Music Courses

MU21: Chorus

In this course, students will prepare for both the winter and spring performances. Students need not have experience with singing as the class will review techniques for all voice ranges. Repertoire will be from a variety of eras, genres, and styles.

MU22: Chamber Orchestra

In this course, students will prepare for both the winter and spring performances. Students should already have proficiency with an instrument. The pieces selected will depend upon the instruments played by the students enrolled. Repertoire will be from a variety of eras, genres, and styles.

MU23: Jazz Band

Jazz Band will focus primarily on learning and performing works from a variety of jazz styles including swing, latin, funk, acid, cool, hot, and free jazz, among others. A large portion of the class will be devoted to studying and understanding jazz theory so as to aid in improvisation, phrasing, and ensemble playing. In addition, the class will frequently listen to and discuss the jazz greats (and not-so-greats) from throughout the last 120 years in an effort to clarify and improve jazz technique and ability. The only prerequisite for the class is that you can read music. Any instruments or vocal types are welcome, but we will be in particular need of piano, guitar, bass, and drums to form the core of the ensemble.

MU80A: Music Theory

This year-long course is divided into two parts:

Exploration: The first semester will focus on the mechanics of reading music, from identifying pitches in all clefs, to rhythmic training, intervallic analysis and identification, and 17th and 18th century harmony and part-writing. We will examine the chorales and works of Bach and other Baroque composers from an analytical perspective in order to sharpen our own theoretical and harmonic skills, as well as to gain greater perspective on and knowledge of the Common Era aesthetic.

Application and Analysis:The second semester will be spent analyzing some of the greatest works of the tonal era from a variety of perspectives including, among others, theoretical, harmonic, motivic, and compositional approaches. In addition, students will try their hand at composition in a variety of basic forms and styles, culminating in a final project: either the analysis of a work of their choosing, or the composition of a new work. Throughout both semesters, students will be exposed to various types and styles of Western Art Music, the history thereof, and a multitude of different theoretical, compositional, and analytical approaches.

MU80B: Musicianship

Want to know how to transpose anything perfectly the first time?  Want to never be confused by a rhythm again?  Want to be able to sight-sing a new piece without hearing it first?  Want to be able to read an orchestral score and know what it sounds like without a recording? This year-long course teaches the advanced musicianship skills needed in the professional musical world.  The curriculum is based on the musicianship courses taught at The Juilliard School, The Paris Conservatory, and Fontainebleau, the conservatories responsible for training such musicians as Stravinsky, Copland, Ravel, Bernstein, Rachmaninov, and Debussy. These musical techniques have been passed down, virtually unchanged since the early 17th century (yes, Bach learned these, too!). Skills taught will include but are not limited to solfège, sight-singing, clef reading, rhythm performance, score reading, transposition, canonic improvisation, keyboard harmony, conducting, and poly-rhythmic cognition. While the ability to read music will be helpful, it is not necessary, as we will be re-learning the correct way to read in the first week or two.

MU80C: Independent Study in Composition

Students will take independent lessons in musical composition on a weekly basis. In addition, class meetings with all enrolled students will be held to discuss important compositional concepts, explore contemporary repertoire, and meet and interact with guest composers from the Boston area who will present their music and lecture on a topic of their choosing.

MU80D: The Development of Operatic Style

This course will explore the genre of opera, from its origins in Medieval Liturgical Drama through more recent works by living composers. The music will be approached in social, musicological, historical, and compositional contexts, and students will be watching several operas (on DVD or other media) over the course of the year. There may also be opportunities to go to the opera in Boston or New York. Specific operatic eras will include, among others, Baroque Opera (Purcell, Monteverdi, and Handel), Classical Opera (Mozart, Salieri, and Rossini), Bel Canto (Donizetti, Verdi, Bellini), Wagnerian Opera, the Romantics and Post-Romantics (Puccini, Tchaikovsky, Debussy), and New Operatic Perspectives (Stravinsky, Schoenberg, Berg, Bernstein, Floyd, Corigliano).