Spring 2024 Undergraduate Courses
MUSI 1310 Basic Musical Skills
3.0 credits
Section 1 (Ayn Balija): MWF / 9:00-9:50 am / OCH 107
Class Number: 12726
Section 2 (Ben Rous): MWF / 10:00-10:50 am / OCH 107
Class Number: 12727
Study of the rudiments of music and training in the ability to read music. Prerequisite: No previous knowledge of music required.
MUSI 1410 Symphonic Listening
Ben Rous
3.0 credits
Section 100: MW / 11:00-11:50 am / OCH 107
Class Number: 12735
Discussion Sections:
Section 101 (Alonya Castillo): R / 9:30-10:20 am / OCH S008
Class Number: 12736
Section 102 (Alonya Castillo): R / 11:00-11:50 am / OCH S008
Class Number: 12737
Section 103 (Alonya Castillo): R / 12:30-1:20 pm / OCH S008
Class Number: 12738
Symphonic Listening focuses on the sounds and forms of symphonic music. Listening skills are emphasized, with no prior musical knowledge required. We will learn to recognize orchestral instruments by their timbre, discern levels of consonance and dissonance, identify types of textures, and think critically about how musical content expresses cultural context. Students will gain a framework for understanding symphonic music of any genre.
MUSI 1620 History of the Wind Band
Drew Koch
2.0 credits
T / 9:00-10:50 am / Hunter Smith Band Building
Class Number: 12859
The class is designed to give an introductory look at wind band music development from the early 20th century to present. The class does not require any previous musical experience. The course provides students with historical facts surrounding the wind band movement while allowing students to experience the music aurally.
MUSI 2021 Creative Discovery
Elliott Tackitt
2.0 credits
TR / 2:00-2:50 pm / Hunter Smith Band Building
Class Number: 13899
Discover your creative potential! We often wonder about an artist’s immense creativity, seemingly harnessed with ease. Each of us has tremendous resources of creativity, often under-explored. In this course, students learn to unlock their own potential.
No previous artistic experience is required. Class activities include readings and discussions; weekly responses collected via a Google Form; two reflective papers; a presentation on a “found” resource; and one creative project in a medium of the student’s choice.
MUSI 2070 Popular Musics
Karl Hagstrom Miller
3.0 credits
Section 100: MW / 2:00-2:50 pm / Wilson 402
Class Number: 13224
Discussion Sections:
Section 101 (Dilshan Weerasinghe): T / 9:30-10:20 am / OCH 107
Class Number: 13225
Section 102 (Dilshan Weerasinghe): T / 11:00-11:50 am / OCH 107
Class Number: 13226
Section 103 (Dilshan Weerasinghe): T / 12:30-1:20 pm / OCH 107
Class Number: 13227
Section 104 (Corey Harris): R / 9:30-10:20 am / OCH 107
Class Number: 13228
Section 105 (Corey Harris): R / 11:00-11:50 am / OCH 107
Class Number: 13229
Section 106 (Corey Harris): R / 12:30-1:20 pm / OCH 107
Class Number: 13230
Section 107 (Siavash Mohebbi): T / 9:30-10:20 am / OCH S008
Class Number: 13231
Section 108 (Siavash Mohebbi): T / 11:00-11:50 am / OCH S008
Class Number: 13232
Section 109 (Siavash Mohebbi): T / 12:30-1:20 pm / OCH S008
Class Number: 13233
MUSI 2302 Keyboard Skills (Beginning)
2.0 credits, instructor permission
Section 1 (Shelby Sender): TR / 11:00 am - 12:15 pm / OCH 113
Class Number: 10508
Section 2 (Shelby Sender): TR / 9:30-10:45 am / OCH 113
Class Number: 20339
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
TR / 12:30-1:45 pm / OCH 113
Class Number: 10509
Intermediate keyboard skills for students with some previous musical experience. Satisfies the performance requirement for music majors. Restricted to: Instructor permission by audition.
MUSI 2307 Play Guitar! 1
Mike Rosensky
2.0 credits
MW / 1:00-1:50 pm / OCH B012
Class Number: 12725
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. Experienced guitarists are encouraged to enroll in Level 2 which will be offered in the spring.
MUSI 2340 Learn to Groove
Robert Jospe
2.0 credits
Section 1: MW / 10:00-10:50 am / Hunter Smith Band Building
Class Number: 10995
Section 2: MW / 11:00-11:50 am / Hunter Smith Band Building
Class Number: 20346
"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: 20340
"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 2559 New Courses in Music
Topic: Hungarian Music and Culture
Daniel Sender
3.0 credits
Section 3: T / 7:00-9:30 pm / OCH S008
Class Number: 19300
This course will investigate the often-overlooked riches of Central European history, culture, and the arts. With Hungary as a focal point, students will first participate in three on-Grounds seminar sessions that will provide both context and a foretaste of the main event: a weeklong trip to Budapest and Pécs.
Topic: Vocal Performance Class
Pam Beasley and Brenda Patterson
3.0 credits
Section 4: T / 3:30-5:10 pm / OCH 107
Class Number: 20635
Vocal Performance requires a broad skillset. This course offers students a toolbox of practical techniques & methodologies including study of diction and language, physical expression, textual analysis, dramatic storytelling/acting, collaboration with a pianist, physical/vocal health, and many other components of stagecraft that can be addressed well in group lessons. A baseline level of music-learning and -preparation ability, as well as some prior experience in any genre of vocal solo performance, is ideal.
Topic: EcoSonics: Environmental Sound Art Composition
Matthew Burtner
3.0 credits
Section 100: W / 3:00-4:40 pm / OCH B012
Class Number: 19299
Discussion Sections:
Section 101 (Varun Kapoor Kishore): M / 9:00-9:50 am / CAB 268
Class Number: 19331
Section 102 (Varun Kapoor Kishore): M / 10:00-10:50 am / CAB 268
Class Number: 19332
Section 103 (Varun Kapoor Kishore): M / 11:00-11:25 am / CAB 268
Class Number: 19333
From singing glaciers to coral reef rhythms, from infrasonic elephant vocalizations to ultrasonic moth hearing, EcoSonics explores the world of environmental sound and music from a creative perspective. This introductory course will focus on many amazing sounds of the natural world, and it will examine the role of environment in shaping musical thought, production, and culture. Whether made by the wind or by humans, our listening examples come from all over the world and from many genres and species. In addition to exploring key concepts of environment and sound, weekly studio sections and creative projects will provide opportunities to actively explore current environmental music production techniques. No previous music experience is required. Listening with open ears and mind is required!
MUSI 2600 Jazz Improvisation
John D'earth
3.0 credits
TR / 3:30-5:00 pm / OCH B012
Class Number: 10810
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 Early Modern Music (1500-1700)
Bonnie Gordon
3.0 credits
TR / 3:30-4:45 / OCH 113
Class Number: 19301
When Christopher Columbus arrived in what is now Trinidad in 1498, he attempted to communicate with indigenous people using tambourines. He thought this would be enticing. It didn’t work. “On observing the music and dancing…they dropped their oars, and picked up their bows, and strung them. Each one seized his shield, and they began to shoot arrows at us.” This class uses sound to explore unexpected encounters in the premodern world. Course materials focus on a selection of exemplary pieces, listening to composition, improvisation, text-music relations, the representation of dramatic stories, the expression of religious ideas, and performance. This is a class about how to do history, how to listen, and how to imagine the sonic past.
The class takes a global perspective and explores the role of sound in the deep histories of white supremacy that form the bricks and mortar of music performance and scholarship in the United States. The chronological center is the 16th and 17th centuries, but we cover the ancient world and Middle Ages as well as the present. Course work will include reading, writing, listening, visits to special collections, and reflection.
The course is taught at the music major level. Majors and non-majors are welcome. There are no prerequisites, and knowledge of Western music notation is not required.
MUSI 3030 Studies in 19th-Century Music
Elizabeth Ozment
3.0 credits
TR / 3:30-4:45 / WNR 110
Class Number: 12185
How does one define 19thCE music? Can you imagine attending the premiere of a Beethoven symphony or Rossini opera? Why were so many people taking piano lessons? How did music intensify feelings of community and difference? What is the purpose of music?
In this seminar, we will begin to answer the above questions by overviewing the creative, cultural, social, intellectual, musical history of Europe during the long nineteenth century, the period in-between the French Revolution and the outbreak of the First World War. This era saw the dissolution of previous ways of understanding the world and the development of new ideologies and artistic movements. Nineteenth-century music intersected with the rise of historicism, nationalism, romanticism, liberalism, socialism, feminism, industrialization, and secularization; reflecting and informing European experiences and worldviews.
In this seminar we will strengthen our critical listening skills, place compositions in historical context, and relate these sounds to broader cultural trends. Our study of historical documents will highlight some common themes that distinguish this period of European music from eighteenth- and twentieth-century trends. We will also acknowledge that this music frequently articulated contradictory aesthetics, thereby illuminating period struggles over the purpose and value of artistic expression.
MUSI 3050 Music and Discourse
Scott DeVeaux
3.0 credits
MWF / 10:00-10:50 am / OCH 113
Class Number: 19302
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 3060 Motown vs. Everybody: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly
JoVia Armstrong
3.0 credits
TR / 2:00-3:15 / OCH B012
Class Number: 20987
This course explores Motown Record Corporation's profound impact on culture and society, tracing its roots back to its inception and structural model of The Ford Motor Company. Along with its exceptionally talented artists, such as Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye, the record label played a significant role in breaking down racial barriers and unifying people from diverse backgrounds through the undeniable power of music. In addition, we will compare Motown to two other record labels, Stax Records and Philadelphia International Records, to better understand how all three reflected the political and social movements of the U.S. from the late 1950s to the late 1970s. As these three labels reflect the ideas of assimilation, integration, and self-reliance in Black America, we will explore why music is a powerful tool in resistance and examine how music as resistance continues to be relevant in today's society.
MUSI 3307 Play Guitar! 2
2.0 credits
Mike Rosensky
MW / 2:00-2:50 pm / OCH B012
Class Number: 12879
The course will have flexibility from semester to semester depending on the makeup of the class. Topics may include: Bar Chord/Power Chord Refresher, (Advanced) Syncopated Strumming, Blues Form, Three-Note Major and Minor Triads up and down the fretboard, Pentatonic Scale Positions, Major Scale Positions, Scale Patterns, Song Analysis, Composition, Improvisation, Seventh Chords, Chords of Higher Tension, Funk Grooves, Introduction to Jazz Guitar.
MUSI 3310 Theory I
3.0 credits
Section 1 (Kristin Hauge): MWF / 10:00-10:50 am / OCH B012
Class Number: 11298
Section 2 (Michael Puri): MWF / 1:00-1:50 pm / OCH 113
Class Number: 19859
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 3320 Theory II
Fred Maus
3.0 credits
MWF / 12:00-12:50 pm / OCH 113
Class Number: 11535
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. 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
Section 1 (Robert Hite): MWF / 12:00-12:50 pm / OCH 107
Class Number: 10266
Section 2 (Brian Lindgren): MWF / 12:00-12:50 pm / OCH B012
Class Number: 13222
MUSI 3334 Musicianship II
Adam Carter
MWF / 12:00-12:50 pm / OCH S008
Class Number: 10267
MUSI 3350 Deep Listening
Fred Maus
1.0 credit
Online Asyncronous
Class Number: 12293
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 3372 Writing Rap
A.D. Carson
3.0 credits
TR / 8:00-9:15 am / New Cabell 398
Class Number: 19303
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
Michele Zaccagnini
3.0 credits
Section 100: TR / 12:30-1:45 pm / OCH B012
Class Number: 12848
Discussion Sections:
Section 101 (Gabrielle Cerberville): M / 9:00-9:50 am / OCH B011
Class Number: 12849
Section 102 (Gabrielle Cerberville): M / 10:00-10:50 am / OCH B011
Class Number: 12850
Section 103 (Gabrielle Cerberville): M / 11:00-11:50 am / OCH B011
Class Number: 12851
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 3400 Ecoacoustics
Matthew Burtner
3.0 credits
TR / 2:00-3:15 / OCH 107
Class Number: 19304
MUSI 3510 Music & Community Engagement
Bonnie Gordon / Carlehr Swanson
3.0 credits
TR / 12:30-1:45 / Wilson 117
Class Number: 12852
In this community engagement class, we rely on our ears to explore the history and culture of gun violence and of the structural violence that reverberates in shots fired. We will tackle questions like: what are the cultural forces behind gun violence and where are the opportunities for change? What does the law hear and not hear? How do creative artists respond to gun violence? What tools do students need to understand existing data around gun violence and what stories does that data not tell? Students will address these questions in conjunction with the Sound Justice Lab. Course materials include archival material housed in special collections, contemporary poetry, music, legal documents, and academic articles. Students will work collectively on story telling projects using photo voice, audio storytelling and intentional playlists. The class has a civic engagement component that offers students opportunities to engage with lawyers, artists, and social justice practitioners in Charlottesville and beyond. The class aims to produce a remix - a creative reimagining of approaches to gun violence. The class can be used to fulfill the music major requirements, but musical or other artistic experience is not necessary.
MUSI 3559 New Courses in Music
Topic: Africanfuturism
Nicole Mitchell Gantt
3.0 credits
Section 1: TR / 11:00 am - 12:15 pm / OCH B012
Class Number: 20338
Africanfuturism is an international multi-media arts movement that places people of the African diaspora at the center of future imaginings. Africanfuturist artists design alternative mythological worlds to creatively address social and environmental justice and to offer new technological possibilities, while transmitting vital experiences and dreamings of Black people throughout the African diaspora. Through our investigation of Black speculative music, film, science fiction and visual art, we will plunge into the nuances of folklore, cosmology, philosophy and ancestral wisdom embedded with themes of liberation in these works. The course will be a process intended to deepen our understanding of the diversity of Black thought and creativity, and to transform our own ideas of time, space, place and self. Artists will include Janelle Monae, Lee Scratch Perry, Octavia Butler, Wanuri Kahiu, Sun Ra, King Britt, Nnedi Okorafor, Wole Talabi, Sheree Renee Thomas, Melanie Goodreaux, Ras G’s Afrikan Space Program, W.E.B. DuBois, Moor Mother, Alisha Wormsley, Tim Fielder, N.K. Jemison, and more!
Topic: Black Music Composing and Performance Ensemble 2
JoVia Armstrong and A.D. Carson
3.0 credits
Section 2: W / 7:00-10:00 pm / OCH B012
Class Number: 20448
During the Fall semester of this course, students composed and produced original songs by recording their voices, beat machines, keyboard controllers, and acoustic and electric instruments. The Spring section of this course is a performance ensemble that will perform the songs written and produced by the students enrolled in the Fall semester’s class.
The ensemble focuses on live show production methods and best practices for musicians. Students face the challenge of figuring out how to reproduce recorded songs on stage by experimenting with instrumentation, Djing, guitar pedals, their instruments, and other production resources available. They will also learn how to direct a band, create breaks, and arrange songs to entertain their audience and provide a compelling concert. Students enrolled in both courses will learn how songwriters get their music heard, from composition to concert performance.
Topic: Narratives of Sound Justice
Bonnie Gordon
2.0 credits
Section 3: M / 12:00-2:00 pm / OCH 203
Class Number: 21049
This class works with the Sound Justice Lab to create a space for exploring creative and everyday responses to legal failures and erasures. We use research, advocacy, and creative practice to amplify and support the voices often omitted by formal legal processes. We will focus on technologies of silence, open justice, and legal fictions. Students will pursue individual and creative projects related to creative approaches to refugee health education, the aesthetics of migration, the relationship of cannon formation to book banning, and the potential power of music for justice impacted individuals.
MUSI 3993 Independent Study
1.0-3.0 credits
Instructor permission and instructor number required to enroll.
4610 Sound Synthesis and Control: Designing New Musical Instruments
Luke Dahl
3.0 credits
MW / 10:00-11:15am / Wilson Hall Makers Space
Class Number: 13644
New Interfaces for Musical Expression (NIME) is a field that explores new ways of performing music with technology. NIME is interdisciplinary, incorporating perspectives from music, sculpture, engineering, human-computer interaction (HCI), and design. In this class we will learn the basic skills needed to design and build new musical instruments. We will implement real-time digital sound synthesis algorithms using the PureData visual programming language, which will run on the Bela embedded audio system. And we will use electronics sensors to measure user’s gestures as input data. The class is primarily project based, and we will prototype a number of new musical instruments and interactions. Students are expected to have experience using computers for music-making, such as MUSI 3390 or MUSI 2350, and experience with PureData or Max is highly desirable.
MUSI 4620 Audio Visual Environments
Michele Zaccagnini
3.0 credits
M / 2:00-4:30 / OCH B011
Class Number: 13935
The course provides a comprehensive understanding of audiovisual composition, its current standards, its present and foreseeable ramifications in the online multimedia culture. Students will create several audiovisual pieces using different techniques that will be explained and demonstrated in class.
Techniques that will explored include but are not limited to: audio-reactive techniques, texture building and mapping, video manipulation, interactive audio-visuals, shaders (graphic programming and code), 3D sound mapping, CPU vs GPU programming.
4760 Choral Conducting II
Michael Slon
3.0 credits
MW / 2:00-3:15 pm / OCH 107
Class Number: 19308
4950 Performance Concentration Seminar
Daniel Sender
3.0 credits
TBA
Class Number: 11760
MUSI 4993 Independent Study
1.0-3.0 credits
Instructor permission required to enroll.