MUS Courses for Fall 2026
Please click on the course title for more information.
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MUS 100 01 - Musical Literacies
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Course: |
MUS 100 - 01 |
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Title: |
Musical Literacies |
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Credit Hours: |
1 |
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Description: |
This course is designed to provide an immersion in the world of music to improve listening, reading, and general comprehension skills. The focus is on the fundamentals of music (notation, rhythm, melody, scales, chords, and formal plans) and listening examples will be drawn from a wide variety of genres, styles, and cultural traditions. Individual members of the academic faculty will visit regularly to introduce students to the rich diversity of approaches to the field of music. No prior musical knowledge is expected. Students may choose to take the Music Theory Placement Exam to see if they can exempt MUS 100 and go directly into MUS 200, MUS 201, MUS 202, MUS 122, or MUS 220. A musicianship lab supplements the three class meetings. May be counted toward the major or the minor. |
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Prerequisite(s): |
None |
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Notes: |
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Distribution(s): |
Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video |
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Instructors: |
David Collins |
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Meeting Time(s): |
Jewett Arts Center 209 Music Salon - MR 8:30 AM - 9:45 AM
Jewett Arts Center 209 Music Salon - W 8:30 AM - 9:20 AM |
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MUS 100 02 - Musical Literacies
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Course: |
MUS 100 - 02 |
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Title: |
Musical Literacies |
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Credit Hours: |
1 |
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Description: |
This course is designed to provide an immersion in the world of music to improve listening, reading, and general comprehension skills. The focus is on the fundamentals of music (notation, rhythm, melody, scales, chords, and formal plans) and listening examples will be drawn from a wide variety of genres, styles, and cultural traditions. Individual members of the academic faculty will visit regularly to introduce students to the rich diversity of approaches to the field of music. No prior musical knowledge is expected. Students may choose to take the Music Theory Placement Exam to see if they can exempt MUS 100 and go directly into MUS 200, MUS 201, MUS 202, MUS 122, or MUS 220. A musicianship lab supplements the three class meetings. May be counted toward the major or the minor. |
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Prerequisite(s): |
None |
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Notes: |
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Distribution(s): |
Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video |
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Instructors: |
David Russell |
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Meeting Time(s): |
Jewett Arts Center 202 Auditorium - MR 9:55 AM - 11:10 AM
Jewett Arts Center 202 Auditorium - W 9:30 AM - 10:20 AM |
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MUS 122 01 - Harmonic Concepts in Tonal Music
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Course: |
MUS 122 - 01 |
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Title: |
Harmonic Concepts in Tonal Music |
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Credit Hours: |
1 |
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Description: |
Beginning with a comprehensive review of musical terminology and basic materials, MUS 122 explores the fundamentals of tonal harmony, voice-leading, phrasing, and form. Topics include harmonic functions and phrase structure, cadence formation, voice-leading and figured bass, and tonal analysis. Regular ear-training practice complements written exercises. One musicianship lab per week. |
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Prerequisite(s): |
Open to all students who have completed MUS 100 or exempted it by the Music Theory Placement Evaluation. |
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Notes: |
Normally followed by MUS 252 or MUS 315. |
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Distribution(s): |
Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video |
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Instructors: |
Samuel Beebe |
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Meeting Time(s): |
Jewett Arts Center 218 Music Salon - MR 2:20 PM - 3:35 PM
Jewett Arts Center 218 Music Salon - W 2:30 PM - 3:20 PM |
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MUS 202 01 - Topics in Music History III Tpc: Race & Gender thru New Music
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Course: |
MUS 202 - 01 |
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Title: |
Topics in Music History III Tpc: Race & Gender thru New Music |
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Credit Hours: |
1 |
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Description: |
Topic for Fall 2026: Expressing Race and Gender through New Music This course takes its spark from recent global and on-campus conversations around race and anti-racism in relation to the arts, particularly music composed and created during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Students will become familiar with “canonical works” by (predominantly male, some female, and mostly white Euro-American) composers. However, the primary focus is on the creative achievements of under-represented composers and musicians identifying as Black, Latinx, East Asian, and Native American. This course inverts the balance by privileging the artistic accomplishments of composers and musicians who usually reside at the margins of “central” conversations. Our goal is to understand what the traditional category of “modernism and music” reveals about history and society from typically less represented cultural/racial/gendered perspectives. Students will undertake critical listening/viewing/reading assignments and reflect on live performances through writing. |
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Prerequisite(s): |
MUS 100 or exemption from MUS 100. |
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Notes: |
This is a topics course and can be taken more than once for credit as long as the topic is different each time. |
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Distribution(s): |
Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video |
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Instructors: |
Gurminder Bhogal |
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Meeting Time(s): |
Jewett Arts Center 209 Music Salon - MR 11:20 AM - 12:35 PM |
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MUS 229 01 - The Countess of Pembroke’s Masque: Women, Literature, and Music in the Age of Shakespeare
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Course: |
MUS 229 - 01 |
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Title: |
The Countess of Pembroke’s Masque: Women, Literature, and Music in the Age of Shakespeare |
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Credit Hours: |
1 |
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Description: |
In sixteenth- and seventeenth-century England, some women, by benefit of their noble birth or adjacency to court culture, attained enough education in literature and music to make them the equals of men as poets and performers. Women also played important roles as patrons of literature and music, creating the material context that fostered art. Yet Renaissance cultural history is still told as a male-dominated story, with outsize representation of a few male artists, notably Shakespeare. These women, such as Mary
Sidney, Aemila Lanyer, Mary Wroth, Anne Clifford, and others, are still little-known. Why do we call it the “age of Shakespeare” and overlook these artists? This course will spotlight these women, their lives, their artistic accomplishments, and the musical and literary communities some formed at their grand houses. In addition, students will learn to play music written in this context on the viola da gamba using instruments from Wellesley’s collection. |
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Prerequisite(s): |
None. |
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Notes: |
Mandatory Credit/Non Credit. |
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Distribution(s): |
Historical Studies
Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video |
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Cross Listed Courses: |
ENG 229 01 - The Countess of Pembroke’s Masque: Women, Literature, and Music in the Age of Shakespeare
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Instructors: |
Laura Jeppesen
Sarah Wall-Randell |
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Meeting Time(s): |
Pendleton West 101 Music Salon - MR 9:55 AM - 11:10 AM
Pendleton West 101 Music Salon - W 9:30 AM - 10:20 AM |
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MUS 230 01 - Opera: Its History, Music, and Drama
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Course: |
MUS 230 - 01 |
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Title: |
Opera: Its History, Music, and Drama |
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Credit Hours: |
1 |
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Description: |
This course offers a comprehensive chronological survey of the history and evolution of opera, from 1600 to the present. Lectures will examine historical background, the subgenres of operatic literature (opera seria, opera buffa, music drama), and complete operas by major composers representing a number of periods and styles (including Monteverdi, Mozart, Verdi, and Berg). We will also study librettos, relevant novels, and other source materials in order to establish connections between musical structure and dramatic expression. Two class meetings, with additional sessions required for viewing operas in their entirety. |
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Prerequisite(s): |
None. |
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Notes: |
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Distribution(s): |
Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video |
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Instructors: |
Gurminder Bhogal |
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Meeting Time(s): |
Jewett Arts Center 209 Music Salon - MR 2:20 PM - 3:35 PM |
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MUS 275 01 - Introduction to Electronic and Computer Music: Histories and Practices
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Course: |
MUS 275 - 01 |
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Title: |
Introduction to Electronic and Computer Music: Histories and Practices |
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Credit Hours: |
1 |
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Description: |
An overview of the fundamental concepts, techniques, and literature of electronic and computer music. Topics include analog and digital electronic instruments, MIDI programming, sound-synthesis techniques, live processing, and the history of electronic music. Students will compose two original pieces (one fixed and one live), and will learn the basics of Logic Pro, Max, and Ableton Live. |
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Prerequisite(s): |
None. |
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Notes: |
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Distribution(s): |
Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video |
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Instructors: |
Samuel Beebe |
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Meeting Time(s): |
Jewett Arts Center 122 Music Library Sound Lab - TF 11:20 AM - 12:35 PM |
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MUS 276 01 - American Popular Music
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Course: |
MUS 276 - 01 |
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Title: |
American Popular Music |
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Credit Hours: |
1 |
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Description: |
"Popular music" denotes a variety of idioms-including R&B, rock, soul, funk, and hip-hop-linked to the youth culture and social movements that developed in the United States after World War II. With a foundation in African American genres (especially blues and gospel), popular music has also absorbed strong influences from rural white Protestant communities, Latin America, and Europe, and its sounds are indelibly linked to twentieth-century technologies (the electric guitar, multitrack recording, turntables). With an emphasis on the 1940s to the 1970s, our historical survey of American popular music will bring us from the 1800s to the present day. Using close listening as a starting point, we will learn how to decode sounds to reveal their complex social histories as we assess popular music's role in America's tumultuous twentieth century. |
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Prerequisite(s): |
None. |
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Notes: |
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Distribution(s): |
Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video |
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Instructors: |
Samuel Beebe |
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Meeting Time(s): |
Jewett Arts Center 218 Music Salon - TF 2:10 PM - 3:25 PM |
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MUS 308 01 - Conducting
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Course: |
MUS 308 - 01 |
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Title: |
Conducting |
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Credit Hours: |
1 |
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Description: |
The study of conducting is a synthesis of all skills important to a musician's craft, and the art of communicating a specific musical vision to bring a composer's written intentions to life. The physical gestures are expressive of a full understanding of both the score and the instruments and/or voices performing the work. This course is a study of the techniques that transform written music into sound, including score preparation and reading, baton technique, and rehearsal methods. Development of aural and interpretive ability as well as leadership skills are explored in the process. Students will have the opportunity to take their skills outside the classroom and conduct one of the College's musical ensembles as part of their work in the course. |
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Prerequisite(s): |
Permission of the instructor. |
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Notes: |
Ann E. Maurer '51 Speaking Intensive Course. |
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Distribution(s): |
Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video |
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Instructors: |
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Meeting Time(s): |
Jewett Arts Center 209 Music Salon - TF 12:45 PM - 2:00 PM |
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MUS 314 01 - Brazilian Music and the Politics of Culture
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Course: |
MUS 314 - 01 |
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Title: |
Brazilian Music and the Politics of Culture |
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Credit Hours: |
1 |
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Description: |
From the dawn of the 20th century, Brazil has promoted itself to the world as a particularly musical country. In addition to samba, the country is the birthplace of many well-loved genres including choro, bossa nova, and funk carioca. Brazilian popular song is considered by many to be a literary genre where songwriters such as Vinicius de Morais and Arnaldo Antunes describe themselves as poets and their lyrics are major topics of study by scholars of Portuguese literature. In this course, we will uncover the historical and cultural origins of many of the major musical developments in Brazil and explore how they express polemics around citizenship, social activism, and cosmopolitanism. Students familiar with Portuguese will have the option of additional, focused study of Portuguese lyrics and will be encouraged to compose their writing assignments in Portuguese. |
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Prerequisite(s): |
MUS 100, PORT 103, or permission of the instructor. Students with prior experience with World Music, Portuguese, or Latin American Studies courses are especially encouraged to register. |
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Notes: |
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Distribution(s): |
Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video |
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Cross Listed Courses: |
PORT 314 01 - Brazilian Music and the Politics of Culture
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Instructors: |
Kaleb Goldschmitt |
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Meeting Time(s): |
Pendleton West 001 Classroom - TF 9:55 AM - 11:10 AM |
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MUS 344 01 - Advanced Performance Workshop
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Course: |
MUS 344 - 01 |
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Title: |
Advanced Performance Workshop |
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Credit Hours: |
1 |
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Description: |
MUS 344 offers an exciting opportunity for accomplished performing music students to develop their artistry and performance skills on a high level. Qualified students participate in this weekly performance class in addition to their weekly one-hour lessons (MUS 344-M) with their private instructors, and develop their abilities by performing frequently in class and receiving constructive feedback. Students also grow as musicians by listening to other students perform, by being exposed to the broad range of repertoire presented in class, and by participating in the process of constructive criticism. In conjunction with their in-class performances, students are asked to provide brief, written background information about their repertoire to enhance their understanding of the music and to prepare for writing program notes. Students should plan on a time investment of about 14 hours per week. Students enrolled for the full year, as is strongly encouraged, perform a jury in the Fall and full recital in the Spring. Students who choose Honors in Performance (Honors Program III) must take MUS 344 as part of their MUS 360 and MUS 370 thesis work, the two components counting as 1 unit of credit per semester. |
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Prerequisite(s): |
A written recommendation from their instructor in Performing Music. Permission to elect subsequent units is granted only to a student whose progress in MUS 344 is judged excellent. This course may be repeated once for additional credit. Two semesters of MUS 344 can be counted toward one unit of the music major. |
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Notes: |
This is the only credit course in classical performance that can be counted toward the music major. |
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Distribution(s): |
Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video |
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Instructors: |
Jenny Tang |
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Meeting Time(s): |
Pendleton West 201 Grand Music Hall - W 12:30 PM - 3:10 PM |
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