Spotlighting Spring 2018 Courses with New Professors

The following music courses will be instructed by new faculty for the 2017-18 year.

Leah Reid -- MUSI 3390: Introduction to Music and Computers (TuTh 12:30PM-1:45PM)

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. 

Leah Reid -- MUSI 4547: Materials of Contemporary Music (TuTh 9:30AM-10:45AM)

Materials of Contemporary Music: Undergraduate Seminar on Timbre, is a composer oriented course which focuses on the analysis and application of techniques primarily concerned with timbre or tone color. We will examine music of the last century and observe how composers and researchers have approached timbre. An emphasis is placed on creative hands-on experience. Students will learn skills in analyzing, orchestrating, resynthesizing, and composing with timbre. Timbre will be used as a catalyst to explore pitch, time, space, perception, and color. Assignments will be creative in nature and will apply concepts explored in the course. 

Leah Reid -- MUSI 4582: Composition II (TBA)

Composition 2 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. 

Benjamin Rous -- MUSI 4559: New Course in Music, Orchestration II: Target Practice (MoWe 2:00PM-3:15PM)

This course examines the evolution of orchestral music through the lens of tone color and its increasing primacy in musical aesthetics. We will study the evolving styles of orchestration, from the Classical era through present-day Spectralism. In the process we will familiarize ourselves with a series of orchestral masterworks spanning these eras. Styles will be studied through emulation: students will create short orchestrations in the style of composers such as Beethoven, Brahms, Ravel, and Saariaho. Close students will be able to select orchestral works, and composers, they are interested in studying in detail. Students may be asked to bring instruments to class for demonstration purposes. 

Prerequisite: Orchestration I, or instructor permission. It is expected that students will have some composition or arranging experience, or some knowledge of orchestral repertoire.

Benjamin Rous -- MUSI 4720: Instrumental Conducting II (MoWe 3:30PM-4:45PM)

This course is designed to continue the progress of students on the path toward mastering all requisite skills necessary to be an effective instrumental conductor. Score study and preparation will form the backbone of the course. The physical technique of conducting will be analyzed and practiced. Students will continue to develop their own voice as concert programmers, and will hone their inner ear and musical ideation. 

Prerequisite: Instrumental Conducting I, or instructor permission 

A.D. Carson -- MUSI 3559: New Course in Music: Composing Mixtapes (MoWe 3:30PM-4:45PM, Lab: M 2:00PM-3:00PM)

This course focuses on the craft of writing rap songs as well as the collection, selection, and integration of other media to collaborate toward the composition of a class mixtape. Experience writing raps or producing beats will be helpful, but it is not necessary that students have previous experience to take this course. Students will listen to, attempt to deconstruct, create, and evaluate a broad range of music and literature while collaborating on the mixtape. Along with composing the mixtape, students will learn songwriting techniques and some alternate theoretical approaches to composing other hip-hop works.

A.D. Carson -- MUSI 4559: New Course in Music: The Black Voice (MoWe 6:00PM-7:15PM)

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.

Address

UVA Department of Music
112 Old Cabell Hall
P.O. Box 400176 Charlottesville, VA 22904-4176

Email: music@virginia.edu