Music (MUSC)

MUSC 1000. Music at Northeastern. (1 Hour)

Intended for freshmen in the College of Arts, Media and Design. Introduces freshmen to the liberal arts in general. Offers students an opportunity to become familiar with their major; to develop the academic skills necessary to succeed (analytical ability and critical thinking); grounding in the culture and values of the university community; and to develop interpersonal skills—in short, to become familiar with all skills needed to become a successful university student.

MUSC 1001. Music in Everyday Life. (4 Hours)

Dedicated to exploring, expanding, and exploding traditional meanings of what music is; of what it means to be a composer, performer, and audience member; and of what it means to listen. The overarching goal is to provide students with the tools and opportunities necessary for determining for themselves what place music holds in everyday life.

Attribute(s): NUpath Creative Express/Innov, NUpath Interpreting Culture

MUSC 1002. Music in Everyday Life. (3 Hours)

Explores and expands on traditional meanings of what music is; of what it means to be a composer, performer, and audience member; of what it means to listen; why music is special; and what gives music the power to sway so dramatically. The overarching goal is to provide students with the tools and opportunities necessary for determining for themselves what place music holds in their everyday lives.

Corequisite(s): MUSC 1003

Attribute(s): NUpath Creative Express/Innov, NUpath Interpreting Culture

MUSC 1003. Lab for MUSC 1002. (1 Hour)

Accompanies MUSC 1002. Involves discussions of readings, brief writing assignments, and listening exercises introduced in MUSC 1002 .

Corequisite(s): MUSC 1002

MUSC 1004. Basics of Western Music Notation. (1 Hour)

Prepares students to gain fluency reading and writing standard Western music notation and gain facility with singing and performing rhythms and melodies in various meters, keys, and styles.

MUSC 1100. Topics in Western Music. (4 Hours)

Explores select musical forms and styles drawn from the Western art music canon, from the Middle Ages to the present. Introduces fundamental musical concepts and vocabulary. Analyzes selected works in terms of sound, style, and performance practice. These works are contextualized in relation to their sociohistorical context, expectations of patrons and audiences, composer’s life and oeuvre, and musical and cultural significance, among other factors.

Attribute(s): NUpath Interpreting Culture

MUSC 1111. Rock Music. (4 Hours)

Examines the development of rock-and-roll and its relationship to blues, rhythm and blues, country, folk, and other styles of music. Considers themes such as the role of rock as youth music, the reflections of social realities in rock songs, the relationship of rock to the recording industry and the mass media, and the changing styles of rock. Emphasizes listening skills.

Attribute(s): NUpath Interpreting Culture

MUSC 1112. Jazz. (4 Hours)

Examines the evolution of the creative improvisational musical styles commonly called jazz, from its African-American roots to its status as one of America’s classical musics and an internationally valued art form. Explores the contributions of African and European musical traditions and African-American spirituals, work songs, and blues. Examines major contributors and stylistic development and change through selected audio and audio-visual presentations. Also considers the sociocultural dynamics that have affected musical evolution and acceptance.

Attribute(s): NUpath Difference/Diversity, NUpath Interpreting Culture

MUSC 1113. Film Music. (4 Hours)

Emphasizes the various ways that music is used in film, including music depicted on-screen and musical scores. Music is a crucial element of meaning in film, yet its presence is easy to ignore. Offers students an opportunity to learn basic approaches to the analysis of music and sound in film, to develop the ability to think critically about film, and to become knowledgeable about key historical developments in film music and sound. No musical background is necessary.

Attribute(s): NUpath Creative Express/Innov, NUpath Interpreting Culture

MUSC 1116. Beethoven. (4 Hours)

Introduces Beethoven’s life and works and examines the composer’s significance in the centuries following his death and into the present time. Explores with a critical lens the history behind the composer's central position in the Western classical music canon and asks how and why his dominance continues. Considers Beethoven’s omnipresence and various meanings in 20th- and 21st-century American culture. Topics include defining Beethoven, Beethoven and politics, Beethoven’s life and works, Beethoven and disability, Beethoven and race, and Beethoven and film.

Attribute(s): NUpath Interpreting Culture

MUSC 1118. Music Therapy 1. (4 Hours)

Examines the application of music as a therapeutic vehicle to release suppressed emotions, to encourage self-expression in psychiatric patients, and to treat a wide variety of disorders. Examines music therapy, in a modern approach to health services, as a supplement to other treatments.

MUSC 1119. Fundamentals of Western Music Theory. (4 Hours)

Introduces students with little or no musical experience to all the major and minor key signatures and the following scales: major, natural minor, harmonic minor, and melodic minor. Topics include how to read music in treble clef, bass clef, and various C-clefs; how to identify and construct intervals, triads, and seventh chords; how melody and harmony work together to create a piece of music; roman numeral analyses; and various small forms. Short excerpts are analyzed, and students are required to write musical compositions.

Attribute(s): NUpath Creative Express/Innov

MUSC 1129. Music of the Middle East. (4 Hours)

Introduces the music of selected Near Eastern and Arab cultures (such as Persian in the East and Ethiopic and Berber in Africa), as well as the cantillation styles and practices of various chants of the Hebrew, Christian, and Islamic traditions.

Attribute(s): NUpath Difference/Diversity, NUpath Interpreting Culture

MUSC 1134. Guitar Class. (4 Hours)

Provides an introduction to the fundamentals of classical guitar playing for those with or without prior knowledge of the guitar. Covers music reading and theory. Requires students to perform alone and in ensemble with other members of the class. Augments the syllabus by live performances from outside professional and student classical guitarists. Bases final grades on several written examinations and student performance.

Attribute(s): NUpath Creative Express/Innov

MUSC 1136. What's Playing at Symphony?. (4 Hours)

Offers students an opportunity to attend several performances of the Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO) at Symphony Hall. Discusses each piece of music from a variety of perspectives, including the history of a given composer and his or her relationship to music history and the history of a given composition and its relevance to the symphonic repertoire. Analyzes program pieces in order to provide a deeper appreciation for their musical construction; however, no musical background is required to participate in this course—it is designed for nonmusic majors and music majors alike. Requires students to purchase BSO College Cards (for a nominal fee) for the current BSO concert season.

Attribute(s): NUpath Interpreting Culture

MUSC 1137. Topics in Diverse Musical Cultures. (4 Hours)

Introduces students to select musical practices from around the world, with some semesters focusing on a geographic region (i.e., music of Asia) or topic (i.e., music and politics) addressed from a cross-cultural and interdisciplinary perspective. Presents the field of ethnomusicology—“the study of people making music”—and explores musical practices in relation to their sociocultural context and other intersections of the human experience, such as religion, economics, identity, gender, social justice, and politics. Offers students an opportunity to obtain an appreciation of a diverse array of musical traditions and aesthetics and a critical understanding of music as a meaningful form of human expression.

Attribute(s): NUpath Difference/Diversity, NUpath Interpreting Culture

MUSC 1141. Wired for Sound. (4 Hours)

Explores the use of electronics in music of various styles and genres from a historical perspective, beginning in the early twentieth century and moving to the present. Examines the methods and means of electronic sound production. Throughout history, technological innovations have influenced music. Starting in the early twentieth century, electricity and, later, electronics, became a key motivating force in music, both in composing and performing and even in listening. Covers the social and cultural conditions under which electric sound was able to evolve.

Attribute(s): NUpath Interpreting Culture

MUSC 1142. Pop, Jazz, and Rock Singing. (4 Hours)

Focuses on singing techniques used in pop, rock, and jazz. Techniques taught, discussed, and applied in class include breathing, tone and vowel production, singing with power without strain, developing range, improvising, and creating one’s own style. Offers students an opportunity to apply these techniques in class, learning through vocal demonstrations in class and through the study of recordings. Singers/songwriters are encouraged to enroll. All levels of singers are welcome; students who enroll should already have the ability to sing generally in tune.

Attribute(s): NUpath Creative Express/Innov

MUSC 1144. Music and Technology: Stone Age to Digital Age. (4 Hours)

Surveys music and technology from the Paleolithic Age to the present day. Examines the origins and impact of diverse musical instruments, with attention to connections between musical and technological developments; the reasons instruments are accepted, modified or abandoned; and debates about the effects of new technologies on music. Considers such forces as standardization, institutionalization and commodification, as well as experimentation and hacker practices. By studying the sociocultural history of such instruments as the violin, piano, electric guitar, and synthesizer, offers students an opportunity to gain an understanding of the interplay between technological change and enduring human needs for music.

Attribute(s): NUpath Interpreting Culture

MUSC 1201. Music Theory 1. (4 Hours)

Introduces melodic and harmonic practices in tonal music with additional work in chord and melody construction. Develops ear training and sight-singing skills.

Prerequisite(s): MUSC 1119 with a minimum grade of C

MUSC 1202. Music Theory 2. (4 Hours)

Continues MUSC 1201. Focuses on harmonic practices in tonal music. Examines the role and function of harmony through analysis of musical examples and composition of four-voice chorales. Introduces study of advanced harmony. Further develops ear training and sight-singing skills.

Prerequisite(s): MUSC 1201 with a minimum grade of C

MUSC 1205. Piano Class 1. (4 Hours)

Provides introductory-level study of piano designed for students with or without previous experience. Combines skills in reading music with improvisation and functional piano. Introduces some basic theory to help clarify the structure of class repertoire. Allows students to progress at their own pace. Determines grades by the amount of repertoire mastered during the semester.

MUSC 1901. Music Lessons 1. (1 Hour)

Offers private instruction in voice or in an instrument. Arranges weekly lessons on a half-hour basis. Contact the music department for arrangements. Requires lab fee. May be repeated without limit.

MUSC 1902. Music Lessons 2. (1 Hour)

Offers private instruction in voice or in an instrument. Arranges weekly lessons on a half-hour basis. Contact the music department for arrangements. Requires lab fee. May be repeated without limit.

MUSC 1903. Composition Lessons. (1 Hour)

Offers private instruction in music composition. Contact the music department for arrangements. Requires lab fee. May be repeated without limit.

MUSC 1904. Chorus. (1 Hour)

Allows students to participate as performers in one or more ensembles under the direction of a faculty conductor. Prereq: Audition or permission of instructor. May be repeated without limit.

MUSC 1905. Concert Band. (1 Hour)

Allows students to participate as performers in one or more ensembles under the direction of a faculty conductor. May be repeated without limit.

MUSC 1906. Orchestra. (1 Hour)

Allows students to participate as performers in one or more ensembles under the direction of a faculty conductor. Prereq: Audition or permission of instructor. May be repeated without limit.

MUSC 1907. Wind Ensemble. (1 Hour)

Allows students to participate as performers in one or more ensembles under the direction of a faculty conductor. Prereq: Audition or permission of instructor. May be repeated without limit.

MUSC 1911. Jazz Ensemble. (1 Hour)

Designed to serve both music majors and nonmajors, this is a performance/theory/history offering of the varied styles and techniques of performance in the jazz tradition of African-American music. Students are drawn from all segments of the University. Repertory is taken from the standard jazz literature as well as investigations of new works. Improvisational and interpretational technique are the core content of the course. Both the NU Jazz Ensemble and the NU Jazz Combo are represented together in this course. Prereq: Audition or permission of instructor. May be repeated without limit.

MUSC 1912. Rock Ensemble. (1 Hour)

Allows students to participate as performers in one or more ensembles under the direction of a faculty conductor. May be repeated without limit.

MUSC 1913. Blues/Rock Ensemble. (1 Hour)

Allows students to participate as performers in one or more ensembles under the direction of a faculty conductor. Prereq: Audition or permission of instructor. May be repeated without limit.

MUSC 1914. Create Your Own Music. (1 Hour)

Allows students to participate as performers in one or more ensembles under the direction of a faculty conductor. May be repeated without limit.

MUSC 1915. Chamber Ensemble. (1 Hour)

Allows students to participate as performers in one or more ensembles under the direction of a faculty conductor. Prereq: Audition or permission of instructor. May be repeated without limit.

MUSC 1917. Jazz Choir and Combo. (1 Hour)

Designed to give students who sing jazz and blues the opportunity to rehearse and perform in a small vocal group. Offers students an opportunity to work on singing in harmony and be featured in solos. The group is also accompanied by a student jazz combo. Members of the combo may register for the course for credit. Requires audition. May be repeated without limit.

MUSC 1918. World Music Ensemble. (1 Hour)

Explores music-making traditions from selected world cultures through performance on percussion, voice, and other instruments. No previous music-making experience required. May be repeated up to eight times.

MUSC 1919. Fusion Ensemble. (1 Hour)

Offers students an opportunity to participate as performers in one or more ensembles under the direction of a faculty conductor. Focuses on instrumental rock, blues, funk, and jazz repertoire. Prereq: Audition or permission of instructor. May be repeated up to eight times.

MUSC 1920. Pep Band. (1 Hour)

Offers students an opportunity to participate as performers in one or more ensembles under the direction of a faculty supervisor. The pep band performs at sporting events and other university functions. May be repeated up to eight times.

MUSC 1990. Elective. (1-4 Hours)

Offers elective credit for courses taken at other academic institutions. May be repeated without limit.

MUSC 2101. Black Popular Music. (4 Hours)

Surveys, investigates, and analyzes black popular music from the end of the 19th century to the present. Through critical listening habits and analytical thinking skills, offers students an opportunity to explore black popular culture as a means of expression, communication, and collective identity, attending to issues of representation, identity, values, and aesthetics through a wide range of interdisciplinary sources and methodologies. Emphasizes intersections of creativity, technology, and performance, along with the impact of music industry, audience reception, and cultural politics. Expects students to complete daily exercises and weekly discussion forums in which they must apply critical thinking to synthesize material, complete comparative analyses, relate individual lessons to key course themes, and connect the curriculum to their own experiences and musical listening practices.

Attribute(s): NUpath Difference/Diversity, NUpath Interpreting Culture

MUSC 2105. Songs That Made History. (4 Hours)

Explores the history of the genre of song through a set of examples that have had enormous impact and influence, songs that have “made history.” Using songs selected by the faculty based on their expertise, this course aims to identify the social, cultural, musical, and poetic threads that have woven their way through song repertories, influencing song composition from its origins to the present day. Establishes commonalities and trends in order to understand how “song” has taken on an important cultural status that is unique to a specific time and place and is widespread, linking various songs together.

Prerequisite(s): ENGW 1111 with a minimum grade of C or ENGW 1102 with a minimum grade of C or ENGL 1111 with a minimum grade of C or ENGL 1102 with a minimum grade of C

Attribute(s): NUpath Creative Express/Innov, NUpath Interpreting Culture, NUpath Writing Intensive

MUSC 2111. Algebra and Geometry of Music. (4 Hours)

Engages mathematical thinking in music with regard to its symbolic (how we represent music using numbers and signs); sonic (how mathematical thinking might create insights into musical sound); and grammatical (the logic by which music proceeds from one time to the next) expressions. Music and mathematics both contain objects that exhibit similar properties, such as circularity, similarity, objecthood, spatial dimensionality, dynamics, and processuality. Draws upon various branches of mathematics, including number theory, set theory, algebra, geometry, and statistics. Such representations highlight fundamental musical principles invoked in the process of improvisation, performance, and composition. As such, musical listening is a key component of the course. Ability to read musical notation or musical experience preferred.

Attribute(s): NUpath Creative Express/Innov, NUpath Formal/Quant Reasoning

MUSC 2150. Making a Musical: Analysis, Craft, and Creation. (4 Hours)

Explores how great musicals are constructed and what tools are needed, focusing on how effective lyrics are built; how songs function in musicals; and how book writers, lyricists, and composers create new works and adapt existing works from other media to the musical theater stage. Offers students an opportunity to transform analytical techniques and discoveries into creative strategies, building short musicals in collaborative teams. Students need not be musicians to participate in this class. Aspiring actors, composers, lyricists, authors of all styles, technical theater artists and designers, and all those with a curiosity about the history of musicals and how musicals are made are strongly encouraged to enroll.

Attribute(s): NUpath Creative Express/Innov

MUSC 2208. Jazz Improvisation. (4 Hours)

Focuses on repertory as well as performance. Examines the great improvisational artists in American music, such as Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, and John Coltrane. Approaches analysis from a theoretical as well as a practical perspective. Explores the use of rhythm, chords, scales, and modes in the creative improvisation process.

MUSC 2209. Conducting. (4 Hours)

Provides instruction in the basic gestures used in conducting vocal and instrumental ensembles. Topics include beat patterns, conveying phrasing and articulation, cueing, controlling tempo and dynamics, score study, and rehearsal techniques. Provides an opportunity for students to constitute a laboratory ensemble for regular practicum.

MUSC 2210. Introduction to Songwriting. (4 Hours)

Offers an opportunity to learn to construct songs with forward motion and memorable “hooks.”Topics include time-proven song forms, melody writing, harmonic tools, lyric writing, collaboration, and production techniques. Emphasizes the craft of writing songs for use in film and television.

Attribute(s): NUpath Creative Express/Innov

MUSC 2211. Advanced Songwriting. (4 Hours)

Builds on the skills covered in MUSC 2210. Seeks to advance the student’s songwriting toolbox via a combination of analysis/transcription, writing, production, critiquing, and analysis. In order to maximize the amount of professional opportunities afforded to the songwriters, this course is highly collaborative in order to model the writing processes most commonly used in the industry. Students who do not meet course prerequisites may seek permission of instructor.

Prerequisite(s): MUSC 2210 with a minimum grade of D- ; MUSC 1119 with a minimum grade of D-

Attribute(s): NUpath Creative Express/Innov

MUSC 2310. Popular Music Since 1945. (4 Hours)

Surveys the evolution of popular music styles in the United States, from the end of World War II to the present day. Examines popular music’s development and transformation, highlighting interactions with a wide array of factors including ethnic and gender identities, music business practices, race relations, social and political movements, and technological innovations. Offers students an opportunity to gain a broad overview of the field of popular music studies, its theoretical perspectives and methodologies, and its research sources and materials.

Attribute(s): NUpath Interpreting Culture, NUpath Societies/Institutions

MUSC 2311. Topics in American Music. (4 Hours)

Explores the musical heritage of the United States through a range of instructor-selected case studies. Offers students an opportunity to learn to identify various styles of music and relate them to larger discourses on a range of topics, i.e., democracy, cultural pluralism, identity, and other themes in American musical life. Uses weekly instructor lectures, readings of both primary and secondary texts, listening/viewing of multimedia, peer discussion and feedback, and hands-on exercises to analyze and explore the varied role of music in American life.

Prerequisite(s): ENGL 1111 with a minimum grade of C or ENGL 1102 with a minimum grade of C or ENGW 1111 with a minimum grade of C or ENGW 1102 with a minimum grade of C

Attribute(s): NUpath Interpreting Culture, NUpath Writing Intensive

MUSC 2312. Topics in Western Art Music. (4 Hours)

Examines how musical culture works in, and in relation to, the Western art music canon. Explores music selected from the Middle Ages to the present to consider musical structure, style, and performance together with the conditions that shape them, approaches to analyzing and interpreting them, and questions of how music is meaningful within a given time and place. Topics change from semester to semester and may center on such themes as a genre (e.g., the symphony); a historical or style period (e.g., music between the world wars); a set of musicians (e.g., women composers); or an issue or concept (e.g., fantasy).

Prerequisite(s): ENGL 1111 with a minimum grade of C or ENGL 1102 with a minimum grade of C or ENGW 1111 with a minimum grade of C or ENGW 1102 with a minimum grade of C

Attribute(s): NUpath Interpreting Culture, NUpath Writing Intensive

MUSC 2313. Topics in Global Music Cultures. (4 Hours)

Explores a selection of musical traditions in order to gain an appreciation of musical diversity in terms of aesthetics and meanings. Interrogates the concept of “world music”/"global music" as a way of sustaining binaries between the West and “the rest.” Studies the historical, political, economic, social, and aesthetic contexts of varied musical practices to offer students an opportunity to learn how music both reflects and shapes its cultural setting. Through varied pedagogical techniques, presents an informed and critical understanding of music as a meaningful form of human expression.

Prerequisite(s): ENGL 1111 with a minimum grade of C or ENGL 1102 with a minimum grade of C or ENGW 1111 with a minimum grade of C or ENGW 1102 with a minimum grade of C

Attribute(s): NUpath Difference/Diversity, NUpath Interpreting Culture, NUpath Writing Intensive

MUSC 2317. Punk Rock. (4 Hours)

Explores punk rock as a music genre and a lifestyle, an attitude and a philosophy, a political orientation and a commodified fashion. Everyone’s perspective on punk is different, but it also has rules and boundaries. Although it emerged in the 1970s as a reaction against very specific social, cultural, and musical moments in the United States and the United Kingdom, punk has become larger than itself in the intervening decades, spawning sub-subcultures and subgenres that would be unrecognizable to its originators. Addresses punk’s long narrative: protopunk genres including garage rock and glam rock; punk’s origins in New York City and London; its transformation into postpunk, hardcore, anarcho-punk, and straightedge; and its legacy outside the United States/United Kingdom nexus and in genres such as riot grrrl, grunge, and pop-punk.

Prerequisite(s): ENGW 1111 with a minimum grade of C or ENGW 1102 with a minimum grade of C or ENGL 1111 with a minimum grade of C or ENGL 1102 with a minimum grade of C

Attribute(s): NUpath Societies/Institutions, NUpath Writing Intensive

MUSC 2320. 40,000 Years of Music Technology. (4 Hours)

Surveys the relationship between music and technology from the Paleolithic Age to the present. Examines the origins and impact of diverse musical instruments, with attention to connections between musical and technological developments; the reasons instruments are accepted, modified, or abandoned; and debates about the effects of new technologies on music. Considers such forces as standardization, institutionalization, and commodification, as well as experimentation, hacker, and DIY cultures. Asks whether music technologies are “just tools” or rather carry with them ethical values and ramifications. By studying the sociocultural history of such instruments as the violin, piano, electric guitar and synthesizer, offers students an opportunity to gain an understanding of the interplay between technological change and the enduring human need for music.

Attribute(s): NUpath Ethical Reasoning, NUpath Societies/Institutions, NUpath Writing Intensive

MUSC 2330. Musical Communities of Boston. (4 Hours)

Combines ethnomusicology and experiential learning by exploring the diverse communities of Boston and their music. Since 17th-century encounters between the Wampanoag Nation and English Puritans, Boston has been characterized by intercultural contact and exchange. Discusses the history and legacies of such encounters, as well as present-day issues of diversity and belonging in Boston. Focuses on how communities reinforce their own cultural bonds through music and discusses alliances formed through shared experiences of diasporic, exilic, refugee, immigrant, and minority status. Through interdisciplinary, ethnographic analysis and practice, offers students an opportunity to explore how these inherently intersectional social dynamics—which engage issues of race, gender, class, ethnicity, etc.—play out through collective and individual musical practices.

Attribute(s): NUpath Difference/Diversity, NUpath Societies/Institutions, NUpath Writing Intensive

MUSC 2331. Topics in Musical Communities. (4 Hours)

Introduces students to diverse local communities of the surrounding area through texts and media, in-class workshops with local musicians and arts workers, experiential activities, and students’ own semester-long research projects. Explores a range of musical practices and intersecting issues, which might include music and urban spatial politics; music and gentrification; music, immigration, and diaspora; etc. Offers students an opportunity to engage with music through experiential learning activities, which might include soundwalks, conducting interviews, attending performances, or documenting music through photographs and audio recordings.

Attribute(s): NUpath Interpreting Culture

MUSC 2336. The Festival Experience. (4 Hours)

Examines the ways in which music festivals shape and are shaped by the human desire to gather and celebrate. Through texts, guest lectures, class discussions, festival attendance (as ethnographic researchers), and service-learning alongside festival professionals, offers students an opportunity to learn how organizers make artistic, financial, and administrative decisions to deliver a unique festival experience. Explores the significance, widespread presence, and complex impacts of music festivals. Topics include how festivals shape musical life; what needs and desires festivals meet for producers and attendees; how festivals impact local communities and the natural environment; who defines the social, cultural, economic, and aesthetic values of the festival experience; and what festivals reveal about our history, present circumstances, and future potential.

Attribute(s): NUpath Integration Experience, NUpath Societies/Institutions

MUSC 2340. Divas, DJs, and Double Standards. (4 Hours)

Examines the significance of gender to the experience of and access to participation in music making, listening, the music industries, and cultural recognition. Surveys how gender differences have been constructed, enacted, and contested in historical and contemporary musical cultures and develops critical lenses for analyzing musical representations of gender difference and their social impact. Considers how gender intersects with racial and sexual identities in music and its institutional structures. Uses case studies drawn from a variety of contexts, such as classical (Bizet’s “Carmen”), popular (Beyoncé), film (“Star Wars”), and avant-garde (Yoko Ono).

Prerequisite(s): ENGW 1111 with a minimum grade of C or ENGW 1102 with a minimum grade of C or ENGL 1111 with a minimum grade of C or ENGL 1102 with a minimum grade of C

Attribute(s): NUpath Difference/Diversity, NUpath Societies/Institutions, NUpath Writing Intensive

MUSC 2350. Acoustics and Psychoacoustics of Music. (4 Hours)

Introduces students from a variety of disciplines to the fundamentals of sonic production, transmission, and reception. Topics include impedance, refraction and diffraction, wave mechanics, frequency spectrum, and resonance. Applies core concepts to the understanding of the acoustics of musical instruments and loudspeakers. Explores basic auditory psychophysics. Offers students an opportunity to investigate real-life applications in the domains of music, sonic art, sound design, instrumental design, and recording.

Attribute(s): NUpath Natural/Designed World

MUSC 2351. Music, Sound, and the Screen. (4 Hours)

Examines the function of music and sound design in contemporary visual media: how they are used in relation to images, and how they work with images to generate meaning and shape experience. Topics include film, television, video games, and the internet; and intermedial forms such as title sequences, trailers, music videos, and commercials.

Attribute(s): NUpath Creative Express/Innov, NUpath Interpreting Culture

MUSC 2380. The World of Choral Music. (4 Hours)

Presents the genre of choral music and its relevance and practical application in choral communities today. Studies a broad list of choral repertoires of both sacred and secular genres (including, but not limited to, Mass, Requiem Mass, cantatas, choral symphony, oratorios) from the Renaissance to the 21st century, as well as music influences derived from multiple cultures. Offers students an opportunity to learn music analysis and apply repertoire analysis in a practical manner of ensemble work. Students experience live performances of works studied, with performances by Boston choral ensembles, and discuss and reflect on modern-day performance practices/society.

Attribute(s): NUpath Creative Express/Innov, NUpath Interpreting Culture

MUSC 2420. Music Composition Seminar 1. (4 Hours)

Exposes students to the basic methods of music composition. Analyzes examples from music literature to gain an understanding of the methods employed; students complete several compositions of their own.

Prerequisite(s): MUST 1301 with a minimum grade of D-

Attribute(s): NUpath Creative Express/Innov, NUpath Interpreting Culture

MUSC 2990. Elective. (1-4 Hours)

Offers elective credit for courses taken at other academic institutions. May be repeated without limit.

MUSC 2991. Research in Music. (1-4 Hours)

Offers an opportunity to conduct introductory-level research or creative endeavors under faculty supervision.

MUSC 3300. Music Perception and Cognition. (4 Hours)

Offers an overview of the perceptual, cognitive, and brain bases of performing, composing, and listening to music for enjoyment and for human benefit. Topics include acoustics and biological processing of sound; theories and empirical research on pitch, rhythm, harmony, melody, timbre, orchestration; similarities and differences between music and language; evolution and development of musical ability; and special populations in musical functions. Includes laboratory demonstrations and exercises in experiment design and data analysis. Requires a final project (paper and in-class presentation). Offers students an opportunity to learn how to design and conduct their own research study in music perception and cognition.

Attribute(s): NUpath Analyzing/Using Data, NUpath Natural/Designed World

MUSC 3337. Writing about Music. (4 Hours)

Provides an overview of various types of musical journalism including criticism, reviews, feature articles, program notes, promotional material, and so on. Offers students significant opportunity to develop their own skills in writing, editing, research, and interview techniques as they apply to writing about music and the music industry.

Prerequisite(s): ENGL 1111 with a minimum grade of C or ENGL 1102 with a minimum grade of C or ENGW 1111 with a minimum grade of C or ENGW 1102 with a minimum grade of C

Attribute(s): NUpath Writing Intensive

MUSC 3352. Sounding Human. (4 Hours)

Explores how people have used music to answer the question of what it means to be human and how boundaries between the human and nonhuman (animal, machine, angel, alien, etc.) have been inscribed, dissolved, and reconfigured by means of music. Examines historically how certain musical traits have served as signifiers of humanity, while others have signified nonhumanity. Studies musicians who deliberately present themselves or their work as nonhuman as a means to critique limited conceptions of mankind. Develops historical, critical, and ethical perspectives on what it means to be human by focusing on contexts where music has played a role in testing and contesting conventional wisdom (including colonial encounters, technological changes, scientific studies, and science fiction).

Attribute(s): NUpath Interpreting Culture, NUpath Writing Intensive

MUSC 3353. Music and the Racial Imagination. (4 Hours)

Addresses the history of the concept of race, taken as a cultural construct and a lived reality, long used to justify social, economic, and political inequality. Examines the relationship between musical sound and processes of racialization, addressing this relationship through a series of select historical and contemporary case studies, alongside grounding texts drawn from critical race studies, gender and sexuality studies, and ethnomusicology and popular music studies. Explores how the construction and everyday lived experience of race influenced music production, performance, reception, and analysis and how categories of race have been represented and questioned through the sonic and embodied acts of performers.

Prerequisite(s): ENGW 1111 with a minimum grade of C or ENGW 1102 with a minimum grade of C

Attribute(s): NUpath Difference/Diversity, NUpath Societies/Institutions, NUpath Writing Intensive

MUSC 3354. Sound and the Sacred. (4 Hours)

Considers the ways in which religious beliefs, ethics, meaning, and practices are embodied within music and what music contributes to faith identities in a variety of religio-cultural contexts, both present-day and historical. Music plays important roles in religious contexts: Among other things, it connects worshippers to spiritual realms; centers practitioners within continuous traditions; distinguishes between sacred and secular spaces (and places); enables communal cohesion; facilitates transcendent experiences; imbues everyday activities with religious intent; orients believers to ritual practices; and contributes to religious identities, both at the individual and at the collective (or congregational) levels. Approaches the study of music and religion as one that benefits from intense attentional investment, using detailed scholarly works to provide intricately nuanced perspectives.

Attribute(s): NUpath Difference/Diversity, NUpath Interpreting Culture, NUpath Writing Intensive

MUSC 3360. Ethnography and the Arts. (4 Hours)

Considers what ethnography might teach us about creative industries, what it contributes to marketplace research and decision making, and how it informs creative practice. Ethnography uses participant/observation and other methods of collecting qualitative data to research specific social groups and their cultures. Asks for what purposes ethnographic methods are best suited and how ethnography might contribute to cross-cultural understanding, arts leadership, and creative practice. Covers what unique methodological issues ethnographic research in the arts might pose. Offers students an opportunity to develop and practice their own research skills, designing and conducting self-defined ethnographic research.

Prerequisite(s): ENGW 1111 with a minimum grade of C or ENGW 1110 with a minimum grade of C

Attribute(s): NUpath Analyzing/Using Data, NUpath Societies/Institutions, NUpath Writing Intensive

MUSC 3410. Recital 1. (1 Hour)

Offers preparation for and performance of a minirecital (twenty to thirty minutes of music) under the guidance of the student’s primary instrumental or vocal instructor. Minirecitals are usually shared by more than one student. Students take MUSC 3410 in place of MUSC 4992.

MUSC 3541. Music Analysis Seminar. (4 Hours)

Exposes students to advanced methods of musical analysis. Focuses on techniques for analyzing large musical forms from the baroque period to the present day.

Prerequisite(s): MUSC 1202 with a minimum grade of C

MUSC 3550. Historical Traditions: Special Topics. (4 Hours)

Provides an advanced seminar examining topics and issues surrounding musical cultures and histories. Topics vary with each offering. May be repeated without limit.

Prerequisite(s): MUSC 2311 with a minimum grade of C or MUSC 2312 with a minimum grade of C or MUSC 2313 with a minimum grade of C

Attribute(s): NUpath Writing Intensive

MUSC 3990. Elective. (1-4 Hours)

Offers elective credit for courses taken at other academic institutions. May be repeated without limit.

MUSC 4510. Music and the Brain Research. (4 Hours)

Offers an overview of the perceptual, cognitive, and neural bases of performing, composing, and listening to music. Topics include acoustics and biological processing of sound; theories and empirical research on pitch, rhythm, harmony, melody, timbre, orchestration; similarities and differences between music and language; evolution and development of musical ability; and special populations in musical functions. Meetings include laboratory demonstrations and exercises in experiment design and data analysis. Requires a final project (paper and in-class presentation).

Prerequisite(s): MUSC 2350 with a minimum grade of C or MUSC 3300 with a minimum grade of C or PSYC 2320 with a minimum grade of C

Attribute(s): NUpath Analyzing/Using Data, NUpath Capstone Experience, NUpath Natural/Designed World

MUSC 4622. Recital 2. (1 Hour)

Offers preparation for and performance of a senior recital (forty to sixty minutes of music) under the guidance of the student’s primary instrumental or vocal instructor.

Prerequisite(s): MUSC 3410 with a minimum grade of C

MUSC 4651. Music Research Capstone. (4 Hours)

Offers students an opportunity to complete an original research-based project on a musical topic. Organized around a shared theme such as music and entertainment, music and globalization, or music and creativity. Includes seminar-style discussions of readings that introduce students to the state of knowledge on the theme, in addition to a range of research methods and conceptual frameworks. Guides students through the research process from the formulation of questions through finding and interpreting sources, developing arguments, and crafting the presentation of results in oral and written form. Students also have the opportunity to integrate research with multimedia, performance, and/or other creative components.

Attribute(s): NUpath Capstone Experience, NUpath Writing Intensive

MUSC 4970. Junior/Senior Honors Project 1. (1-4 Hours)

Focuses on in-depth project in which a student conducts research or produces a product related to the student’s major field. Combined with Junior/Senior Project 2 or college-defined equivalent for 8-credit honors project. May be repeated without limit.

MUSC 4990. Elective. (1-4 Hours)

Offers elective credit for courses taken at other academic institutions. May be repeated without limit.

MUSC 4992. Directed Study. (1-4 Hours)

Focuses on independent work in a selected area of music under the direction of a member of the department. Enrollment is limited to qualified students by special arrangement with the supervising faculty member and with the approval of the department chair. May be repeated without limit.

MUSC 6300. Music Perception and Cognition Research. (4 Hours)

Offers an overview of the perceptual, cognitive, and brain bases of performing, composing, and listening to music for enjoyment and for human benefit. Studies how and why music stimulates our senses and how it can promote health and well-being. Topics include theories and empirical research on pitch, rhythm, harmony, melody, timbre; music and language; development of musical ability; and special populations in musical functions. Meetings include demonstrations and exercises in experiment design and data analysis. Requires an in-depth research project (paper and in-class presentation), in consultation with the instructor. By the end of this course, students should be able to design and conduct their own research study in music perception and cognition.

Attribute(s): NUpath Analyzing/Using Data, NUpath Natural/Designed World

MUSC 6510. Music and the Brain Advanced Research. (4 Hours)

Reviews contemporary studies in cognitive neuroscience of music, specifically in speech, language, and music. Offers students an opportunity to obtain in-depth training on the methods of cognitive neuroscience of music. Students design and implement a group project, analyze the data, and write up the results in an end-of-term paper.