For middle school and up, an introduction to the early Romantic German composer.
Through a progressive series of composition projects, this course investigates the sonic organization of musical works and performances, focusing on fundamental questions of unity and variety. Aesthetic issues are considered in the pragmatic context of the instructions that composers provide to achieve a desired musical result, whether these instructions are notated in prose, as graphic images, or in symbolic notation. No formal training is required. Weekly listening, reading, and composition assignments draw on a broad range of musical styles and intellectual traditions, from various cultures and historical periods.
Essay on the 20th century composer, John Cage
Directed composition of larger forms of original writing involving voices and/or instruments. Includes a weekly seminar in composition for the presentation and discussion of student work in progress. Students are expected to produce at least one substantive work, performed in public, by the end of the term. Contemporary compositions and major works from twentieth-century music literature are studied. Meets with graduate subject 21M.505, but assignments vary.
For middle school and up, an introduction to the post-Romantic composer Richard Strauss
For middle school and up, an introduction to the ragtime composer Scott Joplin.
