Music

Introduction to music, including notation, written and aural skills, and basic conceptual resources of music theory. Exploration of scale, mode, rhythm, meter, texture and form, with reference to a diverse range of musics.

This course is an introduction to basic skills in sight reading. Instruction includes reading rhythms in simple meter, solfege recitation, and sight-singing simple melodies.

Prerequisites: Music Humanities (Columbia University) or An Introduction to Music (Barnard). With the arrival of the first Jewish immigrants in New York in the mid-1600s until today, Jewish music in the City has oscillated between preserving traditions and introducing innovative ideas. This course explores the variety of ways people have used music to describe, inscribe, symbolize, and editorialize their Jewish experience. Along these lines, it draws upon genres of art music, popular music, and non-Western traditions, as well as practices that synthesize various styles and genres, from hazzanut to hiphop. Diverse musical experiences will serve as a window to address wider questions of identity, memory, and dislocation. We will also experience the Jewish soundscape of New York’s dynamic and eclectic music culture by visiting various venues and meeting key players in today’s music scene, and thus engage in the ongoing dialogues that define Jewishness in New York. A basic familiarity with Judaism and Jewish culture is helpful for this course, but it is by no means required. You do not need to know Jewish history to take this class, nor do you need to be able to read music. Translations from Hebrew and Yiddish will be provided, and musical analysis will be well explained.

An introduction to the potential of digital sound synthesis and signal processing. Teaches proficiency in elementary and advanced digital audio techniques. This course aims to challenge some of the tacet assumptions about music that are built into the design of various user interfaces and hardware and fosters a creative approach to using digital audio workstation software and equipment.  Permission of Instructor required to enroll. Music Majors have priority for enrollment.

Elementary analysis and composition in a variety of modal and tonal idioms. A one-hour weekly lab is required, to be scheduled at the beginning of the term.  Course to be taken in conjunction with the Ear-Training sequence, up through Ear-Training IV.

Elementary analysis and composition in a variety of tonal idioms.  A one-hour weekly lab is required, to be scheduled at the beginning of the term.  Course to be taken in conjunction with the Ear-Training sequence, up through Ear-Training IV.

Composition in more extended forms. Study of advanced techniques of contemporary composition. Readings of student works.

An accelerated MaxMSP creation lab designed for student musicians or programmers who are interested in the manipulation and transformation of sonic and musical data. MaxMSP is a visual programming environment optimized for creative coding. With a focus on the creative generation of musical materials for composition and performance, Max and related software will also be evaluated for analytical use cases in music theory, musicology, and other cross disciplines. Students will produce creative projects with the aid of weekly modules and tasks focusing on classic and contemporary approaches to audio synthesis (e.g. binaural audio spatialization and machine learning applications). Synchronous group coding in MaxMSP will deepen understanding of each module, supported by asynchronous video tutorials, supplementary reading, and listening.
Projects will be evaluated based on creative and personal implementations of synthesis techniques. A major effort has been made towards creating an equitable and inclusive computer music practice incorporating high level open source synthesis tools. Although no formal prerequisite exists for this course, some comfort in any of the following areas is advisable: study of a musical instrument, music-theoretical analysis or historic study, electronic music or synthesis, audio production, or an understanding of basic principles in a computer language. Skills in any of these areas may be taken as a sufficient prerequisite for this course. Onboarding materials and a flexible, customizable scaffolding will
be offered to those who are starting out with MaxMSP.

An accelerated MaxMSP creation lab designed for student musicians or programmers who are interested in the manipulation and transformation of sonic and musical data. MaxMSP is a visual programming environment optimized for creative coding. With a focus on the creative generation of musical materials for composition and performance, Max and related software will also be evaluated for analytical use cases in music theory, musicology, and other cross disciplines. Students will produce creative projects with the aid of weekly modules and tasks focusing on classic and contemporary approaches to audio synthesis (e.g. binaural audio spatialization and machine learning applications). Synchronous group coding in MaxMSP will deepen understanding of each module, supported by asynchronous video tutorials, supplementary reading, and listening.
Projects will be evaluated based on creative and personal implementations of synthesis techniques. A major effort has been made towards creating an equitable and inclusive computer music practice incorporating high level open source synthesis tools. Although no formal prerequisite exists for this course, some comfort in any of the following areas is advisable: study of a musical instrument, music-theoretical analysis or historic study, electronic music or synthesis, audio production, or an understanding of basic principles in a computer language. Skills in any of these areas may be taken as a sufficient prerequisite for this course. Onboarding materials and a flexible, customizable scaffolding will
be offered to those who are starting out with MaxMSP.

Intermediate analysis and composition in a variety of tonal idioms.  A one-hour weekly lab is required, to be scheduled at the beginning of the term.  Course to be taken in conjunction with the Ear-Training sequence, up through Ear-Training IV.

Intermediate analysis and composition in a variety of tonal and extended tonal idioms.  A one-hour weekly lab is required, to be scheduled at the beginning of the term.  Course to be taken in conjunction with the Ear-Training sequence, up through Ear-Training IV.

This course explores diverse approaches to analyzing jazz and improvisation.  Students will engage with analytical methods stemming from both scholars and improvisers, learn to apply traditional analytical approaches, examine critical issues underlying them, and develop new applications of heretofore underexamined ones.  We will focus alternatively on harmony, solos, interaction, cognition, rhythm, and pedagogy, among other issues, and the survey will afford students insight into the priorities, methodologies, outcomes, and shortcomings of each of them.  Additionally, the course covers theoretical texts produced by improvising musicians, as well as instances where improvisers engage with preexisting theoretical texts.  Finally, we will also examine intersections between identity—encompassing issues such as race, ethnicity, gender, and class among others—and music theory.  We will investigate characterizations of music theory, composition, and improvisation in terms of identity and suggest ways that we might incorporate the diverse range of theorists and analysts in our course into larger intellectual and musical histories. 

Detailed analysis of selected tonal compositions. This course, for advanced undergraduates and beginning graduates, is intended to develop understanding of tonal compositions and of theoretical concepts that apply to them, through study of specific works in various forms and styles.

This course examines postcolonialist and decolonialist discourses with a view toward finding the centered place of the study of 20th century and early 21st century music in them.

This course will explore plausible analytical responses to a selection of diverse sonic works from the past five decades, with emphasis on works that expand or challenge existing analytical methodologies and assumptions. The goal of this course is not to offer strict analytical models or standard procedures, but to foster analytical conversations that are pertinent to their subjects while broadening the understanding of what music analysis as it relates to new music can offer. 

This course provides an opportunity for students in the Music Department’s Composition DMA program to engage in off-campus practicum or internships in music composition for academic credit that will count towards the requirements for the degree.

This class explores advanced topics relating to the production of music by computer. Although programming experience is not a prerequisite, various programming techniques are enlisted to investigate interface design, algorithmic composition, computer analysis and processing of digital audio, and the use of computer music in contexts such as VR/AR applications. Check with the instructor for the particular focus of the class in an upcoming semester. Some familiarity with computer music hardware/software is expected. Permission of instructor is required to enroll.

This class is intended for students to develop composing skills for creating music “between the keys” (or “outside the keys”) of a traditionally tuned piano or organ. We will be analyzing relevant works and techniques of the present and of the past. Students compose and perform/present their own music influenced by these works and techniques.  We will start with quartertones and with music independent from Western traditions.

Individual work with an adviser to develop a topic and proposal for the Ph.D. dissertation.

Individual work with an adviser to develop a topic and proposal for the Ph.D. dissertation.

Individual work with an adviser to develop a topic and proposal for the Ph.D. dissertation.

Individual work with an adviser to develop a topic and proposal for the Ph.D. dissertation.

Individual work with an adviser to develop a topic and proposal for the Ph.D. dissertation.

Individual work with an adviser to develop a topic and proposal for the Ph.D. dissertation.

Individual work with an adviser to develop a topic and proposal for the Ph.D. dissertation.

Individual work with an adviser to develop a topic and proposal for the Ph.D. dissertation.

Individual work with an adviser to develop a topic and proposal for the Ph.D. dissertation.

Individual work with an adviser to develop a topic and proposal for the Ph.D. dissertation.

Individual work with an adviser to develop a topic and proposal for the Ph.D. dissertation.

Individual work with an adviser to develop a topic and proposal for the Ph.D. dissertation.

Individual work with an adviser to develop a topic and proposal for the Ph.D. dissertation.