William Harper

This course is offered for those students interested in developing skills in the creation and application of digital audio. Using Apple's Logic software, students interested in exploring sound or music are introduced to audio manipulation techniques that allow them to create soundtracks, to record and produce songs or dance tracks, realize abstract sound pieces or manipulate sound for installations.
Techniques of sound manipulation are introduced, including audio recording and editing, looping, and sound destruction. MIDI, drum programming, the use of software synthesis and basic music and composition techniques are addressed according to the needs of individual students.
The class is structured to encourage the interaction of students with a wide range of technical ability in audio from beginners to advanced artists in the early stages of a professional practice.

Form and structure from Western classical music traditions have much in common with that of contemporary popular music. The forms, performance practices, and rhythmic and harmonic structures established long ago in the music of the streets and courts of Europe were conveyed by colonial and economic forces into the musical cultures of many continents where they were absorbed and transformed into the diverse and vibrant popular music of today. This course is a study of the astonishing historical consistencies underlying the formal construction, performance, and social functions of contemporary dance music, songs, and instrumental music. With the music you listen to today as the starting point of our studies, we will examine the musical structures of creators like Bach, Mozart, Stravinsky, Son House, Duke Ellington, The Beatles, Joni Mitchell, Imogen Heap, Beyonce, and Steve Reich to reveal the underlying architecture which ties all of these traditions to the music on your own playlist. We will also study how those forms of music illustrate the social and economic systems which sustain them. Much of our work and assignments will be in deep listening, the practices of musical analysis, and the visualization of musical forms.

Form and structure from Western classical music traditions have much in common with that of contemporary popular music. The forms, performance practices, and rhythmic and harmonic structures established long ago in the music of the streets and courts of Europe were conveyed by colonial and economic forces into the musical cultures of many continents where they were absorbed and transformed into the diverse and vibrant popular music of today. This course is a study of the astonishing historical consistencies underlying the formal construction, performance, and social functions of contemporary dance music, songs, and instrumental music. With the music you listen to today as the starting point of our studies, we will examine the musical structures of creators like Bach, Mozart, Stravinsky, Son House, Duke Ellington, The Beatles, Joni Mitchell, Imogen Heap, Beyonce, and Steve Reich to reveal the underlying architecture which ties all of these traditions to the music on your own playlist. We will also study how those forms of music illustrate the social and economic systems which sustain them. Much of our work and assignments will be in deep listening, the practices of musical analysis, and the visualization of musical forms.

Often called the ultimate art form, the operatic spectacles of music, storytelling, and ritual were at the core of varying European cultures during the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. As such, they influenced and generated many innovations in literature, fashion, visual arts, dance, and music. In this course, we will screen operas such as Mozart?s Don Giovanni and The Magic Flute; the 'gesamtkunstwerk' operas of Wagner such as The Ring of the Nibelungen and Parsifal; examples of the French 'Opera Comique' such as Bizet's Carmen; the Italian opera of Verdi, La Traviata and Rigoletto; the 'verisimo' operas of Puccini, La Boheme, Il Trittico, and Madame Butterfly; and Strauss' radical, early 20th century operas Salome and Elektra. We will also encounter contemporary operas by Kaija Saariaho, Meredith Monk, Phillip Glass and John Adams. The primary resources for our studies are the operas themselves. We will screen operas during each class, review the social and historical contexts for the operas, and examine the compositional and scenographic techniques of the various productions. Course work will include a short paper on each of the works screened and a mid-term and final exam on selected arias from the operas.