MU228 - Topics in Music (Spring Semester).
Special topics in music history, theory, creativity, or technology. Topics vary from year to year, but typically emphasize a particular musical area, theoretical issue, genre, repertory, creative/compositional technique, or instrument. Courses may be offered as half-block or regular-block offering.
.25 or .5 or 1 unit — Ben-Amots, Carrizo, Chang, Reyes, Sweum
Previously Featured Offering
Students will work on a series of creative projects. Their work will be informed by an introduction to the fundamental theoretical context (acoustics, digital and analog sound, MIDI), as well as analytical listening and discussion. Topics include digital audio sampling/editing, signal processing, and basic synthesis techniques.
This course has been specifically designed to be taught online. It will be instructed through a combination of written and video materials, live online discussions, creative and analytical exercises and projects, and online small group sessions for feedback and questions. While instruction will be online, the course is open to any student, whether on or off-campus.
Building on the idea of music, performance, and culinary practice as forms of “living history,” this course is dedicated to understanding and uncovering our personal and familial “songbooks of migration.” We will attempt to answer: what does the story of your life look like, if told from the perspective of music and song?
Photo licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0 from Flickr user Alison Hurt
We will study transnational music and migration, the politics of borderlands and sonic boundaries, and how music moves between and across communities that have experienced mass migration and cultural displacement. We will also elucidate the relationship of music to memory, food, community, home-making, and notions of self.
Hip Hop is one of the most galvanizing forms of popular music from the 20th century, and its impact on culture, politics, and race is tremendous. We will explore the history and sound of Hip Hop—from its inception to its global contemporary musical dominance—using the analytical paradigms of gender, race, sexuality, and class.
Topics in Music: Indie Music and Cultures explores the current phenomenon of Indie Rock music and the culture surrounding it. By listening to the music genre, analyzing related texts, reviewing literature on the "hipster" or "boho" and drawing from other forms of popular media, students will be able to evaluate niche movements and cultural impulses found in Portland, Winnipeg, Colorado Springs and other cities.
As farm-to-table foodies, bamboo bicycle builders, single-origin coffee people, and certainly Indie musicians know, it is such local cultures as those found in Portland, Winnipeg, and Colorado Springs where many of the niche movements and cultural impulses are first being cultivated and are taking hold. This class focuses on Indie Rock music and the culture surrounding it. We will explore this current phenomenon by examining a wide variety of music and texts. Listening to the music will be foremost and will help us to form ways to define the music aesthetically. Accompanying this, putting the repertory into context will prompt the non-aesthetic aspects which will also shape this definition. Looking at sources on Alternative music and College Rock subcultures will in part form the broader context, as well as recent writings on Indie Rock itself. In addition, literature on related topics drawing from other disciplinary perspectives, for example, considering the “hipster” and “boho,” will help us to evaluate ideas regarding the notion of omnivorous cultural consumption and changing cultural values and economics. In addition to interdisciplinary approaches and scholarship, we will look at related manifestations of this culture, like indie film, the craft cocktail movement, et cetera. Thus our texts for this course will go beyond the scholarly literature and will incorporate our observations from such sources as sartorial blogs and Brooklyn Vegan comments, and other examples from popular media, like clips from the T.V. shows Portlandia and Girls.
In block 7, students in MU228 will explore the deceptively complicated question: How does our experience of music change when it moves from a live to a mediated event?
Offerings
| Term | Block | Title | Instructor | Location | Student Limit/Available | Updated |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spring 2025 | Block H | Topics in Music (Spring Semester): Music Business Topic Details | Ricky Sweum | Packard Hall 20 | 25 / 15 | 05/20/2025 |
| Spring 2025 | Block 5 | Topics in Music (Spring Semester): West African Dance and Drumming | Dallo Fall | Cossitt Hall Gym | 25 / 22 | 05/20/2025 |
| Spring 2025 | Block 5 | Topics in Music: Music and the Museum Topic Details | Lidia Chang | Packard Hall 16 | 25 / 17 | 05/20/2025 |
| Spring 2025 | Block 5 | Topics in Music: Puente del Mundo: The Musical Crossroads of Panama Topic Details | Liliana Carrizo | Taught Abroad 001 | 25 / 12 | 05/20/2025 |
| Spring 2025 | Block 5 | Topics in Music (Spring Semester): Jazz Improvisation and Theory Topic Details | Ricky Sweum | See Prof. 003 | 25 / 20 | 05/20/2025 |
| Spring 2025 | Block 5 | Topics in Music (Spring Semester): Creativity Now! Exploring Our Inner Power of Expression Topic Details | Ofer Ben-Amots | Packard Hall 17 | 25 / 17 | 05/20/2025 |
| Spring 2025 | Block 5 | Topics in Music (Spring Semester): Introduction to Jazz Topic Details | Ricky Sweum | Packard Hall 20 | 25 / 11 | 05/20/2025 |
| Spring 2025 | Block 5 | Topics in Music (Spring Semester): Ableton Live Topic Details | Ricky Sweum | TBA | 25 / 23 | 05/20/2025 |
| Spring 2025 | Block 6 | Topics in Music: Sonic Revolutions: Music and Social Movements Topic Details | Ever Reyes | Packard Hall 9 | 25 / 1 | 05/20/2025 |
| Spring 2025 | Block 6 | Topics in Music (Spring Semester): Breath Art: Creative Breathing Methods Topic Details | Shodekeh Talifero | Cornerstone Art Center 130 | 25 / 20 | 05/20/2025 |
| Spring 2025 | Block 7 | Topics in Music (Spring Semester): West African Dance and Drumming | Dallo Fall | Cossitt Hall Gym | 25 / 24 | 05/20/2025 |
| Spring 2025 | Block 7 | Topics in Music: Doctor Faustus Topic Details | Lidia Chang | Packard Hall 16 | 25 / 13 | 05/20/2025 |
| Spring 2025 | Block 8 | Topics in Music (Spring Semester) Listening to Music Topic Details | Lidia Chang | Packard Hall 9 | 25 / 0 | 05/20/2025 |
| Spring 2026 | Block H | Topics in Music: Music Industry Topic Details | Ricky Sweum | TBA | 25 / 23 | 05/20/2025 |
| Spring 2026 | Block 5 | Topics in Music: Sonic Revolutions: Music and Social Change Topic Details | Ever Reyes | TBA | 25 / 25 | 05/20/2025 |
| Spring 2026 | Block 5 | Topics in Music: Ableton Live Topic Details | Ricky Sweum | TBA | 25 / 25 | 05/20/2025 |
| Spring 2026 | Block 5 | Topics in Music (Spring Semester): Jazz Improvisation and Theory Topic Details | Ricky Sweum | TBA | 25 / 25 | 05/20/2025 |
| Spring 2026 | Block 6 | Topics in Music: Music and the Museum in Vienna Topic Details | Lidia Chang | TBA | 25 / 25 | 05/20/2025 |
| Spring 2026 | Block 6 | Topics in Music: Writing About Music Topic Details | Liliana Carrizo | TBA | 12 / 12 | 05/20/2025 |
| Spring 2026 | Block 6 | Topics in Music: Introduction to Jazz Topic Details | Ricky Sweum | TBA | 25 / 25 | 05/20/2025 |
| Spring 2026 | Block 6 | Topics in Music: Indigenous Technologies Topic Details | Ever Reyes | TBA | 25 / 25 | 05/20/2025 |
| Spring 2026 | Block 7 | Topics in Music: Listening to Music Topic Details | Lidia Chang | TBA | 25 / 25 | 05/20/2025 |
| Spring 2026 | Block 8 | Topics in Music: Decoding Music Topic Details | Ofer Ben-Amots | TBA | 25 / 25 | 05/20/2025 |
| Spring 2026 | Block 8 | Topics in Music: Worlds of Musical Meaning Topic Details | Liliana Carrizo | TBA | 25 / 25 | 05/20/2025 |
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Last updated: 05/20/2025