Department of Music

Fall 2023 Undergraduate Courses

MUSI 1310 Basic Musical Skills

3.0 credits

Section 1 (Ben Rous): MWF / 10:00-10:50 am / OCH 107
Class Number: 10362

Section 3 (Ayn Balija): MWF / 11:00-11:50 am / OCH B012
Class Number: 18767

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

MUSI 2110 Listening to Everyday Life: Community, Improvisation, Play(ing)

Michelle Kisliuk
3.0 credits
MW / 2:00-3:15 / Monroe 134
Class Number: 13861

This course starts with the idea that engaging interactively -- honing our ability to listen (as most broadly defined) sets us up to be involved fully in the life around us. Listening and reflecting on daily experience, then applying that refined sensibility, leads us into interactive communities that can create things together. We will explore listening in daily life from many angles that include everyday field research, reading, writing, and discussion. We will experiment with group performance exploring ideas about improvisation and uniting the aesthetic sphere with the broader sphere of social life and collective engagement.

MUSI 2120 History of Jazz

Scott DeVeaux
3.0 credits
Section 100: MW / 12:00-12:50 / Clark Hall 108
Class Number: 18858

Discussion Sections:

Sections 101 (Corey Harris): T / 9:30-10:20 am / OCH S008
Class Number: 18859

Sections 102 (Corey Harris): T / 11:00-11:50 am / OCH S008
Class Number: 18860

Sections 103 (Corey Harris): T / 12:30-1:20 pm / OCH S008
Class Number: 18861

Section 104 (Kristin Hauge): R / 9:30-10:20 am / OCH S008
Class Number: 18862

Section 105 (Kristin Hauge): R / 11:00-11:50 am / OCH S008
Class Number: 18863

Section 106 (Kristin Hauge): R / 12:30-1:20 pm / OCH S008
Class Number: 18864

Perhaps you have heard this anecdote. Someone asks, "What is jazz?"" And the answer is, "If you have to ask, you willl never know." But that's no longer true.

In this class, we will teach you about jazz. We will explain what music improvisation is, and how it works. We will offer guides about how to listen to the music. And we will tell you the story of jazz: how it fits into American history, and more specifically Black history. You will come to know the music and the personalities of jazz titans such as Louis Armstrong, John Coltrane, Billie Holiday, and Charlie Parker. And you will get to see the intertwining of styles and recordings that make up the jazz tradition.

This class presupposes no musical knowledge, beyond the desire to learn about traditions that may be outside your experience. With that in mind, the first two chapters in the textbook Jazz concentrates on musical elements.  Learn as much as you can by 1) reading Chapters 1-2; 2) watching the lecture videos on Collab under Chapters 1-2; 3) consulting the Norton study space, which has ample discussion of terms and concepts.

The course itself tells the story of jazz,  starting with the origins in the complex musical culture of the early 20th century and proceeding, step by step.  We will arrive at the present in three ways: 1) through the modernist narrative, which leads to the jazz avant-garde; 2) the fusion narrative, which links jazz to popular culture; and 3) the historicist narrative, framing the jazz present in terms of its past.

MUSI 2302 Keyboard Skills (Beginning)

2.0 credits, instructor permission

Section 1 (John Mayhood): TR / 11:00 am - 12:15 pm / OCH 113
Class Number: 10363

Section 2 (Shelby Sender): TR / 12:30-1:45 pm / OCH 113
Class Number: 11246

Introductory keyboard skills; includes sight-reading, improvisation, and accompaniment at the keyboard in a variety of styles. Satisfies the performance requirement for music majors.

MUSI 2307 Play Guitar! 1

Mike Rosensky
2.0 credits
MW / 1:00-1:50 pm / OCH B012
Class Number: 12791

Fundamentals of playing guitar, with an emphasis on rhythmic training along with some music theory.  This class will start from scratch and is meant for beginners.

MUSI 2308 Voice Class

Pamela Beasley
2.0 credits
MW / 4:00-4:50 pm / OCH 107
Class Number: 12793

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

Section 1: MW / 10:00-10:50 am / Hunter Smith Band Building
Class Number: 12312

Section 2: MW / 11:00-11:50 am / Hunter Smith Band Building
Class Number: 12313

"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
MW / 1:00-1:50 pm / Hunter Smith Band Building
Class Number: 12314

"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
Section 100: MW / 3:00-3:50 pm / NAU 101
Class Number: 12674

Discussion Sections:

Section 101 (Sia Mohebbi): M / 9:00-9:50 am / CAB 268
Class Number: 12675

Section 102 (Sia Mohebbi): M / 10:00-10:50 am / CAB 268
Class Number: 12676

Section 103 (Sia Mohebbi): M / 11:00-11:50 am / CAB 268
Class Number: 12677

Section 104 (Carlehr Swanson): T / 9:00-9:50 am / CAB 268
Class Number: 12678

Section 105 (Carlehr Swanson): T / 10:00-10:50 am / CAB 268
Class Number: 12679

Section 106 (Carlehr Swanson): T / 12:30-1:20 pm / CAB 268
Class Number: 12680

Section 107 (Brian Lindgren): W / 9:00-9:50 am / CAB 268
Class Number: 12681

Section 108 (Brian Lindgren): W / 10:00-10:50 am / CAB 268
Class Number: 12682

Section 109 (Brian Lindgren): W / 11:00-11:50 am / CAB 268
Class Number: 12683

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: Jazz Today

Nicole Mitchell Gantt
2.0 credits
MW / 10:00-10:50 / OCH 113
Class Number: 18869

Jazz Today is a course focused on the diverse work of influential and emerging jazz artists of the last decade. In a lecture/discussion format, this course will engage students with recordings, videos and live interviews of current jazz artists of North America and across the globe. Students will deepen their knowledge of musical concepts within jazz and learn how these artists utilize their music as a window to express social issues, history, cultural identity, gender justice and more.

MUSI 2600 Jazz Improvisation

John D'earth
3.0 credits
TR / 3:30-5:00 pm / OCH B012
Class Number: 11055

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 3050 Music and Discourse

Karl Hagstrom Miller
3.0 credits
MWF / 10:00-10:50am / OCH B012
Class Number: 12374

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.

MUSI 3310 Theory I

Scott DeVeaux
3.0 credits
MWF / 1:00-1:50 pm / OCH 113
Class Number: 12684

Studies the pitch and rhythmic aspects of several musical styles, including European art music, blues, African drumming, and popular music. Focuses on concepts and notation related to scales and modes, harmony, meter, form, counterpoint, and style.

MUSI 3330 The Classical Style:  Form in Tonal Music

Michael Puri
3.0 credits
MW / 2:00-3:15pm / OCH B012
Class Number: 20298

In this course we read, analyze, and write music in the western classical tradition to learn how it is formed, from its smallest parts (motives) to its largest wholes (sonatas). We focus on music of the High Classical Era: Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, and Schubert. Prerequisite: MUSI 3310 (Theory 1) or equivalent. Students must have completed MUSI 3310 and can't enroll if previously taken MUSI 3559 #18 The Classical Style

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. Lectures, dictations, exercises, and quizzes will be in person on Mondays and Wednesdays. Singing and rhythm practice will be online on Fridays, and most homework assignments will also be completed online. Please contact Prof. Adam Carter with questions or concerns.

MUSI 3332 Musicianship I

Dilshan Weerasinghe
MWF / 12:00-12:50 pm / OCH 107
Class Number: 10364

MUSI 3334 Musicianship II

Adam Carter
MWF / 12:00-12:50 pm / OCH B012
Class Number: 11540

MUSI 3350 Deep Listening

Fred Maus
1.0 credit
W / 11:00-11:50 am / OCH 113
Class Number: 12715

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 3380 Introduction to Composition

Michele Zaccagnini
3.0 credits
Lecture: TR / 9:30-10:45 am / OCH 107
Class Number: 13724

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 3390 Introduction to Computers and Music

Michele Zaccagnini
3.0 credits, instructor permission
TR / 11:00-12:15 pm / OCH 107
Class Number: 13725

Discussion Sections:

Lab 101 (Varun Kishore): M / 9:00-9:50 am / OCH B011
Class Number: 13062

Lab 102 (Varun Kishore): M / 11:00-11:50 am / OCH B011
Class Number: 13063

Lab 103 (Varun Kishore): M / 12:00-12:50 pm / OCH B011
Class Number: 13064

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 3559 New Course / Section 1
Topic: Music, Consciousness, and Embodiment

Fred Maus
3.0 credits
W / 2:00-4:30 am / OCH 113
Class Number: 18865

We will think about the varieties of consciousness and embodiment in musical experiences, our own and those of others. Class meetings will include experiential explorations along with discussion of assigned material.

MUSI 3559 New Course / Section 2
Topic: Creative Music Ensemble

Nicole Mitchell Gantt
3.0 credits
T / 7:15-9:45 pm / OCH B018
Class Number: 18871

Creative Jazz Ensemble (CJE) is high-level performance and research ensemble directed by composer/creative flutist Nicole Mitchell. CJE will rehearse, develop, and perform work by Mitchell, in addition to repertoire by innovative jazz and creative music composers of the 21st century. Selected members of CJE will have the opportunity to compose for the ensemble. Advanced music students of any instrument (including electronics), with or without an improvisational background, are invited.

MUSI 3559 New Course
Topic: Black Music Composing and Performance Ensemble

3.0 credits

This course offers students a practical understanding of creating songs from concepts to performances. It prepares students to manage the challenges of being artists, realize themselves as vessels that can provoke a change in society, and understand methods of communication as collaborators. Dr. Carson’s course section focuses on lyrical writing while Dr. Armstrong’s section focuses on music production with some overlapping topics.

Dr. Carson’s section of the course focuses on songwriting and recording. Students will also engage in in-depth critical analyses of and questions concerning race, class, gender, politics, and social commentary pertaining to hip-hop culture, particularly rap and related popular music. Students will write a song (or a portion thereof) weekly, read, analyze, and discuss a wide range of thinkers to help contextualize the term’s work while examining popular  artists and statements they make in [and about] their art.

Dr. Armstrong’s section of this course focuses on song composition, arrangement, and recording techniques from the lens of music producers. Musicians, which includes beatmakers, will compose and record music in collaboration with students composing lyrics. Students will critique and analyze song structure, instrumentation, grooves, and production techniques while researching the stylings of producers and songwriters from various eras. Students will also understand the functions of sequencing, signal flow, envelope filters, parallel processing, frequencies and EQing, bussing, effect processing, dynamic processing, the differences in genres of Black music, and more.

Students will use the lab hour to produce their songs for an end-of-the-semester mixtape.

Lecture 300 (A.D. Carson): TR/ 9:30-10:45 am / CAB 398
Class Number: 18866

Lab 301: TR / 11:00-12:15 / CAB 398
Class Number: 20226

Lecture 400 (JoVia Armstrong):  TR / 12:30-1:45 pm / CAB 398
Class Number: 20227

Lab 401: TR / 11:00-12:15 / / CAB 398
Class Number: 20228

MUSI 3993 Independent Study

1.0-3.0 credits
Instructor permission required to enroll.

MUSI 4065 The "Black Voice"

A.D. Carson
3.0 credits
T / 2:00-4:30 pm / New Cabell 398 
Class Number: 12803

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 4410 Orchestration II

Ben Rous
3.0 credits
MWF / 11:00-11:50 am / Och 107
Class Number: 18867

This course will examine the symphony orchestra in detail, equipping students with all necessary skills to arrange or compose for any ensemble. We will learn the capabilities of every orchestral instrument, and study how they are combined by master composers. Students will create arrangements for string quartet, woodwind quintet, and full orchestra. The majority of these projects will receive readings by ensembles.

Projects may be completed with notation software or may be handwritten. No previous composition or arranging experience is necessary, but fluency in musical notation and familiarity with the basics of music theory are required.

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

Luke Dahl
3.0 credits
MW / 9:30-10:45 am / B011
Class Number: 12291

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 4600 Performance with Computers

Matthew Burtner
4.0 credits
TR / 2:00-3:15 pm 
Class Number: 20246

Lab (Matias Vilaplana Stark): T / 3:30-4:30
Class Number: 20247

 “Performance with Computers” (MUSI 4600) will teach Max/MSP/Jitter music and video programming for live performance, this semester we will focus on network-based musical performance. As we survive a present without in-person concerts, and look to a future in which live music events may be increasingly organized telematically, musicians can benefit from understanding interactive music and video tools, techniques and theory. This altering musical landscape presents extreme challenges, but it will also create new opportunities for those with knowledge of emerging interactive media technology and aesthetics. MUSI 4600 is a multifaceted class, involving lectures focused on aesthetics and theory, seminar discussions based on readings in interactive media, labs and hacking sessions focused on programming in Max/MSP/Jitter, and group collaborative jams using our instruments and/or computers.

This class is designed as a synchronous online course, with some material presented asynchronously as appropriate. There will be ample opportunity for in-person discussion both in class and labs and through office hours. Students should plan to attend the class on Zoom on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 2-3:15, and to participate in a lab each week which will be scheduled separately. The labs will teach programming techniques needed to complete a series of assignments and projects. Our class will also become a Mobile Interactive Computer Ensemble (MICE) and we will compose and perform a collaborative network ensemble piece to present online at the end of the semester.

No previous programming experience is required. An introductory composition and computer music class such as Intro to Computers in Music, Ecoacoustics, Songwriting, or Intro to Composition, or equivalent experience by instructor permission is prerequisite. Students are not required to play a musical instrument although musicians will find it useful to incorporate their instruments into the computer music framework.

Students should have access to a Mac OS or Windows computer with a network connection capable of running Zoom.

Each student should also purchase and install the Max software from Cycling74.com (student license is either $9.99 per month or $59 for a year). This software package includes Max, MSP and Jitter. Additional tools and readings will be provided digitally through Collab.

MUSI 4750 Choral Conducting I

Michael Slon
3.0 credits
Lecture: MW / 2:00-3:15 pm 
Class Number: 18868

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.

MUSI 4993 Independent Study

1.0-3.0 credits
Instructor permission required to enroll.

Fall 2023 Graduate Courses

MUSI 7524 Topcis in Ethnomusicology
Topic: Performance Ethnography and Altered States

Michelle Kisliuk
3.0 credits
R / 2:00-4:30 / OCH 201
Class Number: 20194

This discussion-based doctoral seminar explores the vast realm of intersections between sound, movement and altered states of consciousness, ranging from sound that induces meditative states to musical processes in possession-trance and divination. We will consider the element of substances that are culturally associated with sound and altered states; from the ubiquitous presence of alcohol in some festival settings, to psychedelia in other settings. Mental health and other healing treatments, community musicking and consciousness, and rhythm (especially polymeter) and movement will be part of our exploration. As part of training that engages poetics and critical positionality for writing ethnographically, we will consider the special challenges of writing about altered states. Readings will include Gilbert Rouget's classic Music and Trance, Levitin's popular text This is Your Brain on Music, as well as full musical ethnographies such as Hagedorn's Divine Utterances, Friedson's Dancing Prophets and The Remains of Ritual, and Becker's Deep Listeners: Music, Emotion, and Trancing, and Katz's Boiling Energy: Community Healing Among the Kalahari San, as well as mulitidisciplinary essays and articles.

MUSI 7547 Materials of Contemporary Music
Topic: Ecoacoustic Thought and Practice

Matthew Burtner
3.0 credits
W / 2:00-4:30 pm / OCH B011
Class Number: 13728

Ecoacoustic Thought and Practice is a graduate level course in ecoacoustics embracing varied outcomes such as musical composition and performance, scientific research, and scholarship. Following the model of UVA’s Coastal Conservatory (http://www.coastalconservatory.org), students pursue different tracks of advanced research on environmental sound, either independently or in collaboration with one another. Regardless of disciplinary focus, all students will learn ecoacoustic technology and methodology, and will apply these tools and techniques to create original projects.

MUSI 7559
Topic: Time Travel Composition

JoVia Armstrong
3.0 credits
T / 2:00-4:30 / OCH 107
Class Number: 20433

In this course, students will research the origins of instruments, rhythms, melodies, samples, and other forms of musical expression from randomly chosen regions of the African diaspora. When students focus their research on a specific rhythm or melody, for example, the Rumba Yambú rhythm of Cuba, they will include a description of that region's culture (which includes information about their political and social environment, the dance style that goes with that rhythm, and any religious affiliations.) Students are to compose an original piece of music using the rhythm or melody. By the end of the course, students will have recorded several short original works that utilize the elements of music found in their research.

Fall 2023 Curricular Ensembles