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 2025: 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.

"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.

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.

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.

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.

Metropolises bring together diverse groups of people in concentrated locations all over the world. Along with heightened crime and poverty, they are also home to an astounding variety of musical innovations. This course offers an exploration of disparate musical cultures in major metropolises of the world. Throughout the semester, we will study major cities, the major musical developments to come from them, and the cultural conflicts and celebrations that emerge in contemporary urban life. In addition to local styles, we will discuss such global styles as hip-hop, punk, pop, dancehall, rock, roots music, “world music,” and electronic dance music, and how they relate to the urban environments where they were developed and where they continue to thrive.

This course challenges students to think critically about music, and writing about music, in the public sphere. Students explore the relationship between their specialized academic knowledge and their experiences as day-to-day consumers of music. The core material of the course consists of a series of writing and editing exercises for an imagined audience of non-specialists—including reviews of recordings and lectures, program notes for concerts, an interview with a prominent musician—and discussions of controversial issues in academic music. This course addresses a variety of issues, such as how to write about the experience of live performance or how to assess music as a kind of social activism. By translating the technical vocabulary of academic music into a language accessible to the public, students find that they listen and think musically in new and unanticipated ways.

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.