Junior and Senior Seminars

This studio course is for highly motivated students who have had prior training in art. Instruction is focused on observational study, the refinement of technique, and the formal elements of art and composition. Students will have the opportunity to explore a variety of media including graphite, charcoal, conte crayon, ink, watercolors, acrylics, and clay. They will be encouraged to utilize the Art Studio outside of class time, to advance their work and develop a portfolio.

Students are asked to analyze Shakespeare from the standpoint of literary criticism, but how does a performing artist approach the Bard’s work? Does an academic approach the work differently from an actor or director? Where do their respective approaches differ or coincide? How does Shakespeare’s biography and knowledge of his era affect performing his work? What unique skills are required to act in a verse drama as compared to a contemporary work? These are the kind of questions we explore in this yearlong course. Students will prepare and perform a sonnet and monologue in class and perform in an end-of-year ASM. Suggested reading will include: Russ McDonald’s Bedford Companion to Shakespeare, John Barton’s Playing Shakespeare, and Thinking Shakespeare by Barry Edelstein.

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.

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.

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.

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).

The Swamp Cats is an advanced jazz ensemble, acceptance to which is by audition only. All members are expected to be proficient improvisors on their instruments, in a variety of styles. The Swamp Cats will perform at admissions functions and other school events, and will also take gigs outside of BUA whenever possible. All music will be given to members in leadsheet form, so that every performance of every piece is different, spontaneous, and infinitely flexible. On average 2-4 new tunes will be learned every week. As one of the public faces of BUA, The Swamp Cats maintain a professional attitude at all weekly rehearsals and performances, and constantly strive to be better.

This course will explore the music of the 1960s and 1970s starting with the shift from early Rock and Roll (Buddy Holly, The Everly Brothers, etc.) to what some call Hippie Rock (The Beatles, The Byrds, The Buffalo Springfield, and others). Students will encounter new forms of musical creativity in a variety of forms ranging from Pet Sounds, Sgt. Pepper, Dark Side of the Moon, Days of Future Past, and many more. From its origins in Laurel Canyon, Greenwich Village, Haight/Ashbury, Seattle, and England, perhaps no other musical era has had such an effect on culture and society. Find out why.

Students will read, review, and discuss research articles on current topics in science. Aligned with each set of articles, students will tour various research labs to explore different areas in STEM and consider the different projects they could work on in the summer following junior year. In the spring, students will begin to focus on exploring one particular lab to prepare for summer work. The goal of this course is to prepare students for conducting independent research in a STEM lab over the summer under the guidance of a professor, which will serve as the basis of the Senior Thesis. For 11s only.

How can we use humanities and social science research to drive change? This junior research seminar answers this essential question while exploring adventurously the City of Boston and the resources of Boston University. The seminar includes classroom discussions on research tools and methods, critical analyses of current research, meetings with professionals in social impact fields employing the humanities and social sciences, visits to BU libraries and archives, and field trips to museums and historical societies. By the end of the course, students are prepared to find purpose through research and action that matter. For 11s only. For 11s only.