This class examines the ways humans experience the realm of sound and how perceptions and technologies of sound emerge from cultural, economic, and historical worlds. In addition to learning about how environmental, linguistic, and musical sounds are construed cross-culturally, students learn about the rise of telephony, architectural acoustics, and sound recording, as well as about the globalized travel of these technologies. Questions of ownership, property, authorship, and copyright in the age of digital file sharing are also addressed. A major concern will be with how the sound/noise boundary has been imagined, created, and modeled across diverse sociocultural and scientific contexts. Auditory examples--sound art, environmental recordings, music--will be provided and invited throughout the term.

provides examples of brass band music that flourished in the U.S. during the 1850s and remained popular through the 19th century. It includes 700 musical compositions, 8 full-score modern editions, and 19 recorded examples.

This site provides a selection of more than 500 letters, lectures, photos, articles, and sound recordings related to the birth of the recording industry. Hear auctioneers, animal calls, musical instruments, and Native American songs, Italian songs, Swedish songs, and more. Berliner (1851-1929), an immigrant and largely self-educated man, was responsible for the development of the microphone and the flat recording disc and gramophone player.

Fiddle Tunes of the Old Frontier: The Henry Reed Collection is a multi-format ethnographic field collection of traditional fiddle tunes performed by Henry Reed of Glen Lyn, Virginia. Recorded by folklorist Alan Jabbour in 1966-67, when Reed was over eighty years old, the tunes represent the music and evoke the history and spirit of Virginia's Appalachian frontier. Many of the tunes have passed back into circulation during the fiddling revival of the later twentieth century. This online collection incorporates 184 original sound recordings, 19 pages of fieldnotes, and 69 musical transcriptions with descriptive notes on tune histories and musical features; an illustrated essay about Reed's life, art, and influence; a list of related publications; and a glossary of musical terms.

Florida Folklife from the WPA Collections is a multiformat ethnographic field collection documenting African-American, Arabic, Bahamian, British-American, Cuban, Greek, Italian, Minorcan, Seminole, and Slavic cultures throughout Florida. Recorded by Robert Cook, Herbert Halpert, Zora Neale Hurston, Stetson Kennedy, Alton Morris, and others in conjunction with the Florida Federal Writers' Project, the Florida Music Project, and the Joint Committee on Folk Arts of the Work Projects Administration, it features folksongs and folktales in many languages, including blues and work songs from menhaden fishing boats, railroad gangs, and turpentine camps; children's songs, dance music, and religious music of many cultures; and interviews, also known as "life histories." The online presentation provides access to 376 sound recordings and 106 accompanying materials, including recording logs, transcriptions, correspondence between Florida WPA workers and Library of Congress personnel, and an essay on Florida folklife by Zora Neale Hurston. A new essay by Stetson Kennedy reflects on the labor and the legacy of the WPA in Florida, and an extensive bibliography, a list of related Web sites, and a guide to the ethnic and language groups of Florida add further context to the New Deal era and to Florida culture. This online collection is made possible by the generous support of The Texaco Foundation.

This site presents 3,000 pieces of sheet music drawn from a collection at Duke University. The selection covers a variety of music types including bel canto, minstrel, protest, plantation, and sentimental songs, as well as songs from vaudeville and tin pan alley. The collection is particularly strong in antebellum Southern music, confederate imprints, and Civil War songs and music.

This sheet music collection consists of approximately 9,000 items published from 1800 to 1922, although the majority is from 1850 to 1920 [view finding aid for the collection]. The bulk was published in many different cities in the United States, but some of the items bear European imprints. Most of the music is written for voice and piano; a significant minority is instrumental. Notable in this collection are early pieces by Irving Berlin and Jerome Kern, as well as music by other popular composers such as Victor Herbert, Jean Schwartz, Paul Dresser, Ernest R. Ball, Gussie L. Davis, Charles K. Harris, and George M. Cohan. Numerous arrangements of classical tunes by Bach, Beethoven, Schubert and other famous classical composers are also well-represented.

A survey of major works of the twentieth century, beginning with Mahler, Schoenberg, Stravinsky, Bartok, and Ives; continuing with Varese, Webern, Hindemith, Prokofiev, among other composers. A general view of the current scene. Description from course home page:This subject covers a specific branch of music history: Western concert music of first sixty years of the twentieth century. Although we will be listening to and studying many pieces (most of the highest caliber) the goal of the course is not solely to build up a repertory of works in our memory (though that is indeed a goal). We will be most concerned with larger questions of continuity and change in music. We will also consider questions of reception, or historiography - that is, the creation of history and our perception of it. Why do we perceive much of this music, so much closer in time to us than Mozart or Beethoven, to be so foreign? Is this music aloof and separate from popular music of the twentieth century or is there a real connection (perhaps hidden)? The subject will continue to follow some topics of central interest to music before 1960, such as serialism and aleatory, beyond the 1960 cutoff. Conversely a few topics which get their start just before 1960 but which flourish later (minimalism, computer music) will be covered only in 21M.263.

This site presents 130 music manuscripts, letters, and materials representative of a 3,500-item collection documenting the history of Western music from the medieval period through the modern era. Essays by musicologists discuss items from Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Chopin, Handel, Liszt, Mozart, Schoenberg, Stravinsky, and other composers.

An introduction to the analysis of tonal music. Students develop analytical techniques based upon concepts learned in Harmony and Counterpoint I and II. Students study harmony, counterpoint, melodic line and motivic relationships at local and large scale levels of musical structure. Three 7-page papers, one revised paper, and one oral presentation required.

This site offers a sampling of traditional Omaha Indian music. The sound recordings include wax cylinder recordings made in the 1890s, as well as songs and spoken-word segments from the 1983 Omaha harvest celebration pow-wow, segments from an interview with an Omaha elder in 1983, songs and speeches from a performance by members of the Hethu'shka Society in 1985, and portions of an interview with an Omaha musician in 1999. Photos, fieldnotes, and more from the 1983 pow-wow are included.

This site presents sheet music, essays, and video and sound clips related to ragtime. This distinctly American music appeared (in its published form) during the mid-1890s mainly in the South and Midwest, spread across the U.S. and to Europe, and influenced early jazz styles. Learn about Scott Joplin, one of the best known ragtime players. Hear segments of his classic Maple Leaf Rag, which helped spread the ragtime craze. See more than 100 pieces of sheet music.

This site commemorates the history of song composition in America. Learn about 10 composers, including Charles Ives (In Flander's Fields), Stephen Foster (Oh! Susanna), and Francis Hopkinson -- the only American-born composer known to have written songs before 1800. Hear and see the music for nearly 20 songs, including Shenandoah and Danny Deever.