Spring 2026

Composition | Music Education | Music Theory | Musicology

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Composition

MUSIC 8895 — Seminar in Music: Musical Data Structures (AKA the "AI and Music" course)

3 credits
W 4:10–7:05 p.m.
Instructor: Tina Tallon
No prerequisites
Students will engage with computational methods for the analysis and generation of musical materials and structures to better understand how humans produce and interact with them. Topics covered include artificial intelligence, music representation and encoding, feature extraction and music information retrieval, corpus studies, analytical and generative machine learning techniques, data sonification, and multimodal human-computer interaction. These techniques will be considered in the context of many different aesthetics, styles, genres, theoretical frameworks, and societal contexts.

MUSIC 8895 — Seminar in Music: Building Systems for Electronic Improvisation

2 credits
Tue/Thu 4:10–5:05 p.m.
Instructor: Treya Nash
No prerequisites
Students will create systems for improvisation using open source software, hardware, acoustic instruments, and found objects. They will work with field recordings, digital signal processing, and live sound, developing and reinforcing fundamental technology skills applied through both solo and group improvisation. Through the improvisatory focus of the class, students will develop their own electronic language of sounds and interfaces, allowing them to autonomously create and explore tools that can be used in broad creative contexts.

Music Education

MUSIC 8877 — Seminar: Social Factors in Music Education

3 credits
M 4:10–7 p.m. | Timashev Rm 408
Instructor: Heather Lofdahl
In this course, students will explore social influences on music education and their relationship to primary and secondary music programs and practices. Students will critically consider the role of music and music education in societal and educational contexts.

Music Theory

MUSIC 4500.01 — Graduate Review of Tonal Harmony

Tu–Th 8–8:55 a.m. | Timashev 308
Instructor: Terrilyn Shepherd
This course offers a comprehensive review of foundational concepts in music theory and analysis for graduate students in music. Emphasizing tonal music in a broad sense, we will engage with a diverse range of styles including Western common-practice repertoire, pop and rock, jazz, and other contemporary idioms. Students will develop the analytical tools and theoretical vocabulary necessary to describe and interpret musical structure, enabling deeper musical conversations across styles and disciplines. Core topics include rhythm and meter, timbre and texture, melody and harmony, and formal design. The course aims to strengthen fluency in music theory while fostering critical listening and stylistic awareness.

MUSIC 7829.05 — Special Topics: Galant Schema Theory

MW 2:20–3:40 p.m. | Weigel Hall 108
Instructor: Terrilyn Shepherd
This course explores the compositional vocabulary of the 18th-century galant style through the lens of galant schemata — recurring melodic, harmonic, and contrapuntal patterns used first as teaching tools in the 17th century Naples conservatories and then by composers. Students will study key schemata and learn how these idiomatic patterns functioned as tools for invention, pedagogy, and improvisation during these periods. The course integrates analytical, historical, and practical approaches. Students will identify schemata in repertoire, analyze their expressive and structural functions, and apply them in compositional and improvisational exercises. Drawing on recent scholarship, the course situates schemata within broader cultural and cognitive frameworks, highlighting their role in shaping 18th-century musical thought and listener expectations.

MUSIC 5623 — Theory and Analysis: 20th century

Graduate section 010 (28967)
Tu–Th 4:10–5:05 p.m. | Timashev 410
Instructor: Sasha Drozzina
This course is part of a series of 5000-level course offerings in music theory that seek to further develop the analytical, critical, and writing skills. Students will apply theoretical concepts and analytical techniques to pitch, interval, motive, rhythm, and harmony, found in compositions from circa 1900 on, including works of their own choosing. Students will read and critically engage with relevant scholarship and will have the opportunity to develop their analytical writing skills through weekly assignments in various formats in preparation for their final project paper.

MUSIC 8820 — Music Theory Pedagogy

Tu/Th 2:20–3:40 p.m. | Timashev 508
Instructor: Anna Gawboy
This course is an introduction to the curricular considerations, materials, and techniques related to teaching undergraduate music theory and aural training. Its primary objective is to prepare current graduate students to become future faculty. Students will understand how music theory curricula differ depending on institution type and student population, familiarize themselves with the advantages and pitfalls of the most commonly-used materials, plan a trajectory of student learning over the course of a term, develop strategies to assess student learning, prepare a lesson plan, and be able to formulate their own goals and philosophy of teaching music theory. MUSIC 8820 fulfills the “Required Discipline-Based Teaching Course in Home Department” for the Graduate Certificate in College and University Teaching.

Musicology

MUSIC 7740 — Studies in Music before 1600

M/W 12:40–2:04 p.m.
Instructor: Graeme Boone
This course provides an introduction to the advanced study of historical musicology through the lens of ancient, medieval, and Renaissance music. The approach will necessarily be topical rather than comprehensive, reading scholarship and studying all kinds of primary sources on a limited number of research topics, which serve to evoke broader music-historical panoramas. Most often, students in the course will have already taken an introductory survey course in medieval and Renaissance music, but it is understood that different students will have different kinds and levels of understanding, and that many students will not consider early music to be a focus for their future research careers. Music 7740 will therefore help students to anchor, as well as develop, their understanding of this essential arena of musicological scholarship.

MUSIC 6895 — Colloquium in Musicology

M 4–5:45 p.m.
Instructor: Katie Graber
Musicology Student Colloquium is a repeatable 2-credit course for graduate students to develop musicological research, writing, and pedagogy. This workshop is based around the Ohio State Lectures in Musicology series and other topics of interest to participants. In conversation with the instructor, students will define their own pedagogy or writing projects, such as teaching statements, syllabus development, grant proposals, conference presentations, or articles. Students will engage in peer review and discussion about recent theories, methods and writing styles in music scholarship and teaching.

MUSIC 6786 / 4555.06 — Music Research Methods and Bibliography

Tue/Thu 9:35–10:55 a.m.
Instructor: Alan Green
An exploration of the resources and techniques needed for graduate studies in all areas of music. Students will learn to examine and critically evaluate music resources in both traditional and electronic forms and will develop research strategies that can be adapted to many different areas of study. Students will learn to use the major music research databases and other significant research tools (e.g., bibliographies, indexes, thematic catalogs, and critical reports of historical music editions). They will also learn about the different types of music editions. Students will also gain an appreciation of scholarly methods and documentation in music research, through the completion of projects designed to develop bibliographic skills and qualitative judgment.

ARTSSCI 6000 — Career Exploration for Graduate Students

First 7-week session:  IN PERSON, Tue 8:35–10:20 a.m., Class no. 28888
First 7-week session: ONLINE, Tue 3:30–5:15 p.m., Class no. 36515
1 credit, S/U grading
Instructor: Danielle Fosler-Lussier
What might you do after graduate school? This one-credit course, tailored to the needs of graduate students, introduces skills for discovering a variety of career paths; assessing fit; cultivating necessary skills and networks; and entering a profession. 
You have skills, aptitudes, interests, and values that can be matched to a variety of careers. We will find several possible paths that align with your personal profile. We will practice informational interviewing; identify skills you need to build for the chosen path; and start taking steps toward achieving your goals.

MUSIC 8950 — Seminar in Musicology: Sonic Epistemologies

Mon/Tue 2:20–3:40 p.m.
Instructor: Katie Graber
How do we know what we know, and how do we decide what knowledge is legitimate? How does music, noise, sound, and silence produce knowledge or allow us to experience something in a new way? In this course, students will consider how sonic practices and listening habits may enhance or hinder our understanding of the world. We will engage literature from Sound Studies, Subaltern Studies, Ethno/musicology, and related disciplines in order to ask how we could listen and who we could listen to in order to reevaluate our own epistemologies and enact epistemic justice. Students will write weekly response papers and a final research paper to apply these questions to a topic of their choice.

MUSIC 7780.20 — African Performing Ensemble

T 5:30–6:50 p.m.
1 credit
Instructor: Jason Buchea
Ensemble dedicated to performing African-derived music. Prereq: Admission by audition, or permission of instructor. Repeatable to a maximum of 12 cr hrs or 12 completions

SPA/MUS 7780.22 — Andean Music Ensemble

W 5:30–7:35 p.m. | Timashev Room N410
1 credit
Instructor: Michelle Wibbelsman, Spanish and Portuguese
This course embraces Andean traditions of participatory music making to learn how to perform music from Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Chile and Argentina; sing in Spanish, Quechua, Kichwa and Aymara; explore Andean musical and performance aesthetics; and learn about the cultural background and social significance of the songs. We experience instruments like zampoñas or sikuris (Andean panpipes), tarkas (Bolivian festival flutes), quenas/kenas (notched mouthpiece flutes), charangos (Andean string instruments), guitars, bombo (Andean bass drum), chakchas (goat hooves rattles), cajón peruano and quijada (Afro-Peruvian percussion). There are no auditions and no requirements for prior musical experience or language proficiency.