In the wake of a series of recent events "Havana syndrome," acoustic devices for suppressing protests, etc.--the weaponization of the acoustic has gained widespread public attention. But these dystopic accounts obscure the fact that sound has always been intimately connected to the political. This seminar explores the many political dimensions of the acoustic: from tonality as a colonizing force to the algorithmization of listening; from acoustic regimes of urban space to the ecological dimensions of audio technologies; from questions of noise and sonic pleasure to the deployment of sound both for protest and as a mechanism of control.

A practical class. This is a workshop based class for those interested in multi-skilled performance and in how performance skills can illuminate new forms of theatre making. Ideally participants should have musical skills and be able to bring an instrument to work with. A lack of instrument would not preclude somebody from participating. It is helpful, but not necessary if students can read music. The course is also open to those interested in directing or other aspects of storytelling. It is also available to music students who are interested in all aspects of performance.

MUS 105 is an introduction to music theory concentrating on harmony but also examining rhythm, melody and timbre. Though its focus will principally be on functional tonality, as it manifests itself in the common-practice period of classical music, we will also examine modal music and tonal/modal harmony in other musics such as rock and folk, and there will be a unit on African Rhythm. After a review of the rudiments, we will proceed to examining harmonic function, voice-leading, form and model composition. The course is designed to help you develop your understanding of music, analyze existing musical works, and compose your own.

A survey of vocal literature (excluding opera) from the fifteenth century to the present day. Lectures focus on representative works that illustrate historical developments in musical style, vocal texture, and text-music relationships; attention is also given to choral music's role as an institution of social engagement, an expression of collective identity, and the societal ability to rejoice, celebrate, critique, and mourn on an impersonal level.

Introduction to European musical culture in the period 600-1400. The course is divided in the following main periods (1) chant in Carolingian and post-Carolingian Europe, (2) the Enchiriadis tradition of polyphony; (3) troubadours and trouvères, (4) Ars Antiqua, and (5) Ars Nova. The course will make intensive use of primary sources, scores, and will also feature an extensive playlist. The objective is to provide students with a thorough introduction tp fully 800 years of music history.

A survey of major styles, genres, and modes of performance in European art music from about 1814 to the 1890s, ranging from Beethoven to Rachmaninoff and including opera, ballet, the symphony, concerto, and song.

In this course, we'll explore the building blocks of melody, harmony, counterpoint, rhythm, and form using practical examples from the jazz literature, exercises, transcriptions, presentations, and composition/arranging projects as a means to internalize concepts. We'll examine representative works by important jazz composers and arrangers, and develop strategies for writing idiomatically for jazz ensembles of up to 9 musicians.

This course introduces students to key methodological, technical, creative, and disciplinary issues entailed in the study and making of music. The class will involve making, writing about, and analyzing music. The seminar is also intended as a space for music concentrators to convene and collaborate.

A composition course for independent, self-directed composers. Most of the class will be spent working on a single piece. Students will present their work-in-progress to the class weekly or biweekly depending on enrollment. We will have a concert of final projects at the end of the semester, with all student pieces to be performed by So Percussion, the music department's world-renowned ensemble-in-residence.

An introduction to the fundamentals of computer and electronic music. The music and sound programming language ChucK, developed here at Princeton, will be used in conjunction with Max/MSP, another digital audio language, to study procedural programming, digital signal processing and synthesis, networking, and human-computer interfacing.

An exploration of Beethoven's style through model composition and analysis. We will consider a series of idioms or "schemas" that are central to Beethoven's style, including specific routines for handling parallel and contrary motion in the classical tradition, favorite sequences, and idioms that defy standard analysis. Students familiarize themselves by writing a series of model composition exercises, starting with small phrases and progressing to an entire sonata-form movement. We will consider how these patterns are embedded in specific Beethoven compositions. We may also explore the use of idioms in classical-style improvisation.

This course will explore various ways of approaching polyphonic composition. In the first half, we will learn how to balance horizontal and vertical aspects of harmony via surveying the rules and techniques associated with Renaissance counterpoint. The second half is dedicated to rethinking the musical materials that define contrapuntal languages, specifically the role of timbre, register, and tuning in the classifications of consonance and dissonance. We seek to uncover the tendencies of 21st-century counterpoint and to reinvigorate the art of linear composition.

This class will study songs and songcraft in an intense, supportive small-group setting. Songs are mysterious musical forms, inherently multidisciplinary, engaging one's ear for language as much as for music. We will seek insights from a wide selection of music with a focus on both American vernacular forms (spirituals, folk, contemporary pop, hip hop) and unclassifiable outliers. We will establish a regular working rhythm and mutual interdependence of listening, analyzing, and creating with the ultimate goal being to write better songs.

This course presents a cross-disciplinary and multi-modal approach to African music, dance, and culture. Co-taught by a master drummer and choreographer (Tarpaga) and an ethnomusicologist (Steingo), students will explore African and African diasporic performance arts through readings, discussions, listening, film analysis, music performance, and composition.

Composers and film-makers explore the role of music within Film and moving image work. A look at historic examples, scoring styles and techniques, and the choices that directors and composers make, focusing particularly on films from the silent era, films without dialogue, documentaries, experimental (animation) films and finally narrative films. Composers will be encouraged to respond creatively by composing the score for a short film, or composing one to three cues (around five minutes of music) to a given score. Non-composers will be encouraged to write about a music cue or score that they find especially interesting.

Explores the significance of music in the work of Shakespeare. The approach is threefold: (1) weekly readings of scenes that are informed by contemporary currents of musical thought, and/or involve songs played on stage, and which depend for their interpretation of our understanding of those currents; (2) analysis of fundamental musical concepts as they are treated across Shakespeare's output, which might otherwise seem irrelevant or counter-intuitive to modern audiences; (3) the reading of an entire play in which music contributes to character delineation and dramatic development.

An analysis of the construction, music, dance, and sociopolitical context of Russian ballet from the time of St. Leon through Petipa, the Ballets Russes, and Balanchine.

This seminar engages students with current tools, questions, debates, and methods in empirical musicology. The course is designed so that, no matter what the student's primary research interest in musicology, they come away from the class with ideas about how empirical approaches do or could interface with their material.

Emphasis is placed upon the individual student's original work and upon the study and discussion of pieces pertinent to that work.

This seminar examines various ways we tell stories using music or in musical contexts with an examination of subtext and text. It will be co-taught by Profs. Donnacha Dennehy and Nathalie Joachim.

The seminar title is Audio Production for Composers. A hands-on, workshop class aimed at developing a rich and multifaceted approach to audio production for a diverse range of aesthetic practices. Topics include: recording strategies and microphones; home studio setup; DAWs; mixing and production techniques (including mixing, equalization, compression, reverb, and distortion); production as part of the "home studio" creative process; working with professional engineers/studios and planning recording sessions; and more. Weekly dives into ear-training with audio tools and personal projects/practices. Possible studio visits and engineer guests.

Under the direction of a faculty member, and in collaboration with an interdisciplinary group of students, visitors, and postdocs, the student carries out a one-semester research project chosen jointly by the student and the faculty. Open to any graduate student in Music, this course provides a hands-on opportunity to learn the tools, skills, methods, and perspectives of music cognition research.

Musical instruments reside at the intersection of varied topics: sound, perception, embodiment, music theory, social values, and more; how has their design influenced the development of music and how might they be reinvented to spur new ideas? We will explore these questions through readings, listening, analysis, labs, and composition. Specific topics include: harmony and the keyboard; tuning and temperament; preparing the piano, digital and analog. More generally, we will consider the productive tension between qualitative and quantitative understandings of musical concepts.