MUSI 235 - Studies in Composition

Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)

This course delves into specific genres, approaches and techniques of music making, arranging, writing, performing and recording. The course is a combination of practical, theoretical and experiential approaches and offers a laboratory for students to learn new techniques and experiment with music making within particular styles and genres.

Topic for 2025/26b: Counterpoint/Polyphony & The Voice. Charts how various musical cultures have explored & innovated the capacities of human voices through polyphony. The course covers a broad range of vocal repertoires: from the earliest European examples of notated polyphony, to living traditions of gospel music, Sacred Harp singing, Balkan polyphony, barbershop, and digitally-augmented vocals in pop music. This course is designed to engage students with interests in;vocal/choral performance, arranging, conducting, composition, music technology, and musicology. Course methods & activities include ensemble singing, score analysis, arranging & composition projects, digital spectral analysis, and electronic vocal augmentation/digital processing. Traditional theory topics like species counterpoint, voice-leading, and imitation are studied in parallel with psycho-acoustics, music cognition, and vocal physiology. The skills and knowledge developed in this course are broadly applicable: in performance, conducting, composing, arranging, and electronic music production. Celeste Oram.

Prerequisite(s): MUSI 105, MUSI 106.

Two 75-minute periods.

Course Format: CLS