The Music Department trains thinking musicians. A number of its courses are concerned with the connection between detailed music analysis and performance, others with performance, with musics of the world, or with the exploration of the connection between compositional styles and the wider intellectual movements in the arts and humanities such as sound studies, creativity, or politics. Undergraduates may pursue a Concentration or Secondary Field, as well as Joint Degree Programs with New England Conservatory and Berklee College of Music.
Director of Undergraduate Studies: Landon Morrison
Gateway Courses
Spring 2024
MUSIC 1: Introduction to Western Music, from Bach to Beyoncé
Michael Uy
This course introduces you to a variety of Western art musics, and a range of ways to think, talk, and write about them. While we explore some of the great “classics” of the Western musical canon, including works by male composers Bach, Beethoven, and Stravinsky, we also delve into the critical roles played by renowned female performers, patrons, and writers, as well as the significant impacts made by artists of color, including Beyoncé and Pulitzer-prize winner Kendrick Lamar. Ending in the present day, we investigate what music means in a global context, and a world increasingly shaped by new technologies and digital networks. During the semester, you will build a robust vocabulary to analyze music and talk about it. You will gain an understanding of social, political, and cultural histories of art music, and deepen your awareness of the role of music in your life. Finally, you’ll possess a strong command over a substantial repertory, understanding its harmony, rhythm, melody, instrumentation, and form, among other musical features. No prior knowledge of music history or musical notation is necessary. Students are graded on the improvements they make in engaging with the material.
MUSIC 20: Opera
Carolyn Abbate
Opera is a more than four-hundred-year old genre that mixes singing and orchestral sound with poetic texts, dramatic narratives, larger-than-life characters, and spectacular visuals. Operatic performances, by engaging—even overwhelming—multiple senses, challenge us to question academic truisms like critical detachment and distance. Is that even possible with opera? For some, opera is the most beautiful and moving musical genre that has ever existed. For others, opera means unreasonable demands on stamina (five-hour operas are not rare) and a level of acoustic strangeness that results in non-negotiable dislike. Opera above all centers the singers, whose voices are the planet’s most powerful unamplified human sonic force.Lectures cover opera’s history from its origins in late-Renaissance Italy to its presence as a contemporary global phenomenon. We also look at opera stagings, sociological and political issues, and how technology has changed opera since 1900. Visitors to the class include opera singers, and composers, and seeing a live (or live simulcast) opera performance is an integral part of the course.
MUSIC 51B: Theory Ib
Michèle Duguay
The Music 51a/51b sequence introduces students to a variety of tools for analyzing, understanding, and listening to music. In Music 51b, students will build on knowledge and skills acquired in the fall semester (51a), gaining greater familiarity with advanced theoretical and analytical approaches on diatonic modes, chromatic harmony, chord extensions, form, and timbre. Repertoires from Western art music and popular music will be a central focus, and we will be working from a variety of notational systems. Continuing the trajectory established in Music 51a, the class will feature a series of workshops on digital audio workstations and audio analysis software.
For a full list, please check the department's website.