Department of Music

Fall 2019 Undergraduate Courses

MUSI 1010 Introduction to Music

Justin Mueller
3.0 credits
Lecture: TR / 12:30-1:45pm / OCH 107
Class Number: 20222

Discussion Sections:

Section 101 (Kerri Rafferty): W / 9:00-9:50 am / OCH S008
Class Number: 20223

Section 102 (Kerri Rafferty): W / 10:00-10:50 am / OCH S008
Class Number: 20224

Section 103 (Kerri Rafferty): W / 10:00-11:50 am / OCH S008
Class Number: 20225

What is music? How does it work? Why do we listen to it? We will study numerous examples, focusing on Western "classical" music, opera, religious music, musical theatre, and film music. We will discuss all the activities that make up the experience of music, including but not limited to composing, improvising, dancing, performing, recording, marketing, selling, listening, and watching. We will ask how music shapes identities, our own and those of many different communities from the 18th century to the present. The goal is to help you form your own informed opinions about music, not just the examples on the syllabus but any music you may encounter. No musical experience necessary.

MUSI 1310 Basic Musical Skills

3.0 credits

Lecture / Section 1 (Ben Rous): MWF / 9:00-9:50 am / OCH 107
Class Number: 10496

Lecture / Section 2 (Sam Golter): MWF / 10:00-10:50 am / OCH 107
Class Number: 10497

Lecture / Section 3 (Ben Rous): MWF / 11:00-11:50 am / OCH 107
Class Number: 10498

Study of the rudiments of music and training in the ability to read music.  Prerequisite: No previous knowledge of music required.

MUSI 1993 Independent Study

1.0 - 3.0 credits
Instructor permission and instructor number required to enroll.

MUSI 2070 Popular Musics

Karl Hagstrom Miller
3.0 credits
Lecture: MW / 1:00-1:50 pm / Maury 209
Class Number: 12079

Discussion Sections:

Section 101 (Kevin Davis): T / 9:30-10:20 am / OCH S008
Class Number: 12080

Section 102 (Kevin Davis): T / 10:30-11:20 am / OCH S008
Class Number: 12081

Section 103 (Kevin Davis): T / 11:30 am - 12:20 pm / OCH S008
Class Number: 12082

Section 104 (Hannah Young): R / 9:30-10:20 am / OCH S008
Class Number: 12231

Section 105 (Hannah Young): R / 10:30-11:20 am / OCH S008
Class Number: 12232

Section 106 (Hannah Young): R / 11:30 am - 12:20 pm / OCH S008
Class Number: 12233

Section 107 (Basile Koechlin): F / 9:00-9:50 am / OCH S008
Class Number: 12667

Section 108 (Basile Koechlin): F / 10:00-10:50 am / OCH S008
Class Number: 12668

Section 109 (Basile Koechlin): F / 11:00-11:50 am / OCH S008
Class Number: 12669

MUSI 2140 Music of Multicultural America

Joel Rubin
3.0 credits
Lecture: TR / 11:00 am-12:15 pm / OCH 107
Class Number: 19076

Examines a wide range of folk and ethnic musical traditions that have flourished in or impacted the United States. We ask how these traditions have fed into definitions of "American-ness" over the years, and whether recent trends represent signs of America's transforming itself into a post-ethnic, post-racial society. Designed for non-music majors. No prerequisites. Musical literacy not assumed.

MUSI 2302 Keyboard Skills (Beginning)

2.0 credits, instructor permission

Lecture / Section 1 (John Mayhood): TR / 11:00 am - 12:15 pm / OCH 113
Class Number: 10499

Lecture / Section 2 (John Mayhood): TR / 12:30-1:45 pm / OCH 113
Class Number: 11795

Introductory keyboard skills; includes sight-reading, improvisation, and accompaniment at the keyboard in a variety of styles. No previous knowledge of music required. Satisfies the performance requirement for music majors.

MUSI 2307 Play Guitar!

Mike Rosensky
2.0 credits, instructor permission
Lecture: MW / 10:00-10:50 / OCH B012
Class Number: 19793

Fundamentals of playing the guitar: left and right hands, chords, strumming, and scales. We'll also incorporate rhythmic training, music theory, song form, pop/rock styles and accompanimental textures. A new course designed to improve guitar performance.

Fall 2019 is intended as a beginner course BUT that could change depending on the experience level of interested students.  Please give a brief description of your guitar experience when you request instructor permission.  I will contact students on my permissions list shortly after registration ends with an update on the status of the course.

Students must provide their own guitar.

MUSI 2308 Voice Class

Pam Beasley
2.0 credits, instructor permission
Lecture: MW / 4:00-4:50 pm / OCH 107
Class Number: 12016

An introductory course to basic vocal technique; discussion to include those elements essential for healthy singing in a variety of styles. Will involve group and solo singing to apply these elements. No previous voice training or musical background required.

MUSI 2340 Learn to Groove

Robert Jospe
2.0 credits

Lecture / Section 1: MW / 10:00-10:50 am / OCH B018
Class Number: 19319

Lecture / Section 2: MW / 11:00-11:50 am / OCH B018
Class Number: 19320

This is a hand drumming class open to all students including music majors. The course requires that students have a hand drum of their own as well as the course book Learn To Groove. Congas, djembes, doumbeks are recommended. The class will focus on simple hand drumming technique and time keeping along with understanding and playing syncopated patterns. The history, geography and artists associated with the rhythms presented in the course will be discussed.  The course is designed to help students achieve fluency with syncopated patterns that are associated with dance rhythms from West Africa, the Caribbean, Brazil, and the United States.

The fundamentals are focused on the three most common rudiments; the single and double stroke roll and the paradiddle. The two measure phrases are based on the 3/2 and 2/3 Son and Rumba clave patterns found in Afro-Cuban and Caribbean music as well as the Bossa clave from Brazil. These patterns are also found in Rock and R+B. Polyrhythms and 6/8 grooves are drawn from African dances and Swing. The goal is to flow freely from one rudiment and one pattern to the next, subdividing in eighth notes, triplets, and sixteenth notes.

MUSI 2342 Learn to Groove Intermediate

Robert Jospe
2.0 credits

Lecture: MW / 1:00-1:50 pm / OCH B018
Class Number: 19321

This is a hand drumming class open to students who have played or are currently playing a musical instrument (as well as vocalists) or those who have had previous musical training and understand the basics of rhythmic notation. Students who have taken MUSI 2340 would also be eligible. The class will focus on hand drumming technique and time keeping along with understanding and playing syncopated patterns. The history, geography and artists associated with the rhythms presented in the course will be discussed. The course is designed to help students develop fluency with syncopated patterns that are associated with dance rhythms from West Africa, the Caribbean, Brazil, and the United States. The course will include movement and dance steps.

The intermediate course will focus on the development of fundamental rudiments (the single and double stroke roll, the paradiddle and the six stoke roll) as well as the two measure syncopated phrases (the 3/2 and 2/3 Son and Rumba clave patterns) associated with Afro-Cuban, Caribbean and Afro-Brazilian styles. These patterns are also found in Rock and R+B. Polyrhythms and 6/8 grooves are drawn from African dances and swing from the United States. The goal is to flow freely from one rudiment and one pattern to the next, subdividing in eighth notes, triplets, and sixteenth notes. This class includes a Tea Time recital performance at the end of the semester of "Groove Passage-LTG" an original composition written for the class. The performance will feature the full ensemble as well as individual solos.

MUSI 2600 Jazz Improvisation

John D'earth
3.0 credits
Lecture: TR / 3:30-5:00 pm / OCH B012
Class Number: 11526

The Jazz Improvisation Workshop explores the basic techniques and procedures for improvising in jazz and other musical contexts. No previous jazz or improvising experience is required but students must demonstrate a degree of fluency on their main instrument, an ability to read music and some familiarity with the basics of music theory. An individual interview/audition with the instructor is required before registering for this class.

MUSI 2993: Independent Study

1.0 - 3.0 credits
Instructor permission and instructor number required to enroll.

MUSI 3010 Studies in Early Modern Music (1500-1700)

Maria Guarino
3.0 credits
Lecture: TR / 3:30-4:45 / OCH 113
Class Number: 20622

Introduction to crucial shifts in musical culture that signaled the emergence of a self-consciously 'modern,' self-consciously 'European' musicality over the period 1500-1700; and to the ways such early modern genres as the polyphonic Mass, the madrigal, opera, oratorio, cantata, sonata, suite, and congregational hymnody have been assimilated into 20th-century American ideas about 'musicality.' Specific topics announced in advance.  Prerequisite: The ability to read music. MUSI 3310 highly recommended.

MUSI 3050 Music and Discourse

3.0 credits

Lecture / Section 1 (Tim Booth): MWF / 9:00-9:50 am / OCH B012
Class Number: 20226

Lecture / Section 2 (Scott DeVeaux): MWF / 1:00-1:50 pm / OCH 113
Class Number: 13602

Studies the range of music that has flourished since the end of the 19th century including modernist and post-modern art music, popular music, and world music, through historical, critical, and ethnographic approaches. Prerequisite: The ability to read music, or any three-credit course in music, or instructor permission.

MUSI 3070 Intro to Musical Ethnography

Nomi Dave
3.0 credits
Lecture: TR / 9:30-10:45 / OCH 107
Class Number: 13603

Why and how does music matter to human beings? What does musical experience look / sound / feel like to particular people and communities? And how can these stories be told ethically and creatively? This course introduces students to the study of music as a fundamentally social practice, through the research method of ethnography. In music, this approach looks beyond notes and musical structures to think of music as part of everyday human life. Our discussions will address key debates in anthropology and ethnomusicology surrounding the ethics and politics of doing research with and representing the experiences of people and communities. The ethics of listening – to sound and to each other – is at the heart of these discussions. As a class, we will develop a year-long ethnographic project, working collectively and collaboratively with a small number of musicians in Charlottesville. Together with the artists, we will design a project that creatively represents the stories of their musical lives. We will also work with WTJU radio to learn recording and production techniques for creative and ethical story-telling.

THIS IS A YEAR-LONG COURSE THROUGH THE COLLEGE’S CIVIC & COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT PROGRAM. Students will conduct fieldwork around Charlottesville, and will learn about the history, methods and ethics of music ethnography. Fieldwork will build on the work done by students in 2019-20, to investigate the hidden voices and sites of music in Charlottesville. We will work together with community artists to create a musical map. ** Please note that students are not permitted to enroll for just one semester. **

MUSI 3310 Theory I

3.0 credits

Lecture / Section 1 (Natalia Perez): MWF / 11:00-11:50 / OCH 113
Class Number: 10500

Lecture / Section 2 (Vivian Luong): MWF / 1:00-1:50 / OCH B012
Class Number: 20540

Lecture / Section 3 (Rami Stucky): MWF / 9:00-9:50 / OCH 113
Class Number: 10501

Studies pitch and formal organization in European concert music of the 18th and 19th centuries. Includes four-part vocal writing, 18th-century style keyboard accompaniment, key relations, and form. Students compose numerous short passages of music and study significant compositions by period composers.

MUSI 3332 and 3334 Musicianship I and II

2.0 credit

These lab courses give practical experience with many aspects of musical perception, performance, and creation. These will include sight-reading and sight-singing; dictation of melody, rhythm, and harmony; aural identification of intervals, chords, and rhythmic patterns; and exercises in musical memory and improvisation. Students entering the sequence take a test to determine the appropriate level of their first course. At the end of each course, students take a placement test to determine whether they may enter a higher level course. Courses may be repeated for credit, but each course may be counted toward the major only once.

MUSI 3332 Musicianship I

Lecture / Section 1 (Savanna Morrison): MWF / 12:00-12:50 pm / OCH 113
Class Number: 10503

Lecture / Section 2 (Adam Carter): MWF / 12:00-12:50 pm / OCH 107
Class Number: 10502

MUSI 3334 Musicianship II

Lecture (Emily Mellen): MWF / 12:00-12:50 pm / OCH B012
Class Number: 12340

MUSI 3370 Songwriting

Heather Mease
3.0 credits
Lecture: MWF / 10:00-10:50 am / OCH 113
Class Number: 19079

MUSI 3372 Writing Rap

A.D. Carson
3.0 credits
Lecture: TR / 9:30-10:45 am / New Cabell 398
Class Number: 13878

This course focuses on the craft of writing raps. It is not necessary that students have previous experience writing raps to take this course. Students will listen to, attempt to deconstruct, and evaluate a broad range of rap music while learning the basics of composing lyrics. Along with writing raps, students will learn songwriting techniques and some theoretical approaches to composing larger works such as a “mixtape” or “album” through examinations of music, criticism, and literature.

MUSI 3390 Introduction to Computers and Music

Leah Reid
3.0 credits
Lecture / Section 100: TR / 11:00 am - 12:15 pm / OCH B012
Class Number: 19080

Discussion Sections:

Section 101 (Omar Fraire): M / 9:00-9:50 am / OCH B011
Class Number: 19745

Section 102 (Omar Fraire): M / 10:00-10:50 am / OCH B011
Class Number: 19746

Section 103 (Omar Fraire): M / 11:00-11:50 am / OCH B011
Class Number: 19747

Lecture / Section 200: TR / 12:30-1:45 / OCH B012
Class Number: 19748

Discussion Sections:

Section 201 (Becky Brown): F / 9:00-9:50 am / OCH B011
Class Number: 19749

Section 202 (Becky Brown): F/ 10:00-10:50 am / OCH B011
Class Number: 19750

Section 203 (Becky Brown): F/ 11:00-11:50 am / OCH B011
Class Number: 19751

Introduction to Music and Computers in an upper-level introductory course in music technology. Students gain theoretical, historical and practical knowledge of electronic and computer music. An emphasis is placed on creative hands-on experience composing computer music. Theoretical topics include acoustics, recording, digital audio, MIDI, sound synthesis, and audio DSP. Students learn skills in sound-file editing, multitrack sound mixing, sound synthesis, and sound processing. This is a composition class and key assignments are creative in nature.

Prerequisite: MUSI 3310. The course can be repeated for credit with approval of instructor.

MUSI 3395 Sonic Arts and Crafts

Heather Frash
3.0 credits
Lecture: TR / 2:00-3:15 / Wilson Hall Makers' Space
Class Number: 19081

Sonic Arts & Crafts is an interdisciplinary studio course exploring sound through experimental and critically engaged projects. Weekly workshops cover acoustics, basic electronics, digital fabrication, and audio programming through hands-on exercises, focusing on how different technologies frame how we listen, play, and think in sound. Drawing on readings and examples from physics, art, critical sound studies, and current diy production communities, we will actively engage with the material properties of sound and listen to what these vibrations might tell us about our world. Tuesday workshops introduce different approaches and techniques and Thursday sessions are left open – studio time where students can expand on workshop projects, try their own designs, and collaborate with others – a crafting group.

MUSI 3559 New Course in Music
Topic: Sounding Text

Heather Frash
3.0 credits
Lecture: TR / 4:00-5:15 / OCH 107
Class Number: 20668

This is an upper level introduction course into the practice of text-sound, examining how sound poetry falls between disciplines of music, sound art, literature, visual art and poetry.  It will survey the works of artists who create scores, scripts, diagrams and documentation of art works that are meant to be ‘heard’ - real and imagined. It will study the theories of an extended listening practice in the context of: text scores, sound walks, deep listening practice, site-specific and performative installations, and non-cochlear listening. It will look at the philosophies of: the surrealists, dadaists, and fluxus artists; and the individual works of artists, such as: George Brecht, Yoko Ono, John Cage, Pauline Oliveros, Susan Howe,  Alison Knowles. It will incorporate a practical element including the realization, creation and curation of such works. This course welcomes students from different disciplines.

MUSI 3570 Music Cultures
Topic: Curating Sound: art, ethnography, practice

Noel Lobley
3.0 credits
Lecture: MW / 2:00-3:15 pm / Wilson 142
Class Number: 19078

This practical  and discovery-driven design course explores the intersections of curatorial practice, sound studies, ethnography, composition, sound art, and community arts practice, through a series of engagements linking archival collections, local and international artists and art and community spaces, and the method and philosophies of embodied and experiential deep listening. Drawing from both the histories and potential affordances of sound curation we engage with practical examples ranging from sub-Saharan Africa to Australia, and from Europe to New York, asking what it means to curate local sound within globalized arts circuits. We will explore multiple and diverse case studies where artists, curators, communities, industries and institutions have both collaborated and clashed, as we ask whether it is desirable or even possible to curate the elusive, invasive and ephemeral object, medium and experience of sound.

Throughout the entire course we will be working closely with professional artists and curators including Around HipHop Live Café and the Black Power Station (Makhanda, South Africa), the Kluge Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection (UVA/ Australia), and MOMENTNYC (New York). Our work will be to design content for live exhibitions linking Charlottesville with South Africa, Australia and New York.

MUSI 3993 Independent Study

1.0-3.0 credits
Instructor permission and instructor number required to enroll.

MUSI 4065 The "Black Voice"

A.D. Carson
3.0 credits
Lecture: TR / 2:00-3:15 am / New Cabell 398
Class Number: 19164

This course focuses on critical analyses of and questions concerning “The Black Voice” as it pertains to hip-hop culture, particularly rap and related popular musics. Students will read, analyze, discuss a wide range of thinkers [artists included] to explore many conceptions and definitions of “Blackness” while examining popular artists and the statements they make in [and about] their art.

MUSI 4507 Composers
Topic: Meet the Beatles

Scott DeVeaux
3.0 credits
Lecture: MWF / 11:00-11:50 am / OCH B012
Class Number: 20543

Meet the Beatles offers a comprehensive introduction to the Beatles, the most consequential and powerful band of the twentieth century.  We will examine the Beatles from numerous perspectives, some technical to music, others open to early rock 'n' roll history and the countercultural trends of the 1960s.

MUSI 4545 Computer Applications in Music
Topic: Designing Audio Effect Plugins

Luke Dahl
3.0 credits
Lecture: TR / 11:00 am-12:15 pm / OCH B011
Class Number: 19082

Audio effects are common and useful tools used in the recording, mixing, and mastering of music and sound, as well as in sound design.

This course focuses on understanding, designing and implementing audio effects, and using them for musical projects. We will cover the signal processing involved in effects such as EQ, delay, chorus, flanger, reverb, distortion, and compression, and we will implement these effects as VST or AudioUnit plug-ins by programming in C/C++ and using the JUCE framework. We will emphasize the musical application of our designs, and as a final project students will create a unique new effect that addresses their own musical goals. 

Enrollment is by instructor permission. Students are expected to have experience using digital audio tools, and to have a music-making or sound-based practice. Previous programming experience is _very_ helpful, but not required if you are enthusiastic and able to learn quickly!

MUSI 4581 Composition I

Leah Reid
3.0 credits
Lecture: W / 2:00-4:30 / Wilson 133
Class Number: 13153

An advanced undergraduate music composition course. Students will receive a combination of weekly individual lessons intermixed with monthly group sessions. The course will provide a forum for students to listen, discuss, workshop, develop, and explore inspirations, compositions, and ideas. Over the course of the semester, students are expected to compose a large-scale work or a series of smaller works for the instrumentation and in the style of their choosing (including electronics).  Students are expected to make significant progress on their projects between lessons.

Note: individual lesson times may be scheduled outside the listed course times. Lesson times will be scheduled the first day of class.

Prerequisite: MUSI 3380 or permission from the instructor. The course can be repeated for credit with approval of the instructor. Students must be proficient with standard music notation software and have some prior experience composing.

MUSI 4600 Performance with Computers

Matthew Burtner
3.0 credits
Lecture: TR / 2:00-3:15 pm / OCH B011
Class Number: 12834

Lab (Daniel Fishkin): T / 3:30-4:30 / OCH B011
Class Number: 12835

The course teaches a blended approach to performance, composition and computer programming through the context of a computer music ensemble. Students from various backgrounds work collaboratively in a technological ensemble context while building skills in interactive media programming, sound art design and human-computer interaction. They explore a new way of making ensemble music in collaboration with interactive and networked computer systems.

MUSI 4750 Choral Conducting I

Michael Slon
3.0 credits
Lecture: MW / 2:00-3:15 pm / OCH 107
Class Number: 19083

Studies in the basic technique and art of conducting, with weekly experience conducting repertoire with a small choral ensemble.  Prerequisite: basic ear training, sight-reading. Previous experience in a choral or instrumental ensemble is preferred. Interested students should consult with the instructor before registering. Instructor permission is required.

Fall 2019 Graduate Courses

MUSI 7511 Introduction to Research in Music

Richard Will
3.0 credits
Lecture: R / 2:00-4:30 pm / OCH S008
Class Number: 10797

MUSI 7519 Current Studies in Research and Criticism
Topic: The Human Voice

Nomi Dave
3.0 credits
Lecture: W / 2:00-4:30 pm / OCH S008
Class Number: 19935

MUSI 7526 Topics in Ethnomusicology
Topic: Producing Ethnography

Noel Lobley
3.0 credits 
Lecture: T / 2:00-4:30 pm / Wilson 244
Class Number: 13613

This course explores many different methods, media and modes for producing ethnography. Through critical, interactive and collaborative engagement with evolving ethnographic media we will seek to understand how and why ethnographic knowledge is collected, produced, circulated, fictionalised distorted, embraced and resisted. Our investigations will take us through text, radio production, song collecting, composition and more, as we ask how collaborative production could even possible.

MUSI 7540 Computer Sound Generation and  Spatial Processing
Topic: Composing for Music & Movement

Luke Dahl
3.0 credits 
Lecture: M / 2:00-4:30 pm / OCH B011
Class Number: 13848

There are many interesting connections between music and movement. Music and dance occur together in every human culture. When we listen to music we experience an abstract sense of movement, and we use movement metaphors to describe music and its movement. Musical instruments can be thought of as devices for transducing human movement into sound.

In this class we will examine these relationships, we will study various technologies for measuring movement, and we will use these technologies to make music from movement and movement-based data. In particular we will explore how motion-capture can be used to generate musical sound in real-time, and we will work with dancers and other movers and performers to create new artistic works.

This class is a seminar for graduate composers in the CCT program of the music department. However advanced undergraduates or other interested students may contact the instructor to discuss joining the class.

MUSI 7547 Materials of Contemporary Music

Matthew Burtner
3.0 credits
Lecture: W / 2:00-4:30 / OCH B011
Class Number: 13154

Fall 2019 Curricular Ensembles

MUBD 2610, 2620, 2630 and 2640: Marching Band I-IV

Andrew Koch
2.0 credits
Lecture: TRF / 6:00-8:20 pm / Hunter Smith Band Building

MUBD 2610
Class Number: 10444

MUBD 2620
Class Number: 10445

MUBD 2630 
Class Number: 10446

MUBD 2640
Class Number: 10447

The Cavalier Marching Band is open to all students at the University of Virginia by audition. The band is comprised of members from nearly every major at UVA. A normal practice schedule is twice a week, with additional Friday practices on home game weeks.  Attendance is mandatory at our band camp in August. There are no fees to be in the Cavalier marching Band. IF you are interested please contact the bands office at 434.982.5347 or email William Pease.

MUEN 2690, 3690 and 4690 African Music and Dance Ensemble

Eric Gertner
2.0 credits
Lecture: T / 5:45-7:30 pm / OCH 107

(registration number depends on student seniority in the ensemble)

MUEN 2690/ Level 1
Class Number: 20077

MUEN 3690/ Level 2
Class Number: 20078

MUEN 4690 / Level 3
Class Number: 20079

The African Music and Dance Ensemble is a practical, hands-on course focusing on several music/dance forms from Western and Central Africa with performances during and at the end of the semester. Though no previous experience with music or dance is required, we will give special attention to developing tight ensemble dynamics, aural musicianship, and a polymetric sensibility. Concentration, practice, and faithful attendance are required of each class member, the goal being to develop an ongoing UVA African Music and Dance Ensemble. No previous experience with music or dance is required.  Come to the first day of class (Aug. 27, 5:45pm, OCH 107). For more information about this ensemble click here

MUEN 3600 Jazz Ensemble

John D'earth
2.0 credits
Lecture: MR / 7:30-9:30 pm / OCH B018
Class Number: 10448

Led by internationally recognized jazz trumpeter/composer John D'earth, the Jazz Ensemble is a full-sized jazz big band, whose focus includes “head arrangements” group improvisation, world music and original compositions from within the band, along with music ranging from swing to bop to fusion. You'll gain valuable experience in ensemble playing and in the art of solo improvisation, and may take private instruction in jazz improvisation, perform in small combos and participate in jazz workshops held by such major figures as Michael Brecker, John Abercrombi, Dave Leibman, Bob Moses, Clark Terry, and Joe Henderson. Restricted to: Instructor permission by audition.

MUEN 3610 Charlottesville Symphony at the University of Virginia

Ben Rous, Conductor
2.0 credits

Strings

Lecture / Section 100: W / 7:30-10:00 pm / OCH 101
Class Number: 10449

Sectionals: M / 5:30-7:00 pm

Section 101: Pete Spaar (Double Bass) / OCH B012
Class Number: 10451

Section 102: Adam Carter (Cello) / OCH S004
Class Number: 11452

Section 103: Ayn Balija (Viola) / OCH 113
Class Number: 10453

Section 104: Daniel Sender (Violin) / OCH 107
Class Number: 10454

Section 105: David Sariti (Violin) / OCH B018
Class Number: 10455

Restricted to: Instructor permission by audition.

Brass / Woodwinds / Percussion

Lecture / Section 200: W / 7:30-10:00 pm / OCH 101
Class Number: 10450

Sectionals: 

Section 201: Elizabeth Roberts (Bassoon) / W / 5:15-6:15 pm / OCH B020 
Class Number: 20171

Section 202: Katy Ambrose (Horn) / W / 6:00-7:00 pm / OCH 113
Class Number: 20172

Section 203: Kelly Peral (Oboe) / W / 5:15-6:15 pm / TBA
Class Number: 10457

Section 204: Jiyeon Choi (Clarinet) / W / 5:15-6:15 pm / OCH B017
Class Number: 20173

Section 205: Kelly Sulick (Flute) / W / 5:15-6:15 pm / OCH Studio C
Class Number: 10456

Section 206: Nate Lee (Trombone) / W / 6:00-7:00 pm / OCH B012
Class Number: 10460

Section 207: Arthur Zanin (Trumpet) / W / 6:00-7:00 pm / OCH 107
Class Number: 10459

Section 208: I-Jen Fang (Percussion) / W / 6:00-7:00 pm / OCH B018
Class Number: 10458

Restricted to: Instructor permission by audition.

MUEN 3620 Wind Ensemble

Drew Koch
2.0 credits
Lecture: M / 6:50-9:00 pm / Hunter Smith Band Building / Room 200
Class Number: 10748

The Wind Ensemble is a 45-member ensemble that features the most outstanding brass, woodwind, and percussion players at the University. The focus of this ensemble is to explore new literature as well as perform the masterworks of the wind band era. The wind ensemble also works with outstanding guest performers and conductors. This group is predominately made up of non-music majors who enjoy the genre of the wind band. Open to all University of Virginia students, auditions are held prior to the start of each semester. For more information on the Wind Ensemble, please visit our webpage at: http://music.virginia.edu/wind-ensemble.

Restricted to: Instructor permission by audition.

MUEN 3630 Chamber Music Ensembles

1.0 credit, Instructor permission by audition.

Brass Quintet

Arthur Zanin
1.0 credit
Lecture / Section 2: TBA
Class Number: 20447

Restricted to: Instructor permission by audition.

Double Reed Ensemble

Kelly Peral
1.0 credit
Lecture / Section 16: TBA
Class Number: 13143

Restricted to: Instructor permission by audition.

Flute Ensemble

Kelly Sulick
1.0 credit
Lecture / Section 3: TBA
Class Number: 10461

Restricted to: Instructor permission by audition.

Horn Ensemble

Katy Ambrose
1.0 credit
Lecture / Section 8: TBA
Class Number: 10464

Restricted to: Instructor permission by audition.

Jazz Chamber

1.0 credit, Instructor permission by audition.

Section 7: Pete Spaar / R / 5:30-7:00 pm / OCH B018
Class Number: 10467

Section 12: Pete Spaar / F / 12:30-2:00 pm / OCH B018
Class Number: 10468

Section 21: Jeff Decker / T / 5:30-7:00 pm / OCH B018
Class Number: 10873

Section 22: Mike Rosensky / F / 2:00-3:30 pm / OCH B018
Class Number: 10874

Restricted to: Instructor permission by audition.

Percussion Ensemble

I-Jen Fang
1.0-2.0 credit
Lecture / Section 10: T / 9:30-10:50 am / OCH B018
Class Number: 10466

Restricted to Instructor permission by audition on first day of class.

Re-established in spring 2005 by I-Jen Fang, principal timpanist and percussionist with Charlottesville Symphony, the Percussion Ensemble is a chamber group that performs literature ranging from classical transcriptions to contemporary music. The ensemble draws upon a large family of pitched and non-pitched percussion instruments, and the number of players and amount of equipment varies greatly from piece to piece. Music reading skills and basic percussion technique on all percussion instruments is required. Previous percussion ensemble experience is highly recommended. If you are interested in joining please contact I-Jen Fang.

String Chamber Music

Section 1: Daniel Sender / TBA
Class Number: 10462

Section 17: Ayn Balija / TBA
Class Number: 10469

Section 18: David Sariti / TBA
Class Number: 10470

Section 20: Adam Carter / TBA
Class Number: 10471

Section 25: John Mayhood / TBA
Class Number: 14317

Restricted to: Instructor permission by audition.

Trombone Ensemble

Nate Lee
1.0 credit
Section 5: TBA
Class Number: 10465

Restricted to: Instructor permission by audition. Contact Nathaniel Lee to schedule an audition.

Woodwind Ensemble

Elizabeth Roberts
1.0 credit
Lecture / Section 4: TBA
Class Number: 10463

Explore, rehearse and perform woodwind chamber music, including both standard and more obscure works. Focus on developing chamber music playing skills, learning the tendencies of the woodwind instruments, developing musicianship, and enjoying making and sharing music! Instructor permission and audition required.

Woodwind Quintet

Jiyeon Choi
1.0 credit
Section 6: TBA
Class Number: 20448

MUEN 3640 Klezmer Ensemble

Joel Rubin
2.0 credit
Lecture: MW / 7:30-9:30 pm / OCH 113
Class Number: 13892

Under the direction of Director of Music Performance and acclaimed clarinetist and ethnomusicologist Joel Rubin, the UVA Klezmer Ensemble is made up of both undergraduate and graduate students from across grounds, faculty, alumni and other members of the greater Central Virginia community, and is dedicated to exploring klezmer and other Jewish and eastern European musical traditions from the 18th to the 21st century. The ensemble is committed to ethnic, racial, cultural and religious diversity. Now in its eleventh year, the Klezmer Ensemble at UVA performs at the end of each semester. The group has also become a vital part of the musical community of Central/Northern Virginia and has appeared at clubs, festivals, conferences, benefits and other events throughout Virginia.

Klezmer was brought to North America by immigrants around the turn of the last century. Since the 1970s, a dynamic revival of this tradition has been taking place in America and beyond. Klezmer’s recent popularity has brought it far from its roots in Jewish tradition and into mainstream popular culture.

Each year the ensemble is coached by and plays together with renowned guest artists. Our guest artist for Spring 2018 will be Paul Brody. The concert is on Thursday, April 19 at 8 pm in Old Cabell, with rehearsals and other events on the Sunday-Wednesday leading up to the concert. Paul Brody is an American trumpeter, composer, sound installation artist, and writer based in Berlin, Germany. His work explores the relationship between spoken word and melody through radio art, sound installation, composition, and performance. We will work on his compositions and guided improvisations. http://paulbrody.net.

Restricted to: Instructor permission by audition.

For more information, please see: http://music.virginia.edu/klezmer .

MUEN 3645 Bluegrass Workshop

Richard Will
1.0 credit, Instructor permission
Lecture: T / 7:00-8:00 pm / Eunoia
Class Number: 12638

This course seeks to develop the playing, singing, and improvising skills necessary for the idomatic performance of bluegrass music, while also providing an opportunity for discussion of its origins and development.  Appropriate for experienced players working to improve their knowledge or for players versed in other genres to learn new styles.

MUEN 3646 Bluegrass Band

Richard Will
1.0 credit, Instructor permission
Lecture: T / 6:00-7:00 pm / Eunoia
Class Number: 13598

This course seeks to develop the advanced playing, singing, improvising, and collaborating skills necessary to perform in a traditional bluegrass band, along with knowledge of bluegrass history and repertoire.

Prerequisite: MUEN 3645

MUEN 3650 University Singers

Michael Slon
2.0 credits
Lecture: MW / 3:30-5:30 pm / OCH 101
Class Number: 10473

The University Singers is the University's premier SATB ensemble, performing a cappella and accompanied choral literature ranging from chant to the works of contemporary composers. Past repertoire has included Bach's Mass in B minor, Orff's Carmina Burana, the Duruflé Requiem, and Bernstein's Chichester Psalms, as well as shorter a cappella works. Recent trips have taken the group to Atlanta, Charlotte, Chicago, Cincinnati, New Orleans, New York City, Philadelphia, and the National Cathedral in Washington D.C., as well as the campuses of other American universities for collaborative concerts. The group has also been heard on European tours in England, Italy, Belgium, Germany, and Switzerland. Recent highlights have included performances with the Charlottesville Symphony at the University of Virginia, a concert and workshop with Bobby McFerrin, and a concert tour of the Southeastern U.S.

Students in the University Singers come from all six of UVA's undergraduate schools, including Arts and Sciences, Education, and Engineering, as well as several of the University's graduate and professional schools. Together, they enjoy an esprit de corps that arises from the pursuit of musical excellence and the camaraderie the singers develop offstage.

All singers at the University - undergraduates, graduate students, staff, and faculty are encouraged to audition. University Singers is offered for two hours academic credit. Michael Slon, who has conducted choruses at the Oberlin Conservatory and Indiana University School of Music, is the conductor. For more information on the University Singers, please visit our webpage. 

Restricted to: Instructor permission by audition.

MUEN 3651 Chamber Singers

Michael Slon
2.0 credits
Lecture: F / 1:00-3:15 pm / OCH 107
Class Number: 10472

Chamber Singers is a select ensemble drawn from the University Singers. The ensemble meets once a week and focuses on music for chamber choir ranging from the Renaissance to contemporary pieces. Recent performances have included the Monteverdi Mass for 4 voices (1651), Britten'sHymn to St. Cecilia, and Bach's Cantata 150, as well as contemporary works by Meredith Monk and Eric Whitacre, and arrangements of classic jazz standards by Harold Arlen, Jerome Kern, and the King's Singers. Interested singers will be considered for the chamber ensemble as part of their University Singers audition. For more information, please visit our webpage.

Restricted to: Instructor permission

MUEN 3660 Ensemble Music with Piano

John Mayhood
2.0 credits
Lecture: TBA
Class Number: 20176

Studies in the preparation and performance of ensemble music with piano. Focus is on the development of collaborative skills and a practical understanding of cultural and theoretical context. Repertoire to be studied varies from semester to semester.

MUEN 3670 Early Music Ensemble: Baroque Orchestra

David Sariti
2.0 credits
Lecture: R / 7:00-9:00 pm / OCH 113
Class Number: 10798

The Baroque Orchestra, directed by David Sariti, offers students the rare opportunity to perform music of the 17th and 18th centuries on the instruments for which it was written, at low pitch. Students use period instruments from the University's extensive collection, receiving personal instruction on the special techniques necessary, and must be accomplished on their modern counterparts. Restricted to: Instructor permission by audition.

MUEN 3680 New Music Ensemble

I-Jen Fang
1.0 credit
Lecture: R / 3:30-5:30 pm / OCH B018
Class Number: 10474

Restricted to Instructor permission by audition on first day of class.

Performance of vocal and instrumental music of the twentieth century.

A one-credit course at the University of Virginia, the New Music Ensemble explores and performs exciting music of our time. The ensemble consists of dedicated instrumentalists, singers and UVA performance faculty. We perform a wide variety of contemporary music suitable to our instrumentation, including new works created by UVA composers.

The New Music Ensemble seeks dedicated instrumentalists and singers to explore and perform a wide variety of contemporary music. To audition, come to the first class with your instrument. If you are interested in joining please contact I-Jen Fang.

Open to UVA students, community musicians and advanced high school students.

Spring 2020 Undergraduate Courses

MUSI 1310 Basic Musical Skills

3.0 credits

Lecture / Section 1 (Sam Golter): MWF / 9:00-9:50 am / OCH 107
Class Number: 10357

Lecture / Section 2 (Natalia Perez): MWF / 10:00-10:50 am / OCH 107
Class Number: 10358

Lecture / Section 3 (Ben Rous): MWF / 11:00-11:50 am / OCH B012
Class Number: 10356

Study of the rudiments of music and training in the ability to read music.  Prerequisite: No previous knowledge of music required.

MUSI 2090 Sound Studies
Topic: Anthropology and the Art of Sound Experience

Noel Lobley
3.0 credits
Lecture: TR / 11:00-11:50 am / Wilson 142
Class Number: 18602

Discussion Sections:

Section 101 (Basile Koechlin): M / 9:00-9:50 am / OCH S008
Class Number: 18603

Section 102 (Basile Koechlin): M / 10:00-10:50 am / OCH S008
Class Number: 18604

Section 103 (Basile Koechlin): M / 11:00-11:50 am / OCH S008
Class Number: 18605

MUSI 2120 History of Jazz

Scott DeVeaux
3.0 credits
Lecture: MW / 2:00-2:50 pm / NAU 101
Class Number: 18606

Discussion Sections:

Section 101 (Justin Mueller): W / 9:00-9:50 am / OCH S008
Class Number: 18607

Section 102 (Justin Mueller): W / 10:00-10:50 am / OCH S008
Class Number: 18608

Section 103 (Justin Mueller): W / 11:00-11:50 am / OCH S008
Class Number: 18609

Section 107 (Kerri Rafferty): F / 9:00-9:50 am / OCH S008
Class Number: 19485

Section 108 (Kerri Rafferty): F / 10:00-10:50 am / OCH S008
Class Number: 19486

Section 109 (Kerri Rafferty): F / 11:00-11:50 am / OCH S008
Class Number: 19487

What is the soundscape of our quotidian (everyday) experience? How does it condition our consciousness, and what implicit cultural messages circulate within our ever-changing daily soundtracks? This course focuses our attention not on music highlighted in performance, but on that which we usually take for granted. A close look at how music works in our everyday lives can offer a new awareness of our ongoing experience, open us to choices we never thought we had, and get us wondering about the depths of aesthetic experience.

MUSI 2302 Keyboard Skills (Beginning)

2.0 credits, instructor permission

Lecture / Section 1 (Peter D'Elia): TR / 11:00 am - 12:15 pm / OCH 113
Class Number: 10687

Lecture / Section 2 (Peter D'Elia): TR / 9:30-10:45 am / OCH 113
Class Number: 11463

Introductory keyboard skills; includes sight-reading, improvisation, and accompaniment at the keyboard in a variety of styles. No previous knowledge of music required. Satisfies the performance requirement for music majors.

MUSI 2304 Keyboard Skills (Intermediate)

John Mayhood
2.0 credits, instructor permission
Lecture: TR / 12:30-1:45 pm / OCH 113
Class Number: 10688

Intermediate keyboard skills for students with some previous musical experience. Satisfies the performance requirement for music majors. Restricted to: Instructor permission by audition.

MUSI 2340 Learn to Groove

Robert Jospe
2.0 credits
Lecture: MW / 10:00-10:50 am / OCH B018
Class Number: 11358

"Learn to Groove" hand drumming and rhythmic fluency with Robert Jospe. This is a hands on drumming/percussion class using congas, djembes, claves, shakers, etc. This class is designed to enhance ones knowledge of syncopated patterns associated with jazz, rock, African and Latin American music and to improve ones facility in playing these patterns. This course will follow my book "Learn To Groove" and can include music students, non music students and is open to students of all skill levels. The course requires that students have or purchase a hand drum of their own. Congas, bongos, djembes, doumbeks or any other hand drums are appropriate.

MUSI 2342 Learn to Groove Intermediate

Robert Jospe
2.0 credits
Lecture: MW / 11:00-11:50 am / OCH B018
Class Number: 11839

"Learn to Groove" hand drumming and rhythmic fluency with Robert Jospe. This is the intermediate level of the class. It is a hands on drumming/percussion class using congas, djembes, claves, shakers, etc. This class is designed to enhance ones knowledge of syncopated patterns associated with jazz, rock, African and Latin American music and to improve ones facility in playing these patterns.

MUSI 2350 Technosonics: Digital Music and Sound Art Composition

Luke Dahl
3.0 credits
Lecture: MW / 11:00-11:50 am / Wilson 402
Class Number: 18612

Discussion Sections:

Section 101 (Omar Fraire): M / 9:00-9:50 am / New Cabell 268
Class Number: 18613

Section 102 (Omar Fraire): M / 10:00-10:50 am / New Cabell 268
Class Number: 18614

Section 103 (Omar Fraire): M / 1:00-1:50 pm / New Cabell 268
Class Number: 18615

Section 104 (Daniel Fishkin): T / 9:30-10:20 am / New Cabell 268
Class Number: 18616

Section 105 (Daniel Fishkin): T / 10:30-11:20 am / New Cabell 268
Class Number: 18617

Section 106 (Daniel Fishkin): T / 11:30 am - 12:20 pm / New Cabell 268
Class Number: 18618

Section 107 (Hannah Young): W / 9:00-9:50 am / New Cabell 268
Class Number: 18619

Section 108 (Hannah Young): W / 10:00-10:50 am / New Cabell 268
Class Number: 18620

Section 109 (Hannah Young): W / 1:00-1:50 pm / New Cabell 268
Class Number: 18621

Section 110 (Heather Mease): R / 12:00-12:50 pm / New Cabell 268
Class Number: 18622

Section 111 (Heather Mease): R / 10:00-10:50 am / New Cabell 268
Class Number: 18623

Section 112 (Heather Mease): R / 11:00-11:50 am / New Cabell 268
Class Number: 18624

Section 113 (Emily Mellen): F / 9:00-9:50 am / New Cabell 268
Class Number: 18625

Section 114 (Emily Mellen): F / 10:00-10:50 am / New Cabell 268
Class Number: 18626

Section 115 (Emily Mellen): F / 1:00-1:50 am / New Cabell 268
Class Number: 18627

This class (www.technosonics.info) explores the history, theory and practice of digital music and sound art. Students learn tools and techniques of music technology that inform many genres and traditions. In addition to historical and theoretical concerns, students will experiment with digital tools for musical creation.

MUSI 2559 New Course in Music
Topic: Symphonic Landmarks

Ben Rous
3.0 credits
Lecture: MWF / 10:00-10:50 am / OCH B012
Class Number: 19488

Western instrumental art music takes its most public form through the orchestra.  In this course we will examine the sound and significance of major concert works for orchestra, from the 18th century to the present day.  We will learn approaches to identifying unfamiliar works via their stylistic traits; become confident in navigating the landmarks of symphonic forms; and think critically about how musical content expresses cultural context.  Students will leave the course with a broad knowledge of the standard orchestral repertoire, its development, and its current trends.

MUSI 2600 Jazz Improvisation

John D'earth
3.0 credits
Lecture: TR / 3:30-5:00 pm / OCH B012
Class Number: 11023

The Jazz Improvisation Workshop explores the basic techniques and procedures for improvising in jazz and other musical contexts. No previous jazz or improvising experience is required but students must demonstrate a degree of fluency on their main instrument, an ability to read music and some familiarity with the basics of music theory. An individual interview/audition with the instructor is required before registering for this class.

MUSI 2993: Independent Study

1.0 - 3.0 credits
Instructor permission and instructor number required to enroll.

MUSI 3030 Studies in 19th-Century Music

Elizabeth Ozment
3.0 credits
Lecture: TR / 3:30-4:45 pm / OCH 113
Class Number: 18628

MUSI 3040 Studies in 20th-Century Music

Joel Rubin
3.0 credits
Lecture: TR / 11:00 am - 12:15 pm / OCH B012
Class Number: 12511

Want to learn why people were beating each other up in the aisles at the premiere of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring? Why Schoenberg’s music is still avant-garde over a century after it’s creation? How the Jazz Age influenced classical music and vice versa? How folk and world musical traditions influenced classical music? What happened to the music under totalitarian regimes? How art movements like Dadaism and Minimalism influenced the direction of music? Why Boulez declared Schoenberg to be dead, and why he and his colleagues were later termed “fascists”? How did post-war music and electronic influence the Beatles and other pop musicians, and how did pop music and jazz feed into the development of minimalism? What is the place of women, and African-American and other minority composers in contemporary music? How did improvisation and Zen Buddhism influence John Cage and other post-war composers? Is John Zorn’s music classical, jazz or something else? And how on earth did Cage land a spot on “I’ve Got a Secret” or the US Navy band end up performing arrangements of Zorn? We cover that and more!

MUSI 3040, Studies in Twentieth and Twenty-first Century Music, offers insight into understanding the complex developments in Western art music from the turn of the 20th century to the present. We will study numerous compositional movements, composers and their works, looking at aspects such as compositional and performance style and techniques within the broader framework of social, cultural and political movements of the time. We will also read what the composers themselves and other writers from the time said about the music. The goal is to help you form your own opinions and interpretations of the music—not only of the examples that we study in class, but of the many others that you may encounter both during and after this class as performers, composers and/or listeners. While the course materials focus primarily on the Euro-American situation, we will also examine developments more globally, drawing on developments in popular, jazz, folk and world musical traditions.

Fulfills part of the 'Critical and comparative studies in music' requirement for majors. Prerequisite: MUSI 3310

MUSI 3050 Music and Discourse

Karl Hagstrom Miller
3.0 credits
Lecture: MWF / 10:00-10:50 am / OCH 113
Class Number: 18629

Studies the range of music that has flourished in the twentieth century, including modernist and post-modern art music, popular music, and world music, through historical, critical, and ethnographic approaches.

MUSI 3070 Intro to Musical Ethnography

Nomi Dave
3.0 credits
Lecture: TR / 9:30-10:45 am, OCH 107
Class Number: 13149

SPRING 2020 IS THE SECOND PART OF A YEARLONG CIVIC ENGAGEMENT COURSE. NEW STUDENTS ARE NOT ABLE TO ENROLL FOR SPRING.

This course explores ways of examining and representing music and sound as a fundamentally social practice. Such an approach looks beyond the notes to study music as part of human social life and experience. Readings and listenings will focus on a number of contexts from throughout the world, including Portuguese fado songs, rainforest soundscapes, and urban street dance in the U.S. We will consider in-depth the theories and methods involved in conducting research and writing about sound and music as social phenomena, considering the roles and perspectives of musicians, listeners, markets and the media. We will also examine the role of the researcher, considering the ethical issues involved in representing music and culture, both from elsewhere and ‘at home’. Students will apply the methods we discuss in class in a final project on music-making and –listening in and around Charlottesville.

MUSI 3090 Performance in Africa

Maria Guarino
4.0 credits
Seminar: R / 3:30-5:00 pm / OCH 107
Class Number: 19489

Lab Section:

Section 101 (Eric Gertner): TR / 5:45-7:15 pm / OCH 107
Class Number: 

Explores performance in Africa through reading, discussion, audio and video examples, and hands-on practice. Thursday afternoon (3:30-5:00) is the seminar meeting, then the course meets together on Tu/Thu in the evening with African Music and Dance Ensemble.* Students in Music 3090 are automatically part of the current semester's UVA African Music and Dance Ensemble. Your role in the Ensemble as learner and performer is crucial to your overall work in the course (also see description for MUEN 3690).

We will explore African music/dance styles, their sociomusical circumstances and processes, as well as performed resistances and responses to the colonial and post/neo-colonial encounter. In addition, we will address the politics and processes involved in translating performance practices from one cultural context to another. Each student's personal relationship to the material/experience will be integrated into study.

Readings, discussions, and written work will focus heavily on topics and issues related to the main music/dance traditions that we are learning to perform this semester, though we may venture beyond those areas from time to time. The course will explore both "traditional" and "popular" styles, leading us to question those categories. As we near the end of the semester, our discussions will focus in part on issues and planning around our ensemble concert in April.

MUSI 3310 Theory I

3.0 credits
Scott DeVeaux
Lecture: MWF / 11:00-11:50 am / OCH 113
Class Number: 11843

Studies pitch and formal organization in European concert music of the 18th and 19th centuries. Includes four-part vocal writing, 18th-century style keyboard accompaniment, key relations, and form. Students compose numerous short passages of music and study significant compositions by period composers.

MUSI 3320 Theory II

Vivian Luong
3.0 credits
Lecture: MWF / 9:00-9:50 am / OCH B012
Class Number: 12265

Studies pitch and formal organization in European concert music of the 18th and 19th centuries. Includes four-part vocal writing, 18th-century style keyboard accompaniment, key relations, and form. Students compose numerous short passages of music and study significan compositions by period composers.

MUSI 3332 and 3334 Musicianship I and II

2.0 credit

These lab courses give practical experience with many aspects of musical perception, performance, and creation. These will include sight-reading and sight-singing; dictation of melody, rhythm, and harmony; aural identification of intervals, chords, and rhythmic patterns; and exercises in musical memory and improvisation. Students entering the sequence take a test to determine the appropriate level of their first course. At the end of each course, students take a placement test to determine whether they may enter a higher level course. Courses may be repeated for credit, but each course may be counted toward the major only once.

MUSI 3332 Musicianship I

Lecture (Adam Carter): MWF / 12:00-12:50 pm / OCH 107
Class Number: 10360

MUSI 3334 Musicianship II

Lecture (Rami Stucky): MWF / 12:00-12:50 pm / OCH B012
Class Number: 10361

MUSI 3342 Learn to Groove Advanced

Robert Jospe
2.0 credits
Lecture: MW / 1:00-1:50 pm / OCH B018
Class Number: 19787

Advanced- Learn To Groove is offered to students who are majoring in music and/or currently playing in percussion ensembles, the orchestra, the marching band and/or have taken and done well in Learn To Groove MUSI 2342. This course is designed for students to gain a broad understanding and facility through hand drumming of the rhythmic language associated with West and Central African, Caribbean, Brazilian, and contemporary styles of jazz, rock and funk from the United States. Students who take this course will be able articulate rhythmic patterns that form the foundation of dance music played throughout the Americas as well as how West and Central African rhythms have influenced the dance music and rhythms of the Americas.

This course builds on the material from Learn To Groove 2340 and 2342 and will focus on six alternative hand patterns in 4/4 and 6/8 for the clave rhythms in the Learn To Groove course book as well as extended polyrhythms, soloing and playing in odd meters. Indian rhythms and a piece written for the Mridangam from India will also be included in the live performance. Drum circle leadership skills will also be included. This class includes a recital performance of "Groove Passage-LTG" an original composition written for the class. The performance will feature the full ensemble as well as individual solos.

The course requires that students have a hand drum of their own as well as the course book Learn To Groove. 8"-12" Djembes are recommended.

MUSI 3350 Deep Listening

Fred Maus
1.0 credit
Seminar: R / 10:00-10:50 am / OCH 107
Class Number: 19490

Exploration of collective activities that involve listening and making sound together, and other interactions, at the intersection of music-making and contemplative practices, drawing on the work of Pauline Oliveros, the Fluxus artists, and other musicians and thinkers. Weekly reading assignments for conceptualization in relation to the experiential component; weekly email responses to readings along with several brief reflective papers.

MUSI 3374 Composing Mixtapes

A.D. Carson
3.0 credit
Seminar: TR / 9:30-10:45 am / NCH 398
Class Number: 18630

Discussion Sections:

Section 101 (Savanah Morrison): M / 9:00-9:50 am / NCH 398
Class Number: 13708

Section 102 (Savanah Morrison): M / 10:00-10:50 am / NCH 398
Class Number: 18631

Section 103 (Savanah Morrison): M / 11:00-11:50 am / NCH 398
Class Number: 18632

MUSI 3380 Introduction to Composition

Leah Reid
3.0 credits
Lecture: TR / 12:30-1:45 / OCH B012
Class Number: 18633

Discussion Sections:

Section 101 (Becky Brown): W / 9:00-9:50 am / OCH B011
Class Number: 19493

Section 102 (Becky Brown): W / 10:00-10:50 am / OCH B011
Class Number: 19494

Section 103 (Becky Brown): W / 11:00-11:50 am / OCH B011
Class Number: 19495

This course explores compositional techniques in Western concert music of the 20th and 21st centuries. Students will explore and experiment with innovative approaches to harmony, rhythm, timbre, texture, and compositional form. We will improvise, listen to, analyze, and discuss new music and compositional techniques. The goal of this course is to expose you to multiple compositional techniques and let you experiment! Coursework will primarily focus on creative and composition exercises, as well as readings, listening, analyses, and short writing assignments. Students will learn to compose in varying styles and will apply their knowledge towards a final composition project.

Prerequisite: MUSI 3310. The course can be repeated for credit with approval of instructor.

MUSI 3400 Ecoacoustics

Matthew Burtner
3.0 credits
Lecture: TR / 2:00-3:15 / OCH B012
Class Number: 18634

MUSI 3559 New Course in Music
Topic: Composition and Film Scoring

Michele Zaccagnini
3.0 credits
Lecture: TR / 11:00 am - 12:15 pm / OCH B011
Class Number: 19884

The course explores different techniques of soundtrack composition both from an analytical standpoint and from a practical, hands-on approach. We will discuss the role of the composer in a film production, as well as other sound-related figures in post-production: music supervisor, sound editor, foley artist and the editor. Modern techniques of composition to images and music production and MIDI orchestration tips will also be explored and discussed. The class is aimed at giving students a broad stroke overview of film composition as well as a stepping stone to build a demo reel. Students will compose music for several film sequences. The compositions will be discussed in class. https://pages.shanti.virginia.edu/Composing_For_Film_2/

MUSI 4520 Critical Studies in Music
Topic: Revising the Classics in Performance

Richard Will
3.0 credits
Lecture: TR / 12:30-1:45 pm / OCH S008

In the performing arts, the so-called “classics” are always changing. This course asks why and how, using examples from opera, musical theatre, popular music, and beyond. What happens to familiar works when they are performed in new ways? What responsibilities do performers have to respect the originals? Why update old pieces rather than create new ones? Why choose to edit or critique works that have become controversial—for example, for their representations of race or gender—rather than simply abandon them?  Through attendance at live performance, discussion of readings and recordings, and exercises in arrangement and updating, we will explore the artistic and political consequences of revising the classics.

MUSI 4523 Issues in Ethnomusicology
Topic: African Electronic Music

Noel Lobley
3.0 credits
Lecture: TR / 2:00-3:15 pm / Wilson 142
Class Number: 12513

African cities and urban areas have long been places for some of the most futuristic sounds being created, music and sounds that reverberate between local urban identities and international avant garde music scenes. Explosive, hypnotic and ultra-modern electronic sounds meld stunning dance forms with musical theatre and articulate the urban youth experience in cities as diverse and vibrant as Kinshasa, Jo'Burg, Nairobi, Lagos and Durban.

We will engage multiplex genres of futuristic music, including Congotronics, Shangaan Electro, and Gqom apocalyptic bass music, paying close attention to innovations in artistic practice, remix culture and Afrofuturism. We will explore the histories and futures of the sounds linking African beat making, technology, guitars, and the dynamics of twenty-first century amplified African cityscapes.

MUSI 4559/Sec. 1 New Course in Music
Topic: Theorizing Musical Bodies

Vivian Luong
3.0 credits
Lecture: MW / 2:00-3:15 pm / OCH 113
Class Number: 19863

Beginning with the critique of music theory’s mind/body problem in the 1990s, accounts of embodied musical experience now proliferate across diverse areas of the discipline—from analysis and performance studies to feminist music scholarship and music cognition. Through engaging readings from these and other related areas in music studies, this seminar will examine key philosophical and methodological issues that arise from foregrounding the body in music. In particular, we will consider how different conceptualizations of the body, such as social constructionism and biological determinism, have impacted our understanding of musical bodies, such as performers’ bodies, listeners’ bodies, and the sonorous body of “the music itself.” This course will also introduce alternate perspectives from actor network theory and new materialisms to consider future paths for embodied music research. Through weekly class discussions and a research project, students will explore the many ways that we can account for the body in musical contexts.

MUSI 4559/Sec. 2 New Course in Music
Topic: Sound Arts in Practice

Heather Frasch
3.0 credits
Lecture: TR / 3:00-4:15 pm / Wilson Hall Makers Space
Class Number: 19888

This class explores the interdisciplinary nature of sound and music outside of conventional performance spaces. Students will learn skills and develop projects that explore concepts and technologies relating to mixed media, such as site-adaptive sound art, sound installations using smart phones, performance art, intervention, and sound ecology. This course will be project focused with emphasis on extended listening practices. Students will be expected to participate in the design, research, fabrication and installation of their projects as part of the course requirements.

Prerequisite: This course is designed as an advanced level to MUSI 3395 Sonic Arts and Crafts course. If you have not taken MUSI 3395, permission can be granted by instructor. Students should have basic knowledge of micro controllers or digital sound production software.

4582 Composition II

Leah Reid
3.0 credits
Lecture: TR / 9:30-10:45 / OCH B011
Class Number: 12768

Composition II is an advanced undergraduate music composition course. Students will receive a combination of weekly individual lessons intermixed with monthly group sessions. The course will provide a forum for students to listen, discuss, workshop, develop, and explore inspirations, compositions, and ideas. Over the course of the semester, students are expected to compose a large-scale work or a series of smaller works for the instrumentation and in the style of their choosing (including electronics).

Note: individual lesson times may be scheduled outside the listed course times. Lesson times will be scheduled the first day of class. 

Prerequisite: MUSI 3380, 3390, or permission from the instructor. Students are expected to have some prior composition experience and must be proficient with standard music notation. The course can be repeated for credit.

4760 Choral Conducting II

Michael Slon
3.0 credits
Lecture: MW / 2:00-3:15 pm / OCH 107
Class Number: 18635

Spring 2020 Graduate Courses

MUSI 7510 Cultural and Historical Studies of Music

Fred Maus
3.0 credits
Lecture: R / 2:00-4:30 / OCH S008
Class Number: 19860

MUSI 7519 Current Studies in Research and Criticism
Topic: The 'Black' Voice

A.D. Carson
3.0 credits
Lecture: T / 2:00-4:30 pm / NCH 398
Class Number: 20256

This course focuses on critical analyses of and questions concerning “The ‘Black’ Voice” as it pertains to hip-hop culture, particularly rap and related popular musics. Students will read, analyze, discuss a wide range of thinkers to explore many conceptions and definitions of “Blackness” while examining popular artists and the statements they make in [and about] their art. 

Much more than attempting, ourselves, to define or identify what is meant by “The ‘Black’ Voice,” this class will actively participate in creative and intellectual investigations of how many thinkers [artists included] approach and engage the idea/s alluded to by the phrase and its components.

MUSI 7526 Topics in Ethnomusicology
Topic: Contemplative Studies in Ethno/Musicology

Maria Guarino
3.0 credits
Lecture: M / 2:00-4:30 pm / OCH S008
Class Number: 19748

The emerging field of contemplative studies invites increasingly engaged, compassionate, collaborative scholarship and teaching that draws the focus to practice, process, creativity, and intuitive thinking. It emphasizes individual experience and interpersonal connectedness as it moves toward more deeply humanistic scholarship. In this seminar, we will look at what this movement has to say to research, writing, and teaching in ethno/musicology. How might a contemplative approach shape the kinds of questions music scholars ask and the processes through which we seek answers? How do contemplative practices inform these modes of inquiry? How can such approaches, when integrated into research and teaching, foster social justice, compassion, resilience, humility, and connectedness in our communities? 

MUSI 7547 Materials of Contemporary Music

Leah Reid
3.0 credits
Lecture: W / 2:00-4:30 / OCH B011
Class Number: 18636

MUSI 7559 Notational Impacts

Heather Frasch
3.0 credits
Lecture: R / 5:00-7:30 / OCH S008
Class Number: 20400

This course will explore a range of possibilities of sonic notation in notated compositions, extended listening practices, performer-composer interactions and site-specific works. It will think through the meaning of notated communication from new complexity thinkers, to de-coupling physical performance techniques, to graphic scores, text-sound relationships and hopefully others. The course will examine how notation can be an important compositional parameter and the ways it can be used to impact structural decisions and sounding forms. The objective is for creative practitioners to develop their own unique voice when making communication decisions for specific sonic situations.

Spring 2020 Curricular Ensembles

MUBD 2601 Basketball Band

Andrew Koch
1.0 credits
Lecture: Hunter Smith Band Building
Class Number: 

The Basketball Band performs at every home men's and women's basketball game at the John Paul Jones Arena and all post season tournament games. Much of the music must be performed memorized. New music is introduced on a weekly basis. Students enrolling in Basketball Band must be a member of the current year's marching band course (MUBD 2610, 2620, 2630, or 2640).

MUEN 2600 Concert Band

Michael Idzior & Andrew Koch
1.0 credits
Lecture: W / 6:30-8:45 pm / Hunter Smith Band Building
Class Number: 10327

The University of Virginia Concert Band is a large wind ensemble, conducted by Michael Idzior & Andrew Koch in the Spring Semester. Its membership is composed of dedicated students from every division and department within the University. Music selections have included standard band literature, pop music, and concertos with special guest artists. Concert Band members stay involved in making music in an ensemble setting while exploring both new literature and old favorites. For more information on the Concert Band, please contact the directors via email at bands@virginia.edu.

MUEN 2650 MICE Ensemble

Matthew Burtner
1.0 credit
Lecture: R / 4:15-5:30 pm / OCH B011
Class Number: 13609

MUEN 2690, 3690 and 4690 African Music and Dance Ensemble

Eric Gertner
2.0 credits
Lecture: TR / 5:45-7:15 pm / OCH 107

(registration number depends on student seniority in the ensemble)

MUEN 2690/ Level 1
Class Number: 11642

MUEN 3690/ Level 2
Class Number: 11471

MUEN 4690 / Level 3
Class Number: 11359

The African Music and Dance Ensemble is a practical, hands-on course focusing on several music/dance forms from Western and Central Africa with performances during and at the end of the semester. Though no previous experience with music or dance is required, we will give special attention to developing tight ensemble dynamics, aural musicianship, and a polymetric sensibility. Concentration, practice, and faithful attendance are required of each class member, the goal being to develop an ongoing UVA African Music and Dance Ensemble. No previous experience with music or dance is required.  Come to the first day of class (Aug. 27, 5:45pm, OCH 107). For more information about this ensemble click here

MUEN 3600 Jazz Ensemble

John D'earth
2.0 credits
Lecture: MR / 7:30-9:30 pm / OCH B018
Class Number: 10328

Led by internationally recognized jazz trumpeter/composer John D'earth, the Jazz Ensemble is a full-sized jazz big band, whose focus includes “head arrangements” group improvisation, world music and original compositions from within the band, along with music ranging from swing to bop to fusion. You'll gain valuable experience in ensemble playing and in the art of solo improvisation, and may take private instruction in jazz improvisation, perform in small combos and participate in jazz workshops held by such major figures as Michael Brecker, John Abercrombi, Dave Leibman, Bob Moses, Clark Terry, and Joe Henderson. Restricted to: Instructor permission by audition.

MUEN 3610 Charlottesville Symphony at the University of Virginia

Ben Rous, Conductor
2.0 credits

Strings

Lecture / Section 100: W / 7:30-10:00 pm / OCH 101
Class Number: 10329

Sectionals: M / 5:30-7:00 pm

Section 101: Pete Spaar (Double Bass) / OCH B012
Class Number: 10331

Section 103: Ayn Balija (Viola) / OCH 113
Class Number: 10332

Section 104: Daniel Sender (Violin) / OCH 107
Class Number: 10333

Section 105: David Sariti (Violin) / OCH B018
Class Number: 10334

Section 106: Adam Carter (Cello) / OCH S004
Class Number: 11221

Restricted to: Instructor permission by audition.

Brass / Woodwinds / Percussion

Lecture / Section 200: W / 7:30-10:00 pm / OCH 101
Class Number: 10330

Sectionals: 

Section 201: Elizabeth Roberts (Bassoon) / W / 5:15-6:15 pm / OCH B020 
Class Number: 

Section 202: Katy Ambrose (Horn) / W / 6:00-7:00 pm / OCH 113
Class Number: 

Section 205: Kelly Peral (Oboe) / W / 5:15-6:15 pm / TBA
Class Number: 10336

Section 209: Jiyeon Choi (Clarinet) / W / 5:15-6:15 pm / OCH B017
Class Number: 13148

Section 203: Kelly Sulick (Flute) / W / 5:15-6:15 pm / OCH Studio C
Class Number: 10335

Section 208: Nate Lee (Trombone) / W / 6:00-7:00 pm / OCH B012
Class Number: 10339

Section 207: Arthur Zanin (Trumpet) / W / 6:00-7:00 pm / OCH 107
Class Number: 10338

Section 206: I-Jen Fang (Percussion) / W / 6:00-7:00 pm / OCH B018
Class Number: 10337

Restricted to: Instructor permission by audition.

MUEN 3620 Wind Ensemble

Drew Koch
2.0 credits
Lecture: M / 6:50-9:00 pm / Hunter Smith Band Building / Room 200
Class Number: 10685

The Wind Ensemble is a 45-member ensemble that features the most outstanding brass, woodwind, and percussion players at the University. The focus of this ensemble is to explore new literature as well as perform the masterworks of the wind band era. The wind ensemble also works with outstanding guest performers and conductors. This group is predominately made up of non-music majors who enjoy the genre of the wind band. Open to all University of Virginia students, auditions are held prior to the start of each semester. For more information on the Wind Ensemble, please visit our webpage at: http://music.virginia.edu/wind-ensemble.

Restricted to: Instructor permission by audition.

MUEN 3630 Chamber Music Ensembles

1.0 credit, Instructor permission by audition.

Brass Quintet

Arthur Zanin
1.0 credit
Lecture / Section TBA: TBA
Class Number: 

Restricted to: Instructor permission by audition.

Double Reed Ensemble

Kelly Peral
1.0 credit
Lecture / Section 4: TBA
Class Number: 12835

Restricted to: Instructor permission by audition.

Flute Ensemble

Kelly Sulick
1.0 credit
Lecture / Section 5: TBA
Class Number: 10343

Restricted to: Instructor permission by audition.

Horn Ensemble

Katy Ambrose
1.0 credit
Lecture / Section 3: TBA
Class Number: 10342

Restricted to: Instructor permission by audition.

Jazz Chamber

1.0 credit, Instructor permission by audition.

Section 10: Pete Spaar / R / 5:30-7:00 pm / OCH B018
Class Number: 10345

Section 13: Pete Spaar / F / 12:30-2:00 pm / OCH B018
Class Number: 10348

Section 11: Jeff Decker / T / 5:30-7:00 pm / OCH B018
Class Number: 10346

Section 12: Mike Rosensky / F / 2:00-3:30 pm / OCH B018
Class Number: 10347

Restricted to: Instructor permission by audition.

Percussion Ensemble

I-Jen Fang
1.0-2.0 credit
Lecture / Section 1: T / 7:30-10:00 pm / OCH B018
Class Number: 10340

Restricted to Instructor permission by audition on first day of class.

Re-established in spring 2005 by I-Jen Fang, principal timpanist and percussionist with Charlottesville Symphony, the Percussion Ensemble is a chamber group that performs literature ranging from classical transcriptions to contemporary music. The ensemble draws upon a large family of pitched and non-pitched percussion instruments, and the number of players and amount of equipment varies greatly from piece to piece. Music reading skills and basic percussion technique on all percussion instruments is required. Previous percussion ensemble experience is highly recommended. If you are interested in joining please contact I-Jen Fang.

String Chamber Music

Section 15: Daniel Sender / TBA
Class Number: 10349

Section 16: David Sariti / TBA
Class Number: 10350

Section 17: Ayn Balija / TBA
Class Number: 10351

Section 18: Adam Carter / TBA
Class Number: 10352

Section 20: John Mayhood / TBA
Class Number: 13953

Restricted to: Instructor permission by audition.

Trombone Ensemble

Nate Lee
1.0 credit
Section 19: TBA
Class Number: 11360

Restricted to: Instructor permission by audition. Contact Nathaniel Lee to schedule an audition.

Woodwind Ensemble

Elizabeth Roberts
1.0 credit
Lecture / Section 2: TBA
Class Number: 10341

Explore, rehearse and perform woodwind chamber music, including both standard and more obscure works. Focus on developing chamber music playing skills, learning the tendencies of the woodwind instruments, developing musicianship, and enjoying making and sharing music! Instructor permission and audition required.

Woodwind Quintet

Jiyeon Choi
1.0 credit
Section 8: TBA
Class Number: 10344

MUEN 3640 Klezmer Ensemble

Joel Rubin
2.0 credit
Lecture: MW / 7:30-9:30 pm / OCH 113
Class Number: 11711

Under the direction of Director of Music Performance and acclaimed clarinetist and ethnomusicologist Joel Rubin, the UVA Klezmer Ensemble is made up of both undergraduate and graduate students from across grounds, faculty, alumni and other members of the greater Central Virginia community, and is dedicated to exploring klezmer and other Jewish and eastern European musical traditions from the 18th to the 21st century. The ensemble is committed to ethnic, racial, cultural and religious diversity. Now in its eleventh year, the Klezmer Ensemble at UVA performs at the end of each semester. The group has also become a vital part of the musical community of Central/Northern Virginia and has appeared at clubs, festivals, conferences, benefits and other events throughout Virginia.

Klezmer was brought to North America by immigrants around the turn of the last century. Since the 1970s, a dynamic revival of this tradition has been taking place in America and beyond. Klezmer’s recent popularity has brought it far from its roots in Jewish tradition and into mainstream popular culture.

Each year the ensemble is coached by and plays together with renowned guest artists. Our guest artist for Spring 2018 will be Paul Brody. The concert is on Thursday, April 19 at 8 pm in Old Cabell, with rehearsals and other events on the Sunday-Wednesday leading up to the concert. Paul Brody is an American trumpeter, composer, sound installation artist, and writer based in Berlin, Germany. His work explores the relationship between spoken word and melody through radio art, sound installation, composition, and performance. We will work on his compositions and guided improvisations. http://paulbrody.net.

Restricted to: Instructor permission by audition.

For more information, please see: http://music.virginia.edu/klezmer .

MUEN 3645 Bluegrass Workshop

Richard Will
1.0 credit, Instructor permission
Lecture: T / 7:00-8:00 pm / Eunoia
Class Number: 11729

This course seeks to develop the playing, singing, and improvising skills necessary for the idomatic performance of bluegrass music, while also providing an opportunity for discussion of its origins and development.  Appropriate for experienced players working to improve their knowledge or for players versed in other genres to learn new styles.

MUEN 3646 Bluegrass Band

Richard Will
1.0 credit, Instructor permission
Lecture: T / 6:00-7:00 pm / Eunoia
Class Number: 12385

This course seeks to develop the advanced playing, singing, improvising, and collaborating skills necessary to perform in a traditional bluegrass band, along with knowledge of bluegrass history and repertoire.

Prerequisite: MUEN 3645

MUEN 3650 University Singers

Michael Slon
2.0 credits
Lecture: MW / 3:30-5:30 pm / OCH 101
Class Number: 10354

The University Singers is the University's premier SATB ensemble, performing a cappella and accompanied choral literature ranging from chant to the works of contemporary composers. Past repertoire has included Bach's Mass in B minor, Orff's Carmina Burana, the Duruflé Requiem, and Bernstein's Chichester Psalms, as well as shorter a cappella works. Recent trips have taken the group to Atlanta, Charlotte, Chicago, Cincinnati, New Orleans, New York City, Philadelphia, and the National Cathedral in Washington D.C., as well as the campuses of other American universities for collaborative concerts. The group has also been heard on European tours in England, Italy, Belgium, Germany, and Switzerland. Recent highlights have included performances with the Charlottesville Symphony at the University of Virginia, a concert and workshop with Bobby McFerrin, and a concert tour of the Southeastern U.S.

Students in the University Singers come from all six of UVA's undergraduate schools, including Arts and Sciences, Education, and Engineering, as well as several of the University's graduate and professional schools. Together, they enjoy an esprit de corps that arises from the pursuit of musical excellence and the camaraderie the singers develop offstage.

All singers at the University - undergraduates, graduate students, staff, and faculty are encouraged to audition. University Singers is offered for two hours academic credit. Michael Slon, who has conducted choruses at the Oberlin Conservatory and Indiana University School of Music, is the conductor. For more information on the University Singers, please visit our webpage. 

Restricted to: Instructor permission by audition.

MUEN 3651 Chamber Singers

Michael Slon
2.0 credits
Lecture: F / 1:00-3:15 pm / OCH 107
Class Number: 10353

Chamber Singers is a select ensemble drawn from the University Singers. The ensemble meets once a week and focuses on music for chamber choir ranging from the Renaissance to contemporary pieces. Recent performances have included the Monteverdi Mass for 4 voices (1651), Britten'sHymn to St. Cecilia, and Bach's Cantata 150, as well as contemporary works by Meredith Monk and Eric Whitacre, and arrangements of classic jazz standards by Harold Arlen, Jerome Kern, and the King's Singers. Interested singers will be considered for the chamber ensemble as part of their University Singers audition. For more information, please visit our webpage.

Restricted to: Instructor permission

MUEN 3657 Voice for the Stage

Pam Beasley & Brenda Patterson
2.0 credits
Lecture: TBA
Class Number: 18485

MUEN 3660 Ensemble Music with Piano

John Mayhood
2.0 credits
Lecture: TBA
Class Number: 12843

Studies in the preparation and performance of ensemble music with piano. Focus is on the development of collaborative skills and a practical understanding of cultural and theoretical context. Repertoire to be studied varies from semester to semester.

MUEN 3670 Early Music Ensemble: Baroque Orchestra

David Sariti
2.0 credits
Lecture: R / 7:00-9:00 pm / OCH 113
Class Number: 10686

The Baroque Orchestra, directed by David Sariti, offers students the rare opportunity to perform music of the 17th and 18th centuries on the instruments for which it was written, at low pitch. Students use period instruments from the University's extensive collection, receiving personal instruction on the special techniques necessary, and must be accomplished on their modern counterparts. Restricted to: Instructor permission by audition.

MUEN 3680 New Music Ensemble

I-Jen Fang
1.0 credit
Lecture: R / 3:30-5:30 pm / OCH B018
Class Number: 10355

Restricted to Instructor permission by audition on first day of class.

Performance of vocal and instrumental music of the twentieth century.

A one-credit course at the University of Virginia, the New Music Ensemble explores and performs exciting music of our time. The ensemble consists of dedicated instrumentalists, singers and UVA performance faculty. We perform a wide variety of contemporary music suitable to our instrumentation, including new works created by UVA composers.

The New Music Ensemble seeks dedicated instrumentalists and singers to explore and perform a wide variety of contemporary music. To audition, come to the first class with your instrument. If you are interested in joining please contact I-Jen Fang.

Open to UVA students, community musicians and advanced high school students.

Summer 2020 Courses

Session I (May 18-June 12)

MUSI 3559 New Course in Music
Topic: Talking in Music

John D'earth
3.0 credits
Lecture: MTWRF / 1:00-3:15pm / OCH B018
Class Number: 12509

This online summer course in jazz listening and practices, originally designed for the classroom, has moved online and morphed into a hybrid that welcomes musicians (at any level) and non-musicians, alike. Jazz is intimately connected to the art of improvisation. The ability to improvise is a defining human trait. (For example, almost all of our conversations are improvised.) Jazz improvisation is “talking in music.” From where does the unconscious command of all the rules of verbal and social interaction arise?  And what must the musician command, unconsciously, to be able to improvise and create greatness, spontaneously, in the manner of a Louis Armstrong, a Billie Holiday, a Charlie Parker, or a John Coltrane?  How do these spontaneous gems of creativity come about?

Session II (June 15-July 10)

MUSI 2340 Learn to Groove

Robert Jospe
2.0 credits
Lecture: MTWRF / 1:00-2:30pm / OCH B018
Class Number: 10639

This is a hand drumming class open to all students including music majors. The course requires that students have a hand drum of their own as well as the course book Learn To Groove. Congas, djembes, doumbeks are appropriate. The class will focus on simple hand drumming technique and time keeping along with understanding and playing syncopated patterns. The history, geography and artists associated with the rhythms presented in the course will be included. The course is designed to help students achieve fluency with syncopated patterns that are associated with dance rhythms from West Africa, the Caribbean, Brazil, and the United States.

MUSI 3400 Ecoacoustics

Chris Luna
3.0 credits
Lecture: MTWRF / 10:30am-12:45pm / OCH B012
Class Number: 12508

This course explores the translation of environmental sounds into music. It studies the process in which listening to and recording sonic environments under a scientific and cross-disciplinary lens becomes a creative foundation for electronic and/or instrumental music composition. We use specialized audio recording techniques and equipment to sample sounds for later analysis. We analyze the spectral and temporal characteristics of soundscapes with a software suite. The process culminates with editing, processing and mixing software to make environmental sound-based compositions.

Making music with the environment understands every sound that we engage with as musical material and indicator of the state of our surroundings. We will make music as we examine the interconnected fields of soundscape studies, spectral analysis, science, sonification, composition and performance. 

The areas covered in this course are theoretical, technical and creative: 

1. History, theory and examples of environmental sound-based composition and ecoacoustics studies, covering thought and work by composers, acoustic ecology scholars and scientists

2. Listening / Recording / Analysis / Processing

3. Electronic and instrumental composition using the materials derived from the soundscapes 

The class requires no theory, musicianship or orchestration experience and  is suited for students from diverse musical backgrounds. The materials of this course are adjustable to different skill levels in musicianship, technology and composition, allowing enrollment of both non-major and major levels.

Session III (July 13-August 7)

MUSI 2120 History of Jazz Music / 3120 Jazz Studies (combined section)

Rami Stucky
3.0 credits
Lecture: MTWRF / 1:00-3:15pm / OCH 107
Class Number: 12399 / 12400

This course is designed for music students interested in history and history students interested in music. Although the class will analyze music over the course of the semester, proficiency in music notation or musical terms is not a class prerequisite and anybody is welcome to enroll.

This course will ask the question, “how can we understand what occurred during the modern Civil Rights Movement by listening to jazz created at the time?” In this regard, there are two objectives for the class. First, the class will chronicle the protests of African-Americans, roughly beginning with the Montgomery Bus Boycotts (1955) until Martin Luther King Jr.’s death (1968). We will trace the various political, social, and economic tactics that many Americans embraced to achieve civil rights at that time. The second objective will revolve around understanding how jazz music at the time evoked these tactics, hopes, aspirations of African-Americans during the Civil Rights Movement. In order to achieve this second objective, we will listen to jazz, study jazz musicians’ biography and relate jazz theory to the social upheavals occurring between 1955 and 1968. Attention will be given to jazz scholarship written by University of Virginia professors.

MUSI 2307 Play Guitar!

Michael Rosensky
2.0 credits
Lecture: MTWRF / 1:00-2:30pm / OCH B012
Class Number: 10864

Fundamentals of playing the guitar: left and right hands, chords, strumming, and scales. We'll also incorporate rhythmic training, music theory, song form, pop/rock styles and accompanimental textures. The course is designed to improve guitar performance.

The course will work with a range of experience levels. Please email the instructor, Mike Rosensky (mlr5q@virginia.edu) and give a brief description of your guitar experience when you register for the class (or if you have questions).

Students must provide their own guitar.

MUSI 2559 / 3559 New Course in Music (combined section)
Topic: Introduction to Making Beats / Make Beats

Ted Coffey
3.0 credits
Lecture: MTWRF / 10:30 am - 12:45 pm / OCH 107
Class Number: 12683 / 12684

Make Beats introduces students to technologies, techniques, and histories of beat making.  The course covers hardware such as turntables, microphones, drum machines, synthesizers, samplers, mixing boards, and recorders, as well as software applications (e.g., DAWs) that model such technologies ‘in the box’.  While previous experience with computer science is not required, the course will require students to synthesize and sequence sound from scratch via the cross-platform Max programming language, learning about acoustics and computer music along the way.  We will practice critical listening to exemplars across genres, and work to reverse engineer what we hear.  Key projects will focus on creative practice, applying course content to the composition of original beats and tracks.

MUSI 2559 / 4559 New Course in Music (combined section)
Topic: Introduction to Listening to Film / Listening to Film

Anna Nisnevich
3.0 credits
Lecture: MTWRF / 1:00-3:15 pm / TBA
Class Number: 12507 / 12510

Why do our favorite films have such a hold on us? What helps us engage with virtual reality, be pulled into the unfamiliar worlds on screen, and all but forget about the physical distance between the everyday life and a fantasy? In this class we will explore diverse ways in which film music – and, more broadly, sound – interacts with film image and in so doing creates meanings and effects not accessible through other media. We will learn what to listen for in film, but also how to put to words the results of our focused listening. By the end of the course you should gain access to some secrets of cinematic trade, but also acquire a more acute appreciation for the magic of cinema.