Graduate Courses of General Interest

Spring 2024

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Music Education | Music Theory | Musicology | Performance | Arts and Sciences
 

Music Education

Music 8895 — Music Seminar: Academic Writing
Thu 4:10–6:48 p.m., 1–3 credits
Academic Writing: Planning, Writing, Submission and Review process: Journal articles, Proposals, Grants and Dissertations. This course is graded S/U.
 

Music Theory

Music 4500.01 — Review of Music Analysis Techniques
In-person: 8–8:55 a.m.
2 credits — Matthew Bilik
Review of selected topics in music theory; intended for beginning graduate students in music.

Music 5623 — Theory and Analysis: 20th Century
In-person: MW 4:10–5:05
2 credits — Ann Stimson
In this course, students will study recent and historical approaches to the analysis of twentieth-century Western classical music. Coursework will combine score study, listening, scholarly reading, and writing analytical papers.

Music 5801 — Theory and analysis of video game music
In-person: Tue/Thu 3:55–5:15
3 credits — Jeremy Smith
Topics include the functions of game audio, interactivity and immersion, compositional techniques, game history and technology, comparative media, intertextuality, topic theory and tropes, genres and styles, as well as fandom, song covers, and nostalgia. Each week there will be assigned readings of articles or book chapters, and analysis based on in-class playing or watching others playing games.

Music 7829.05 — Special Topics: Musical Modernism in France and Its Influence
In-person: Tue/Thu 2:20–3:40
3 credits — Matthew Bilik
This course explores the emergence of musical modernism in France and the transmission of influence between Western countries regarding popular music/jazz styles and sound experimentation. We will begin by investigating musical innovations in and around France (in harmony, timbre, orchestration, etc.) and then examine their broader dialogue with modernism in Europe and America in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, looking specifically at Debussy, Ravel, Milhaud and Gershwin. In class, we will engage with and evaluate past and present literature, as well as analyze scores and performances. Weekly assignments will also include prose writing and musical composition that place us in the shoes of composers of the time.

Music 8820 — Music Theory Pedagogy
In person: MW 2:20–3:40
3 credits — Anna Gawboy
This course is an introduction to the curricular considerations, materials and techniques related to teaching undergraduate music theory. Its primary objective is to prepare current graduate students to be future faculty. Students will learn to tailor curricula to individual institutions and student populations, evaluate commonly-used materials, plan a trajectory of student learning over the course of a term, and develop strategies to assess student learning. MUSIC 8820 fulfills the “Required Discipline-Based Teaching Course in Home Department” for the Graduate Certificate in College and University Teaching. This Certificate is ideal for music theory students who hope to expand their teaching credentials prior to going on the job market or for students in other areas of music who wish to be able to teach music theory in addition to their main area of expertise.
 

Musicology

Music 6645 (Music 4555.05) — Music's Meanings 
Online, asynchronous
2 or 3 credits — Katie Graber
In this course we will explore a variety of approaches to how Western music (primarily, though not exclusively, art music) conveys meaning. Each week we will read theories about different ways music conveys meaning and discuss listening examples, focusing in particular on the capacity of music to allude to other aspects of human experience such as dance, narrative, drama, voice, and visual imagery. We will investigate related questions of how music evokes emotion through the use of representational conventions and expectations of genre.

Music 6786 — Music Research Methods and Bibliography
In-person: Tue/Thu 3:55–5:15
3 credits — Alan Green
This course is designed to help students acquire the knowledge and skills necessary for researching musical topics at the graduate level. Students will gain experience using library resources, research tools and online databases. They will become familiar with major periodicals and other specialized sources, including sources in their own areas of interest. Students will also explore critical editions of music and develop a better understanding of issues related to music editing.

Music 7740 — Music Before 1600
In-person: Tue/Thu 2:20–3:40
3 credits — Graeme Boone
This course provides an introduction to the advanced study of historical musicology through the lens of medieval and Renaissance music, together with a small number of initial readings in ancient music. In keeping with the spirit of the 7740 series as a whole, our approach will be topical rather than comprehensive: we will read articles and book chapters on specific research topics, which in turn will serve to evoke broader music-historical panoramas. It is understood that some students in the course may have already taken an introductory survey course in medieval and Renaissance music, while others may have not had any undergraduate courses on these topics. It is also understood that different students will have different kinds and levels of understanding, and that most students will not consider medieval and Renaissance music to be a focus for their future research careers. For that reason, while Music 7740 is not a musical or historical survey, it should help students to recall and anchor, as well as learn about and develop, that kind of knowledge.

Music 7780.20 — African Drum Ensemble
In-person — Tue 6:30–7:25
1 credit — Jason Buchea, Ryan Skinner
A great opportunity to meet people and build community, while immersing yourself in African culture through hands on engagement with its various drumming traditions!
     Africa’s contribution to many of the world’s musical cultures has been undeniable, though often overlooked. From Brazilian samba, to Cuban salsa, to jazz, blues, hip-hop, and rock n’ roll in the US; the rhythms, melodies and spirit of African music are often credited as being a primary source. Now, virtually anywhere in the world, “African drumming” ensembles can be found, in schools and local communities, serving both as sites of diasporic (re)connection to the continent and as a tool of promoting cultural awareness of Africa. “African drumming” has also proven to be an effective model for building community by promoting close listening, group participation, and collective understanding.
     In this class students will learn basic technique of Mande drumming instruments (Djembe and dunduns), and gain familiarity with the Mande drumming repertoires found across West Africa (Mali, Guinea, Burkina Faso, and Cote d’Ivoire, The Gambia, etc.). An emphasis will be placed on “groove,” and learning to collectively weave together interlocking drum parts, to create intricate polyrhythmic fabrics. Anyone on campus is welcome and encouraged to join, regardless of background, prior experience and skill level. We will have a place for you in this ensemble! The university does have its own collection of instruments, but students are welcome to bring their own.

Music 8950 — Musicology Seminar: Auto Theory
In person: Wed/Fri 3:55–5:15
3 credits — Arved Ashby
Genre-busting writer Maggie Nelson (The Argonauts, 2015) defines auto-theory as "autobiographical writing that exceeds the boundaries of the ‘personal.’” The purpose is not to “tell” your “story,” but to use the thick description of personal experience as well as existing critical or “intellectual” approaches. Auto-theory can help us “scholars” work through the existential crises of the 2020s — enable us to develop honest, intimate, and risk-taking tactics for negotiating our violent, divisive, lonely, cynical age. (In referencing Nobel Prize laureate Annie Ernaux, critic Adam Gopnik called her chosen mode of memoir as “perhaps the leading genre of our time… We feel a need for verifiable, or at least credible, personal history in a time when so much else seems constructed and untrustworthy.”) In this seminar, we will read auto-theory and memoir as we discuss the generalizable possibilities of individual experience and reconsider music as a humanist discipline in our post-truth era. Since auto-theory is a literary genre that seems incompatible with ethnography and the social sciences more broadly, we’ll assess the musical and aural possibilities of literary (writerly, authored) perspectives. Lastly, we’ll talk about future scenarios for academic publishing and examine the notion that musicality-informed writing can be a broad, nuanced, public, eminently readable, and indeed trustworthy line of work.
 

Performance

MUS 6895 — Wellness for the Performing and Teaching Pianist
Tue and Fri 1:50–3:10
3 credits — Lynn Singleton
This course is designed to provide students with the information and tools needed to promote physical and mental wellness throughout their performing and teaching careers. Topics of discussion will include the following: perspectives on health and wellness; theories of well-being; dimensions of wellness; biomedical vs. biopsychosocial models of health; dimensions of movement health; the science of breathing and its connection to regulating the nervous system; experiential anatomy of the musculoskeletal system; mechanics of the piano; historical perspectives of piano technique; biomechanics and physiology in piano playing; causes, types and treatments of common musculoskeletal injuries in pianists; principles of optimal alignment; adaptive strategies for small hands; guidelines for injury prevention; mind-body practices; mental health basics, including contributing factors to mental distress in college student musicians; mental health disorders; performance anxiety; creating a mental health toolkit.
 

Arts and Sciences

ARTSSCI 6000 — Career Exploration for Graduate Students 
Online, 7-week session 1: Thurs. 9:10–10:50, Class no. 36595
In-person, 7-week session 1: Tues. 12:40–2:15, Class no. 36596
1 credit — Danielle Fosler-Lussier
This course introduces skills for discovering a variety of career paths; assessing fit; cultivating necessary skills and networks; and entering a profession. The course is suitable for graduate students at any stage, with any career goal.

AFAMAST 7754: Methodological Perspectives in African American and African Studies
In-person: Tue–Thu 12:45–2:05
3 credits — Jason Rawls
This course provides students with a critical introduction to qualitative and cultural research paradigms and methods within the field of African American and African Studies. This course will situate these within the narrower field of Hip Hop culture as a part of the African American Black music diaspora. In this course, students will learn the necessary skills to conduct high quality research that will be useful in the writing of theses, dissertations and eventually published works with Hip Hop sensibilities. The overarching purpose of this course is to facilitate students’ reflection on the philosophical, theoretical and ethical implications of these questions for research within African American and African Studies. Students will understand research methodology and research design. We will specifically approach methodological perspectives in African American and African studies from the mind of a Hip Hop producer who is “digging in the crates” to find archives of old music to sample and insert into a new creative work.

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