MUSC 105 Introduction to Music Study of the language, power, and communicative properties of music in the Western tradition. Students will acquire basic skills in music literacy, theory, and aural comprehension. In addition, selected works, both popular and classical and ranging in time from the Middle Ages to the present, will be listened to and discussed with an emphasis on their musical style and cultural-social context. Class activities will include guest performances, concert attendance (on and off campus), and behind-the-scenes looks at what goes into making music. Students considering a major in Music should enroll in MUSC 105 in the fall or winter quarter of their first year. No prior music reading or basic theory knowledge is expected. Advanced students may request to test out of MUSC-105; please consult the Department Chair.

MUSC 120 Beginning Band Methods: Brass Basic techniques of playing orchestra and band instruments; emphasis on understanding the principles and problems of playing brass. No music reading or basic theory knowledge is required.

MUSC 121 Beginning Band Methods: Woodwinds Basic techniques of playing orchestra and band instruments; emphasis on understanding the principles and problems of playing woodwinds. No music reading or basic theory knowledge is required.

MUSC 123 Instrumental Music Methods: Strings Basic techniques of playing the four orchestral stringed instruments. No music reading or basic theory knowledge is required.

MUSC 150 Western Art Music Before 1750 Study of the developments in musical style from the Middle Ages through the Baroque including sacred and secular music of Italy, Germany, France, England, and the Netherlands. Representative works from all topics will be presented in their stylistic and cultural contexts. Music reading and basic theory knowledge is expected

MUSC 155 Western Art Music After 1750 A historical and textual survey of the music produced during the Classical, Romantic and Modern eras. Representative works - among the topics considered will be Lied, Opera, Symphony, Programmatic Music, Atonal and Serial Music - will be presented in their stylistic and cultural contexts. Music reading and basic theory knowledge is expected

MUSC 160 Music of World Cultures Study of music of various cultures within their social contexts. The course includes folk, traditional, classical, and popular music from selected traditions in Africa, India, Asia, Europe, and the Americas. It presents music as an evolving process and the performance of music as an expression of individual and cultural identity. Using readings, discussions, guest lectures and performances, CDs, and films, the course provides a framework for comparison of musical cultures from different parts of the world. No music reading or basic theory knowledge required.

MUSC 165 Jazz Explorations This course is intended to introduce students to the cultural context, instrumentation, theory, form, and analysis of jazz from its early West African roots to contemporary times. Emphasis will be placed on listening to various artists and styles. No music reading or basic theory knowledge is required.

MUSC 175 Western Music Theory and Analysis I Building upon the skills acquired in MUSC 105, students use two voice counterpoint as a gateway to fluency in writing complete four-part phrases in tonal harmony. They will discover how these principles of voice-leading and harmonic grammar form the foundation of historic and contemporary musical styles. Aural comprehension skills are acquired from the concurrent lab for the course. MUSC-105 or permission

MUSC 195 Listen to This: Finding Meaning in Music This course examines the ways meaning is conveyed in music and its various functions in society. Students will consider music as place and story, music as faith, music as politics, and music as memory, all while reflecting on how the designations "classical," "popular," and "folk" affect the way music is dispersed through society and received by different groups. The majority of musical examples are selected from the Western art music tradition, but music of other times, places, and genres will be considered as well, including musical examples from students' own experiences. No music reading or basic theory knowledge is required.

MUSC 204 Intellectual Flows of Black Music This seminar-style course explores the histories of black music in the US and the broader African diaspora through the lens of music-making as intellectual practice. We will examine the work of black musicians, critics, and scholars as both aesthetic statements and attempts to illuminate, interrogate, and advance the philosophical, artistic and social issues of particular moments in history, and ultimately as ways of creating new possibilities for social and musical life. Ranging across genres, topics covered will include the African origins of American popular music, improvisation and experimentalism, music and faith, Afrofuturism, nationalism, sexuality and gender politics, blackface and 'blacksound', and issues of appropriation, ownership, and value. Offered fall quarter, even years. No music reading or basic theory knowledge is required.

MUSC 205 Music and Identity Music serves multiple roles: a force for social transformation, a flag of resistance, a proclamation of cultural identity, a catalyst for expressing emotion, an avenue to experiencing the sacred. Students will look at identity through the lens of contemporary and traditional American music and will consider how race, ethnicity, age, gender, national identity, and other factors express themselves in and are shaped by music. The ability to read music or understand basic music theory is not required; a love of music and an interest in American culture are essential. This course is a Shared Passages Sophomore Seminar. Sophomores only

MUSC 207 Listening Across Cultures What does it mean to be a knowledgeable music listener? An expert listener? A native listener? Hip hop has its "heads," French opera had claqueurs, and Syrian tarab has the sammi'a (expert listeners), but is the act of listening the same across cultures, or is there something to the local perception of music that goes beyond style and genre? Questioning the adage that "Music is the universal language," this course will examine how people assign meaning and power to music. Analyzing music from around the world, we will attune our ears to the ways in which people across cultural borders conceptualize music, sound and the act of listening. No music reading or basic theory knowledge is required. Sophomores Only

MUSC 260 Conducting A study of the general rudiments of ensemble conducting through an emphasis on the orchestral literature. After an introduction to critical score-reading concepts (analysis skills, transposition, special terms, historical background), the remainder of the course is dedicated to practical application, with students receiving weekly podium time in front of a small laboratory ensemble. Offered spring quarter, even years MUSC-105 or permission

MUSC 275 Western Music Theory and Analysis II Building upon the skills acquired in MUSC 130, students will study techniques of modulation, as well as expressive and coloristic devices leading to late 19th century chromaticism, leading into 20th century practices. These elements will be part of further study of popular and art song form, theme and variations, rondo and sonata. Class meetings will include both lecture and workshops. Coordinated aural comprehension skills are acquired from the concurrent lab for this course. MUSC-175 or permission

MUSC 295 The World Through New Orleans As the physical reality of New Orleans has been shaped by topography and climate, settler migration and indigenous displacement, enslavement and commodification, so has its music been shaped by the legal, economic, racial and political regimes that accompanied these changes. Crafting musical tools to navigate local realities, New Orleanians established central elements of African American music-and through it the popular music of the contemporary world. The class begins with New Orleans' constitutive musical cultures-indigenous, African, Caribbean, and European-before moving towards a history of music in New Orleans, and out to hear how it has been heard, consumed, and adapted around the world. Sophomores only

MUSC 295 Don't Stop the Music: Social Dimensions Of Musical Performance and Participation We humans play, perform, and participate in music in countless different ways across diverse cultural contexts. In this course, we consider these modes of performance and participation in order to understand our own, largely unexamined and culturally-produced assumptions about music, broadly defined. In doing so, we aim to see more clearly how our own position in the social world conditions our experiences and interactions, both musically and more generally. We will pay especially close attention to how our ways of consuming, valuing, and performing music are shaped by race, ethnicity, class, gender, sexuality, and other dimensions of our social locations.

MUSC 315 Sound & Culture in the Middle East An introduction to the popular culture and cultural politics of the modern Middle East, as heard through the medium of sound. Exploring the varied soundscapes and musical cultures of the region, we will examine how sound shapes, reinforces, critiques, and transforms social life, from the local to the international level. Listening to music as both an aesthetic object and a site for the contestation of ideas, we will learn about the ways in which music is used to articulate an array of competing visions: of the nation, colony and post-colony; religion, gender, and sexuality; globalization, hybridity, and modernity. MUSC-105, ANSO-103 or Instructor Permission

MUSC 320A Arts Entrepreneurship Theory A look at the relationship between art, business, presenters, audience, and funding in the 21st Century. Artists of all kinds (Music, Dance, Theater, Writing, Visual Arts, etc.) will be able to use this course to build materials, skills, and practices to further their existing and future artistic career paths. The Theory section of Arts Entrepreneurship, which is worth .5 units of credit, prepares the student for a life in the arts through development of soft skills, entrepreneurial mindset, and a core knowledge of non-linear career paths, finances, funding, project management, content creation, non-profit structures, grant writing, and networking. Case studies and guest artists will provide invaluable real-world examples of how the 21st Century artist operates and thrives. Students in MUSC 320a will be preparing for self-directed projects in MUSC 320b Practicum.

MUSC 320B Arts Entrepreneurship Practicum A look at the relationship between art, business, presenters, audience, and funding in the 21st Century. Artists of all kinds (Music, Dance, Theater, Writing, Visual Arts, etc.) will be able to use this course to build materials, skills, and practices to further their existing and future artistic career paths. The Practicum section of Arts Entrepreneurship, which is worth .5 units of credit, will be focused on the creation and execution of a group project that results in a presentation, event, product, or performance that benefits and furthers the career experience of the members of your group. With this non-traditional course structure, class periods will be used primarily as a seminar to discuss your projects and move them forward through the skills and concepts learned in MUSC 320a. Must have taken MUSC-320A.

MUSC 375 Music Theory & Analysis III Building upon the skills acquired in MUSC135, students will refine their facility with the extended tonal harmony of the late-19th and early 20th centuries through analysis and model composition in multiple styles, including jazz and popular music. Students will also explore post-tonal and non-common practice repertories (including serialism, process music, spectralism, indeterminacy, electroacoustic music, rock and pop) through set theory and extended harmonic methods as well as analytic paradigms centered on rhythm and timbre. Coordinated aural comprehension skills are acquired from the concurrent lab for this course. MUSC-275

MUSC 490 Senior Seminar A capstone course which seeks to encourage integration between research, musicology, theory, performance, and career development. An in-depth analysis of a major work forms the first half of the course; using similar methodology, students will choose a work of their own to explore in the second half, and this counts as the comprehensive exam for the Music Major. MUSC-150, MUSC-155, MUSC-160, AND MUSC-375; junior or senior standing

MUSC 593 Senior Integrated Project Each program or department sets its own requirements for Senior Integrated Projects done in that department, including the range of acceptable projects, the required background of students doing projects, the format of the SIP, and the expected scope and depth of projects. See the Kalamazoo Curriculum -> Senior Integrated Project section of the Academic Catalog for more details. Permission of department and SIP supervisor required.

MUSC 600 Teaching Assistantship