, though
the focus of the class is the development of basic ethnographic and
documentation skills. This is a community partnership seminar, which means
that all forms of representation are produced in collaboration with community
partners in West Philadelphia. These include photographic essays, an NPR style
audio documentary, but most significantly, twenty-thirty minute documentary
films on a particular subject. See sample syllabus and projects on
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/music/westphillymusic
SM 705. (AFRC705, ANTH705, COML715,
FOLK715, GSOC705) Seminar in Ethnomusicology. (A) Muller. Open to graduate students
from all departments.
This semester we will explore by way of a series of journeys
the historical and contemporary shapes of tourism within the Caribbean with
specific reference to the ways that musicians and performance practices have
travelled and continue to move through the economic, political, geographic, and
cultural spaces of consumption. These journeys will be framed by matched sets
of readings that illustrate not only the abiding issues that have confronted Caribbean societies throughout the years, but also the changing terrain upon which
solutions to those issues have been sought and articulated. We will be
traveling along routes that variously explore travel writing, literature,
folklore, travel and mobility theory, and ethnographic monographs, all with a
view toward helping us think through the issues at hand. Although we will be
spending a good portion of our time thinking about the Bahamas, we will also take time to consider music and tourism in places like Carriacou, Puerto Rico,
and Jamaica. Ultimately, these journeys will provide a framework within which
to consider our own work. while the course readings will be centered on Caribbean contexts, your final papers should address tourism and travel in ways that inform
your own interests and scholarly work.
Seminars in Music
SM 710. (COML638, FREN638) Studies
in Medieval Music. (M)
Staff.
This course will explore the main repertories of medieval
lyric from the dual perspectives of words and music (and disciplinary
perspectives of musicology and literary studies). Our focus will be vernacular
song and poetry from the late thirteenth to early fifteenth centuries, including
detailed exploration of some of the following: polytextual motet, music and
poetry of Adam de la halle, the Roman de Fauvel, Machaut,Ciconia and some early
Dufay. In exploring how late thirteenth-century writers and composers defined
themselves as part of a tradition, we will also look back to their 'history' --
to the repertory of troubadour lyrics. The course will place particular
emphasis on the ways medieval writers and musicians construed their creations,
and the many productive tensions between language and sound; singing and
speaking; words and music. We will explore how that concern with etymologies
of song played out not only in the lyrics themselves, but also in theoretical
writing about song, and in its manuscript representation and codification.
Included in our discussions will be writings by Johannes de Grocheio, Philippe
de Vitry, Brunetto Latini and Deschamps, and consideration of a range of
chansonniers, including the Chansonnier du roi, the Montpellier codex, and the
Machuat manuscripts.
SM 720. (COML720, LALS720) Studies
in Renaissance Music. (M) Staff.
Seminar on selected topics in the music of the Renaissance.
SM 730. Studies in Baroque Music.
(M) Staff.
Seminar on selected topics in the music of the Baroque
period.
SM 740. Studies in Classical Music.
(M) Staff.
Seminar on selected topics in the music of the Classical
period.
SM 750. (STSC418) Studies in
Nineteenth-Century Music-French Opera Comique and Operetta 1860-1933. (M) Staff.
The late 18th and early 19th centuries saw the invention of
many new instruments in both music and science. They were sometimes made by
the same people, and they were often understood to have the same purpose: to
attune individuals to the rhythms, proportions, and harmonies of nature. This seminar
draws connections between music, science, politics, ethics and aesthetics
between 1750 and 1850, a crucial point in European history. We will examine
the role of instruments in conceptions of nature, society, and the individual,
traversing the clockwork regularity of the enlightenment, the turbulent
longings of Romanticism, and the spooky delirium of the fantastic. The course
begins with light refracting through prisms; it ends with the blaring trombones
of Berlionz's opium-induced Symphonie Fantatique; along the way we will visit
ideas of mimesis, mechanical observation, theories of the passions, global
science, demonic virtuosity, phantasmagoria, the uncanny, and the paradoxes of
bourgeois selfhood. Students will work with actual instruments, read primary
texts, and might meet a 21st century dandy. The class is open to creative
undergraduates and graduates from any field who want to explore a range of
ideas of what it means to be human in the modern world.
SM 760. (GRMN680) Studies in
Twentieth-Century Music. (M) Staff.
Seminar on selected topics in the music of the twentieth
century.
SM 770. (AFRC771, FOLK770) Seminar
in Afro-American Music. (M) Ramsey.
This course will consider the American musical landscape
from the colonial period to the present with an emphasis, though not exclusive
focus, on non-written traditions. The course is not a chronological journey,
but rather a topical treatment of the various issues in the history of American
music. Some of the specific, project-oriented activities of the course will
consist of, but will not be limited to the following: (1)participating in the
development of a traveling exhibition on the Apollo Theater for the Smithsonian
Institution; (2)development of a permanent website for a history of jazz course
at Penn; (3)reviewing two manuscripts for publication to a major press;
(4)developing a working proposal for a history of African American music. In
this context students will learn the basics of contemporary music criticism,
including: identifying a work's significant musical gestures; positioning those
gestures within a broader field of musical rhetoric, conventions, and social
contracts; and theorizing the conventions with respect to large systems of
cultural knowledge, such as historical, geographical contexts as well as the
lived experiences of audiences, composers, performers, and dancers. Other
topics covered: origin and development of American popular music and gendered
and racial aspects of American classical music.
SM 780. Studies in Music Theory and
Analysis. (M) Staff.
Seminar on selected topics in music theory and analysis.
Composition
508. Advanced Musicianship. (E) Staff. Prerequisite(s): Reasonable
keyboard and sight-reading facility.
Advanced techniques of score reading and general
musicianship at the keyboard. Students already proficient in these areas may
arrange for an examination whereby they may be excused from this course if it
is a requirement of the program in which they are enrolled.
520. Orchestration. (M) Reise.
A study of the instruments of the orchestra and their
combination. Frequent written projects.
SM 525. Composition in Selected
Forms. (M) Staff.
Study of the style and form of one genre, composer, or
historical period, with emphasis on written projects.
SM 530. Introduction to techniques
of electronic composition. (M) Primosch.
Introduction to techniques of electronic composition.
SM 700. Seminar in Composition. (M) Staff.
Seminar in selected compositional problems, with emphasis on
written projects.
Individual Study
698. Preparation of the A.M.
Portfolio. (C)
Guidance in preparation of the A.M. portfolio in
composition.
699. Preparation of the A.M.
Essay in History and Theory. (C)
Guidance in preparation of the A.M. essay in the history and
theory of music.
797. Preparation PhD Essay. (C)
798. Preparation for the A.M.
Comprehensive Examination in Composition. (C)
Preparation for the A.M.Comprehensive Examination in
Composition
799. Guided Reading in Musical
Scholarship. (C)
Guidance in preparation for the A.M. comprehensive
examination in the history and theory of music.
800. Teaching Music History. (M) Tomlinson, Staff.
The teaching of music history courses to undergraduates.
801. Teaching Music Theory. (M) Judd, Hasty.
The teaching of music theory courses to undergraduates.
802. Teaching World Musics. (M) Muller.
The teaching of world music courses to undergraduates.
988. Preparation Dissertation Composition. (M)
990. Masters Thesis. (C)
994. Preparation of Ph.D. Proposal. (C)
995. Dissertation. (C)
998. Independent Study in
Composition. (C) May
be taken for multiple course-unit credit.
Private instruction in musical composition.
999. Independent Study and
Research. (C) May be
taken for multiple course-unit credit.
Individual study and research under the supervision of a
member of the faculty
