Courses
This course includes study of fundamentals, melody, diatonic harmony, and analysis and composition of short homophonic and polyphonic pieces.
Prerequisite(s): Only Undergraduates who test into this course will be allowed to register.
Area: P, Y
A continuation of techniques learned in Theory 1 Intensive and the study of figured bass and chromatic harmony. Also includes an introduction to basic musical forms. Open to undergraduates only.
Prerequisite(s): Completion of Theory Intensive 1 required, PY.710.109[C].
Area: P, Y
The study of voice leading, melody, figured bass, and diatonic harmony, through analysis and composition. Open to undergraduates only.
Prerequisite(s): Only Undergraduates who test into this course will be allowed to register.
Area: P, Y
A continuation of techniques learned in Music Theory 1. Studies include non-chord tones and figuration, sequence, tonicization and modulation, chromaticism, and basic principles of form. Open to undergraduates only.
Prerequisite(s): Previous course, Theory 1, needed, PY.710.111[C]
Area: P, Y
This course begins with a reinforcement of chromatic part-writing and voice-leading, and then focuses on two- and three-voice counterpoint in the Baroque style. Placement by examination. Open to undergraduates only.
Prerequisite(s): Only Undergraduates who test into this course will be allowed to register.
Area: P, Y
This course is a study of music of the Baroque era including invention and fugue, through analysis and model composition. Open to undergraduates only.
Prerequisite(s): Previous course needed, PY.710.112[C] OR PY.710.110[C]
Area: P, Y
This course centers on music from Viennese Classicism through the emergence of Romanticism, using examples from a variety of genres and formal designs. Open to undergraduates only.
Prerequisite(s): Previous course, Theory 3, needed, PY.710.211[C]
Area: P, Y
A continuation of Music Theory 1–2 (710.113), this class completes the study of the Baroquestyle and moves on to the Classical style and the harmonic, formal, and contrapuntal techniquesin music of the 19th century. Open to undergraduates only.
Prerequisite(s): Completion of Theory 1-2 required, PY.710.113[C].
Area: P, Y
A study of the music of the late-19th through 21st centuries. Open to undergraduates only.
Prerequisite(s): Completion of previous course needed, PY.710.212[C] OR PY.710.214[C]
Area: P, Y
Students take one of several specially-designated electives. Open to undergraduates only.
Prerequisite(s): Completion of Theory 5 needed, PY.710.311[C]
Area: P, Y
A course designed to introduce students to idiomatic writing for orchestral instruments, individually and in standard combinations. Lectures, listening, and score study will be complemented by arranging exercises. Open to Computer Music, Music Education, and Music for New Media majors (others by permission of the instructor). This class may not be used for graduate theory seminar credit.
Prerequisite(s): Open to Computer Music, Music Education, and Music for New Media majors only. Others may take course with permission of instructor.
Area: P, Y
A course for composers and conductors studying instrumental technique and ensemble combinations as demonstrated in orchestral literature, 1750 to the present. Open to conductors and composition majors only. Course must be taken for the entire school year. May not be used for graduate seminar credit.
Area: P, Y
A course for composers and conductors studying instrumental technique and ensemble combinations as demonstrated in orchestral literature, 1750 to the present. Open to conductors and composition majors only. Course must be taken for the entire school year. May not be used for graduate seminar credit.
Prerequisite(s): Completion of Orchestration 1 needed, PY.710.413[C].
Area: P, Y
An intensive review of the materials and techniques of tonal music, including diatonic and chromatic harmony, part writing, and analysis.
This course is required for an undergraduate minor in Music Theory.
This analysis course is for anyone interested in exploring the musical languages expressed within a wide variety of 20th-century American symphonic works. We will explore works by diverse American composers, contextualize their practices via short readings, and develop several analytical approaches to illuminate their music. Special emphasis will be placed on the development of a nuanced foundation from which students will learn to respond critically to the discourse of culturally responsive intersectional analysis.
Prerequisite(s): Graduate students must meet music theory seminar proficiency requirements in order to enroll in this course. Undergraduates must be Composition or Computer Music majors.;Open to Composition, Computer Music, and Theory minor Undergraduate students; must first complete PY.710.212[C] or PY.710.214[C].
Area: P, Y
A consideration of how meaning is conveyed in tonal music. This course includes discussion of semiotic and formalist approaches to characterizing meaning in absolute music, while working towards an inclusive method of analysis considering expressivity as emanating from formal structure
Prerequisite(s): Graduate students must meet music theory seminar proficiency requirements in order to enroll in this course. Undergraduates must be Composition or Computer Music majors.;Open to Composition, Computer Music, and Theory minor Undergraduate students; must first complete PY.710.212[C] or PY.710.214[C].
Area: P, Y
This course consults literature in the field of music cognition to explore how it may inform music analysis, which in turn has implications for both performer and listener.
Prerequisite(s): Graduate students must meet music theory seminar proficiency requirements in order to enroll in this course. Undergraduates must be Composition or Computer Music majors.;Open to Composition, Computer Music, and Theory minor Undergraduate students; must first complete PY.710.212[C] or PY.710.214[C].
Area: P, Y
Analysis of chamber music in various styles, with particular emphasis on works being currently performed in Peabody’s chamber music program.
Prerequisite(s): Graduate students must meet music theory seminar proficiency requirements in order to enroll in this course. Undergraduates must be Composition or Computer Music majors.;Open to Composition, Computer Music, and Theory minor Undergraduate students; must first complete PY.710.212[C] or PY.710.214[C].
Area: P, Y
An exploration of the interactions between text and music within the art-song repertoire from various style periods, drawing on theories of drama, linguistics, cognition, and music. Open to graduate students only.
Prerequisite(s): Graduate students must meet music theory seminar proficiency requirements in order to enroll in this course. Undergraduates must be Composition or Computer Music majors.;Open to Composition, Computer Music, and Theory minor Undergraduate students; must first complete PY.710.212[C] or PY.710.214[C].
Area: P, Y
The study of musical content in relation to harmonic, tonal, motivic and formal aspects of Scriabin's technique. A significant part of the discussions will be devoted to innovations in pitch structure and form, as well as large-scale musical projects of Scriabin. In particular, we will cover the topics of three stylistic periods in Scriabin’s biography, the evolution of his harmony on the examples of harmonic analysis of preludes, etudes, piano miniatures and orchestral compositions. The format of this seminar will include student performances, short presentations and exercises in harmonization.
Prerequisite(s): Graduate students must meet music theory seminar proficiency requirements in order to enroll in this course. Undergraduates must be Composition or Computer Music majors.;Open to Composition, Computer Music, and Theory minor Undergraduate students; must first complete PY.710.212[C] or PY.710.214[C].
Area: P, Y
Prerequisite(s): Graduate students must meet music theory seminar proficiency requirements in order to enroll in this course. Undergraduates must be Composition or Computer Music majors.;Open to Composition, Computer Music, and Theory minor Undergraduate students; must first complete PY.710.212[C] or PY.710.214[C].
Area: P, Y
The study of Renaissance dance as a crucial source for the formation of the common practice styles.
Prerequisite(s): Graduate students must meet music theory seminar proficiency requirements in order to enroll in this course. Undergraduates must be Composition or Computer Music majors.;Open to Composition, Computer Music, and Theory minor Undergraduate students; must first complete PY.710.212[C] or PY.710.214[C].
Area: P, Y
This course focuses on developing skills in improvisation in Baroque and Classical styles through the understanding of harmony, proper voice leading, good melodic accompaniment, cadence, modulation, and sequence. Topics include melody harmonization, ornamentation and variation, prelude, the free fantasia, and the cadenza. If time permits, chorale setting and fugue. Open to graduate students only.
Prerequisite(s): Graduate students must meet music theory seminar proficiency requirements in order to enroll in this course. Undergraduates must be Composition or Computer Music majors.;Open to Composition, Computer Music, and Theory minor Undergraduate students; must first complete PY.710.212[C] or PY.710.214[C].
Area: P, Y
Analysis of recent experimental music in a variety of aesthetic styles. Focus will be placed on the structural foundations for these works and its basis in manipulation of time and sonority.
Prerequisite(s): Graduate students must meet music theory seminar proficiency requirements in order to enroll in this course. Undergraduates must be Composition or Computer Music majors.;Open to Composition, Computer Music, and Theory minor Undergraduate students; must first complete PY.710.212[C] or PY.710.214[C].
Area: P, Y
This seminar will explore Schubert’s music in a range of genres, with particular attention to chamber and solo works. Our discussions will be informed by a range of past and present scholars, though our focus will be the scores themselves. Our goal is the development of analytic and persuasive skills, a deeper and clearer understanding of Schubert’s style, and, ideally, some sense of how the composer creates his unique ‘magic’ via distinctive structural and expressive power.
Prerequisite(s): Graduate students must meet music theory seminar proficiency requirements in order to enroll in this course. Undergraduates must be Composition or Computer Music majors.;Open to Composition, Computer Music, and Theory minor Undergraduate students; must first complete PY.710.212[C] or PY.710.214[C].
Area: P, Y
An examination through composition of the musical practice of the late Renaissance, including modal theory, species counterpoint, and imitative composition in two and three parts.
Prerequisite(s): Graduate students must meet music theory seminar proficiency requirements in order to enroll in this course. Undergraduates must be Composition or Computer Music majors.;Open to Composition, Computer Music, and Theory minor Undergraduate students; must first complete PY.710.212[C] or PY.710.214[C].
Area: P, Y
The course concentrates on the contrapuntal practice of J.S. Bach, including analysis and composition of a suite movement, invention, fugue, and chorale-prelude or passacaglia. Open to graduate students only.
Prerequisite(s): Graduate students must meet music theory seminar proficiency requirements in order to enroll in this course. Undergraduates must be Composition or Computer Music majors.;Open to Composition, Computer Music, and Theory minor Undergraduate students; must first complete PY.710.212[C] or PY.710.214[C].
Area: P, Y
This analysis course is for anyone interested in operatic character development through the use of tonal region, melodic/harmonic growth, development and long-range structural goals. We will explore some of the most beloved characters of opera from the perspective of the musical structures on which they are built. Special emphasis will be placed on developing a nuanced understanding of these characters through the clues buried in the music.
Prerequisite(s): Graduate students must meet music theory seminar proficiency requirements in order to enroll in this course. Undergraduates must be Composition or Computer Music majors.;Open to Composition, Computer Music, and Theory minor Undergraduate students; must first complete PY.710.212[C] or PY.710.214[C].
Area: P, Y
Partimento is a method of harmony and composition teaching developed in Naples in the 18th Century, which was the basis of conservatory education from the time of Pergolesi though Verdi. It uses figured and unfigured basses as the foundation for extempore and written-out compositions, starting with the simplest chord progression patterns and working up to entire movements. This is a skills-based course in which students will realize examples from the partimento tradition at the keyboard. All students are welcome; keyboard skills required.
Prerequisite(s): Graduate students must meet music theory seminar proficiency requirements in order to enroll in this course. Undergraduates must be Composition or Computer Music majors.;Open to Composition, Computer Music, and Theory minor Undergraduate students; must first complete PY.710.212[C] or PY.710.214[C].
Area: P, Y
A survey of the important trends in music in the first half of the 20th century. This seminar focuses on the Second Viennese School and Hindemith and examines both the music and the common theoretical tools for its analysis.
Prerequisite(s): Graduate students must meet music theory seminar proficiency requirements in order to enroll in this course. Undergraduates must be Composition or Computer Music majors.;Open to Composition, Computer Music, and Theory minor Undergraduate students; must first complete PY.710.212[C] or PY.710.214[C].
Area: P, Y
A tapestry of ideas, musical style since 1945 is as varied as the polemics of its composers – individuals who sometimes defined their work as much by its divergence from their peers as its convergence. In the sprit of this contrast, this semester we will explore a diverse selection of music with an ear towards two ideas: clarity and complexity. Through listening and analysis, we will consider how a complex musical idea can be clearly rendered and vice versa and how this realization may inform the harmonic, formal, or procedural structure of an individual composition. Our discussion will further extend to the roles performer and audience share with the composer in bringing an idea to life, including how different the demands on each may be.
A detailed analysis of representative works from the piano repertoire. Open to graduate students only.
Prerequisite(s): Graduate students must meet music theory seminar proficiency requirements in order to enroll in this course. Undergraduates must be Composition or Computer Music majors.;Open to Composition, Computer Music, and Theory minor Undergraduate students; must first complete PY.710.212[C] or PY.710.214[C].
Area: P, Y
This course investigates and discusses available teaching resources for students who may wish to teach undergraduate theory, including current technology, as well as classroom observation and practice teaching.
Prerequisite(s): Graduate students must meet music theory seminar proficiency requirements in order to enroll in this course. Undergraduates must be Composition or Computer Music majors.;Open to Composition, Computer Music, and Theory minor Undergraduate students; must first complete PY.710.212[C] or PY.710.214[C].
Area: P, Y
This course consists of a semester of supervised teaching for students in Peabody's Master of Music in Music Theory Pedagogy (MM MTP) program.
Analysis of Schoenberg's Pierrot lunaire, its musico-poetic precedent and its lasting impact on dramatic chamber music.
Prerequisite(s): Graduate students must meet music theory seminar proficiency requirements in order to enroll in this course.
Prerequisite(s): Graduate students must meet music theory seminar proficiency requirements in order to enroll in this course. Undergraduates must be Composition or Computer Music majors.;Open to Composition, Computer Music, and Theory minor Undergraduate students; must first complete PY.710.212[C] or PY.710.214[C]
This analysis course is for anyone interested in the intersections of gender and music theory. We will explore a wide variety of works by women, contextualize their practices via short readings, and develop creative analytical approaches to illuminate their music. Special emphasis will be placed on living composers and the development of a nuanced analytical tool kit to respond critically and contribute to the discourse of intersectional analysis.
Prerequisite(s): Graduate students must meet music theory seminar proficiency requirements in order to enroll in this course. Undergraduates must be Composition or Computer Music majors.;Open to Composition, Computer Music, and Theory minor Undergraduate students; must first complete PY.710.212[C] or PY.710.214[C].
Area: P, Y
Prerequisite(s): Graduate students must meet music theory seminar proficiency requirements in order to enroll in this course. Undergraduates must be Composition or Computer Music majors.;Open to Composition, Computer Music, and Theory minor Undergraduate students; must first complete PY.710.212[C] or PY.710.214[C].
A study of techniques for the analysis of common-practice tonal music. A variety of forms, genres, and styles will be explored.
Prerequisite(s): Graduate students must meet music theory seminar proficiency requirements in order to enroll in this course. Undergraduates must be Composition or Computer Music majors.;Open to Composition, Computer Music, and Theory minor Undergraduate students; must first complete PY.710.212[C] or PY.710.214[C].
Area: P, Y
The study of music in film, emphasizing the emergence of the idea of montage, the question of diegetic and non-diegetic presentations, and the problems of rhythm and meter in both visual and acoustic domains.
Prerequisite(s): Graduate students must meet music theory seminar proficiency requirements in order to enroll in this course. Undergraduates must be Composition or Computer Music majors.;Open to Composition, Computer Music, and Theory minor Undergraduate students; must first complete PY.710.212[C] or PY.710.214[C].
Area: P, Y
This course examines the wide-ranging use of fugue in music from the high baroque to the mid-20th century. The class focuses on the techniques and designs themselves, and how those techniques and designs relate to both the larger works studied and the broader musical styles of the times.
Prerequisite(s): Graduate students must meet music theory seminar proficiency requirements in order to enroll in this course. Undergraduates must be Composition or Computer Music majors.;Open to Composition, Computer Music, and Theory minor Undergraduate students; must first complete PY.710.212[C] or PY.710.214[C].
Area: P, Y
Designed for Music Theory Pedagogy students, the project will examine a specific aspect of music theory teaching. Students work under the supervision of a faculty advisor. Open to graduate students only. May not be used for seminar credit.
A course for training effective teachers of keyboard skills (sight-reading, keyboard harmony, improvisation, etc.) at the college, preparatory, and independent studio levels, including methods, materials, lesson and curriculum planning, class observation, and practice teaching.
Area: P, Y
A detailed analysis of the preludes and fugues in Book 1 of Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier.
Prerequisite(s): Graduate students must meet music theory seminar proficiency requirements in order to enroll in this course. Undergraduates must be Composition or Computer Music majors.;Open to Composition, Computer Music, and Theory minor Undergraduate students; must first complete PY.710.212[C] or PY.710.214[C].
Area: P, Y
A detailed analysis of the preludes and fugues in Book 2 of Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier.
Prerequisite(s): Graduate students must meet music theory seminar proficiency requirements in order to enroll in this course. Undergraduates must be Composition or Computer Music majors.;Open to Composition, Computer Music, and Theory minor Undergraduate students; must first complete PY.710.212[C] or PY.710.214[C].
Area: P, Y
This course explores orchestration developments in repertoire for the modern concert wind band. We will focus on developing an understanding the works of several key contributors to the repertoire and engage in stylistic reductions and model orchestration projects.
Prerequisite(s): Graduate students must meet music theory seminar proficiency requirements in order to enroll in this course. Undergraduates must be Composition or Computer Music majors.;Open to Composition, Computer Music, and Theory minor Undergraduate students; must first complete PY.710.212[C] or PY.710.214[C].
Area: P, Y