Department of Music

MUSI 7512 Studies in Jazz Literature
Topic: Core and Boundaries

Scott DeVeaux
3.0 credits
M / 3:00-5:30 / OCH S008
Class Number: 19309

The usual topic for a jazz course involves the music’s core.   One can think of it as a pantheon of musicians running from Buddy Bolden and King Oliver to the present day, or as a musical language continuously evolving through various styles.  It is an invitation to a musical world, grounded in the past and extending more than a century to the present.

But attempt to define “jazz” has meant setting boundaries: explaining what is jazz requires saying what is not jazz.  These boundaries make the idea of the “jazz tradition” possible, but they are still boundaries.  To choose a few of the most common: race (jazz is black, not white); gender (jazz is male, not female); commerce (jazz is a way of playing popular song, but is not itself popular song); groove (jazz swings, other music doesn’t); improvisation (jazz is free, not notated); politics (jazz is for freedom, not constrictive social structures); art (jazz is an art music, but is not “classical music”); nationality (jazz is American, not European or African or Asian).  These boundaries have served to define the music, but only through simplifications that are inherently problematic.  This seminar will introduce students to the core of jazz, but it will do so by continually challenging the definitions that isolate jazz from issues of interest to the contemporary music scholar.

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

Luke Dahl
3.0 credits
W / 2:00-4:30 pm / Wilson Hall Makers Space
Class Number: 13652

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 sensors and motion-capture can be used to generate musical sound in real-time, and we will work with ourselves, dancers, and other movers and performers to develop 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 7559 New Course in Music
Topic: Telematic Music

Nicole Mitchell Gantt
3.0 credits
T / 6:00-8:30 pm / OCH B011
Class Number: 20497

Telematic Music is a collaborative multi-locational performance practice that utilizes of high-bandwidth fiber optic networks. As a graduate seminar, Telematic Music will be taught simultaneously between UVA and the New School (NY) using videoconferencing software and audio software specifically designed for telematic music making.  The goals of the course will be for students to gain fluidity in utilizing the technical aspects of recording and performing telematic music, to broaden their knowledge of the history and possibilities of telematics as an artistic practice, and to collaborate across geographical locations to develop and perform new musical works centered in improvisation that are designed to be effective in the telematic environment. The class activities will consist of lectures between the two campuses (UVA and the New School), local and remote projects, and a culminating performance involving students UVA, students the New School and musicians from Chicago’s Elastic Arts.