Class Schedule | Fall 2017

Prereq: None 
Units: 4-0-8, HASS-A, CI-H

Provides a broad overview of Western music from the Middle Ages to the 20th century, with emphasis on late baroque, classical, romantic, and modernist styles. Designed to enhance the musical experience by developing listening skills and an understanding of diverse forms and genres. Major composers and works placed in social and cultural contexts. Weekly lectures feature demonstrations by professional performers and introduce topics to be discussed in sections. Enrollment limited.

(Same subject as 21L.013[J]) 
Prereq: None 
Units: 3-0-9, HASS-A, CI-H

Explores the relationship between music and the supernatural, focusing on the social history and context of supernatural beliefs as reflected in key literary and musical works from 1600 to the present. Provides an understanding of the place of ambiguity and the role of interpretation in culture, science and art. Explores great works of art by Shakespeare, Verdi, Goethe (in translation), Gounod, Henry James and Benjamin Britten. Readings also include selections from the most recent scholarship on magic and the supernatural. Writing assignments range from web-based projects to analytic essays. No previous experience in music is necessary. Projected guest lectures, musical performances, field trips. Limited to 36.

Prereq: None 
Units: 3-0-9, HASS-A, CI-H

An introduction to diverse musical traditions of the world. Music from a wide range of geographical areas is studied in terms of structure, performance practice, social use, aesthetics, and cross-cultural contact. Includes hands-on music making, live demonstrations by guest artists, and ethnographic research projects. Enrollment limited by lottery.

Prereq: None 
Units: 3-1-8, HASS-A

Introduces students to the rudiments of Western music through oral, aural, and written practice utilizing rhythm, melody, intervals, scales, chords, and musical notation. Individual skills are addressed through a variety of approaches, including keyboard practice in the required piano labs. Limited to 20 by lottery. Not open to students who have completed 21M.301 or 21M.302.

Prereq: None 
Units: 3-0-9, HASS-A

Through a progressive series of composition projects, students investigate the sonic organization of musical works and performances, focusing on fundamental questions of unity and variety. Aesthetic issues are considered in the pragmatic context of the instructions that composers provide to achieve a desired musical result, whether these instructions are notated in prose, as graphic images, or in symbolic notation. No formal training is required. Weekly listening, reading, and composition assignments draw on a broad range of musical styles and intellectual traditions, from various cultures and historical periods. Limited to 18.

(Same subject as 21L.023[J]) 
Prereq: None 
Units: 3-1-8, HASS-A, CI-H

Examines the production, transmission, preservation and the qualities of folk music in the British Isles and North America from the 18th century to the folk revival of the 1960s and the present. Special emphasis on balladry, fiddle styles, and African-American influences. Enrollment limited.

Prereq: None 
Units: 3-0-9, HASS-A

Historical survey from roots in African and American contexts, including spirituals, blues, and ragtime, through early jazz, Swing, bebop, and post-bop movements, with attention to recent developments. Key jazz styles, the relation of music and society, and major figures such as Armstrong, Ellington, Basie, Goodman, Parker, Monk, Mingus, Coltrane, and others are considered. Some investigation of cross-influences with popular, classical, folk, and rock musics. Enrollment may be limited.

Prereq: 21M.301 or permission of instructor 
Units: 3-0-9, HASS-A

Surveys Romantic genres including Lied/song, choral music, opera, piano sonata/character cycle, concerto, and symphony/symphonic poem. Includes the composers Beethoven, Schubert, Berlioz, Chopin, Brahms, Wagner, Verdi, Tchaikovsky, and Mahler. Bases written essays and oral presentations on live performances as well as listening and reading assignments. Basic score-reading ability recommended.

Prereq: 21M.301 or permission of instructor 
Units: 3-0-9, HASS-A

Surveys musical works drawn from many genres, representing stylistic movements that have transformed classical music over the past hundred years. Focal topics include musical modernism, serialism, neoclassicism, nationalism and ideology, minimalism, and aleatoric and noise composition experiments. Discusses electronic and computer music, and new media and the postmodern present. Begins with Stravinsky's early ballets and ends with music by current MIT composers and other important figures active today. Ability to read music required. Instruction and practice in oral and written communication provided.

Prereq: None 
Units: 3-0-9, HASS-A

Focuses on the different styles and dramatic approaches exhibited by a range of operas. Central questions include the process of adaptation from source material, the conventions of different operatic eras, and how the works are staged in contrasting productions. Basic score-reading ability required.

(Subject meets with CMS.925) 
Prereq: None 
Units: 3-0-9, HASS-A

Surveys styles and dramatic functions of music for silent films of the 1910s-20s, and music in sound films from the 1930s to the present. Close attention given to landmark scores by American and European composers, including Korngold, Steiner, Rozsa, Prokofiev, Copland, Herrmann, Rota, Morricone, and Williams. Subsidiary topics include new trends in contemporary film-scoring, pop scores, the impact of electronics, and specialized genres (e.g., animation). Students taking the graduate version complete different assignments. Some background in the study of film and/or music is expected.

Prereq: None 
Units: 3-0-9, HASS-A

Provides an introduction to the fascinating, intricate music of Indonesia with a special focus on Bali. Examines diverse traditions across the archipelago from both musical and cultural perspectives, from the gamelan percussion orchestras of Bali and Java to the indigenous folk traditions of Borneo, from the most sacred ritual music to the most modern popular music. Students analyze and discuss the cultural significance of musical examples, and engage in hands-on music making.

Prereq: None 
Units: 3-0-9, HASS-A

Studies musical traditions of sub-Saharan Africa, with focus on West Africa. Explores a variety of musical practices and their cultural contexts through listening, reading and writing assignments with an emphasis on class discussion. Includes in-class instruction in drumming, song and dance of Senegal, Ghana, and South Africa, as well as live lecture-demonstrations by guest performers from throughout sub-Saharan Africa. Limited to 15; preference to majors, minors, concentrators. Admittance may be controlled by lottery.

Prereq: 21M.030 or permission of instructor 
Units: 3-0-9, HASS-A

Fall 2017 Topic: The Beatles
Surveys the music of the Beatles, from the band’s early years as the Quarrymen, 1956-1960, through the rise of “Beatlemania” in the 1960s, and the break-up of the group with the turn of 1970. Listening and reading assignments will focus on the construction and analysis of selected songs with the goal of mapping how the Beatle’s musical style changed from skiffle and rock to studio-based experimentation and the concept album. Cultural influences that helped to shape the image of the Beatles’ and its individual members, as well as the group’s influence on both popular music and culture worldwide will be a continuous theme.

Prereq: None 
Units: 3-3-6, HASS-A

Covers basic writing skills in music of the common-practice period (Bach to Brahms). Regular written assignments lead to the composition of short pieces. Analyzes representative works from the literature, keyboard laboratory, and sight-singing choir. Students should have experience reading music. Enrollment limited.

Prereq: 21M.301 or permission of instructor 
Units: 3-2-7, HASS-A

A continuation of 21M.301, including chromatic harmony and modulation, a more extensive composition project, keyboard laboratory, and musicianship laboratory. Limited to 20 per section.

Prereq: 21M.302
Units: 3-1-8, HASS-A

Written and analytic exercises based on 18th- and 19th-century small forms and harmonic practice found in music such as the chorale preludes of Bach; minuets and trios of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven; and the songs and character pieces of Schubert and Schumann. Musicianship laboratory is required. Limited to 20.

Prereq: 21M.302, 21M.260, or permission of instructor 
Units: 3-0-9, HASS-A

Students complete written and analytical exercises based on compositional forms and practices from the first half of the 20th century. Areas covered include compositions based upon artificial scales and modes, as in Debussy, Bartok, and Stravinsky; compositions based on atonal pitch organizations, as with Schoenberg and Webern; compositions based on rhythmic process, timbral exploration, and/or non-Western influences. Basic instrumentation will be taught, and compositions will be performed in class.

Prereq: 21M.226, 21M.340, or permission of instructor 
Units: 3-0-9, HASS-A

Jazz writing using tonal, modal, and extended compositional approaches as applied to the blues, the 32-bar song form, and post-bop structural designs. Consideration given to a variety of styles and to the ways improvisation informs the compositional process. Study of works by Ellington, Mingus, Parker, Russell, Evans, Nelson, Golson, Coleman, Coltrane, Threadgill, Hemphill, and others. Performance of student compositions. Limited to 20.

Prereq: None 
Units: 2-1-9, HASS-A

Students develop basic skills in composition through weekly assignments focusing on sampling and audio processing. Source materials include samples of urban/natural environments, electronically generated sounds, inherent studio/recording noise, and pre-existing recordings. Audio processing includes digital signal processing (DSP) and analog devices. Covers compositional techniques, including mixing, algorithms, studio improvisation, and interaction. Students critique each other's work and give informal presentations on recordings drawn from sound art, experimental electronica, conventional and non-conventional classical electronic works, and popular music. Covers technology, math, and acoustics in varying detail. Limited to 10 per section; preference to Music majors, minors, and concentrators.

Prereq: Permission of instructor 
Units: 3-0-9, HASS-A

Limited to 16.

(Same subject as 6.809[J])
(Subject meets with 21M.585) 
Prereq: 21M.301, 6.01; or permission of instructor 
Units: 3-0-9, HASS-A
URL: http://musictech.mit.edu/ims

Interactive Music Systems is a hands on programming and design course that explores audio synthesis, musical structure, HCI (human computer interaction), and visual presentation as the ingredients for the creation of engaging real-time interactive musical experiences.

These experiences allow users to connect with music more deeply than through passive listening. The most successful ones give users intuitive control, greater musical insight, and a deeper emotional response to the musical experience.

Some examples include:

• Games like Guitar Hero, Rock Band, and Fantasia: Music Evolved.
• Performance rigs like V Motion.
• Ocarina for iPhone
• The Axe (start video at 3:48)

Students will learn about the principles, design considerations, and aesthetic qualities of interactive music systems by exploring the following topics:

• Music perception and audio synthesis
• Dynamic multi-track audio mixing and looping
• MIDI/audio synchronization
• Generative composition systems including rhythmic and melodic synthesis
• Exploration of non-standard control devices such as game controllers, motion sensors (Kinect, Leap Motion), and pad controllers.
• Analysis and application of design elements in music games.
• Building graphics for UI, music visualization, and aesthetic cohesion.

The course is taught using the python programming language and therefore fluency in python is a prerequisite. Weekly assignments consist of programming exercises and content creation that equally emphasize the development of technical skills and creativity. The class requires a final project where student teams propose, design, and build an original, dynamic, and engaging interactive music system.

This course is typically over-subscribed. To be considered for enrollment in this class, you MUST pre-register. No student will be accepted who has not pre-registered. The selection process is based on answers to an online questionnaire and a lottery.

(Subject meets with 21M.587) 
Prereq: 21M.051, 6.003, 6.01 
Units: 3-0-9, HASS-A
URL: http://musictech.mit.edu/fmp

Fundamentals of Music Processing deals with music analysis in the audio domain as a signal-processing problem. In the same way that speech processing uses signal analysis to understand spoken words, music processing uses signal analysis on music waveforms to understand higher level musical structure.

We begin by introducing frequency analysis using the Discrete Fourier Transform, and its commonly used relative, the Short-Time Fourier Transform.  From there we study features extraction methods such as chroma analysis and onset detection, and examine analysis tools like dynamic-time-warping and self-similarity matrices. These techniques serve to develop a variety of music analysis applications, including:

• Onset classification
• Temporal alignment of different renditions of the same music
• Automatic chord recognition and key detection
• Structural analysis of music
• Tempo and beat tracking
• Pitch detection
• Content-based audio retrieval
• Music-based audio decomposition

Students practice these techniques with in-class lab exercises and coding assignments in python.

This course is typically over-subscribed. To be considered for enrollment in this class, you MUST pre-register. No student will be accepted who has not pre-registered. The selection process is based on answers to an online questionnaire and a lottery.

The class uses a required text, Fundamentals of Music Processing, by Meinard Müller.

Prereq: None 
Units: 0-4-2 

Rehearsals and performance of primarily large-scale works for chorus, soloists, and orchestra--from the Passions and Masses of J. S. Bach to oratorios of our own time. Open to graduate and undergraduate students by audition.

Prereq: None 
Units: 3-0-3 
URL: http://web.mit.edu/21m.405/www

Rehearsal and performance of choral repertoire for small chorus, involving literature from the Renaissance to contemporary periods. Limited to 32 by audition.

Prereq: None 
Units: 0-4-2 

Rehearsals prepare works for concerts and recordings. Analyses of musical style, structure, and performance practice are integrated into rehearsals as a means of enriching musical conception and the approach to performance. Likewise, additional scores of particular structural or stylistic interest are read whenever time permits. Admission by audition.

Prereq: 21M.302 or permission of instructor 
Units: 3-0-3 

Introduces ensemble conducting as a technical and artistic discipline. Incorporates ear training, score-reading skills and analysis, rehearsal technique, and studies of various philosophies. Attendance of rehearsals and specific concerts required. Opportunities include conducting students, professional musicians, and MIT Symphony Orchestra (when possible). Instrumental proficiency required, although vocalists with keyboard abilities will be accepted. May be repeated once for credit with permission of instructor. 
 

Prereq: None 
Units: 0-4-2 
URL: http://web.mit.edu/~mitwe/www/ 

Designed for advanced instrumentalists who are committed to the analysis, performance, and recording of woodwind, brass, and percussion literature from the Renaissance through the 21st century. The repertoire consists primarily of music for small and large wind ensembles. May include ensemble music from Gabrieli to Grainger, Schuller, Mozart, Dvorak, and various mixed media including strings. Performance of newly commissioned works. Opportunities for solo work and work with recognized professional artists and composers. Admission by audition.

Prereq: None 
Units: 0-4-2 

Designed for instrumentalists dedicated to the analysis, performance, and recording of traditional and contemporary jazz ensemble compositions. Instrumentation includes saxophones, trumpets, trombones, piano, guitar or vibraphone, bass, percussion and occasionally french horn, double reeds, and strings. Provides opportunities to work with professional jazz artists and perform commissioned works by recognized jazz composers. Experience in improvisation preferred but not required. Admission by audition.

Prereq: None 
Units: 0-4-2 

Study of chamber music literature through analysis, rehearsal, and performance. Weekly seminars and coaching. Open to string, piano, brass, woodwind players, and singers. Admission by audition.

Prereq: Permission of instructor 
Units: 0-3-3 

A performing ensemble dedicated to the traditional music of Bali. Members of the ensemble study structures and techniques used on various Balinese gamelan instruments and learn to perform gamelan pieces. No previous experience required. Limited to 25 by audition.

Prereq: None 
Units arranged 

Open by audition to pianists who wish to explore and develop their talents as accompanists. Pianists are paired with a music scholarship recipient and attend that student's private lesson each week. Accompanists prepare independently, rehearse with the student partner, and provide accompaniment at a juried recital or masterclass each term. Under supervision for music faculty and private lesson instructors, pianists may work with one or two scholarship students each term at 3 units each or one student in 21M.480/21M.512 for 6 units. Subject satisfies the performance requirement for pianists receiving music scholarships.

Prereq: None 
Units: 0-3-3 

A performance ensemble focusing on the sabar drumming tradition of Senegal, West Africa. Study and rehearse Senegalese drumming techniques and spoken word. Perform in conjunction with MIT Rambax drumming group. No previous experience necessary, but prior enrollment in 21M.030 or 21M.293 strongly recommended. Limited to 30 by audition.

(Subject meets with 21M.512) 
Prereq: None 
Units: 1-2-3 

Designed for students who demonstrate considerable technical and musical skills and who wish to develop them through intensive private study. Students must take a weekly lesson, attend a regular performance seminar, and participate in a departmental performing group. Full-year commitment required. Information about lesson fees, scholarships, and auditions available in Music Section Office. Students taking the graduate version complete different assignments. Admission by audition.

Prereq: Permission of instructor 
Units: 3-0-9 

Seminar that develops analytic and research skills in music history/culture or theory/composition. Topics vary, but are organized around a particular methodology, musical topic, or collection of works, that allow for application to a variety of interests and genres. Strong emphasis on student presentations, discussion, and a substantial writing project. May be repeated for credit with permission from instructor.

Graduate Level
(Subject meets with 21M.480) 
Prereq: None 
Units: 1-2-3 

Designed for students who demonstrate considerable technical and musical skills and who wish to develop them through intensive private study. Students must take a weekly lesson, attend a regular performance seminar, and participate in a departmental performing group. Full-year commitment required. Information about lesson fees, scholarships, and auditions available in Music Section Office. Students taking the graduate version complete different assignments. Admission by audition.

Graduate Level
(Same subject as MAS.825[J]) 
Prereq: Permission of instructor 
Units: 3-3-3 

In-depth exploration of contemporary concepts in music and media. Studies recent music that uses advanced technology, and the artistic motivations and concerns implied by the new media. Practical experience with computer music technology, including MIDI and post-MIDI systems. Special emphasis on the interactive systems for professionals as well as amateurs. Midterm paper and term project required.

Graduate Level
(Subject meets with 6.089[J], 21M.385[J]) 
Prereq: None 
Units: 3-0-9 
URL: http://musictech.mit.edu/ims

Interactive Music Systems is a hands on programming and design course that explores audio synthesis, musical structure, HCI (human computer interaction), and visual presentation as the ingredients for the creation of engaging real-time interactive musical experiences.

These experiences allow users to connect with music more deeply than through passive listening. The most successful ones give users intuitive control, greater musical insight, and a deeper emotional response to the musical experience.

Some examples include:

• Games like Guitar Hero, Rock Band, and Fantasia: Music Evolved.
• Performance rigs like V Motion.
• Ocarina for iPhone
• The Axe (start video at 3:48)

Students will learn about the principles, design considerations, and aesthetic qualities of interactive music systems by exploring the following topics:

• Music perception and audio synthesis
• Dynamic multi-track audio mixing and looping
• MIDI/audio synchronization
• Generative composition systems including rhythmic and melodic synthesis
• Exploration of non-standard control devices such as game controllers, motion sensors (Kinect, Leap Motion), and pad controllers.
• Analysis and application of design elements in music games.
• Building graphics for UI, music visualization, and aesthetic cohesion.

The course is taught using the python programming language and therefore fluency in python is a prerequisite. Weekly assignments consist of programming exercises and content creation that equally emphasize the development of technical skills and creativity. The class requires a final project where student teams propose, design, and build an original, dynamic, and engaging interactive music system.

This course is typically over-subscribed. To be considered for enrollment in this class, you MUST pre-register. No student will be accepted who has not pre-registered. The selection process is based on answers to an online questionnaire and a lottery.

Graduate Level
(Subject meets with 21M.387) 
Prereq: None 
Units: 3-0-9 
URL: http://musictech.mit.edu/fmp

Fundamentals of Music Processing deals with music analysis in the audio domain as a signal-processing problem. In the same way that speech processing uses signal analysis to understand spoken words, music processing uses signal analysis on music waveforms to understand higher level musical structure.

We begin by introducing frequency analysis using the Discrete Fourier Transform, and its commonly used relative, the Short-Time Fourier Transform.  From there we study features extraction methods such as chroma analysis and onset detection, and examine analysis tools like dynamic-time-warping and self-similarity matrices. These techniques serve to develop a variety of music analysis applications, including:

• Onset classification
• Temporal alignment of different renditions of the same music
• Automatic chord recognition and key detection
• Structural analysis of music
• Tempo and beat tracking
• Pitch detection
• Content-based audio retrieval
• Music-based audio decomposition

Students practice these techniques with in-class lab exercises and coding assignments in python.

This course is typically over-subscribed. To be considered for enrollment in this class, you MUST pre-register. No student will be accepted who has not pre-registered. The selection process is based on answers to an online questionnaire and a lottery.

The class uses a required text, Fundamentals of Music Processing, by Meinard Müller.