Courses

A survey and performance course on the art song repertoire. Student study the interpretive and stylistic aspects and performs songs in English from the genres of American and British songs.

A survey & performance course on the art song repertoire. Student study the interpretive & stylistic aspects & performs songs in English from the genres of American & British songs.

A survey and performance course on the art song repertoire. Student study the interpretive and stylistic aspects and performs songs in French from the genre of French melodie.

A survey and performance course on the art song repertoire. Student study the interpretive and stylistic aspects and performs songs in German from the genre of German lieder.

A survey and performance course on the art song repertoire. Student study the interpretive and stylistic aspects and performs songs in German from the genre of German lieder.

A survey and performance course on the art song repertoire. Student study the interpretive and stylistic aspects and performs songs in Italian and Spanish from the genres of Italian and Latin American songs.

Not Available.

Songwriters Forum is a practical writing course designed to help students become the best music creators they can be, in styles, genres, and approaches they define. While the focus tends to be on popular song, the curriculum addresses any and all songwriting. Forum students analyze, review, and, most of all, explore the tools (including collaboration) employed by composers and lyricists whose work has distinguished them as important practitioners of the art and craft of song. The goal is improved writing, with all other elements and aspects directed towards it.

Songwriters Forum is a practical writing course designed to help students become the best music creators they can be, in styles, genres, and approaches they define. While the focus tends to be on popular song, the curriculum addresses any and all songwriting. Forum students analyze, review, and, most of all, explore the tools (including collaboration) employed by composers and lyricists whose work has distinguished them as important practitioners of the art and craft of song. The goal is improved writing, with all other elements and aspects directed towards it.

This course will explore the history & development of classic popular music of the past 60 years. Through a detailed study of 14 profoundly influential songs & recordings, we will examine how art affects, & is affected by, its cultural & historical moment. Over the course of the semester, students will engage in musical analysis, critical listening, & a detailed study of songwriting & recording techniques. They will also view archival films of relevant musical artists, & engage in close analysis of selected musical performances.

This course will explore the history & development of classic popular music of the past 60 years. Through a detailed study of 14 profoundly influential songs & recordings, we will examine how art affects, & is affected by, its cultural & historical moment. Over the course of the semester, students will engage in musical analysis, critical listening, & a detailed study of songwriting & recording
techniques. They will also view archival films of relevant musical artists, & engage in close analysis of selected musical performances.

This course will explore the history and development of classic popular music of the past 60 years, with a focus on the period 1980-2005. Through a detailed study of 14 profoundly influential songs and recordings, we will examine how art affects, and is affected by, its cultural and historical moment. Students will engage in musical analysis, critical listening, and a detailed study of songwriting and recording techniques. They will also view archival video of relevant musical artists, films, and news events and engage in close analysis of select musical performances.

This course will explore the history and development of classic popular music of the past 60 years, with a focus on the period 1980-2005. Through a detailed study of 14 profoundly influential songs and recordings, we will examine how art affects, and is affected by, its cultural and historical moment. Students will engage in musical analysis, critical listening, and a detailed study of songwriting and recording techniques. They will also view archival video of relevant musical artists, films, and news events and engage in close analysis of select musical performances.

Sound Design

Course Description: This course focuses on three important areas in music technology: spatialization, computer aided composition, analysis and synthesis techniques. In each area, concepts and implementations will be explored in a variety of artistic and technological contexts. Students will work with the latest technologies including IRCAM Tools, Spat plugin, Max Bach library, Ambisonics, and Wave Field Synthesis. The course includes a 3-hour weekly lecture, 3-hour studio lab, and workshops at IRCAM. This course is taught in collaboration with IRCAM in Paris, one of the world leading institutions in computer music and acoustics

This course examines central themes in the emerging field of “Sound Studies”. We explore a range of histories, archeologies and ethnographies of sound and listening, as it intersects with topics in media studies, science and technology studies, political economy and musicology. How has our experience of sound changed as we move from the piano to the personal computer, from the phonoautograph to the mp3? How have political, commercial, and cultural forces shaped what we are able to listen to, and how we listen to it? Finally, how have performers, physiologists, acousticians, engineers and philosophers worked to understand this radical transformation of the senses?

This course investigates cultural influence and exchange between Africa, the African diaspora, Europe and America with a particular emphasis on sound and music. How has the sound of Africa been transcribed, recorded, stored, transported, and represented in the West? What can this tell us about global cultural flow? How do specific recording techniques articulate with global music markets? The course analyzes the transatlantic feedback between Africa, America and Europe; evaluates the politics of transcription, ethnographic description, and recording; and examines the changing role for traditional African music in a global world.

Explores how people form relationships with locales they occupy, how they attach meanings to spaces to create places, and how experiences of inhabiting, viewing, and hearing those places shape their meanings, communicative practices, cultural performances, memories, and habits. Themes include: mapping and the imagination; vision and space, soundscape, architecture and landscape; new media and space/time compression; space and identity; spatial violence; and spatialization of memory. Satisfies Core Cultures & Contexts for non-MCC Steinhardt students.

This course connects foreign language pedagogy to speech act theory, politeness theory, and pragmatic variation within the Spanish-speaking world. It is a close study of routinized language behaviors which enables teachers to raise awareness of cultural cues that are necessary to interpret conversations accurately. The course explores innovative, research-based approaches for teaching pragmatics in the foreign language classroom so that learners can avoid cross-cultural misunderstandings and better interpret texts in Spanish.

This course is an overview of generative and functional analyses of the structure of Spanish, with a focus on grammatical features that are especially challenging to acquire. Particular attention is devoted to exploring syntactic variance in the Spanish-speaking world through the use of authentic Spanish-language materials.