PY.610 (Musicology)

What is music, and how do we study it? Who decides which musical works, practices, and histories matter—and how? Introduction to Music Studies is a gateway course for undergraduate students that examines music not only as sound or score, but as a social, cultural, and historical practice. The course draws on methodologies from historical musicology and ethnomusicology to explore how musical meaning emerges through performance, listening, circulation, and participation. Students will encounter music from a range of historical periods and global contexts while developing tools for critical reading and listening.

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A survey of Western art music from 1600-1950.

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A survey of music in the Western classical tradition from antiquity to the late 17th century.

Prerequisite(s): Sophomores must have completed PY.260.115[C] AND PY.260.216[C] in order to enroll in this course.

Corequisite(s): Students cannot take more than one Music History at the same time.

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A survey of music in the Western classical tradition from the early 18th century to the late 19th century.

Prerequisite(s): Sophomores must have completed PY.260.115[C] AND PY.260.216[C] in order to enroll in this course.

Corequisite(s): Students cannot take more than one Music History at the same time.

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A survey of music in the Western classical tradition from the early 20th century to the present day.

Prerequisite(s): Sophomores must have completed PY.260.115[C] AND PY.260.216[C] in order to enroll in this course.

Corequisite(s): Students cannot take more than one Music History at the same time.

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Prerequisite(s): Students must have completed Core 1 and Core 2.

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This class provides an introduction to the popular musics of the Arab world from the 1920s through the early 2000s. The goals of this course will be twofold: first, we will consider the ways that technology, global and regional politics, class, and gender shaped musical aesthetics. Second, we will interrogate the role that popular music played in shaping understandings of national character and regional boundaries. Through close listening and reading assignments, students will develop listening and analytical skills specific to the music of the Arab world, and learn techniques for analyzing this popular music’s entanglement with its social, historical, and cultural context. What, for example, do the radio and music industries have to do with the rise of Arab Nationalism? What can the development of Lebanese indie-rock since the 1990s tell us about contemporary Lebanese sociopolitics? This course is assessed based on a midterm and final exam, as well as several small quizzes throughout the course of the semester.

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This course will explore how music reflects and produces culture. Our goal is to examine how musical styles emerge from ongoing interracial and intercultural exchanges, continually generating new forms and experiences. We will learn to critically examine how music operates within complex political and economic frameworks and think about how it works to reinforce or challenge existing structures of power. The goal of this course we aim to equip students with the analytical tools to approach any musical practice by listening and thinking critically, considering factors such as race, ethnicity, gender, and class.

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A review course covering classical antiquity to the 21st century. Students must earn a passing grade in PY.610.501, PY.610.502, PY.610.503 and PY.610.504 before enrolling in graduate seminars (PY.610.6xx) in Musicology. Open to graduate students only. Offered in the summer and fall.

A review course covering classical antiquity to the 21st century. Students must earn a passing grade in PY.610.501, PY.610.502, PY.610.503 and PY.610.504 before enrolling in graduate seminars (PY.610.6xx) in Musicology. Open to graduate students only. Offered in the summer and fall.

A review course covering classical antiquity to the 21st century. Students must earn a passing grade in PY.610.501, PY.610.502, PY.610.503 and PY.610.504 before enrolling in graduate seminars (PY.610.6xx) in Musicology. Open to graduate students only. Offered in the summer and fall.

A review course covering classical antiquity to the 21st century. Students must earn a passing grade in PY.610.501, PY.610.502, PY.610.503 and PY.610.504 before enrolling in graduate seminars (PY.610.6xx) in Musicology. Open to graduate students only. Offered in the summer and fall.

A review course covering classical antiquity to the 21st century. Students must earn a passing grade in this course before enrolling in graduate seminars in Musicology. Open to graduate students only. Offered in the summer and fall.

How will innovations of the past open future pathways for performers and composers? This course probes the results and unexpected resonances of transformative technologies such as electrically amplified sound, magnetic tape, digital audio, and social media. Readings and seminar discussion topics include how the microphone transformed singing; the origins and role of artificial reverberation; phonomanipulation and tape editing; drum machines and sampling; the resurgence of analog devices (record players, modular synthesizers, vintage guitar pedals, etc.); and streaming audio. Technology continues to shape how music is recorded, performed, and released into the world, so we will explore many genres and exemplars including multi-microphone perspectives of Beethoven symphonies; early field recordings; musique concrète; popular and ambient music; lowercase sound; and generative music rooted in Artificial Intelligence.

Prerequisite(s): Graduate students must meet musicology seminar proficiency requirements in order to enroll in this course.;Undergraduates need to have successfully completed 2 of the following courses. History of Music 1, History of Music 2, History of Music 3, Music Histories in a Global Context.

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What was it like for a singer to walk from the Low Countries, across the Alps, and then sing in the Sistine Chapel? What are the contours of a choir book? Why are rivers important? This course examines different topographies of musical culture between 1400–1600– in both Europe and other cultures of contact– drawing on the human relationship with the natural world as a locus for musical experience, literally and figuratively. This course provides an introduction to the research skills for music in this time period, including codicology, paleography, archival documents, and historical notation, as well as drawing from a breadth of interdisciplinary fields, including digital humanities, environmental humanities, sound studies, and art and literature of the era.

Prerequisite(s): Undergraduates need to have successfully completed 2 out of 3 following courses in order to register: PY.610.321[C], PY.610.322[C], PY.610.323[C].;Graduate students must meet musicology seminar proficiency requirements in order to enroll in this course.

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This course is designed as a series of highlights. We will explore a wide range of musical works and cultural topics related to George Gershwin’s life and career. Questions to be posed over the course of the semester will include: Who were Gershwin’s colleagues and collaborators? How did Gershwin’s music interact with the racial terrain of American culture during the Jim Crow era? And does it continue to engage with issues of race today? How has Gershwin’s legacy been shaped by American political and business interests? Did technology play a role in the shaping of his “American” sound? If yes, then how did technology influence Gershwin’s creative identity? Students will be asked to lead discussions about Gershwin's compositions, so success is dependent upon setting aside blocks of time on a regular basis to complete the various listening and reading assignments. Written assignments will include creating annotated playlists related to various facets of Gershwin’s career and a final research paper/long-form essay that relates to material discussed in class.

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Cited as “the most influential teacher since Socrates,” Nadia Boulanger (1887-1979) taught and nurtured generations of young musicians throughout her adult life. Amongrenowned American composers whom she mentored are Aaron Copland, Elliott Carter, Quincy Jones, and Philip Glass. Who was this extraordinary woman who witnessed two world wars and distinguished herself as a legendary pedagogue? What were her teaching methods? How did a Parisienne guide and shape the career trajectories of so many American composers and musicians? This class will explore these questions and many more. In addition to examining history and identifying Boulanger's impact on the current state of musical composition, our course will initiate an oral history project to capture the accounts of the last generation of musicians to work directly with Boulanger toward preserving her legacy.

Prerequisite(s): Undergraduates need to have successfully completed 2 out of 3 following courses in order to register: PY.610.321[C], PY.610.322[C], PY.610.323[C].;Graduate students must meet musicology seminar proficiency requirements in order to enroll in this course.

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This course examines music contests across time, with a particular but NOT exclusive focus on vocal contests. While contests such as American Idol have received widespread attention, these competitions must be understood in terms of a much broader trend towards the proliferation of music prizes, both within and outside the classical music tradition. Our course examines the deep history of the current obsession with music contests. Together we will ask: what sustains the power of prizes? What has driven their incredible proliferation since the outset of the twentieth century, when the Nobel, Pulitzer and modern-day Olympic prizes were first awarded? How does prize culture motor the classical- and popular-music industries? And how should musicians best maneuver themselves within modern-day economics of prestige? This course will be of relevance to all those with an interest in how musical value is created—and tastes shaped—by prize-giving institutions.

Prerequisite(s): Undergraduates need to have successfully completed 2 out of 3 following courses in order to register: PY.610.321[C], PY.610.322[C], PY.610.323[C].;Graduate students must meet musicology seminar proficiency requirements in order to enroll in this course.

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In April 1904, Richard Strauss undertook a whirlwind tour of the United States in which he was heralded as the “lion of the musical hour.” Four years later in January 1908, Gustav Mahler made his own American debut, inaugurating a spectacular but troubled relationship with both the New York Philharmonic and the Metropolitan Opera. Their receptions could not have been more different. In this course we use Strauss and Mahler as a lens through which to understand both German and American art at the Fin de Siècle. We will discuss American concert culture, performance practice, and the phenomenon of the celebrity concert tour. We will explore the works that Strauss and Mahler wrote and premiered in this period and their increasingly divergent careers. Finally, we will investigate how Americans, grappling with European art, tried to define their own.

Prerequisite(s): Undergraduates need to have successfully completed 2 out of 3 following courses in order to register: PY.610.321[C], PY.610.322[C], PY.610.323[C].;Graduate students must meet musicology seminar proficiency requirements in order to enroll in this course.

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This course explores the construction of the idea of “experimental” music since around 1950. We will consider the work of numerous individuals, groups, and movements including John Cage and the New York School, the Chicago-based AACM, the Darmstadt circle, the Lower East Side loft jazz scene, Cornelius Cardew and the Scratch Orchestra, and Fluxus. Through the study of recordings (commercial and archival), scores, artists’ writings, and scholarly literature, we will develop historical and aesthetic understanding of the varied practices that helped create the notion of musical experimentalism. Finally, we will study more recent experimental work including that being done in Baltimore at venues such as the Red Room and at festivals such as High Zero.

Prerequisite(s): Undergraduates need to have successfully completed 2 out of the following courses in order to register: PY.610.321, PY.610.322, PY.610.323, PY.610.324, PY.610.325, PY.610.326, PY.610.327;Graduate students must meet musicology seminar proficiency requirements in order to enroll in this course.

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Music flourished in the court of Queen Elizabeth I, who reigned from 1558-1603. Composers thrived in all genres: secular and sacred, instrumental and vocal. Centuries later, the legendary monarch inspired opera composers such as Rossini, Donizetti, and Britten to create musical works dramatizing the renaissance queen’s life. This course reviews the masterpieces of English renaissance and also examines the rich operatic works depicting the royal heroine. Topics to be addressed will include nineteenth century continental reception of English history and twentieth century revivals of the Elizabethan lore.

Prerequisite(s): Undergraduates need to have successfully completed 2 out of 3 following courses in order to register: PY.610.321[C], PY.610.322[C], PY.610.323[C].;Graduate students must meet musicology seminar proficiency requirements in order to enroll in this course.

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Music that Changed America offers a political history of the United States through a musical lens. It explores the many ways that music, perhaps more than any other art form, has given voice to those who might otherwise have gone unheard. Learning about the music that has influenced American politics, for good and for bad, can teach us about our past. But even more importantly, discovering music’s power to activate change can help us listen more attentively to the present world around us.

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Music and film have always shared an intimate relationship. From its inception, film has been injected with pre-existing music, including chant, traditional Western composers from Beethoven to Bartók, and more contemporary artists from the Beatles to Beyonce. This music has influenced American and international film industries alike, shaping the look and sound of film. Through close viewings—and listenings—of film, we will investigate the meaning(s) these musical works can acquire as they are re-used and re-purposed. Similarly, we will explore how, through film, pre-existing music can live on, change, and reify the past through contexts beyond the concert consumption with which we may be more familiar. During this course, we will hone your skills as an academic writer by learning to critically evaluate and craft arguments about the roles of music/sound in film. Some of the topics covered include: canonical works from the 18th and 19th centuries, the use of 20th-century avant garde music in horror, representations of jazz, chant and other medieval genres, anachronistic uses, and popular song. Your work will include studying film clips and full-length films; readings; short writing responses (100-200 words); four short papers focused on close readings of scenes or other supplied prompts (1000-1500 words); and a midterm project. Paired with writing workshops and peer review exercises, you will develop the skills necessary to contribute to the greater academic community, write clearly and logically for your intended audience, and formulate original, persuasive arguments.

Prerequisite(s): Undergraduates need to have successfully completed 2 out of 3 following courses in order to register: PY.610.321[C], PY.610.322[C], PY.610.323[C].;Graduate students must meet musicology seminar proficiency requirements in order to enroll in this course.

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There would seem to be little left to learn about Beethoven. The common understanding of the composer as a temperamental, solitary genius, cursed with a tragic hearing loss—often credited with spurring him to produce the world’s most profound music—has changed little over the past century and a half. What might remain to be studied? This course takes up the challenge, reconsidering the well-known features of the composer’s life, work, and legacy through examining trends in Beethoven scholarship of the last 25 years. What did “heroism” sound like in music, and did Beethoven’s contemporaries hear the music in this way? What were the political forces behind Beethoven’s work? What can we learn by historicizing the notion of “genius”? How can disability studies inflect our understanding of Beethoven’s deafness? And what can Beethoven’s conversation books—recently published for the first time in English translation—show us about his life? Through asking these questions, we will consider what various historiographical methods, such as microhistory, disability studies, and actor-network theory, have to offer the study of a repertoire most commonly approached through biography. Consideration of these questions will inevitably shed light on the inherited value systems that make up contemporary musical life, many of which are inherited from nineteenth-century Beethoven reception.

Prerequisite(s): Undergraduates need to have successfully completed 2 out of the following courses in order to register: PY.610.321, PY.610.322, PY.610.323, PY.610.324, PY.610.325, PY.610.326, PY.610.327;Graduate students must meet musicology seminar proficiency requirements in order to enroll in this course.

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Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington (1899 – 1974) was one of the most prominent musical figures of the 20th century. His music was often defined as “jazz,” but he sought to create a body of music “beyond category.” In fact, he preferred to be called simply an “American” composer. The breadth of Ellington’s output was astounding. In addition to writing hundreds of jazz standards, including “Mood Indigo” and “Don’t Get Around Much Anymore,” he served as the leader of America’s most stellar big band for nearly a half century and composed numerous film scores, musicals and large-scale orchestrated works. Even more importantly, he was one of the most prominent Black public figures in American history. Born and raised in Washington, DC, he was acutely aware of American politics. All his life, he served as a leader committed to civil rights, equality and America’s role in the world. Although nearly fifty years have passed since Ellington’s death, his music still permeates our society, not just in the concert hall, but also via film, advertising and the art of sampling. What is it about Ellington and his music that has made his legacy so enduring? Finding the answer(s) to this question is the central goal of this course.

Prerequisite(s): Undergraduates need to have successfully completed 2 out of 3 following courses in order to register: PY.610.321[C], PY.610.322[C], PY.610.323[C].;Graduate students must meet musicology seminar proficiency requirements in order to enroll in this course.

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What can sound and listening reveal about personal, political, and cultural power? “The soundscape is no accidental byproduct of society," cautions R. Murray Schafer “rather it is a deliberate construction by its creators.” Beginning with Schafer’s influential text The Tuning of the World, this course will introduce multiple approaches to sound studies. Research methodologies range from soundwalking and soundscape composition to the historical recovery of lost soundscapes embedded in literature, the law, and earwitness testimonies.Topics include acoustic ecology, the history of recorded media, field recording, and modes of listening. Along with readings and seminar discussion, course activities include writing assignments, listening sessions, class presentations, soundwalks, and sound recording projects.

Prerequisite(s): Undergraduates need to have successfully completed 2 out of the following courses in order to register: PY.610.321, PY.610.322, PY.610.323, PY.610.324, PY.610.325, PY.610.326, PY.610.327;Graduate students must meet musicology seminar proficiency requirements in order to enroll in this course.

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This course addresses retellings of the Orpheus myth from Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo (1607) to Mitchell’s Hadestown (2010) and Aucoin’s Eurydice (2020). We consider why this myth is so compelling to composers and librettists and explore the complexities involved in adapting the same subject for new audiences.

Prerequisite(s): Undergraduates need to have successfully completed 2 out of 3 following courses in order to register: PY.610.321[C], PY.610.322[C], PY.610.323[C].;Graduate students must meet musicology seminar proficiency requirements in order to enroll in this course.

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This class provides a detailed overview of prevalent performance conventions in the Baroque era as revealed by primary sources, as well as some insight into why these matters are important and what drives the early music movement. Required of all Historical Performance MM students.

Prerequisite(s): Undergraduates need to have successfully completed 2 out of the following courses in order to register: PY.610.321, PY.610.322, PY.610.323, PY.610.324, PY.610.325, PY.610.326, PY.610.327;Graduate students must meet musicology seminar proficiency requirements in order to enroll in this course.

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Prerequisite(s): Undergraduates need to have successfully completed 2 out of the following courses in order to register: PY.610.321, PY.610.322, PY.610.323, PY.610.324, PY.610.325, PY.610.326, PY.610.327;Graduate students must meet musicology seminar proficiency requirements in order to enroll in this course.

Music defines our media experiences. Musical themes can likewise go beyond their original audiovisual framework to operate as musical-cultural texts. This online, asynchronous course uses music as a tool to investigate musical branding and the creation of meaning in the media we consume every day. Through close viewings - and listenings - of films, television episodes, video games, commercials, and other media, this course will explore the meaning(s) these media construct and acquire as both they and their music are re-used and re-purposed in multimedia franchises that expand their content into myriads of installments and platforms.

Prerequisite(s): Undergraduates need to have successfully completed 2 out of the following courses in order to register: PY.610.321, PY.610.322, PY.610.323, PY.610.324, PY.610.325, PY.610.326, PY.610.327;Graduate students must meet musicology seminar proficiency requirements in order to enroll in this course.

What impact has mass mediation had on the way that music is made, understood, listened to, and valued? What was radio's role in the rise of 20th century authoritarian rule? How was the microphone implicated in shifting values and gender dynamics around popular music? How might we approach audiovisual mediations like music video or guitar hero as a way to refract the many and often conflicting meanings, roles and investments that music accrues? In this class, we will explore the ways that music transforms and is transformed in the process of mediation and mediatization. Thinking with and through the work of scholars across the humanities, we will trace the history of musical media and explore the ways that music assumes different roles and undergoes a series of transformations in various media contexts.

Prerequisite(s): Undergraduates need to have successfully completed 2 out of the following courses in order to register: PY.610.321, PY.610.322, PY.610.323, PY.610.324, PY.610.325, PY.610.326, PY.610.327;Graduate students must meet musicology seminar proficiency requirements in order to enroll in this course.

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This course addresses a variety of examples of music in multimedia works of art and popular culture—with supporting texts from the fields of musicology, art history, and philosophy—to consider the interactions between music and visual media from painting to cinema and television, and from contemporary opera design to the video game. Open to graduate students only.

Prerequisite(s): Graduate students must meet musicology seminar proficiency requirements in order to enroll in this course.

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This class provides a survey of prevalent performance conventions in the nineteenth century as revealed by primary sources, as well as some insight into why these matters are important and what constitutes the so-called Historically Informed Performance (HIP) perspective.

Prerequisite(s): Undergraduates need to have successfully completed 2 out of 3 following courses in order to register: PY.610.321[C], PY.610.322[C], PY.610.323[C].;Graduate students must meet musicology seminar proficiency requirements in order to enroll in this course.

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Bringing together the medical humanities, disability studies, and musicology, this course examines how music and music-making—practices that engage both mind and body—have shaped and been shaped by evolving notions of health, disease, and disability. How are conditions such as tuberculosis or madness depicted through music, and what is at stake in such portrayals? How did the so-called “Mozart Effect” emerge, and why was it so compelling? How do deaf individuals participate in musical culture, if at all? In what ways might an impaired voice hold musical value?By exploring questions such as these, the course reveals that medicine, far from being an objective, “hard” science, is deeply entangled with cultural forces and therefore open to social critique. Beyond the historical inquiries, this course ultimately encourages students to critically question how we might define wellness, ability, and artistry today.

Prerequisite(s): Undergraduates need to have successfully completed 2 out of the following courses in order to register: PY.610.321, PY.610.322, PY.610.323, PY.610.324, PY.610.325, PY.610.326, PY.610.327;Graduate students must meet musicology seminar proficiency requirements in order to enroll in this course.

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This graduate seminar discusses the relationship between music and liturgy in the West, through theological, historical, and practical perspectives. Using a series of case studies from the Middle Ages through the liturgical revival of the twentieth century, this course aims to give graduate and upper-level undergraduate students a firm grounding in liturgical forms and musical genres, with an eye to contemporary use. This course may be of special interest to organists, singers, and conductors interested in performing sacred music––in either a liturgical or secular context.

Prerequisite(s): Undergraduates need to have successfully completed 2 out of the following courses in order to register: PY.610.321, PY.610.322, PY.610.323, PY.610.324, PY.610.325, PY.610.326, PY.610.327;Graduate students must meet musicology seminar proficiency requirements in order to enroll in this course.

How does sound build possible worlds of the future? In this course you will discover how science fiction sounds and signifies in film, from established classics (Forbidden Planet; 2001; Star Wars, Interstellar) to landmarks of dystopian sound design (La Jetée; Solaris; Pumzi). In addition to viewing and analyzing complete films, an array of excerpts from the popular to the obscure will animate seminar discussion and fuel creative assignments. You will get hands-on experience in sound scoring, video editing, and producing a short documentary. Topics include classic and contemporary approaches to narrativity; sound design-as-character; the diegetic fallacy; Foley; the acousmêtre; and models of world-building through sound and music.

Prerequisite(s): Undergraduates need to have successfully completed 2 out of the following courses in order to register: PY.610.321, PY.610.322, PY.610.323, PY.610.324, PY.610.325, PY.610.326, PY.610.327;Graduate students must meet musicology seminar proficiency requirements in order to enroll in this course.

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This class explores the music, culture, and history of the Soviet and post-Soviet peripheries, meaning the non-Russian republics of the USSR, including, among others, the Baltic countries (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania), Ukraine, Belarus, the Caucasus (Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan), and the diverse countries of Central Asia (including Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan). We will focus on notable musical examples (including classical, traditional, and popular musics) as we investigate questions about identity, power, cultural politics, and coloniality and decoloniality from the early twentieth century up to the present. Representative composers include Lysenko, Glière, Liatoshynsky, Khachaturyan, Garayev (Karayev), Taktakishvili, and Tubin, as well as the prominent figures from the late-Soviet period: including Gubaidulina, Pärt, Silvestrov, Mansuryan, and Kancheli, among others. We will consider how different Soviet and post-Soviet thinkers from representative traditions wrestled with local definitions of “Sovietness” as well as with varied interpretations of the “post-Soviet.” The discourse of socialist realism and its bureaucratic and aesthetic negotiations will be a central topic, but so too will divergences from Moscow-centered artistic and philosophical demands.

Prerequisite(s): Graduate students must meet musicology seminar proficiency requirements in order to enroll in this course.;Undergraduates need to have successfully completed 2 out of the following courses in order to register: PY.610.321, PY.610.322, PY.610.323, PY.610.324, PY.610.325, PY.610.326, PY.610.327

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From Beethoven to Beyoncé, musicians have been arranging songs into themed collections for more than two hundred years. These collections tell stories and explore poetic ideas, and they often provide windows into how subjective experiences and transformations have been understood and expressed in various historical contexts. This course explores the related genres of song cycles and concept albums from the early 1800s through the present day. In addition to Beethoven’s An die ferne Geliebte and Beyoncé’s Lemonade, we will analyze song cycles by composers such as Schubert, Schumann, Chausson, Mahler, Elgar, and Schoenberg, and concept albums by Joni Mitchell, Marvin Gaye, Pink Floyd, and others. Throughout, the emphasis will be on the relationship between music and text, and the complex interactions between works of music and their cultural, social, and political contexts.

Prerequisite(s): Undergraduates need to have successfully completed either two history of music courses, or a combination of one history of music course and one ethnomusicology course;Graduate students must meet musicology seminar proficiency requirements in order to enroll in this course.

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How do the innovations of women making electronic music complicate notions of listening, music history, and the nature of music? Instead of conceptualizing gender and technology as discrete, oppositional, and universally open, this seminar explores electronic music through the lens of feminist critical frameworks and musical analyses in tandem with models of listening – notably Deep Listening as promulgated by Pauline Oliveros and Hildegard Westerkamp's approach to "conscious listening." Inspired and guided by Tara Rodgers' seminal anthology of interviews, Pink Noises: Women on Electronic Music and Sound, we discuss the work, struggles, triumphs, and techniques of pioneers including Daphne Oram, Pauline Oliveros, Wendy Carlos, Ruth Anderson, and Adrian Piper. We will also examine contemporary innovators and cyberfeminist speculative futures. Along with readings and seminar discussion, course activities include research presentations, listening sessions, brief performances, and composition projects.

Prerequisite(s): Undergraduates need to have successfully completed 2 out of 3 following courses in order to register: PY.610.321[C], PY.610.322[C], PY.610.323[C].;Graduate students must meet musicology seminar proficiency requirements in order to enroll in this course.

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This course introduces research from the roles of consuming and then creating materials with a focus on how research is created, disseminated, and accessed. Scholars analyze and produce a variety research outputs relevant for music researchers and performing professionals. Students engage with secondary and archival research materials, discuss how to publish and disseminate their own research, and explore how information is organized to optimize the use of academic library resources now and post-graduation. Open to MM and undergraduate Musicology minor students only. Fall and spring.

This course explores the multifaceted musical culture in China from the time of Confucius in the fifth century BCE to the present. We will examine the different types of traditional music including court ritual music, Qin music for the literati, and vernacular operas as well as contemporary music that draws from popular culture and globalization. In analyzing these different types of music, we will focus on the institutions and individuals who shaped China’s musical culture and the interactions between music and social and historical changes. In addition, we will investigate how musicians in the West studied and appropriated Chinese music. By the end of the course, you will be able to identify and articulate the biases that often cloud our study of extra-European music and analyze and understand Chinese music on its own terms.

Prerequisite(s): Undergraduates need to have successfully completed 2 out of the following courses in order to register: PY.610.321, PY.610.322, PY.610.323, PY.610.324, PY.610.325, PY.610.326, PY.610.327;Graduate students must meet musicology seminar proficiency requirements in order to enroll in this course.

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This class examines Ukrainian music from the 18th century through the present. It will study such representative composers as Bortniansky, Lysenko, Revutsky, Liatoshynsky, the Kyiv avant-garde of the 1960s (Sylvestrov, Hrabovsky, Hodzyatsky), and important figures of more recent generations, including those actively responding to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine (Poleva, Korsun, Grygoriv and Razumeiko). The course will investigate key historical and aesthetic developments and the continuing negotiations and assertions of national identity that characterize the development and evolution of Ukrainian music. Ukrainian music’s ongoing dialogue with other art forms will also be a focus (including fiction, poetry, and film).

How did Ludwig van Beethoven compose? Modern-day musicians are extraordinarily fortunate that Beethoven saved his work in various stages of completion. Through his surviving autographs and sketches, we have the ability to trace his early ideas to their eventual fruition. The simple becomes sophisticated; the seemingly vapid can be enlivened or abandoned altogether. Perhaps as inspiring as the grandeur of these compositions in their final form is Beethoven’s industry and sheer diligence so clearly evident in the sources. This seminar provides performers an opportunity to examine and analyze Beethoven’s compositional process and exposes them to practical research tools. This course also delves into evolving musicological trends by accessing digital archives located throughout the world. A visit to the Library of Congress in Washington DC will be scheduled. All musicians are welcome.

Prerequisite(s): Undergraduates need to have successfully completed 2 out of the following courses in order to register: PY.610.321, PY.610.322, PY.610.323, PY.610.324, PY.610.325, PY.610.326, PY.610.327;Graduate students must meet musicology seminar proficiency requirements in order to enroll in this course.

Distribution Area: P, Y

Is climate change audible? What role does music play in environmental conservation? What is sound pollution? Is birdsong music? This course will explore how sound mediates the relationship between humans and the environment, what some researchers describe as an acoustic ecology. Combining interdisciplinary approaches from sound studies, disability studies, environmental studies, and musicology, we will contemplate how we come to know our environment through deep listening, consider how people communicate their relationship to the environment through their musical creations, and reflect on the sound relations between humans, plants, and creatures. Finally, we will ponder the role that music and sound play in our experience of climate change and as a resource for building connection with the natural world.

Prerequisite(s): Undergraduates need to have successfully completed 2 out of the following courses in order to register: PY.610.321, PY.610.322, PY.610.323, PY.610.324, PY.610.325, PY.610.326, PY.610.327;Graduate students must meet musicology seminar proficiency requirements in order to enroll in this course.

Distribution Area: P, Y

This course examines changing concepts of performance and performers in Western art music from the eighteenth century through the present. Topics will include the work concept, virtuosity, improvisation, the idea of textual fidelity, and historically informed performance (HIP). As we explore these topics, we will consider how the act of performing music has engaged discourses on broader issues such as gender, race, ethnicity, nationality, technology, and religion.

Prerequisite(s): Undergraduates need to have successfully completed either two history of music courses, or a combination of one history of music course and one ethnomusicology course;Graduate students must meet musicology seminar proficiency requirements in order to enroll in this course.

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Bach’s musical language, like that of his contemporaries across Europe, was deeply shaped by dance and music for dancing. Though Bach’s Lutheranism limited his participation in social dancing, he nevertheless composed hundreds of named dances and hundreds of works in multiple idioms constructed on dance models. This graduate seminar will explore the histories of the Baroque dance forms Bach inherited with an eye to how the composer incorporated them into his musical language and, in many cases, transformed them. We will consider Bach’s music and writings alongside relevant primary sources and modern scholarship to ask how the musical and cultural conventions of dance music helped shape the composer’s contributions to musical culture.

Prerequisite(s): Undergraduates need to have successfully completed 2 out of the following courses in order to register: PY.610.321, PY.610.322, PY.610.323, PY.610.324, PY.610.325, PY.610.326, PY.610.327;Graduate students must meet musicology seminar proficiency requirements in order to enroll in this course.

Distribution Area: P, Y

In this class, we explore the major sacred vocal works of Johann Sebastian Bach, through historical, musical, and theological lenses. "Bach’s Architecture” focuses on the St John Passion (1724), St Matthew Passion (1727), and Mass in B Minor (1734–1749), as well as a few select cantatas, exploring how Bach uses musical structure to express theological ideas. The first two classes are an overview in basic structures of western Christian liturgy, and the distinctiveness of its Lutheran development. Subsequent classes explore these major works through a variety of critical lenses, including performance practice. “Bach’s Architecture” may be of particular interest to conductors, organists, and vocalists.

Prerequisite(s): Graduate students must meet musicology seminar proficiency requirements in order to enroll in this course.;Undergraduates need to have successfully completed 2 out of the following courses in order to register: PY.610.321, PY.610.322, PY.610.323, PY.610.324, PY.610.325, PY.610.326, PY.610.327

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This course explores music's critical role in shaping a global eighteenth century by examining the significant yet often neglected musical dialogue between Beijing and Paris, two cosmopolitan cities that experienced major global influences in the 1700s. Focusing on modes of transmission, integration, and indigenization, this course offers a new understanding of global history through the lens of music. By studying the various settings in which this musical dialogue took place including theaters, courts, homes, and trading routes, and the different agents who participated in this dialogue from politicians, intellectuals, and musicians to missionaries, you will learn how people in both the East and the West accepted, resisted, or shaped globalizing forces and how music in this process helped to construct a global network of knowledge.

What is ethnomusicology? What do ethnomusicologists do? What do they study? What questions do they ask, and how do they go about answering them? In this course, we explore how ethnomusicologists have made sense of music and sound. We will trace the intellectual history and contours of the field of ethnomusicology by exploring the questions that ethnomusicologists ask and the methods they employ in their attempts to answer them. Crucially, we will learn by doing. Students will apply ethnomusicological insights to their own lives through course assignments, including short critical reflections on the music and ideas we encounter. Journal reflections will form the basis for a final project, developed in consultation with the instructor, which may range from ethnography based on participant-observation, to creative performance and reflection.

Prerequisite(s): Undergraduates need to have successfully completed either two history of music courses, or a combination of one history of music course and one ethnomusicology course;Graduate students must meet musicology seminar proficiency requirements in order to enroll in this course.

Distribution Area: P, Y

As early as the mid-1920s opera was widely criticized for purportedly being out-of-joint with modernity, irrevocably stuffy, and elitist. By mid-century few composers associated with avant- garde movements were interested in the form. Since the early 1970s, however, there has been a kind of operatic renaissance involving a diverse pool of composers, writers, and artists (although the critiques never stopped). This course surveys an array of the more experimental operas written since 1970 by composers with roots in numerous traditions including serialism, free jazz, fluxus, performance art, and minimalism. We will seek out causes for the operatic turn while exploring how composers, writers, directors, and visual artists have adapted opera to reflect contemporary concerns. Each class will focus on a single work with associated texts by the relevant artists as well as readings drawn from musicology, art history, philosophy, media theory, sociology, linguistics, psychology, and theater studies. In addition to our weekly meetings we will have opportunities to visit composers, opera companies and institutes, venues, and festivals. Composers/librettists/directors covered in the course will include: Igor Stravinsky and W. H. Auden (the sole pre-1970 example); Carla Bley and Paul Haines; Meredith Monk; Gyorgi Ligeti; Robert Wilson and Philip Glass; Karlheinz Stockhausen; Robert Ashley; Anthony Davis and Thulani Davis; Laurie Anderson; Luigi Nono; Anthony Braxton; Heiner Goebbels; Olga Neuwirth and Elfriede Jelinek; and Michel van der Aa.

Prerequisite(s): Undergraduates need to have successfully completed 2 out of the following courses in order to register: PY.610.321, PY.610.322, PY.610.323, PY.610.324, PY.610.325, PY.610.326, PY.610.327;Graduate students must meet musicology seminar proficiency requirements in order to enroll in this course.

Distribution Area: P, Y

Strict rules about resolving dissonances dominated Western classical music theory and composition across the Common Practice Period, thereby codifying a precise framework of expectations for how music “should” work. Yet what could arguably be described as some of the most expressive moments in music from this time occur precisely when those established rules are subverted. This 3-credit graduate seminar invites students to enter into the mindset of composers and initial audiences of selected music and to examine such issues as 1) when–and under what conditions–subversion of the rules was indeed considered subversive; 2) what it meant for music to exert clear—even visceral—power over audiences in such moments; and 3) how the irregular treatment of dissonance has been almost an idée fixe within the Common Practice Period, a function whose expressive potential has been endlessly reimagined.

Prerequisite(s): Undergraduates need to have successfully completed 2 out of the following courses in order to register: PY.610.321, PY.610.322, PY.610.323, PY.610.324, PY.610.325, PY.610.326, PY.610.327;Graduate students must meet musicology seminar proficiency requirements in order to enroll in this course.

Distribution Area: P, Y

What is the future? Is it a structure of feeling? An ideology? An aesthetic orientation? A material form? A framework for action? This course explores the notion of the “future” as it has been conceived across an array of disciplines, historical actors, and cultural practices, with a focus on music as a medium for self- and world-making. Through close considerations of academic studies, artistic treatises, ideological manifestos, and musical projects which mobilize the future as either an object or lens of study, we will consider the relationship of music to anticipation, aspiration, dreaming, hope, pessimism, and utopia/dystopia. We will also experiment with imagination, speculation, and dreaming as frames for our own musical and intellectual practice. Students will produce writing in several genres (an abstract, a concert review, a conventional paper), with the option of pursuing a musical project in tandem with their final paper.

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In this seminar we'll explore the lives and music of twelve female or minority composers with special attention to reception history, and the challenges of expanding the classical canon. Artistic “Canons” are complex, nebulous, and inherently fraught structures, in which cultural establishments reflect and propagate their values. In this course, we will investigate the histories of these canons, and the rationales for the inclusions and, most importantly, exclusions. Our individual case studies are linked by this broader historiographical narrative.

Prerequisite(s): Undergraduates need to have successfully completed 2 out of the following courses in order to register: PY.610.321, PY.610.322, PY.610.323, PY.610.324, PY.610.325, PY.610.326, PY.610.327;Graduate students must meet musicology seminar proficiency requirements in order to enroll in this course.

Distribution Area: P, Y

Prerequisite(s): Graduates students must have successfully passed their placement exam or equivalent review course.;Undergraduates must complete 2 out of the 4 following courses in order to enroll. History of Music 1,2,or 3 and/or Music Histories in a Global Context

Distribution Area: P, Y

It is a common idea that, at its best, Italian opera can induce all manner of sensations in us and even remind us of what it means to be human. It can be hard, however, to articulate what enables it to do so. In this course we consider a cluster of operas by Rossini, Donizetti, Verdi, and Puccini for which there was incredible demand in the 1800s and examine the concrete musical and textual features that allowed them to animate their characters and—in theory—structure the sentiments of their audiences. With attention to the realities of Italians in the 1800s we ask what it felt like to consume these works—in the street, at home or at the opera—and for whom. What lessons did audiences absorb, and why? For whom did these works resonate and whom did these exclude? While conceived with Italian audiences in mind, these operas soon became some of the foremost artworks to circulate around the world in the 1800s, from Buenos Aires to Calcutta to Paris. Thus, with these same questions in focus, across the second half of the course we start to articulate how, via this circulation, Italian opera contributed to what has been termed the “transformation of the world” in the nineteenth-century.

Prerequisite(s): Graduate students must have passed their placement exam or successfully completed their review course.;Undergraduates need to have successfully completed 2 out of the following courses in order to register: PY.610.321, PY.610.322, PY.610.323, PY.610.324, PY.610.325, PY.610.326, PY.610.327

Distribution Area: P, Y

Wagner stands as one of the most famous and controversial exemplars of German musical romanticism. A revolutionary, a composer, a dramaturg, a critic, and––by some metrics––a philosopher, Wagner is an unavoidable voice in the story of opera. In this course we evaluate Wagner's life, works, and historical context. We evaluate patterns of criticism of reception, all with an aim of honing our skills as readers and writers.

Prerequisite(s): Undergraduates need to have successfully completed 2 out of the following courses in order to register: PY.610.321, PY.610.322, PY.610.323, PY.610.324, PY.610.325, PY.610.326, PY.610.327;Graduate students must meet musicology seminar proficiency requirements in order to enroll in this course.

Distribution Area: P, Y

A survey of American Music, from colonial times to the middle of the 20th century. There will be a considerable emphasis on relating musical expressions to changing social/historical conditions. We will examine the roles played by technological developments and the rise of the music business shortly after the American Revolution. Our country’s varied musical styles invite serious study of all modes of performance and dissemination, not just “classical” composition and performance. Active participation in discussion is a requirement of this seminar, as is writing a research paper on a topic of the student’s choice.

Prerequisite(s): Undergraduates need to have successfully completed 2 out of 3 following courses in order to register: PY.610.321[C], PY.610.322[C], PY.610.323[C].;Graduate students must meet musicology seminar proficiency requirements in order to enroll in this course.

Distribution Area: P, Y

Music in Maryland: from British Colonization through the mid-20th Century: Founded in 1634, Maryland's diverse geography, economy, and settlement begat a rich music history. This course traces music of the great tobacco plantations of the Chesapeake Bay, with their co-mingled African and British music, through the growth of Baltimore into a center of publishing, concerts, opera, church music, instrument-building and teaching. We will examine the roles played by technological developments and the rise of the music business shortly after the American Revolution, also considering developments in sound recording and broadcast radio. Going well beyond `classical` trends, we will also examine rich popular and folk traditions, such as parlor songs and `Sacred Harp` hymnody. Active participation in discussion is a requirement of this seminar, also required are several writing assignments and an in-class presentation on a topic of the student’s choice.

Prerequisite(s): Undergraduates need to have successfully completed 2 out of 3 following courses in order to register: PY.610.321[C], PY.610.322[C], PY.610.323[C].;Graduate students must meet musicology seminar proficiency requirements in order to enroll in this course.

Distribution Area: P, Y

Before radio, recording, and mass culture forever changed how music is performed and consumed, vibrant, vernacular musical cultures thrived across the young United States. Singing, dancing, and playing musical instruments were activities central to the cultural practices of every community present (immigrants and settlers, indigenous peoples, enslaved and free, etc.) during the formative century between the American Revolution and the Civil War. This graduate seminar will explore the diverse musical sounds and traditions that emerged during the nation’s first century and consider how vernacular music is shaped by the experiences and conditions of those who make it. Through a series of case studies of particular musics and communities we’ll consider the nineteenth-century origins of some of today’s folk music idioms and explore rich intersections of sound, material culture, and social practice.

Prerequisite(s): Undergraduates need to have successfully completed 2 out of the following courses in order to register: PY.610.321, PY.610.322, PY.610.323, PY.610.324, PY.610.325, PY.610.326, PY.610.327;Graduate students must meet musicology seminar proficiency requirements in order to enroll in this course.

Distribution Area: P, Y

This course centers on musicological inquiry and trains you to frame, scope, and plan an original study. Students survey key methods, including historical, analytical, textual, critical, public musicological, and interdisciplinary. Students also practice advanced research skills: systematic searching, source evaluation, data management, and synthesis using core tools, such as citation managers, discipline databases, thematic catalogs, scores, and recordings. Guided workshops and consultations move students from exploratory mapping and focused questions to evidence-based argumentation. By the end of the course, students define a research question for their thesis prospectus (MM) or research paper topic proposal defense (DMA), produce an annotated bibliography, and draft research abstract. 2.0 credits

Prerequisite(s): Graduates need to have successfully completed Musicology Colloquium (PY.610.847), or be a Musicology major

An introduction to methods of research through independent written projects in music history. Required of all musicology majors.

An introduction to methods of research through independent written projects in music history. Required of all musicology majors. Fall and spring.

A scholarly work written under the supervision of a member of the musicology faculty. Required for the Master’s degree in Musicology. Fall and spring.

A study of an original musical topic, approved by the DMA Committee, culminating in the completion and defense of a scholarly work written under supervision of the student’s academic advisor. Graded on a S/U basis.

A study of a specific musical topic, approved by the DMA Committee and suitable as the basis for a lecture-recital, culminating in a written paper and a public lecture-recital. Fall and spring. Graded on a S/U basis.

For graduate students working with a faculty member to complete a dissertation or a lecture-recital essay. Registration required each semester following completion of coursework in order to maintain active status in the program.

For graduate students working to complete a dissertation or a lecture-recital essay. Registration is required each semester following completion of coursework in order to maintain active status in the program. Fall and spring.

An introduction to doctoral-level academic study at Peabody. Emphasis is on critical thinking, argument from sources, and written and oral presentations. The course features presentations from invited speakers. Open to DMA and MM Musicology students only. Lectures are open to the general public.

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