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.

Topic for Fall 2024: The Symphony in the World

The Austrian composer, Gustav Mahler, argued that “a Symphony must be like the world; it must embrace everything.” This course takes Mahler’s statement as a springboard for examining the rich and varied sounds of the Symphony in the Western European classical tradition. Students will build on their skills in music analysis and criticism through close listening to famous symphonies by Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms, Liszt, Tchaikovsky, and Mahler. We will learn about the cultural, stylistic, and aesthetic nuances of these works from a variety of intellectual standpoints (including feminist theory, queer theory, and sound studies). A highlight of this course will be a field trip to a performance by the Boston Symphony Orchestra. All students are welcome.

This course is based on an immersion approach, exploring the language of jazz and contemporary music, and fostering a close connection between theory and practice. Learn the basics: scales and modes, chords, forms, rhythmic structures, and jazz styles. You will learn how to listen to jazz and contemporary music, and define and describe what you hear. You will practice improvisation techniques in class. Ear training is a key component: singing bass lines and jazz solos, and practicing harmonic dictation, learning to “hear the changes”. We explore the fundamentals of jazz and popular music harmony, including tune analysis, the II-V progression, secondary dominants, re-harmonization, and jazz piano voicings. We also put these concepts into practice, completing jazz compositions and transcriptions, and using music software to publish assignments. Musicianship lab supplements the class meeting.

"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.

Topic for Fall 2024: Global Music Industries

Have you ever wondered how the music you love gets transformed from its inception to a product for eager audiences around the world? Discovering new music is often a combination of personal taste, the influence of our social cohort, and the limitations of what is available through live performance in our neighborhood and online digital music services.  This seminar will take a critical exploration of the different routes that we use to find the music we love.  We will cover a vast array of topics ranging from the ways musical taste changes in time, the use and abuse of streaming digital media, and the mining of musical ideas from the developing world in recent pop music trends.  All students in the seminar will have an opportunity to design a term project on the role of listening among Wellesley students.

Music 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.

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.

Topic for Spring 2024: The Symphony in the World

The Austrian composer, Gustav Mahler, argued that “a Symphony must be like the world; it must embrace everything.” This course takes Mahler’s statement as a springboard for examining the rich and varied sounds of the Symphony in the Western European classical tradition. Students will build on their skills in music analysis and criticism through close listening to famous symphonies by Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms, Liszt, Tchaikovsky, and Mahler. We will learn about the cultural, stylistic, and aesthetic nuances of these works from a variety of intellectual standpoints (including feminist theory, queer theory, and sound studies). A highlight of this course will be a field trip to a performance by the Boston Symphony Orchestra. All students are welcome.

Throughout its history, the Italian language has expressed itself optimally through song. In this interdisciplinary course, we explore the connections between song and lyrical poetry in works from the Middle Ages through hip-hop. Students will gain an overview of Italian history and culture, and will learn how poetry and music have contributed to the shaping of Italian national identity. In addition to field trips to hear an Italian opera and to work with rare prints and manuscripts in Special Collections, students will analyze poetry and its musical enhancement, and manipulate digital humanities resources. No previous knowledge of music or Italian is required.

What happens when we study music and sound from an anthropological framework? Ethnomusicology, or the cultural study of music and sound, seeks to do just that. Through a hands-on approach to music research, this course has three aims: 1) to give students the opportunity of doing ethnographic research in a local community; 2) to explore key concepts pertaining to ethnomusicology and the anthropology of sound; 3) to work together to create a good working atmosphere in which students can share ongoing research with each other. Students will gain experience doing fieldwork as participant observers; taking notes and writing up field journals; recording and transcribing interviews; and conducting secondary research online and in the library. Each student will conduct regular visits to a local music group or community of their choice. Past projects have focused on Senegalese drumming, musical healing circles, and hip-hop dance groups. The semester will culminate in a final presentation and paper (8-10 pages) based on the student’s research.

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.

The influence of jazz on music in the twentieth century and beyond has been so profound that it has gone from being a feared public scourge to “America's Classical Music.” Ever since its origins among African Americans in the 1910s, jazz has challenged distinctions between “art” and “popular,” at times even playing a key role in social protest. Today, it is an internationally respected art form that is revered by musicians as varied as hip-hop artists and classical composers. This course will cover the history of jazz through critically engaging with recorded performances, source readings and popular reception, and evidence of its broader influence in popular culture. Through leading a class discussion and completing a term paper, students in MUS 309 will learn to connect the technical language of jazz analysis to socio-cultural context.

What happens when we study music and sound from an anthropological framework? Ethnomusicology, or the cultural study of music and sound, seeks to do just that. Through a hands-on approach to music research, this course has three aims: 1) to give students the opportunity of doing ethnographic research in a local community; 2) to explore key concepts pertaining to ethnomusicology and the anthropology of sound; 3) to work together to create a good working atmosphere in which students can share ongoing research with each other. Students will gain experience doing fieldwork as participant observers; taking notes and writing up field journals; recording and transcribing interviews; and conducting secondary research online and in the library. Each student will conduct regular visits to a local music group or community of their choice. Past projects have focused on Senegalese drumming, musical healing circles, and hip-hop dance groups. The semester will culminate in a final presentation and paper (15 pages) based on the student’s research.