California Institute of the Arts Catalog

Code	Name	Description
AART427	People's Theory	Co-taught by John Mandel and Michael Fink, Music School faculty. An interdisciplinary seminar for Art School students and composers and performers in the Music School, it includes participants from other disciplines as well. This critique aims to cra...
AART627	People's Theory	Co-taught by John Mandel and Michael Fink, Music School faculty. An interdisciplinary seminar for Art School students and composers and performers in the Music School, it includes participants from other disciplines as well. This critique aims to cra...
ICOM120	Coding Art Fundamentals	Unlock your creative potential with coding! In this introductory course, learn fundamental coding concepts using p5js, a visual programming language. You'll create interactive visual art pieces, exploring color theory, animation, basic programming pr...
ICOM121	Coding Music Fundamentals	This course extends previous graphics related programming experience into the audio domain. ChucK, a strongly-timed computer music language will be the focal language of the class, with opportunities to communicate to physical computing platforms lik...
MAIC100	Worlds of Music I: Europe & N. Am. 1900-	An overview of the music of this centuries-of-changes, and the exploding diversity in the arts and society as we are facing them today. The course covers the development of the most important and influential musical branches of the 20th and 21st cent...
MAIC101	Music II: Africa, Asia, L. Am.	This survey course is an introduction to music as a worldwide phenomenon covering folk, popular, art, tribal, religious, and ritual music of various geographical and cultural areas. Emphasis is placed on understanding music as a component of culture...
MAIC240	Jazz History	A survey of the history of jazz and African-American musical traditions, emphasizing critical listening and aural analysis
MAIC314	The Music of Flamenco	A study of the musical aspects (cante-singing and toque-guitar playing) in Flamenco through listening, reading and watching documentary films. We will look at the structure of many Flamenco forms (ie. Seguiriyas, Solea, Bulerias, Tangos, etc.), disc...
MAIC316	Blues Before 1960	A study of the development of the Blues through listening, watching documentary films and reading interviews with artists. We will concentrate on music, lyrics and each artist's individual style and consider the social and historical circumstances s...
MAIC317	Bach and Beyond: Rethinking Bach	This course is designed to develop a deep and meaningful understanding and appreciation of JS Bach, the man, the myth and the music. There will be guided listening in and out of class, as well as reading of materials from Bach's time along with la...
MAIC343	To Exist in Sound: Ambient & 4th World	It's been half a century since Brian Eno embarked on ambient music as a conceptual project, conceiving the idea for Discreet Music while lying incapacitated (recovering from a car accident), listening to a barely audible recording of harp music merge...
MAIC370	DIY	Do-it-yourself - and the related concept of release-it-yourself - has been the ideological and practical underpinning of radical music for at least a half-century. Often identified with the punk rock movement, the DIY imperative actually predates pu...
MAIC401	Improvisation: Uses & Lineage	Improvisation: Uses and Cross-Cultural Lineage This class will explore the nature of improvisation in all its forms-Indian music, flamenco, baroque, organ music, rock, jazz, contemporary, and "free" music. The class integrates material from a wide v...
MAIC403	Teaching Artistry	Teaching Artistry is a lecture class that will focus on best practices of teaching. Through a combination of demo lessons, video clips, field observations, and discussion, participants will explore various pedagogical approaches. Each of these approa...
MAIC404	College Pedagogy	This is a lecture class that will focus on best practices of teaching. Through a combination of demo lessons, video clips, field observations, independent research, and discussion, participants will explore various pedagogical approaches. Each of the...
MAIC412	Critical Reading	Open to BFA3 and BFA4 students only. Where does human perception leave off and the object begin? Can we know the substance of the artistic object, or are we dealing with mental representations of it? What can art itself know? How does it connect with...
MAIC420	Composing for Improvisers	This discussion-based seminar will present a survey of historical and contemporary musical idioms in which composers and sound artists have consciously and actively developed strategies for engaging performers in the act of improvisation. The goal of...
MAIC454	Sounding the Voice: Utterance, Phonetics	Sounding the Voice: Utterance, Phonetics, Advanced Diction, Articulation and Sense. This course is an intermediate study of language and phonology for singers and other artists who work with the voice. It focuses on phonetics and language-like sound...
MAIC455A	Focused Topics in Voice: Dada's Divas	DADA'S DIVAS is a two-semester course (one historical, one performative) dedicated to the (re)discovery of the Dada movement's female pioneers, most of whom have been overshadowed historically by their male counterparts. These women, operating indepe...
MAIC455B	Focused Topics in Voice: Dada's Divas	DADA'S DIVAS is a two-semester course (one historical, one performative) dedicated to the (re)discovery of the Dada movement's female pioneers, most of whom have been overshadowed historically by their male counterparts. These women, operating indepe...
MAIC470	Hip-Hop Theory and Praxis	Hip-Hop music and culture is fundamentally Black work. Hip Hop is Black work created in response to a set of conditions. In the words of Lupe Fiasco the question is always "Did you improve on the design? Did you do something new?" That's the question...
MAIC654	Sounding the Voice: Utterance, Phonetics	Sounding the Voice: Utterance, Phonetics, Advanced Diction, Articulation and Sense. This course is an intermediate study of language and phonology for singers and other artists who work with the voice. It focuses on phonetics and language-like sound...
MBLE104	Tabla Ensemble	Course available by Permission of Instructor only. The CalArts Tabla Ensemble is a performing ensemble that draws from the vast repertoire of North Indian tabla, ranging from classical to folk and traditional to contemporary.
MBLE106	Chamber Music	Course open to Music School students only. Small ensembles for strings, woodwinds, brass, percussion, keyboard instruments and voices, in varying combinations. Individual ensembles are coached by faculty members. Students may sign up for more than on...
MBLE109	Advanced World Percussion Ensemble	Course open to Music School students only. An experimental performance class which works toward combining instruments and musical structures from various cultures. Improvisation, composition and performance practice are integrated. Emphasis is give...
MBLE117	Jazz Student Ensemble	Course open to Music School students only. Performance of ensemble works written for small jazz groups and performed by all-student groups.
MBLE118	Jazz Faculty Ensemble	Course open to Music School students only, by Permission of Instructor only. Performance of ensemble works written for small jazz groups. Faculty members lead groups and play alongside the students.
MBLE120	Brass Ensemble	Course open to Music School students only, by Permission of Instructor only. Performance of ensemble works written for brass instruments, from quintet to dectet (or more).
MBLE121	Low Brass Studio Class	Course open to trombone and euphonium players regardless of program focus. Focused work on specific instrumental needs outside of demands of performances while also providing space for students to present works being prepared for recitals and auditio...
MBLE122	Percussion Ensemble	Course open to Percussion Program students only. Performance of ensemble works written for percussion instruments.
MBLE201	Beginning African Ensemble	Instruction in the performance of authentic traditional music and dances of West Africa. These performances include singing in the language and playing percussion instruments indigenous to the area of origin.
MBLE202	Advanced African Ensemble	Advanced instruction and performance of West African music and dance.
MBLE206	Beginning Talking Drum Ensemble	Talking Drum Ensemble is a performance-based class. Students will participate in drumming traditional music from the Dagbani speaking people of Ghana, West Africa. We will watch video and discuss various aspects of Dagomba music, in order to create c...
MBLE207	Dahomey Women's Ensemble	This is an all-women's ensemble that will primarily focus on learning how to play traditional drumming from Ghana, West Africa. Students will learn the complex layers and polyrhythms of this music as well as the songs and dances that accompany it....
MBLE210	Beginning Javanese Gamelan	Instruction in playing and singing in the central Javanese classical orchestra, a traditional Eastern art form that integrates dance, drama and music.
MBLE211	Advanced Javanese Gamelan	Advanced instruction in playing and singing in the central Javanese classical orchestra.
MBLE216	Advanced Talking Drum Ensemble	TALKING DRUM ENSEMBLE - MUSIC OF THE DAGOMBA PEOPLE OF NORTHERN GHANA. This class will be a performance-based ensemble, with students learning traditional drumming, singing and dance from the Dagomba of Northern Ghana. In this musical tradition, drum...
MBLE220	Beginning Balinese Gamelan	Instruction in the techniques of playing Balinese instruments, collectively called the Semar Pelgulingan.
MBLE221	Advanced Balinese Gamelan	Advanced instruction in the techniques of playing Balinese instruments, collectively called the Semar Pelgulingan.
MBLE222	Gender Wayang Ensemble	Small ensemble performances by quartet of metallaphones as accompaniment to Balinese shadow plays.
MBLE223	Balinese Flute Ensemble	Training in Balinese flute playing sixteen various-sized bamboo flutes accompanied by percussion instruments. Students will perform as an ensemble.
MBLE224	Kecak Ensemble	Balinese Monkey Chant ensemble. various-sized bamboo flutes accompanied by percussion instruments. Students will perform as an ensemble.
MBLE225	Korean Two-Stringed Instrument Workshop	In this course, students will learn basic performance techniques of the haegeum (a two-stringed instrument of Korea): bowing, fingering, jangdan (rhythmic pattern), jo (modes), and Korean music notation. Repertoire will include classical pieces, folk...
MBLE230	North Indian Ensemble	Course open to Music students only. Vocal and instrumental performance using both Indi various-sized bamboo flutes accompanied by percussion instruments. Students will perform as an ensemble.
MBLE235	Japan Ensemble	In Japan Ensemble we have three sections to teach students their choice of traditional Japanese instruments: Strings (Koto/Shamisen), Shakuhachi (the Japanese bamboo vertical flute), or Taiko (Japanese drums). Instruction is separated by instrument,...
MBLE240	Persia Electric Ensemble	This inaugural launch of the intersection between ancient and new forms is a year-long course. Paths will be re-traced along the Silk Road hundreds of years before, works rehearsed and performed on Persian and Western instruments alongside genres dev...
MBLE250	African Dance	Instruction in the traditional dances of West Africa.
MBLE252	Balinese Dance	Instruction in the traditional dances of Bali.
MBLE254	Javanese Dance (women)	Instruction in the traditional dance techniques of Indonesia. There are separate sections for women and men.
MBLE256	Javanese Dance (men)	Instruction in the traditional dance techniques of Indonesia. There are separate sections for women and men.
MBLE260	The Baltic Voice	The ensemble will study, learn and perform Baltic folk music, particularly vocal music from the country of Latvia. Emphasis will be placed on the aural traditions of regional vocal styles that include recitation songs, antiphonal singing, and part so...
MBLE300	The Ensemble	The Ensemble at CalArts is an umbrella course for conducted ensemble performance activities consisting of faculty performers and student musicians and is primarily devoted to the exploration and exposition of emerging languages in contemporary music...
MBLE302	Contemporary Vocal Ensemble	Contemporary Vocal Ensemble (CVE) is a chamber choir committed to "exploring and expanding ways of writing for choir, singing in choir, and listening to music for choir" (crossingchoir.org). CVE's programs focus on works composed within the last 50 y...
MBLE309	Period Instrument Ensemble	An Ensemble Dedicated to Historically Informed Performance Practice on Baroque Instruments Students will be immersed in weekly rehearsal and performance of repertoire from the 17th and 18th centuries on Baroque instruments, gaining experience with...
MBLE310	Improvisation Ensemble	Course open to Music School students only. Open to all instrumentalists and vocalists. With structured and unstructured improvisational studies, the course is designed to help the student develop his/her own creative voice. Concerts are presented r...
MBLE312	Interdisciplinary Improvisation Workshop	This course serves as an interdisciplinary introduction to structured improvisation through Soundpainting, a sign language for spontaneous composition originally developed by Walter Thompson as part of the vibrant downtown improv scene in 1980s New Y...
MBLE325	Creative Electronic Ensemble	Course open to Music School students only. An ensemble researching the interactive languages and the improvisational forms of live electronic music with a major philosophical focus on music technology and interactive, improvisational music.
MBLE327	Multi-Focus Ensemble	This is a course for ensembles that are entirely initiated, organized and run by students. The personnel, repertoire and rehearsal times and places are decided by ensemble members. In order for members to receive credit, the ensemble needs to be coac...
MBLE328	Collaborative Music Ensemble	Students work collectively to develop, rehearse and record experimental pop music in ensembles of 3-4 students each. Students will explore multiple approaches to collaboration: from rehearsing and recording as a live ensemble; to "turn-taking" overdu...
MBLE399	Independent Study	Under the direction of a specific faculty member, students complete projects defined in a contractual agreement made at the beginning of each semester.
MBLE435	Microtonal Ensemble	The microtonal ensemble will focus on hearing, playing, composing and improvising microtonally. We will develop our skills by looking at and playing contemporary pieces in a range of tuning systems, by improvising as a group, and by writing our own w...
MBLE450	Sonic Boom Ensemble	Course open to all CalArts students playing an instrument, but, of course, especially school of music students. Sonic Boom is an ensemble/band somewhere between avant-garde rock, noise, electronica, ambient, new music, and other things that fall bet...
MBLE460	Golia Large Ensemble	Course open to Music students only. The Large Ensemble, under the direction of faculty member Vinny Golia, is a loosely based chamber orchestra which improvises, and performs compositions and structured improvisations by Golia. The Large Ensemble is...
MBLE498C	Electroacoustic Ensemble	The electroacoustic ensemble explores electroacoustic and digital music performance practices using laptops, tablets, various sensors, controllers, synths, and multi-channel speakers. The ensemble will perform improvised and composed works and explor...
MBLE498D	Creative Repertory Ensemble	Students will immerse themselves in historical aspects of the resistance movement of the 1960s and 1970s as it relates to folk music and its intersection with afropunk and other elements of early rock and roll. The themes are futurism, androgyny and...
MBLE498E	Folk Singing Ensemble	The Folk Singing Ensemble, led by graduate student Elizabeth Ann Setzer, will delve into folk singing traditions from the Balkans, the Caucasus, and beyond. Through weekly rehearsals, virtual and in-person workshops with guest artists, and research/p...
MBLE500	The Ensemble	The Ensemble at CalArts is an umbrella course for conducted ensemble performance activities consisting of faculty performers and student musicians and is primarily devoted to the exploration and exposition of emerging languages in contemporary music...
MBLE501	Beginning African Ensemble	Instruction in the performance of authentic traditional music and dances of West Africa. These performances include singing in the language and playing percussion instruments indigenous to the area of origin.
MBLE502	Advanced African Ensemble	Open to African Music & Dance Program students only. Advanced instruction and performance of West African music and dance.
MBLE506	Beginning Talking Drum Ensemble	Talking Drum Ensemble is a performance-based class. Students will participate in drumming traditional music from the Dagbani speaking people of Ghana, West Africa. We will watch video and discuss various aspects of Dagomba music, in order to create c...
MBLE507	Dahomey Women's Ensemble	This is an all-women's ensemble that will primarily focus on learning how to play traditional drumming from Ghana, West Africa. Students will learn the complex layers and polyrhythms of this music as well as the songs and dances that accompany it....
MBLE509	Advanced World Percussion Ensemble	Course open to Music School students only. An experimental performance class which works toward combining instruments and musical structures from various cultures. Improvisation, composition and performance practice are integrated. Emphasis is give...
MBLE510	Beginning Javanese Gamelan	Instruction in playing and singing in the central Javanese classical orchestra, a traditional Eastern art form that integrates dance, drama and music.
MBLE511	Advanced Javanese Gamelan	Open to Balinese and Javanese Program students only. Advanced instruction in the techniques of playing Balinese instruments, collectively called the Semar Pelgulingan.
MBLE516	Advanced Talking Drum Ensemble	TALKING DRUM ENSEMBLE - MUSIC OF THE DAGOMBA PEOPLE OF NORTHERN GHANA. This class will be a performance-based ensemble, with students learning traditional drumming, singing and dance from the Dagomba of Northern Ghana. In this musical tradition, drum...
MBLE520	Beginning Balinese Gamelan	Advanced instruction in the techniques of playing Balinese instruments, collectively called the Semar Pelgulingan.
MBLE521	Advanced Balinese Gamelan	Open to Balinese and Javanese Program students only. Advanced instruction in the techniques of playing Balinese instruments, collectively called the Semar Pelgulingan.
MBLE522	Gender Wayang Ensemble	Small ensemble performances by quartet of metallaphones as accompaniment to Balinese shadow plays.
MBLE523	Balinese Flute Ensemble	Training in Balinese flute playing sixteen various-sized bamboo flutes accompanied by percussion instruments. Students will perform as an ensemble.
MBLE524	Kecak Ensemble	Balinese Monkey Chant ensemble.
MBLE525	Korean Two-Stringed Instrument Workshop	In this course, students will learn basic performance techniques of the haegeum (a two-stringed instrument of Korea): bowing, fingering, jangdan (rhythmic pattern), jo (modes), and Korean music notation. Repertoire will include classical pieces, folk...
MBLE530	North Indian Ensemble	Course open to Music School students only. Advanced vocal and instrumental performance using both Indian and European instruments.
MBLE535	Japan Ensemble	In Japan Ensemble we have three sections to teach students their choice of traditional Japanese instruments: Strings (Koto/Shamisen), Shakuhachi (the Japanese bamboo vertical flute), or Taiko (Japanese drums). Instruction is separated by instrument,...
MBLE540	Persia Electric Ensemble	This inaugural launch of the intersection between ancient and new forms is a year-long course. Paths will be re-traced along the Silk Road hundreds of years before, works rehearsed and performed on Persian and Western instruments alongside genres dev...
MBLE550	African Dance	Instruction in the traditional dances of West African Dance
MBLE552	Balinese Dance	Instruction in the traditional dances of Bali.
MBLE554	Javanese Dance (women)	Instruction in the traditional dance techniques of Indonesia. There are separate sections for women and men.
MBLE556	Javanese Dance (men)	Instruction in the traditional dance techniques of Indonesia. There are separate sections for women and men.
MBLE560	The Baltic Voice	The ensemble will study, learn and perform Baltic folk music, particularly vocal music from the country of Latvia. Emphasis will be placed on the aural traditions of regional vocal styles that include recitation songs, antiphonal singing, and part so...
MBLE602	Contemporary Vocal Ensemble	Contemporary Vocal Ensemble (CVE) is a chamber choir committed to "exploring and expanding ways of writing for choir, singing in choir, and listening to music for choir" (crossingchoir.org). CVE's programs focus on works composed within the last 50 y...
MBLE604	Tabla Ensemble	Course available by Permission of Instructor only. The CalArts Tabla Ensemble is a performing ensemble that draws from the vast repertoire of North Indian tabla, ranging from classical to folk and traditional to contemporary.
MBLE606	Chamber Music	Course open to Music School students only. Small ensembles for strings, woodwinds, brass, percussion, keyboard instruments and voices, in varying combinations. Individual ensembles are coached by faculty members.
MBLE609	Period Instrument Ensemble	An Ensemble Dedicated to Historically Informed Performance Practice on Baroque Instruments Students will be immersed in weekly rehearsal and performance of repertoire from the 17th and 18th centuries on Baroque instruments, gaining experience with...
MBLE610	Improvisation Ensemble	Course open to Music School students only. Open to all instrumentalists and vocalists. With structured and unstructured improvisational studies, the course is designed to help the student develop his/her own creative voice. Concerts are presented r...
MBLE612	Interdisciplinary Improvisation Workshop	This course serves as an interdisciplinary introduction to structured improvisation through Soundpainting, a sign language for spontaneous composition originally developed by Walter Thompson as part of the vibrant downtown improv scene in 1980s New Y...
MBLE617	Jazz Student Ensemble	Course open to Music School students only. Performance of ensemble works written for small jazz groups and performed by all-student groups.
MBLE618	Jazz Faculty Ensemble	Course open to Music School students only, by Permission of Instructor only. Performance of ensemble works written for small jazz groups. Faculty members lead groups and play alongside the students.
MBLE620	Brass Ensemble	Course open to Music School students only, by Permission of Instructor only. Performance of ensemble works written for brass instruments, from quintet to dectet (or more).
MBLE621	Low Brass Studio Class	Course open to trombone and euphonium players regardless of program focus. Focused work on specific instrumental needs outside of demands of performances while also providing space for students to present works being prepared for recitals and auditio...
MBLE622	Percussion Ensemble	Course open to Percussion Program students only. Advanced performance of ensemble works written for percussion instruments.
MBLE625	Creative Electronic Ensemble	Course open to Music School students only. An ensemble researching the interactive languages and the improvisational forms of live electronic music with a major philosophical focus on music technology and interactive, improvisational music.
MBLE627	Multi-Focus Ensemble	This is a course for ensembles that are entirely initiated, organized and run by students. The personnel, repertoire and rehearsal times and places are decided by ensemble members. In order for members to receive credit, the ensemble needs to be coac...
MBLE628	Collaborative Music Ensemble	Students work collectively to develop, rehearse and record experimental pop music in ensembles of 3-4 students each. Students will explore multiple approaches to collaboration: from rehearsing and recording as a live ensemble; to "turn-taking" overdu...
MBLE635	Microtonal Ensemble	The microtonal ensemble will focus on hearing, playing, composing and improvising microtonally. We will develop our skills by looking at and playing contemporary pieces in a range of tuning systems, by improvising as a group, and by writing our own w...
MBLE650	Sonic Boom Ensemble	Course open to all CalArts students, but , of course, especially for School of Music students. An ensemble/band falling somewhere between avant-garde rock, noise, electronica, ambient, new music, and other things that fall between the cracks. This co...
MBLE660	Golia Large Ensemble	Course open to Music School students only. The Large Ensemble, under the direction of faculty member Vinny Golia, is a loosely based chamber orchestra which improvises, and performs compositions and structured improvisations by Golia. The Large Ensem...
MBLE698C	Electroacoustic Ensemble	The electroacoustic ensemble explores electroacoustic and digital music performance practices using laptops, tablets, various sensors, controllers, synths, and multi-channel speakers. The ensemble will perform improvised and composed works and explor...
MBLE698D	Creative Repertory Ensemble	Students will immerse themselves in historical aspects of the resistance movement of the 1960s and 1970s as it relates to folk music and its intersection with afropunk and other elements of early rock and roll. The themes are futurism, androgyny and...
MBLE698E	Folk Singing Ensemble	The Folk Singing Ensemble, led by graduate student Elizabeth Ann Setzer, will delve into folk singing traditions from the Balkans, the Caucasus, and beyond. Through weekly rehearsals, virtual and in-person workshops with guest artists, and research/p...
MBLE699	Independent Study	Under the direction of a specific faculty member, students complete projects defined in a contractual agreement made at the beginning of each semester.
MBLE799	Independent Proj: Ensemble	Under the direction of a specific faculty member, students complete projects defined in a contractual agreement made at the beginning of the semester.
MCMP105	Music Notation	Open to Music Composition Program students only. A survey of conventional notation standards used by the music publishing industry. Guided remedial study in the use of music notation software is included on an individual basis as needed. Additional...
MCMP110	Introduction to Composition	Workshop in which students outside the Composition Program may acquire some experience with composing. Topics include aural and visual analysis, the processes of composition, form, structure, and methodology. When possible, music written in the works...
MCMP112	Composing Experimental Pop	This course will analyze the rhythmic, harmonic, melodic, timbral, and lyrical content of experimental pop and encourage students to perceive and describe its organization. Deconstructing compositions from a diverse range of artists including David...
MCMP120	Instrumental Composition I	Course open to Composition Program or Performer/Composer Program students only. This course comprises foundational studies in the art of musical composition, complementing private composition lessons with directed listening and analysis. Composition...
MCMP121	Instrumental Composition II	Open to Music Composition Program students; open to other students with permission of instructor. This course continues foundational studies in the art of musical composition, complementing private composition lessons with directed listening and anal...
MCMP130	Performer-Composer Laboratory	What does it mean to integrate performance and composition into one creative practice? How can we make new and relevant work for ourselves and one another? What might we need to know about each other's voices, instruments, and practices? This course...
MCMP131	Performer-Composer Laboratory	What does it mean to integrate performance and composition into one creative practice? How can we make new and relevant work for ourselves and one another? What might we need to know about each other's voices, instruments, and practices? This course...
MCMP290	Portfolio Review	The student must prepare and submit for review a cumulative portfolio of their creative work. This portfolio will contain work produced at CalArts, a substantial portion of which should have been presented in performance or other appropriate manner....
MCMP306	Arranging Experimental Pop	Experimental Pop artists who compose in a DAW have an unlimited arsenal of virtual musicians and drag-n-drop riffs available at their fingertips, ready to be deployed with the click of a mouse. No longer "constrained" by the natural order of instrume...
MCMP307	Arranging	Arranging is a "secret sauce" between composition and performance. It is a design involving style, sound, technique, and feeling. Arrangers have been somewhat mercurial figures who emerged from the jazz age, and who adapted to the possibilities and t...
MCMP308	The Art of the Mix	What do arranging and mixing look like in a modern recording studio or home studio? In the era of self-production (where the lines between composer, engineer, arranger and producer are blurred) and recording in a DAW with unlimited tracks and unlimit...
MCMP310	Jazz Composition	By permission of instructor only. Permission will be given on Course Advising Day each semester. During this one semester course, each student will complete at least seven new original compositions to be played and recorded in class. Course content w...
MCMP314	Jazz Arranging	Techniques and tools of arranging for mixed, small jazz ensembles, combined with advanced studies in hearing and transcribing the forms and materials of jazz literature.
MCMP317	Guitar(s) and ...	For Composer/Guitarists and other Composer/Instrumentalists: This course encourages courageous exploration of composition for guitar(s) with other instruments. The students workshop new original pieces composed specifically for the class to perform....
MCMP325	Experimental Music Workshop I	The Limits of Perception: This year the experimental music workshop class will deal with works that explore fundamental questions about musical perception. Repertoire we will work on or listen to will include John CageÈs 0È00» Alvin LucierÈs Vespers,...
MCMP326	Experimental Music Workshop II	Course open to Music School students only. The Limits of Perception: This year the experimental music workshop class will deal with works that explore fundamental questions about musical perception. Repertoire we will work on or listen to will includ...
MCMP330	Writing for Strings	Course available by permission of instructor only. Techniques of writing for strings in both individual and ensemble contexts. Course will include composition and recording projects.
MCMP331	Writing for Woodwinds	Writing for Woodwinds is a workshop in composing music for wind instruments. Instrumental techniques from the traditional to the extended are demonstrated and discussed. In addition to listening assignments and study of scores of music, which range f...
MCMP332	Writing for Harp	The course will incorporate a thorough investigation of the physical and notational aspects of harp techniques, with opportunities to apply what the student has learned in several composition projects. Throughout the course, students will compose sho...
MCMP333	Writing for Percussion	Learning to write for the vast family of percussion. Course will include some hands-on experience in basic percussion techniques. Students will write for solo and ensembles of percussion, including some world music traditions.
MCMP334	Writing for Brass	Techniques of writing for brass instruments in solo or mixed ensemble settings. This course will include composition and performance projects. Historical references will be explored alongside conventional and extended techniques, auxiliary instrument...
MCMP336	Writing for Voice	This course is geared to students who are interested in writing solo or ensemble vocal music and who would like to learn more about how the voice functions and how best to write for it. Topics covered may include the functioning of the voice as an i...
MCMP339	Writing for Everything Else	This course will examine the risks, rewards, realities, pleasures, pitfalls, and hazards of composing for instruments indigenous to cultures other than one's own. Technical and notation aspects related to writing for instruments played by performers...
MCMP342	Composition for Film & Television	Course available by permission of instructor only. This course offers the opportunity to develop skills and techniques to compose music for film and video. Participants are expected to score a number of short clips from original films. Class discussi...
MCMP343	Experiments in Film Sound	This course will explore the development of sound manipulation techniques for film--including Eisenstein's vertical montages, the BBC Radiophonic Workshop's musique concrete strategies, David Lynch's industrial drones, and Wendy Carlos' synthesized s...
MCMP368	Sonic Collage	In Sonic Collage, we will reimagine and recontextualize soundscapes by revisiting the art of the archive. Sonic Collage asks us to compose through the compost, to RE*member the dismembered and forgotten by sighting our sources. We will explore unorth...
MCMP369	The Studio As Instrument	How has the merging of composing, recording, and production afforded by developments in studio technology--from the multitrack analog studios of the 1960's to the DAW-based home studios of today--opened up new ways of creating music and new musical f...
MCMP399	Independent Study	Under the direction of a specific faculty member, students complete projects defined in a contractual agreement made at the beginning of each semester.
MCMP402	Orchestration	A study of orchestral instruments and their combinations from expressive, structural, historical, pragmatic, and exploratory perspectives. This course will integrate composing/arranging exercises for a variety of instruments and ensembles, directed...
MCMP404	Field Recording Workshop	Course available only by permission of instructor at Course Advising Day The Field Recording Workshop is an investigation into the historical, technical and aesthetic aspects of field recording as a means of documentation and as a musical practice. A...
MCMP405	Electroacoustic Seminar	In this seminar we will learn about and explore non-linear creative systems for composition and performance with the Experimental Sound Studio serving as our exploratory vessel. A mixture of group discussion, lecture, and in-class presentations will...
MCMP407	Music for a Concert Hall	In this course, we will discover the concert hall as an instrument. Instead of understanding the hall as a shell that provides a space for performers and audiences to engage with music, we will research the venue's acoustic properties, analyze its so...
MCMP408	Sound and Audio Walks	While sound walks guide the attention of audience members to the sounding reality of their immediate surroundings, audio walks constitute a simple form of augmented reality where audience members listen to audio through headphones while walking throu...
MCMP415	Choreographers & Composers	Course open to BFA4 Music School students only. This course brings together advanced composition students and advanced choreographers in projects combining the two disciplines.
MCMP416	Concert Theater	Performing Landscapes: Music, Text, Space, Body, & Design investigates contemporary music-based performance through the lens of alternative modalities and non-traditional strategies emerging from music, theater, movement, and space. Intended for MFA...
MCMP421	Cross-Genre Hybrid Music Composition	In this course students will focus on creating new compositions that are hybrid in nature. Students will be tasked with creating new works based on the blending or juxtaposition of varying sonic elements, drawn from specific historical eras or genres...
MCMP465	Composition with Max/MSP	A course designed for qualified music students to gain facility in using graphical programming environments. For over twenty years such environments have been used by composers, artists, musicians, and scientists to create truly unique customized pro...
MCMP490	Graduation Portfolio Review	In the semester preceding graduation, the student must prepare and submit for review a cumulative portfolio of their creative work. This portfolio will contain work produced at CalArts, a substantial portion of which should have been presented in per...
MCMP498O	Music-Photo-Fiction	This course takes music, photography and writing together as a unified creative process. In fact this is the combination in which recorded music typically appears on recorded media or online (eg. bandcamp) - but what are the ways that these media can...
MCMP498S	Making Music Videos	Students in this class will complete a number of collaborative music video production projects in groups that include students from the schools of music, dance, film/video and experimental animation. Music videos can be a wonderful tool for filmmake...
MCMP498T	Architectural Instrument Building	Students will design and build their own musical playground instruments, which they will then compose for and perform on. Discussions will include: instrument-building as pre-compositional process; instrumental architecture; and play theory, toys, an...
MCMP506	Arranging Experimental Pop	Experimental Pop artists who compose in a DAW have an unlimited arsenal of virtual musicians and drag-n-drop riffs available at their fingertips, ready to be deployed with the click of a mouse. No longer "constrained" by the natural order of instrume...
MCMP507	Arranging	Arranging is a "secret sauce" between composition and performance. It is a design involving style, sound, technique, and feeling. Arrangers have been somewhat mercurial figures who emerged from the jazz age, and who adapted to the possibilities and t...
MCMP508	Sound and Audio Walks	While sound walks guide the attention of audience members to the sounding reality of their immediate surroundings, audio walks constitute a simple form of augmented reality where audience members listen to audio through headphones while walking throu...
MCMP510	Introduction to Composition	Workshop in which students outside the Composition Program may acquire some experience with composing. Topics include aural and visual analysis, the processes of composition, form, structure, and methodology. When possible, music written in the works...
MCMP517	Guitar(s) and ...	For Composer/Guitarists and other Composer/Instrumentalists: This course encourages courageous exploration of composition for guitar(s) with other instruments. The students workshop new original pieces composed specifically for the class to perform....
MCMP602	Orchestration	A study of orchestral instruments and their combinations from expressive, structural, historical, pragmatic, and exploratory perspectives. This course will integrate composing/arranging exercises for a variety of instruments and ensembles, directed l...
MCMP604	Field Recording Workshop	The Field Recording Workshop is an investigation into the historical, technical and aesthetic aspects of field recording as a means of documentation and as a musical practice. As a workshop, we will actively engage in making recordings, comparing and...
MCMP605	Electroacoustic Seminar	In this seminar we will learn about and explore non-linear creative systems for composition and performance with the Experimental Sound Studio serving as our exploratory vessel. A mixture of group discussion, lecture, and in-class presentations will...
MCMP607	Music for a Concert Hall	In this course, we will discover the concert hall as an instrument. Instead of understanding the hall as a shell that provides a space for performers and audiences to engage with music, we will research the venue's acoustic properties, analyze its so...
MCMP608	The Art of the Mix	What do arranging and mixing look like in a modern recording studio or home studio? In the era of self-production (where the lines between composer, engineer, arranger and producer are blurred) and recording in a DAW with unlimited tracks and unlimit...
MCMP610	Jazz Composition	By permission of instructor only. Permission will be given on Course Advising Day each semester. During this one semester course, each student will complete at least seven new original compositions to be played and recorded in class. Course content...
MCMP614	Jazz Arranging	Techniques and tools of arranging for mixed, small jazz ensembles, combined with advanced studies in hearing and transcribing the forms and materials of jazz literature.
MCMP615	Choreographers & Composers	Course open to Music School students only. This course brings together advanced composition students and advanced choreographers in projects combining the two disciplines.
MCMP616	Concert Theater	Performing Landscapes: Music, Text, Space, Body, & Design investigates contemporary music-based performance through the lens of alternative modalities and non-traditional strategies emerging from music, theater, movement, and space. Intended for MFA...
MCMP620	Composing for Improvisers	This discussion-based seminar will present a survey of historical and contemporary musical idioms in which composers and sound artists have consciously and actively developed strategies for engaging performers in the act of improvisation. The goal of...
MCMP621	Cross-Genre Hybrid Music Composition	In this course students will focus on creating new compositions that are hybrid in nature. Students will be tasked with creating new works based on the blending or juxtaposition of varying sonic elements, drawn from specific historical eras or genres...
MCMP623	Modeling Propositional Music in Art-Sci	Propositional music is a point of view about composing that emerges from a unique philosophy, framework, and method for compositional practice in experimental music that proceeds from proposing models informed by pandisciplinary interests, and then p...
MCMP625	Experimental Music Workshop I	The Limits of Perception: This year the experimental music workshop class will deal with works that explore fundamental questions about musical perception. Repertoire we will work on or listen to will include John CageÈs 0È00» Alvin LucierÈs Vespers,...
MCMP626	Experimental Music Workshop II	Course open to Music School students only. The Limits of Perception: This year the experimental music workshop class will deal with works that explore fundamental questions about musical perception. Repertoire we will work on or listen to will includ...
MCMP630	Writing for Strings	Course open to Music School students only. Techniques of writing for strings in both individual and ensemble contexts. Course will include composition and recording projects.
MCMP631	Writing for Woodwinds	Writing for Woodwinds is a workshop in composing music for wind instruments. Instrumental techniques from the traditional to the extended are demonstrated and discussed. In addition to listening assignments and study of scores of music, which range f...
MCMP632	Writing for Harp	The course will incorporate a thorough investigation of the physical and notational aspects of harp techniques, with opportunities to apply what the student has learned in several composition projects. Throughout the course, students will compose sho...
MCMP633	Writing for Percussion	Learning to write for the vast family of percussion. Course will include some hands-on experience in basic percussion techniques. Students will write for solo and ensembles of percussion, including some world music traditions.
MCMP634	Writing for Brass	Course open to Music School students only. Techniques of writing for brass instruments in solo or mixed ensemble settings. This course will include composition and performance projects. Historical references will be explored alongside conventional an...
MCMP636	Writing for Voice	This course is geared to students who are interested in writing solo or ensemble vocal music and who would like to learn more about how the voice functions and how best to write for it. Topics covered may include the functioning of the voice as an in...
MCMP639	Writing for Everything Else	This course will examine the risks, rewards, realities, pleasures, pitfalls, and hazards of composing for instruments indigenous to cultures other than one's own. Technical and notation aspects related to writing for instruments played by performers...
MCMP642	Composition for Film & Television	Course available by permission of instructor only. This course offers the opportunity to develop skills and techniques to compose music for film and video. Participants are expected to score a number of short clips from original films. Class discussi...
MCMP643	Experiments in Film Sound	This course will explore the development of sound manipulation techniques for film--including Eisenstein's vertical montages, the BBC Radiophonic Workshop's musique concrete strategies, David Lynch's industrial drones, and Wendy Carlos' synthesized s...
MCMP665	Composition with Max/MSP	A course designed for qualified music students to gain facility in using graphical programming environments. For over twenty years such environments have been used by composers, artists, musicians, and scientists to create truly unique customized pro...
MCMP667	Global Studios and Audiotopias	This semester, the focus for this class will be on creating post-geographic and left-field electronic dance music, culminating in the facilitation of a dance music space where we can share work created in the class at CalArts Expo. Students in this c...
MCMP668	Sonic Collage	In Sonic Collage, we will reimagine and recontextualize soundscapes by revisiting the art of the archive. Sonic Collage asks us to compose through the compost, to RE*member the dismembered and forgotten by sighting our sources. We will explore unorth...
MCMP669	The Studio As Instrument	How has the merging of composing, recording, and production afforded by developments in studio technology--from the multitrack analog studios of the 1960's to the DAW-based home studios of today--opened up new ways of creating music and new musical f...
MCMP690	Graduation Portfolio Review	In the semester preceding graduation, students in certain programs must submit a portfolio of work for review. This portfolio will contain work produced at CalArts, a substantial portion of which should have been presented in performance or other app...
MCMP698M	Video Game Scoring	This course will focus on the unique challenges of music scoring for game environments. Parallels and distinctions with regard to concert music, film, TV, cartoons and other linear media music will be explored as students analyze and create music fo...
MCMP698O	Music-Photo-Fiction	This course takes music, photography and writing together as a unified creative process. In fact this is the combination in which recorded music typically appears on recorded media or online (eg. bandcamp) - but what are the ways that these media can...
MCMP698T	Architectural Instrument Building	Students will design and build their own musical playground instruments, which they will then compose for and perform on. Discussions will include: instrument-building as pre-compositional process; instrumental architecture; and play theory, toys, an...
MCMP699	Independent Study	Under the direction of a specific faculty member, students complete projects defined in a contractual agreement made at the beginning of each semester.
MCMP700	Doctoral Seminar	Course open to Music School students only. Functioning as a forum for the work-in-progress of DMA students, this weekly seminar will allow students regularly to present and discuss their work and associated materials, and to receive feedback from pro...
MCMP790	Doctoral Project	Course open to Music School students only. The Doctoral Project, beginning with intensive independent research and experimentation, and culminating in the creation of several distinct, yet interconnected components, prepares candidates for a noticeab...
MCMP791	DMA First-Year Review	Before the end of the first academic year in residence, each DMA student must engage in a comprehensive artistic, academic and pedagogical review with his/her Doctoral Examining Committee (DEC). The DEC will consider the following topics, and may req...
MCMP792	DMA Qualifying Examinations	DMA students must pass Written and Oral Qualifying Examinations before advancing to degree candidacy. The Qualifying Examinations are administered by the student's Doctoral Examining Committee.
MCMP794	DMA Final Review	Before the awarding of the degree each DMA student must pass a Final Review, conducted by his/her Doctoral Examining Committee. This review assesses the student's artistic, intellectual, academic, professional, and pedagogical standing in relation...
MCMP799	Independent Project	Under the direction of a specific faculty member, students complete projects defined in a contractual agreement made at the beginning of the semester.
MCOM320	Creative Coding with C++	Explore the fundamentals of C++ programming using OpenFrameworks, focusing on interactive and sensor-driven applications. Develop skills in creative coding, media interaction, and integration with tools like TouchDesigner and Max/MSP. This course lay...
MCOM335	Interactive Algorithmic Sound	This course focuses on interactive, procedural, generative, and algorithmic methods of sound creation. We will learn how to create systems of sound and explore the various ways of interacting and influencing them. Additionally, we will be looking at...
MCOM421	Creative Coding for AI Art	This course provides a foundational introduction to the Python programming language through hands-on and creative applications. In this course, we will explore programming in Python with a focus on machine learning applications for generative art mak...
MCOM440	Audio Programming With C++	Ever wondered what goes into your favorite music software? Learn how to build your own and open doors for both your personal creativity and career. In this course we'll explore the JUCE audio plugin framework, and the design software Figma to see how...
MCOM621	Creative Coding for AI Art	This course provides a foundational introduction to the Python programming language through hands-on and creative applications. In this course, we will explore programming in Python with a focus on machine learning applications for generative art mak...
MCOM635	Interactive Algorithmic Sound	This course focuses on interactive, procedural, generative, and algorithmic methods of sound creation. We will learn how to create systems of sound and explore the various ways of interacting and influencing them. Additionally, we will be looking at...
MCOM640	Audio Programming With C++	Ever wondered what goes into your favorite music software? Learn how to build your own and open doors for both your personal creativity and career. In this course we'll explore the JUCE audio plugin framework, and the design software Figma to see how...
MCSE309	Words for Music	This course will investigate the nature of writing words for music and setting pre-existing words to musicj. Students will develop an understanding of how musical time affects the perception of words and how words interact with the perception of musi...
MCSE461	Grant Writing for Artists	Grant Writing for Artists will provide students with a basic introduction to grant writing, hands-on experience preparing a grant application in a workshop setting, and critical discussion around the history and cultural practices related to funding...
MCSE609	Words for Music	This course will investigate the nature of writing words for music and setting pre-existing words to musicj. Students will develop an understanding of how musical time affects the perception of words and how words interact with the perception of musi...
MCSE661	Grant Writing for Artists	Grant Writing for Artists will provide students with a basic introduction to grant writing, hands-on experience preparing a grant application in a workshop setting, and critical discussion around the history and cultural practices related to funding...
MFOR100	Musician's Toolkit	Toolkit is designed as a preparation for a life in professional music, as well as an orientation to the college experience. It's especially helpful for first year undergraduates, but it is also open to upper division undergraduates and graduate stude...
MFOR101	Undergraduate Composers' Forum	Course open to Composition Program students only. Presentation and critique of student compositions and projects, both finished and in-process. Selected topics of relevance to composers will be addressed as time permits, such as notation standards, p...
MFOR102	Performance Forum	Course open to Music School students only. Undergraduate Performance Forum will provide an experiential approach to music-making through a series of open coachings by faculty and guests of student chamber music groups, and other performances by guest...
MFOR103	Voicearts Forum	Course open to Music School students only. A weekly forum for singers, this course focuses on developing performance-related skills through observation, practice and discussion. Sessions will be devoted to guest artist performances, master classes, e...
MFOR104	Experimental Pop Forum	Course open to Music School students only. Designed as a gathering where Experimental Pop Program students share and discuss their artistic work on a weekly basis, this forum will also include informal group critiques, opportunities to collaborate on...
MFOR106	Creative Technology Forum	Weekly gatherings and presentations on current directions in the field of music technology. Occasional workshops by visiting master computer music artists whenever possible. Critique, presentation, and performance of student projects and compositions...
MFOR107	Jazz Forum	Course open to Music School students only. Weekly presentations on current directions in jazz, emphasizing workshops by visiting master jazz artists whenever possible and including discussion, rehearsal, and performance of their music. Occasional joi...
MFOR110	First-Year Seminar in Music	Through music, presentations, and activities, this class provides an orientation to the diversity, experimental ethos, and vibrant creative community at CalArts' School of Music. It will also address resources available to music students and strategi...
MFOR111	Guitar Forum	Guitar Workshop is intended to be a common meeting ground for all guitar majors and other interested guitarists. The objective is to foster a non-competetive sense of community which encourages mutual inspiration and cross fertilization of ideas, pr...
MFOR200	Music Artists-In-Residence Week	Invited artists visit CalArts' campus to give presentations and workshops, perform, collaborate, and engage with the student body and the School of Music's facilities.
MFOR305	Performer-Composer Forum	Course open to Music School students only. The Performer-Composers Forum features master classes given by the instructor and special guests. Topics may include how new music gets created, music history, performance, composers, (alive and dead), getti...
MFOR500	Musician's Toolkit	Toolkit is designed as a preparation for a life in professional music, as well as an orientation to the college experience. It's especially helpful for first year undergraduates, but it is also open to upper division undergraduates and graduate stude...
MFOR501	Graduate Composers' Forum	Course open to Music School students only. Presentation and critique of student compositions and projects, both finished and in process.
MFOR502	Performance Forum	Course open to Music School students only. Graduate Performance Forum will provide an experiential approach to music-making through a series of open coachings by faculty and guests of student chamber music groups, and other performances by guests, st...
MFOR503	Voicearts Forum	Course open to Music School students only. A weekly forum for singers, this course focuses on developing performance-related skills through observation, practice and discussion. Sessions will be devoted to guest artist performances, master classes, e...
MFOR504	Experimental Pop Forum	Course open to Music School students only. Designed as a gathering where Experimental Pop Program students share and discuss their artistic work on a weekly basis, this forum will also include informal group critiques, opportunities to collaborate on...
MFOR505	Performer-Composer Forum	Course open to Music School students only. The Performer-Composers Forum features master classes given by the instructor and special guests. Topics may include how new music gets created, music history, performance, composers, (alive and dead), getti...
MFOR506	Creative Technology Forum	Course open to Music School students only. Weekly gatherings and presentations on current directions in the field of music technology. Occasional workshops by visiting master computer music artists whenever possible. Critique, presentation, and per...
MFOR507	Jazz Forum	Course open to Music School students only. Weekly presentations on current directions in jazz, emphasizing workshops by visiting master jazz artists whenever possible and including discussion, rehearsal, and performance of their music. Occasional jo...
MFOR508	ESP Forum	Course open to Experimental Sound Practices students only. This class centers on the presentation and critique of works by students in the Experimental Sound Practices specialization. Each student, during the academic year, is given a one-hour period...
MFOR511	Guitar Forum	Guitar Workshop is intended to be a common meeting ground for all guitar majors and other interested guitarists. The objective is to foster a non-competetive sense of community which encourages mutual inspiration and cross fertilization of ideas, pr...
MFOR600	Music Artists-In-Residence Week	Invited artists visit CalArts' campus to give presentations and workshops, perform, collaborate, and engage with the student body and the School of Music's facilities.
MHST205	Western Music History I	Lectures, reading, and listening covering the history and literature of Western musical styles from antiquity through the Baroque period.
MHST206	Western Music History II	Lectures, reading, and listening covering the history and literature of Western musical styles from the Classical through Modern periods.
MHST230	Audio-Visual Theory & Practice	This course explores the synesthetic potential of music and the moving image as it manifests itself throughout audio-visual practice: music video, film scoring, audio-visual performance and installation. We'll begin with Michel Chion's seminal text...
MHST300	Music Cultures	In the Roundabout of Troubadours, Revolutions, and Indigeneity: Music and Social Movements in Latin America. Centered on social movements, this course takes music culture as a starting point to explore political ideology and collective mobilization i...
MHST300B	Music Cultures: Middle East	Music Cultures: Middle East. A survey of the musics of the Middle East will include vocal and instrumental traditions of the Middle East; selected minority musics; and religious, folk, and popular music traditions (ancient and contemporary). Histori...
MHST300C	Music Cultures: Indonesia	Music Cultures: Indonesia Music of Indonesia. A survey of the highly diverse musical forms currently being practiced in Indonesia's 14,000 populated islands. Reaching far beyond gamelan, this course will also cover more recently developed styles suc...
MHST300D	Music Cultures: Southeast Asia	Music Cultures of Mainland Southeast Asia A survey of traditional and modern musical forms being practiced in Mainland SE Asia. This course will cover a wide variety of styles found in Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, and Myanmar. In addition to d...
MHST300F	Music of Korea: From Gugak to K-Pop	In this course, students will explore Korean traditional and contemporary music cultures and scenes. Topics will vary from traditional gugak to recent music genres, including K-pop, indie music, experimental music scenes, trot, and film music. Studen...
MHST300G	Black Temporalities and Black Time	Black Temporalities and Black Time: To fully engage with Black music we must understand Black time. We do this work together. In 'Black Temporalities & Black Time' we will explore non-linear storytelling and the elasticity of (un)time through the fra...
MHST300H	Latin Am Music: Traditions and Digital	This course will examine a variety of musical styles from Latin America, and at the same time analyze the political and historical context in which the music developed. The focus will be on the music of the Caribbean and Central America and South Ame...
MHST304	Music of Native North America	Course not available to BFA1 students. This is a survey course introducing the music cultures of North America; focusing on an interdisciplinary approach to view the history, social institutions, culture, literature, arts, and relationships of North...
MHST312	Ethnology of African Music Culture	Ethnology of African Music-The history of Ghanaian music, dance and culture. Talking and reading about the origin of Ghanaian music, dance and song as well as their culture and how those affect their everyday life. As Ghanaian are known for their e...
MHST325	Extended Duration in Music	This course investigates the relationship between live music performance of extended duration and sound-oriented installation art. Taking Erik Satie's "Vexations" (1893) and "Musique d'Ameublement" (1920) as points of departure, we will analyze 1950s...
MHST330	Studies in Experimental Pop	Since the 1960s, pop music has been a zone in which experimental, avant-garde impulses have coexisted with commercial and hedonistic imperatives. In this course, we will look at artists who have imported ideas and techniques from the music academy or...
MHST331	Studies in Avant-Rock & Noise	This second module of the two-semester Studies in Experimental Pop course might be better titled Studies in Experimental Rock. The focus shifts away from the mainstream of the pop charts and radio, towards the alternative and underground; there is le...
MHST342	Women in Western Music History	This would be a class on women in the history of Western art music from Ancient Music through the present day, combining musicology, sociology, music theory, ethnomusicology, political science, world history, hermeneutics, feminist theory, philosophy...
MHST344	Non-Traditional Film Music	This course is an introductory survey to film music history and analysis. We will primarily focus on international and experimental cinema, but will likely draw on certain Hollywood or independent American filmmakers who don't quite fit the mold and...
MHST345	Topics in Vocal Literature	Topics in Vocal Literature: The[R]Evolution of Solo Vocal Literature through the lens of the song cycle This course will focus on the evolution of vocal music-through the lens of the song cycle and its offspring-over the past few centuries up to the...
MHST346	Opera AND ___: Exploring Intersections	20th and 21st Century Opera's intersections with the musical and extra-musical. 20th and 21st century opera is "Opera AND ________." Opera has a variety of possible musical and non-musical intersections which we will explore this semester. Each week...
MHST350	Stylists & Innovators 1961-NOW	This course focuses on selected individuals and musical, political, and economic movements that have helped shaped a genre in jazz or improvised music and that have mostly been overlooked in current historical reporting. (While not a definitive overv...
MHST371	Jazz, Hip-Hop, & Urban Experimentalism	This discussion based seminar will present a survey of historical and contemporary musical idioms in which com-posers, producers, and sound designers associated with the fileds of hip hop, jazz and contemporary R&B have consciously and actively deve...
MHST399	Independent Study	Under the direction of a specific faculty member, students will complete projects defined in a contractual agreement made at the beginning of each semester.
MHST405	Focus Rock: Extreme Metal	Death, Black, Doom and Experimental Metal will be the focus of this class. We will do in-depth analysis of selected pieces (harmony, melody, rhythm, form, sound, lyrics) and research the influence of contemporary classical and experimental music on m...
MHST406	Focus Rock: Art Music & Rock	Focus Rock: Art Music & Rock - An unwritten history of cross-pollination Music is: organized sound - timbre and rhythm. This quote by Edgar Varese not only applies to (most) so-called new music (20th and 21st century classical contemporary music), b...
MHST407	Focus Rock: Noise	Make a joyful noise: the development and importance of noise elements in popular and experimental music of the 20th and 21st century. Noise has always been a part of music, if desired or not. But over time noise elements stopped being just an add-on...
MHST408	Focus Rock: Post-Punk	Post-Punk is another one of these music historical terms that were, of course, applied backwards. It is not really sure what it means, especially because it starts around the same time as punk (1977). Does it include or exclude simultaneous styles...
MHST409	Focus Rock: Electronica	Focus Rock: Electronica - Body Electric - Electronic Pop and Dance Music This class looks at the development of electronic popular music from its early days to its conquest of the international dance floors, creating the international rave community...
MHST410	The Elastic Voice	"Voice is the original instrument." So says Joan La Barbara, the doyenne of extended vocal technique. This course explores the extraordinary panoply of purposes to which the human voice has been deployed. While the focus is on popular music genres...
MHST412	What Is a Song?	An international survey of songwriting from ancient times (classical Greece, the Tang and Song dynasties, etc.), but with an emphasis on the repertoire of the last seventy years. The course examines in detail a wide range of songs: musical compositio...
MHST422	Experimental Music Post-Cage	Experimental Music of the post-Cage Generation This class will deal with the explosion of experimental music in the mid-20th century to the 1990s. Experimental music will be explored as more a method or set of approaches to creating music than as a g...
MHST423	Experimental Music Post-Cage II	This class will deal with the explosion of experimental music in the mid-20th century to the 1990s. Experimental music will be explored as more a method or set of approaches to creating music than as a genre. We will, over the course of two semesters...
MHST425	Survey of Sound Art	Sound Art draws on many fields, among them: experimental music, experimental theater, installation, sculpture, architecture, and poetry, but what all sound art works have as their primary focus is the experience of sound and listening. Following an i...
MHST440	Thinking Critically About Pop (& UnPop)	This class will explore a wide range of critical writing about popular music as well as various forms of underground or alternative music. We start with jazz criticism in the mid-20th Century, then proceed through various eras of rock and pop critici...
MHST451	Contemporary Composers	Selected readings from Busoni and beyond. Critical analysis of current trends in music and the arts.
MHST452	Music of Luigi Nono	The course will yield an overview of the music and the cultural contributions of the great Italian composer Luigi Nono. Our survey of his oeuvre and its evolution from his early works in the 1950's (with the amazing purity of his dodecaphonic counter...
MHST453	Music of James Tenney	James Tenney was a pioneer in multiple areas of music, all of which remain domains of vigorous creative activity to the present day. These include plunderphonia, computer music, process form, spectral music and extended just-intonation. His theoretic...
MHST457	Music & Surrealism	Surrealist forms of music could still arise, seeking the gold of sound as Breton sought the gold of time (Francois-Bernard Mache). Why did the surrealist movement of the early twentieth century principally embrace art and literature, leaving music on...
MHST458	Music of Edgard Varese	Besides Charles Ives, Arnold Schoenberg and Igor Stravinsky, the French-American composer Edgard Varese(1883-1965) was certainly the most radical and influential founding father of 20th century Western music. He established a method for a conceptual...
MHST459	Contemplative Practice & Music	The study of the contemplative arts, as they relate to the creation of musical experiences and musical compositions, will be investigated by actively privileging the concept of compassion and its manifestations, and by the routine practice of mindful...
MHST464	Music of Gyorgy Ligeti	In the early 1960s Gyorgy Ligeti (1923-2006) opened up new ways for post-serial sound composition by introducing the concept of micro-polyphony. In his later works since the mid 1970s, he successfully combined ideals of both minimalism and complexity...
MHST465	Music of Helmut Lachenmann	With his revolutionary concept of a 'concrete instrumental music', the leading and most influential contemporary German composer Helmut Lachenmann (born 1935) has hugely expanded the available repertoire of extended playing techniques on traditional...
MHST466	Music of Igor Stravinsky	Throughout the first half of the past century, Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971) impacted the contemporary music scene like a startling super-brilliant meteor. The course will combine biography, music theory, analysis, score study, guided listening and aes...
MHST467	Music of Arnold Schoenberg	During the first part of the past century, Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951) revolutionized the contemporary music scene more profoundly than anyone else. With his independent, courageous and radical set of mind and with his extraordinary ability to unde...
MHST469	Music of Feldman & Zimmermann	Pursuing the heritage of his mentor Edgard Varese with an infinite minimalist focus on the quality of sound, just how it floats, and with a unique sense of musical orchestration, Morton Feldman(1926-1987) introduced the quiet longing of Franz Schuber...
MHST472	John Cage: Music and Thought	This is class is designed as a critical inquiry into the aesthetic, theoretical and political implications of John Cage's music. In addition to sustained encounters with several of Cage's significant pieces it will look at the implications of those w...
MHST473	Cage, Sun Ra, Musique Concrete, Noise	As a parallel to the emergence of the American Experimental Tradition, and its "uprising" in the music of Cage and following, we will study the revolutionary works of Sun Ra (growing from and away from jazz) and the founding of Musique Concrete in Fr...
MHST474	Music of Karlheinz Stockhausen	Karlheinz Stockhausen is a composer who, especially in the 1950s and 60s, seemed to have re-defined the understanding of what music is about with each of his compositions. His theoretical writings and lectures are as legendary as his music. In the tr...
MHST498H	Ecomusicalities	Ecomusicalities This course is an introduction to ecologically oriented music, sound art, and the study of ecomusicology in the context of the contemporary environmental crisis. Ecology is conceived broadly as relational understandings of human and...
MHST498J	The Semiotics of Queerness in Music	This course explores the intersection of popular and dance music with queerness, examining how the meanings of queer identities are conveyed through music and music videos. Over the past 40 years, popular and dance music have been shaped by and have...
MHST498K	Disco:Emancipatory Dancefloors 1970-1990	The emergence of contemporary DJ-led dance music in the 1970's provoked a transformational way of experiencing music and the body. For many people who existed on the margins of society, these dance floors represented an open, deterritorialized, liber...
MHST500	Music Cultures	In the Roundabout of Troubadours, Revolutions, and Indigeneity: Music and Social Movements in Latin America. Centered on social movements, this course takes music culture as a starting point to explore political ideology and collective mobilization i...
MHST500B	Music Cultures: Middle East	Music Cultures: Middle East. A survey of the musics of the Middle East will include vocal and instrumental traditions of the Middle East; selected minority musics; and religious, folk, and popular music traditions (ancient and contemporary). Histori...
MHST500C	Music Cultures: Indonesia	Music Cultures: Indonesia Music of Indonesia. A survey of the highly diverse musical forms currently being practiced in Indonesia's 14,000 populated islands. Reaching far beyond gamelan, this course will also cover more recently developed styles such...
MHST500D	Music Cultures: Southeast Asia	Music Cultures of Mainland Southeast Asia A survey of traditional and modern musical forms being practiced in Mainland SE Asia. This course will cover a wide variety of styles found in Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, and Myanmar. In addition to d...
MHST500F	Music of Korea: From Gugak to K-Pop	In this course, students will explore Korean traditional and contemporary music cultures and scenes. Topics will vary from traditional gugak to recent music genres, including K-pop, indie music, experimental music scenes, trot, and film music. Studen...
MHST500G	Black Temporalities and Black Time	Black Temporalities and Black Time: To fully engage with Black music we must understand Black time. We do this work together. In 'Black Temporalities & Black Time' we will explore non-linear storytelling and the elasticity of (un)time through the fra...
MHST500H	Latin Am Music: Traditions and Digital	This course will examine a variety of musical styles from Latin America, and at the same time analyze the political and historical context in which the music developed. The focus will be on the music of the Caribbean and Central America and South Ame...
MHST504	Music of Native North America	This is a survey course introducing the music cultures of North America; focusing on an interdisciplinary approach to view the history, social institutions, culture, literature, arts, and relationships of North American Indigenous peoples and their...
MHST512	Ethnology of African Music Culture	Ethnology of African Music-The history of Ghanaian music, dance and culture. Talking and reading about the origin of Ghanaian music, dance and song as well as their culture and how those affect their everyday life. As Ghanaian are known for their e...
MHST514	The Music of Flamenco	A study of the musical aspects (cante-singing and toque-guitar playing) in Flamenco through listening, reading and watching documentary films. We will look at the structure of many Flamenco forms (ie. Seguiriyas, Solea, Bulerias, Tangos, etc.), disc...
MHST516	Blues Before 1960	A study of the development of the Blues through listening, watching documentary films and reading interviews with artists. We will concentrate on music, lyrics and each artist's individual style and consider the social and historical circumstances s...
MHST517	Bach and Beyond: Rethinking Bach	This course is designed to develop a deep and meaningful understanding and appreciation of JS Bach, the man, the myth and the music. There will be guided listening in and out of class, as well as reading of materials from Bach's time along with la...
MHST525	Survey of Sound Art	Sound Art draws on many fields, among them: experimental music, experimental theater, installation, sculpture, architecture, and poetry, but what all sound art works have as their primary focus is the experience of sound and listening. Following an i...
MHST530	Studies in Experimental Pop	Since the 1960s, pop music has been a zone in which experimental, avant-garde impulses have coexisted with commercial and hedonistic imperatives. In this course, we will look at artists who have imported ideas and techniques from the music academy or...
MHST531	Studies in Avant-Rock & Noise	This second module of the two-semester Studies in Experimental Pop course might be better titled Studies in Experimental Rock. The focus shifts away from the mainstream of the pop charts and radio, towards the alternative and underground; there is le...
MHST540	Jazz History	A survey of the history of jazz and African-American musical traditions, emphasizing critical listening and aural analysis.
MHST542	Women in Western Music History	This would be a class on women in the history of Western art music from Ancient Music through the present day, combining musicology, sociology, music theory, ethnomusicology, political science, world history, hermeneutics, feminist theory, philosophy...
MHST545	Topics in Vocal Literature	Topics in Vocal Literature: The[R]Evolution of Solo Vocal Literature through the lens of the song cycle This course will focus onthe evolution of vocal music-through the lens of the song cycle and its offspring-over the past few centuries up to the...
MHST546	Opera AND ___: Exploring Intersections	20th and 21st Century Opera's intersections with the musical and extra-musical. 20th and 21st century opera is "Opera AND ________." Opera has a variety of possible musical and non-musical intersections which we will explore this semester. Each week...
MHST550	Stylists & Innovators 1961-Now	This course focuses on selected individuals and musical, political, and economic movements that have helped shaped a genre in jazz or improvised music and that have mostly been overlooked in current historical reporting. (While not a definitive overv...
MHST571	Jazz, Hip-Hop, & Urban Experimentalism	This discussion based seminar will present a survey of historical and contemporary musical idioms in which com-posers, producers, and sound designers associated with the fileds of hip hop, jazz and contemporary R&B have consciously and actively deve...
MHST601	Improvisation: Uses & Lineage	Improvisation: Uses and Cross-Cultural Lineage This class will explore the nature of improvisation in all its forms-Indian music, flamenco, baroque, organ music, rock, jazz, contemporary, and "free" music. The class integrates material from a wide v...
MHST605	Focus Rock: Extreme Metal	Death, Black, Doom and Experimental Metal will be the focus of this class. We will do in-depth analysis of selected pieces (harmony, melody, rhythm, form, sound, lyrics) and research the influence of contemporary classical and experimental music on m...
MHST606	Focus Rock: Art Music & Rock	Focus Rock: Art Music & Rock - An unwritten history of cross-pollination Music is: organized sound - timbre and rhythm. This quote by Edgar Varese not only applies to (most) so-called new music (20th and 21st century classical contemporary music), b...
MHST607	Focus Rock: Noise	Make a joyful noise: the development and importance of noise elements in popular and experimental music of the 20th and 21st century. Noise has always been a part of music, if desired or not. But over time noise elements stopped being just an add-on...
MHST608	Focus Rock: Post-Punk	Post-Punk is another one of these music historical terms that were, of course, applied backwards. It is not really sure what it means, especially because it starts around the same time as punk (1977). Does it include or exclude simultaneous styles...
MHST609	Focus Rock: Electronica	Focus Rock: Electronica - Body Electric - Electronic Pop and Dance Music This class looks at the development of electronic popular music from its early days to its conquest of the international dance floors, creating the international rave community...
MHST610	The Elastic Voice	"Voice is the original instrument." So says Joan La Barbara, the doyenne of extended vocal technique. This course explores the extraordinary panoply of purposes to which the human voice has been deployed. While the focus is on popular music genres...
MHST612	What Is a Song?	An international survey of songwriting from ancient times (classical Greece, the Tang and Song dynasties, etc.), but with an emphasis on the repertoire of the last seventy years. The course examines in detail a wide range of songs: musical compositio...
MHST622	Experimental Music Post-Cage	Experimental Music of the post-Cage Generation This class will deal with the explosion of experimental music in the mid-20th century to the 1990s. Experimental music will be explored as more a method or set of approaches to creating music than as a...
MHST623	Experimental Music Post-Cage II	This class will deal with the explosion of experimental music in the mid-20th century to the 1990s. Experimental music will be explored as more a method or set of approaches to creating music than as a genre. We will, over the course of two semesters...
MHST625	Extended Duration in Music	This course investigates the relationship between live music performance of extended duration and sound-oriented installation art. Taking Erik Satie's "Vexations" (1893) and "Musique d'Ameublement" (1920) as points of departure, we will analyze 1950s...
MHST630	Audio-Visual Theory & Practice	This course explores the synesthetic potential of music and the moving image as it manifests itself throughout audio-visual practice: music video, film scoring, audio-visual performance and installation. We'll begin with Michel Chion's seminal text...
MHST640	Thinking Critically About Pop (& UnPop)	This class will explore a wide range of critical writing about popular music as well as various forms of underground or alternative music. We start with jazz criticism in the mid-20th Century, then proceed through various eras of rock and pop critici...
MHST643	To Exist in Sound: Ambient & 4th World	It's been half a century since Brian Eno embarked on ambient music as a conceptual project, conceiving the idea for Discreet Music while lying incapacitated (recovering from a car accident), listening to a barely audible recording of harp music merge...
MHST644	Non-Traditional Film Music	This course is an introductory survey to film music history and analysis. We will primarily focus on international and experimental cinema, but will likely draw on certain Hollywood or independent American filmmakers who don't quite fit the mold and...
MHST651	Contemporary Composers	Selected readings from Busoni and beyond. Critical analysis of current trends in music and the arts.
MHST652	Music of Luigi Nono	The course will yield an overview of the music and the cultural contributions of the great Italian composer Luigi Nono. Our survey of his oeuvre and its evolution from his early works in the 1950's (with the amazing purity of his dodecaphonic counter...
MHST653	Music of James Tenney	James Tenney was a pioneer in multiple areas of music, all of which remain domains of vigorous creative activity to the present day. These include plunderphonia, computer music, process form, spectral music and extended just-intonation. His theoretic...
MHST657	Music & Surrealism	Focused Topics Course: 'Surrealist forms of music could still arise, seeking the gold of sound as Breton sought the gold of time (Francois-Bernard Mache).' Why did the surrealist movement of the early twentieth century principally embrace art and lit...
MHST658	Music of Edgard Varese	Besides Charles Ives, Arnold Schoenberg and Igor Stravinsky, the French-American composer Edgard Varese(1883-1965) was certainly the most radical and influential founding father of 20th century Western music. He established a method for a conceptual...
MHST659	Contemplative Practice & Music	Focused Topics Course: The study of the contemplative arts, as they relate to the creation of musical experiences and musical compositions, will be investigated by actively privileging the concept of compassion and its manifestations, and by the rout...
MHST664	Music of Gyorgy Ligeti	In the early 1960s Gyorgy Ligeti (1923-2006) opened up new ways for post-serial sound composition by introducing the concept of micro-polyphony. In his later works since the mid 1970s, he successfully combined ideals of both minimalism and complexity...
MHST665	Music of Helmut Lachenmann	With his revolutionary concept of a 'concrete instrumental music', the leading and most influential contemporary German composer Helmut Lachenmann (born 1935) has hugely expanded the available repertoire of extended playing techniques on traditional...
MHST666	Music of Igor Stravinsky	Throughout the first half of the past century, Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971) impacted the contemporary music scene like a startling super-brilliant meteor. The course will combine biography, music theory, analysis, score study, guided listening and aes...
MHST667	Music of Arnold Schoenberg	During the first part of the past century, Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951) revolutionized the contemporary music scene more profoundly than anyone else. With his independent, courageous and radical set of mind and with his extraordinary ability to unde...
MHST669	Music of Feldman & Zimmermann	Pursuing the heritage of his mentor Edgard Varese with an infinite minimalist focus on the quality of sound, just how it floats, and with a unique sense of musical orchestration, Morton Feldman (1926-1987) introduced the quiet longing of Franz Schube...
MHST672	John Cage: Music and Thought	This is class is designed as a critical inquiry into the aesthetic, theoretical and political implications of John Cage's music. In addition to sustained encounters with several of Cage's significant pieces it will look at the implications of those w...
MHST673	Cage, Sun Ra, Musique Concrete, Noise	As a parallel to the emergence of the American Experimental Tradition, and its "uprising" in the music of Cage and following, we will study the revolutionary works of Sun Ra (growing from and away from jazz) and the founding of Musique Concrete in Fr...
MHST674	Music of Karlheinz Stockhausen	Karlheinz Stockhausen is a composer who, especially in the 1950s and 60s, seemed to have re-defined the understanding of what music is about with each of his compositions. His theoretical writings and lectures are as legendary as his music. In the tr...
MHST698H	Ecomusicalities	Ecomusicalities This course is an introduction to ecologically oriented music, sound art, and the study of ecomusicology in the context of the contemporary environmental crisis. Ecology is conceived broadly as relational understandings of human and...
MHST698J	The Semiotics of Queerness in Music	This course explores the intersection of popular and dance music with queerness, examining how the meanings of queer identities are conveyed through music and music videos. Over the past 40 years, popular and dance music have been shaped by and have...
MHST698K	Disco:Emancipatory Dancefloors 1970-1990	The emergence of contemporary DJ-led dance music in the 1970's provoked a transformational way of experiencing music and the body. For many people who existed on the margins of society, these dance floors represented an open, deterritorialized, liber...
MHST699	Independent Study	Under the direction of a specific faculty member, students will complete projects defined in a contractual agreement made at the beginning of each semester.
MHST703	Performer-Composer: History & Aesthetics	Course open to Music School students only. This course offers a broad historical, technical and aesthetic survey of the opportunities and challenges presented to the musician whose work integrates performance and composition. These are illuminated th...
MITM201C	Heavy Shit 5000	Punk, metal, grunge, doom sludge, hardcore, grindcore, powerviolence, and all their glorious sub and sub-sub genres. I'll tell you about the specific genres I know about and love. I invite everyone to bring a playlist of songs to share. We're going t...
MITM303	Alexander Technique for Perfomance	This course is designed to give you the tools to get what you want from your performance and life. We will cover accurate information about human design and coordination, flow state/ optimal performance, sustainability and performance readiness. We w...
MITM324B	Creative Producing Practicum	Creative Producing Practicum: School of Music Showcase at REDCAT is open to students who have been selected as performers and production team members for the School of Music Showcase at REDCAT. Student production team members will work alongside thei...
MITM324C	Channeling: Delia Derbyshire	The first in a new Winter Session series of hands-on music production courses, Channeling, where, each year, we will dive deeply into the work of a sonic practitioner, listen to their music and explore in the studio: how did they get those sounds? 20...
MITM324D	Hip-Hop As A Verb	We need brave new words to birth a brand-new world. Hip-hop is turning 50 this year and it is clear that it is beyond music and is a unifying cultural vehicle. Hip-Hop is also an embodied practice. In Hip-Hop as a Verb, we will dive into the doing of...
MITM324E	Frame Drum Workshops	Frame drum workshop This course will meet for three, one and a half hour workshops, each focused on a different holding position and thus evocative techniques, specifically freehand, lap, and tar positions. School instruments can be provided for cla...
MITM324F	Global Tambourine Workshops	This course will be a series of individually focused small group lessons/workshops on specific tambourines, their techniques, rhythms and repertoire. Topics include two classes each on Arabic riq, Brazilian pandeiro, and South Indian kanjira. School...
MITM324G	Sleep Ensemble	This is an ensemble exploring the notions of live performance sleep therapy music. Open to the institute, the course will move between lecture, practice, and performance and invites all sound making mediums to participate. The course will culminate i...
MITM324H	a deeper look, rest & relax, yoga nidra	This is a deeper dive into Yoga for artists. We will explore yoga nidra, deep rest and relaxation, and some simple poses for stress reduction and performance preparation.
MITM324J	Mature Sonic Listening	Students will participate on a mature outlook on how to listen to music. Together we will touch on the history of the music of Jazz, Hip Hop, and other genres and discuss the fundamental language of the genres and how it connects to modern day music.
MITM324K	Elijah McClain and Music	Elijah McClain was a violinist murdered by Aurora police on the night of Aug 24, 2019. His name was repeated on the streets along with those of others recently killed by police -George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Sandra Bland, and others - during the Blac...
MITM324L	Orchestration for concert stage and film	This course offers an introduction to orchestration for concert stage and film music. In the first week, lectures on orchestration basics will be held. In the second week, we will review the orchestration assignments submitted by students. Attendees...
MITM324M	Koto Sounds Into Your Art and Music	This course is a lecture and workshop and will explore the ways to integrate koto sounds into your art/music making. We will be exploring How the koto works: possibilities and limitations/n Like any instrument, koto has its own physical reality tha...
MITM324N	The Full Bodied Breath	Modern life and society have retrained the perfect breath we were born to take. Each breath we take dictates the confidence, connection and effectiveness of the sound we emanate no matter if we sing or speak, in performance or in life. Connecting to...
MITM324P	Gustav Mahler: The Last Monumental Symph	Inspiring composers as diverse as Shostakovich, Berg, and Schoenberg, but rooted in the traditions of Beethoven, Brahms, and Weber, Gustav Mahler had his feet planted solidly across two centuries of music. We will explore how and why.
MITM324R	Intro to North Indian Classical Music	This is an introductory course for students interested in learning Indian Classical vocal and instrumental Music. Students will learn the basics of Raag and Taal and be introduced to Swar Gram and Alankar so they may begin their individual practice.
MITM324S	Perfecting the Playlist	The playlist has become a steady fixture in our lives, presented by professional DJs in clubs and on the radio around the world. In this short course we will explore what it means to "perfect the playlist" - how to approach pacing, harmonic mixing, a...
MITM324T	Building Interactive Audiovisual System	Through this course, we will cover basic visual programming structures through polyphony, Matrix, and strengthening understandings of multichannel sound synthesis. The first week will break down the fundamentals of jitter and the second week will cov...
MITM324U	Writing for Clarinets	Class 1: B-flat & A Clarinet Intro 1 Class 2: B flat & A Clarinet Intro 2 Class 3: Recording Session-Clarinet Solo piece Every student has to compose a clarinet solo piece for B-flat or A clarinet of around 1 minute and submit it to the instructor...
MITM324V	How To: Win a Job! Orchestral Repertoir	An intensive exploration of orchestral excerpts from standard repertoire found on excerpt lists for symphony orchestra auditions. This course will cover audition preparation and rehearsal/performance etiquette. Students will spend the first week stud...
MITM324W	The Music of Henry Threadgill	By dividing Threadgill's music into four distinct periods, we will deconstruct its many points of influence; areas such as military marches, calypso, ragtime, and European expressionist art music. This course will aim to demonstrate how while these s...
MITM324X	All-Inclusive Music: a Multi-Pedagogical	All-Inclusive Music: A Multi-Pedagogical Journey of Composition & Improvisation This class is aimed at examining non-traditional methods of music composition & approaches to improvisation that allow for individuals of any training or pedagogical bac...
MITM324Y	Development, Rehearsal and Performance	The participants will form a chamber ensemble (5-10 musicians) with open instrumentation. Every member will play in the ensemble and contribute with one piece of their own for us to develop, rehearse and perform. This can be a fixed, notated score, a...
MITM324Z	Subversion as Practice : DIY Design	This course is open to all students interested in incorporating Sound as an element of their practice or project. Students are encouraged to have personal or collaborative projects in mind prior to attending. This is NOT a coding class. Computers a...
MITM325L	Sleep Ensemble	This is an ensemble exploring the notions of live performance sleep therapy music. Open to the institute, the course will move between lecture, practice, and performance and invites all sound making mediums to participate. The course will culminate i...
MITM331	Knit Stuff!	Knitting is scientifically proven to improve focus, connect intuitive and abstract thinking, promote math skills, and reduce stress and manage anxiety. You also get to play with soft fuzzy yarn and make nice things. Join Music School faculty Erika DK...
MITM380	Gamelan Pieces for Dance Accompaniment	In Bali or Java the Gamelan Orchestra, specially the most modern gamelan, is known for having a colorful orchestration and for its musical vitality, complex musical structures, and rhythmic complexity. The modern gamelan orchestra in Bali is known as...
MITM396	Winter Session Teaching Assignment	Credit bearing course for students who have been approved to teach a course during Winter Session in the School of Music. Credit is earned through course preparation and teaching.
MITM398K	Guitar Anatomy	This course is aimed at guitarists (acoustic, electric, classical) and bassists (electric) regardless of their major/specialization at CalArts. We will take a concise look at how different types of guitars are made, the function of their various part...
MITM408	Compositional Form	This course will present a historical survey of several compositional strategies, used by composers to effectively structure their music and the manner in which it unfolds. Music by Bach, Brahms, Scriabin, Finnissy, and others will be discussed.
MITM419	Music of Jackie McLean	In a musical career spanning nearly sixty years, the alto saxophonist and composer Jackie McLean (1931-2006) developed a model of collaborative and socially engaged pedagogy that was to prove enormously fruitful both for his own career and that of th...
MITM426	Taking Your Music on the Road	Taking Your Music on the Road - Concert Booking and Tour Planning for the Self-Promoting Musician?? This class will focus on the details of planning and promoting a regional tour for any kind of musical ensemble. It will include information about bo...
MITM467	Collecting Music	Building a Physical Music Collection: As in any endeavor there are advantages and disadvantages to building a physical music collection. We will be discussing the strengths and challenges of the three main physical forms of music for sale people hav...
MITM495	Writing Large Ensemble Music	Writing Large Ensemble Music for Improvisors Meetings which include lecture, discussion, listening and viewing of composers and large ensembles which use improvising as a focal point. An occasional guest may be invited to clarify events and happening...
MITM501C	Heavy Shit 5000	Punk, metal, grindcore, powerviolence, and all their glorious sub and sub-sub genres. Ulrich Krieger and I will tell you about the specific genres we know about and love. I invite everyone to bring a playlist of songs to share. We're going to sit aro...
MITM503	Alexander Technique for Performance	This course is designed to give you the tools to get what you want from your performance and life. We will cover accurate information about human design and coordination, flow state/ optimal performance, sustainability and performance readiness. We w...
MITM524B	Creative Producing Practicum	Creative Producing Practicum: School of Music Showcase at REDCAT is open to students who have been selected as performers and production team members for the School of Music Showcase at REDCAT. Student production team members will work alongside thei...
MITM524C	Channeling: Delia Derbyshire	The first in a new Winter Session series of hands-on music production courses, Channeling, where, each year, we will dive deeply into the work of a sonic practitioner, listen to their music and explore in the studio: how did they get those sounds? 20...
MITM524D	Hip-Hop As A Verb	We need brave new words to birth a brand-new world. Hip-hop is turning 50 this year and it is clear that it is beyond music and is a unifying cultural vehicle. Hip-Hop is also an embodied practice. In Hip-Hop as a Verb, we will dive into the doing of...
MITM524E	Frame Drum Workshops	Frame drum workshop This course will meet for three, one and a half hour workshops, each focused on a different holding position and thus evocative techniques, specifically freehand, lap, and tar positions. School instruments can be provided for clas...
MITM524F	Global Tambourine Workshops	This course will be a series of individually focused small group lessons/workshops on specific tambourines, their techniques, rhythms and repertoire. Topics include two classes each on Arabic riq, Brazilian pandeiro, and South Indian kanjira. School...
MITM524G	Sleep Ensemble	This is an ensemble exploring the notions of live performance sleep therapy music. Open to the institute, the course will move between lecture, practice, and performance and invites all sound making mediums to participate. The course will culminate i...
MITM524J	Mature Sonic Listening	Students will participate on a mature outlook on how to listen to music. Together we will touch on the history of the music of Jazz, Hip Hop, and other genres and discuss the fundamental language of the genres and how it connects to modern day music.
MITM524K	Elijah McClain and Music	Elijah McClain was a violinist murdered by Aurora police on the night of Aug 24, 2019. His name was repeated on the streets along with those of others recently killed by police -George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Sandra Bland, and others - during the Blac...
MITM524L	Orchestration for concert stage and film	This course offers an introduction to orchestration for concert stage and film music. In the first week, lectures on orchestration basics will be held. In the second week, we will review the orchestration assignments submitted by students. Attendees...
MITM524M	Koto Sounds Into Your Art and Music	This course is a lecture and workshop and will explore the ways to integrate koto sounds into your art/music making. We will be exploring How the koto works: possibilities and limitations Like any instrument, koto has its own physical reality that al...
MITM524N	The Full Bodied Breath	Modern life and society have retrained the perfect breath we were born to take. Each breath we take dictates the confidence, connection and effectiveness of the sound we emanate no matter if we sing or speak, in performance or in life. Connecting to...
MITM524P	Gustav Mahler: The Last Monumental Symph	Inspiring composers as diverse as Shostakovich, Berg, and Schoenberg, but rooted in the traditions of Beethoven, Brahms, and Weber, Gustav Mahler had his feet planted solidly across two centuries of music. We will explore how and why.
MITM524R	Intro to North Indian Classical Music	This is an introductory course for students interested in learning Indian Classical vocal and instrumental Music. Students will learn the basics of Raag and Taal and be introduced to Swar Gram and Alankar so they may begin their individual practice.
MITM524S	Perfecting the Playlist	The playlist has become a steady fixture in our lives, presented by professional DJs in clubs and on the radio around the world. In this short course we will explore what it means to "perfect the playlist" - how to approach pacing, harmonic mixing, a...
MITM524T	Building Interactive Audiovisual System	Through this course, we will cover basic visual programming structures through polyphony, Matrix, and strengthening understandings of multichannel sound synthesis. The first week will break down the fundamentals of jitter and the second week will cov...
MITM524U	Writing for Clarinets	Class 1: B-flat & A Clarinet Intro 1 Class 2: B flat & A Clarinet Intro 2 Class 3: Recording Session-Clarinet Solo piece Every student has to compose a clarinet solo piece for B-flat or A clarinet of around 1 minute and submit it to the instructor...
MITM524V	How To: Win a Job! Orchestral Repertoir	An intensive exploration of orchestral excerpts from standard repertoire found on excerpt lists for symphony orchestra auditions. This course will cover audition preparation and rehearsal/performance etiquette. Students will spend the first week stud...
MITM524W	The Music of Henry Threadgill	By dividing Threadgill's music into four distinct periods, we will deconstruct its many points of influence; areas such as military marches, calypso, ragtime, and European expressionist art music. This course will aim to demonstrate how while these s...
MITM524X	All-Inclusive Music: a Multi-Pedagogical	All-Inclusive Music: A Multi-Pedagogical Journey of Composition & Improvisation This class is aimed at examining non-traditional methods of music composition & approaches to improvisation that allow for individuals of any training or pedagogical bac...
MITM524Y	Development, Rehearsal and Performance	The participants will form a chamber ensemble (5-10 musicians) with open instrumentation. Every member will play in the ensemble and contribute with one piece of their own for us to develop, rehearse and perform. This can be a fixed, notated score, a...
MITM524Z	Subversion as Practice : DIY Design	This course is open to all students interested in incorporating Sound as an element of their practice or project. Students are encouraged to have personal or collaborative projects in mind prior to attending. This is NOT a coding class. Computers a...
MITM525L	Sleep Ensemble	This is an ensemble exploring the notions of live performance sleep therapy music. Open to the institute, the course will move between lecture, practice, and performance and invites all sound making mediums to participate. The course will culminate i...
MITM531	Knit Stuff!	Knitting is scientifically proven to improve focus, connect intuitive and abstract thinking, promote math skills, and reduce stress and manage anxiety. You also get to play with soft fuzzy yarn and make nice things. Join Music School faculty Erika DK...
MITM580	Gamelan Pieces for Dance Accompaniment	In Bali or Java the Gamelan Orchestra, specially the most modern gamelan, is known for having a colorful orchestration and for its musical vitality, complex musical structures, and rhythmic complexity. The modern gamelan orchestra in Bali is known as...
MITM596	Winter Session Teaching Assignment	Credit bearing course for students who have been approved to teach a course during Winter Session in the School of Music. Credit is earned through course preparation and teaching.
MITM598K	Guitar Anatomy	This course is aimed at guitarists (acoustic, electric, classical) and bassists (electric) regardless of their major/specialization at CalArts. We will take a concise look at how different types of guitars are made, the function of their various part...
MITM608	Compositional Form	This course will present a historical survey of several compositional strategies, used by composers to effectively structure their music and the manner in which it unfolds. Music by Bach, Brahms, Scriabin, Finnissy, and others will be discussed.
MITM626	Taking Your Music on the Road	Taking Your Music on the Road - Concert Booking and Tour Planning for the Self-Promoting Musician?? This class will focus on the details of planning and promoting a regional tour for any kind of musical ensemble. It will include information about bo...
MITM667	Collecting Music	Building a Physical Music Collection: As in any endeavor there are advantages and disadvantages to building a physical music collection. We will be discussing the strengths and challenges of the three main physical forms of music for sale people hav...
MITM695	Writing Large Ensemble Music	Writing Large Ensemble Music for Improvisors Meetings which include lecture, discussion, listening and viewing of composers and large ensembles which use improvising as a focal point. An occasional guest may be invited to clarify events and happening...
MITM796	Winter Session Teaching Assignment	Credit bearing course for students who have been approved to teach a course during Winter Session in the School of Music. Credit is earned through course preparation and teaching.
MLNG299	Independent Study	Under the direction of a specific faculty member, students complete projects defined in a contractual agreement made at the beginning of each semester.
MLNG699	Independent Study	Under the direction of a specific faculty member, students complete projects defined in a contractual agreement made at the beginning of each semester.
MLSN001	BFA Half Hour Lesson	Half hour BFA lesson (1 credit) meet 30 minutes weekly or 60 minutes bi-weekly. Lesson subjects range in styles or practices (instrumental or vocal performance, composition, production, etc). The subject of a lesson is determined in collaboration wi...
MLSN101	BFA Hour Lesson	Hour lessons (3 credits for BFA) meet 60 minutes weekly. Lesson subjects range in styles or practices (instrumental or vocal performance, composition, production, etc). The subject of a lesson is determined in collaboration with the lesson instructo...
MLSN501	MFA Half Hour Lesson	Half hour MFA lesson (1 credit) meet 30 minutes weekly or 60 minutes bi-weekly. Lesson subjects range in styles or practices (instrumental or vocal performance, composition, production, etc). The subject of a lesson is determined in collaboration wi...
MLSN601	MFA Hour Lesson	Hour lessons (4 credits for MFA) meet 60 minutes weekly. Lesson subjects range in styles or practices (instrumental or vocal performance, composition, production, etc). The subject of a lesson is determined in collaboration with the lesson instructo...
MLSN701	DMA Lesson	DMA lesson (variable credit from 0.5 to 4) Lesson subjects range in styles or practices (instrumental or vocal performance, composition, production, etc). The subject of a lesson is determined in collaboration with the lesson instructor. Instruction...
MPCD350	Career Designs for Musicians	Open to School of Music students only. This course will provide students with practical skills and insights into building their careers after graduation. Topics to be covered include: planning short- and long-term professional goals; locating and con...
MPCD351	Creative Producing for Music	This course will provide an overview of creative production for musicians ranging from small DIY events to larger, more formal concerts, fundraisers, festivals, and more. Through lectures, discussion, hands-on assignments, and visiting artist present...
MPCD352	Creative Producing Practicum	Creative Producing Practicum will provide instruction and hands-on experience related to the ideation, implementation, production, and marketing of real world events taking place through CalArts School of Music and REDCAT. Students will participate i...
MPCD399	Independent Study	Under the direction of a specific faculty member, students complete projects defined in a contractual agreement made at the beginning of the semester.
MPCD420	Teaching the Voice	The class is a practicum in learning to teach singing. The hands-on approach will require class participants to teach novice voice students rudimentary singing techniques privately and group settings. Work will center on learning to hear and diagnose...
MPCD460	Creative Entrepreneurship	This course teaches students how to build their own startup business from vision to global brand. The course will go through case-studies of successful and unsuccessful businesses. Students will be put into groups to create a business and learn to wo...
MPCD461	Music Creation to Commerce	A comprehensive journey and immersive guide from the genesis of a song to its successful release into the world. Learn how to balance your artistic authenticity with real life demands, and learn the skill sets required to successfully work in, naviga...
MPCD603	Teaching Artistry	Teaching Artistry is a lecture class that will focus on best practices of teaching. Through a combination of demo lessons, video clips, field observations, and discussion, participants will explore various pedagogical approaches. Each of these approa...
MPCD604	College Pedagogy	This is a lecture class that will focus on best practices of teaching. Through a combination of demo lessons, video clips, field observations, independent research, and discussion, participants will explore various pedagogical approaches. Each of the...
MPCD620	Teaching the Voice	The class is a practicum in learning to teach singing. The hands-on approach will require class participants to teach novice voice students rudimentary singing techniques privately and group settings. Work will center on learning to hear and diagnose...
MPCD650	Career Designs for Musicians	Open to School of Music students only. This course will provide students with practical skills and insights into building their careers after graduation. Topics to be covered include: planning short- and long-term professional goals; locating and con...
MPCD651	Creative Producing for Music	This course will provide an overview of creative production for musicians ranging from small DIY events to larger, more formal concerts, fundraisers, festivals, and more. Through lectures, discussion, hands-on assignments, and visiting artist present...
MPCD652	Creative Producing Practicum	Creative Producing Practicum will provide instruction and hands-on experience related to the ideation, implementation, production, and marketing of real world events taking place through CalArts School of Music and REDCAT. Students will participate i...
MPCD660	Creative Entrepreneurship	This course teaches students how to build their own startup business from vision to global brand. The course will go through case-studies of successful and unsuccessful businesses. Students will be put into groups to create a business and learn to wo...
MPCD661	Music Creation to Commerce	A comprehensive journey and immersive guide from the genesis of a song to its successful release into the world. Learn how to balance your artistic authenticity with real life demands, and learn the skill sets required to successfully work in, naviga...
MPCD670	DIY	Do-it-yourself - and the related concept of release-it-yourself - has been the ideological and practical underpinning of radical music for at least a half-century. Often identified with the punk rock movement, the DIY imperative actually predates pu...
MPCD704	Professional Development	Course open to Music School students only. This course will explore a broad range of tools and ideas for creating a life in the arts, including preparation for positions in education, artistic entrepreneurship, and work in non-profit and for-profit e...
MPCD740	DMA Teaching Practicum	Course open to Music School students only. Through this course, students will receive credit for teaching responsibilities and will enjoy faculty supervision as they develop pedagogical effectiveness and expertise in specific areas. They will furth...
MPRF101	Jazz Improvisation	Course by permission of instructor only. Development of fundamental techniques required for group improvisation with an emphasis on gaining facility with jazz harmonic language.
MPRF102	Jazz Improvisation (1-On-1)	Course by Permission of Instructor only. Development of fundamental techniques required for group improvisation with an emphasis on gaining facility with jazz harmonic language. Meeting times outside of the regularly scheduled class meetings may be a...
MPRF103	Class Piano	Course available by Permission of Instructor only. Non-major piano instruction given in small group lessons. Access to a musical keyboard spanning at least four octaves and having full-sized keys is required."
MPRF105	Yoga for Musicians	An integrated approach to various branches of yoga, including Hatha Yoga asanas, Pranayama, and Dhyana. Physical postures, breathing exercises, and meditation/ visualization techniques will be explored. Students will learn to increase efficiency, rel...
MPRF106	Introductory Foundations in Guitar	Fundamentals of plectrum and fingerstyle guitar. Highly recommended for students interested in learning the basics in electric, steel string acoustic and nylon string guitar performance. This class serves as a foundation for the techniques, terminolo...
MPRF110	Vocal Coaching	Course open to Music School students only. Centered on in-class coaching, discussion and critique of repertoire and performance, this course will emphasize the development of skills necessary for singing-artists. Students will learn foundational skil...
MPRF115	VoiceArts Foundation	This practicum course provides an introduction to a wide-range of topics, skills and contexts with which all voice-based artists need to be familiar, and lays a foundation for more advanced work. The course will explore issues critical to vocal artis...
MPRF119	Piano Workshop	Course open to Piano Program students only. Piano Workshop will be required every semester for piano majors and the collaborative arts specialization at both the BFA and MFA levels. MAP pianists and performer composers are encouraged but not required...
MPRF122	Flute Studio Class	Flute Studio Class is a weekly meeting of the flute majors, BFA and MFA. Those studying flute as a secondary instrument are also invited to attend. We will discuss a variety of topics, including resume and website preparation, pedagogy, repertoire, p...
MPRF123	Harp Studio Class	Course open to Harp Program students only. Participants perform and study solo, chamber and orchestral repertoire, engaging in co-critique.
MPRF124	Oboe Studio Class	Course open to Oboe Program students only. In addition to our normal studies of fundamentals and reedmaking, the intention is to focus also on the major solos that oboists play in orchestral auditions. Also, we will form a Double Reed Quartet with ba...
MPRF125	Cello Studio Class	Course open to Cello Program students only. This course offers in depth work in skill building, problem solving in music preparation, ensemble playing, and contemporary cello literature. Students may also use the studio to perform for one another and...
MPRF126	Experimental Voice	Open to all levels of artists making work with, for, or through the voice. This course explores the voice in many different contexts through improvisation, experimental voice pieces, vocal exercises, and the development of voice-related pieces on a w...
MPRF128	String Workshop	Course open to String students only. Performance of ensemble works written for string instruments. Survey and reading of major chamber ensemble repertoire. Students also perform solo repertoire for the class. Contemporary, folk and traditional techni...
MPRF129	Percussion Workshop	Course open to Percussion Program students only. Percussion Workshop is where students present works that have been prepared for recitals and the place where Percussion guest artists give their presentations. Sometimes one of the CalArts instructors...
MPRF130	Clarinet Studio Class	Course open to Clarinet Program students only. Clarinet Studio Class offers in-depth work in sound production,intonation, technical facility, styles of articulation and contemporary techniques through study of exercises, etudes, a broad spectrum of s...
MPRF131	Bassoon Studio Class	Course open to Bassoon Program students only. This course offers in depth work in the skills of reed making, sound production, general and contemporary bassoon techniques. Students may also use the class to perform for one another and receive feedba...
MPRF132	Brass Workshop	Brass Workshop provides a comprehensive look at topics related to professional performing standards and experimentation on brass instruments.
MPRF133	Woodwind Workshop	Course open to Music School students only. Performance of ensemble works written for woodwind instruments. Audition preparation and woodwind fundamentals are also studied.
MPRF203	Harmonic Improvisation	Emphasis on increasing facility with intricate harmonic techniques.
MPRF205	At Practicum and Performance	The goal of this course will be to explore the Alexander Technique and how it applies to musicians. The course will focus on two main topics: learning about the Technique and discovering how musicians can use the Technique to reduce practice and perf...
MPRF211	Bodies and Voice	Course open to Music School students only, by Permission of Instructor only. The course is intended as a laboratory to explore the body in relationship to the voice and the voice in relation to the emotional memory of the body. The laboratory will co...
MPRF216	Singing the Standards	Singing the Standards is a style survey, repertoire, and performance course introducing the vocal technique and delivery of jazz singing. The course will focus on listening and style analysis of recordings, videos, and assigned student participation...
MPRF217	Learning to Scream	Course not available to Voice Arts Program students. Voice training for band vocalists, singer/songwriters and other non-classical singing performers. Focus will be on learning rudimentary singing skills and exercises that support healthy and effici...
MPRF218	Institute Voice	Instruction and practice in the fundamentals of singing. Course includes basic technical exercises for building and strengthening the voice - breathing, range extension, agility etc. Students will perform in the class either live, online or with pre-...
MPRF221	African Song	Study of traditional West African songs - language and their meanings, and singing techniques. Special attention will be placed on tone production, melody, harmony and embellishment.
MPRF241	Fretboard Geography for Guitar	Knowing the notes over the entire guitar fretboard and understanding their relationships within scales, intervals and chords is essential for expanding your playing, composing, improvising and arranging chops in any genre. We'll explore the fingerboa...
MPRF242	Know Your Guitar - Inner Workings	We will take a concise look at how different types of guitars are made, the function of their various parts, how they interact and how they are affected by use, age, weather changes, rough handling, etc. We will learn how parts like woods, electronic...
MPRF250	Mature Listening Techniques	Mature Listening Techniques will focus on listening in depth to recordings while studying the history of different genres of music. Students will have an understanding of how to use these techniques in a professional setting and in everyday life.
MPRF260	Melodic Research	This course is a multileveled primer in melodic improvisation. Modes, scales and melodic concepts like Maqam, Dastgah, Raga will be introduced and compared. New theories like Harmolodics and Chromolodics will also be explored. At the next level, each...
MPRF290	Mid-Residence Recital	Successful completion of this course requires that the student successfully complete a Mid-Residence Recital as assessed by faculty. Students may be required to organize and participate in a Jury Exam at least two weeks in advance of the recital.
MPRF307	Conducting 1	Areas to be studied include: The development of a clear, readable beat in all patterns and in varying dynamic ranges, articulation of styles and textures, and techniques appropriate for both choral and instrumental conducting. Among difficulties stud...
MPRF310	Advanced Vocal Coaching	Course open to Music School students only. Moving on from foundational work, in this course students will further develop intellectual and musical skills necessary for singing-artists. Students will expand their vocal repertoire in all genres, develo...
MPRF322	Tabla	Course open to Music School students only. Group instruction in the techniques, theory and practice of North Indian Tabla.
MPRF324	Perspectives on Hand Drumming	Techniques of performance on hand drums of varied cultural origins.
MPRF328	Latin Percussion	Course open to Music School students only. Class instruction in general Latin percussion music.
MPRF330	TRIG: The Electronic Percussionist	This course is a series of hands-on workshops exploring the possibilities for percussionists performing with electronic controllers via computer music software, processors, sampling and loop based performance. This course explores the potential and r...
MPRF340	Contemporary Wind Performance	A workshop in special techniques as they have evolved in contemporary music. Topics may include various extended techniques, production of pitched and non-pitched sound, multi-phonics, microtonal systems and special tunings, circular breathing, impro...
MPRF399	Independent Study	Under the direction of a specific faculty member, students complete projects defined in a contractual agreement made at the beginning of each semester.
MPRF402	Opera Theater	An intensive project-based class focused on rehearsing, producing and performing select opera/music-theater works in innovative interpretations. Works are often mounted in collaboration with other Schools within the Institute. The rigorous process cu...
MPRF406	Musicians' Injury Prevention	This course is designed to help musicians prevent and rehabilitate musical instrument-based overuse injuries. It will also address injuries from other sources that might affect our ability to play our instruments. We will look at postural imbalances,...
MPRF408	Conducting 2	Course open to Music School students only, by Permission of Instructor only. A course for students who have completed theory and skills requirements and who have a foundation in the elements of conducting. Refinement of techniques with particular emp...
MPRF416	Anatomy for Musicians	The focus of this course is to study the muscular & skeletal systems of the human anatomy. Once the basics are learned, we'll apply this knowledge to how it relates to performing on musical instruments, posture and injury prevention. Optional suggest...
MPRF420	Tabla Accompaniment	Course open to Music School students only, by Permission of Instructor only. This course will teach students how to accompany vocal and instrumental music. Students will learn how to play with different thekas (rhythm cycles).
MPRF451	Singing the Books	Focused Topic in Vocal Performance: This workshop will focus on facilitating processes of constructing realizations of various 'songs' included in the Song Books, along with an overview of Cage's aesthetics. Students will engage in substantial discip...
MPRF452	Contemporary Vocal Techniques	Focused Topic in Vocal Performance: This course focuses on facilitating learning processes and specific techniques necessary for preparing and performing standard twentieth-century and contemporary experimental vocal works, as well as exposes student...
MPRF453	What Kind of Text Is That?	Focused Topic in Vocal Performance: Beginning with an historical and contextual study of vocal works that utilize unconventional or atypical texts, students will research and perform representative works while exploring, creating and building works a...
MPRF456	Readings in Voice Arts:	Readings in Voice Arts:Odyssey of the Voice Readings in VoiceArts is dedicated to group study of a wide array of voice-related writings, with specific readings chosen each semester from important writings on the study of the voice, evolution and dev...
MPRF471	Hip Hop Lab Practicum	Course is open to students who have previously completed MAIC-470 Hip-Hop Lab or MAIC-470 Hip-Hop Theory and Praxis, or by permission of instructor. We need brave new words to birth a brand-new world. Hip-hop is turning 52 this year and it is clear...
MPRF490	Graduation Recital	Enrollment in this course is required during the semester in which students perform their Graduation Recital, if one is required by program. Successful completion of the course requires that the student successfully complete the recital, as assesse...
MPRF498A	Spc Topics: Jazz Improv for the Vocalist	Topics in Performance Studies: Jazz Improvisation for the Vocalist A course designed for beginner and intermediate vocalists who want to develop skill in jazz improvisation. This course will emphasize the fundamentals of improvisation. Specific atte...
MPRF498B	Spc Topics: Mic Use for Vocalists	Topics in Performance Studies: Mic Use for Vocalists A course for vocalists that focuses on microphone technique and effective use of sound-reinforcement equipment. Topics include an overview of the PA system, types of microphones, distance and plac...
MPRF498D	Spc Topics: Indian Improv Concepts	Topics in Performance Studies: Indian Improvisation Concepts Improvisation Based on Ragas and Talas The class provides a breakdown and general overview of the Raga and Tala Systems of North Indian classical music. Through the fliter of Raga and Tala...
MPRF498G	Performance Practice: John Cage	In this class we will examine the profoundly influential and experimental works of John Cage through the performance and discussion of pieces chosen by the class's participants. The often idiosyncratic elements of Cagean performance practice will be...
MPRF498H	Music in the Oral Tradition	A practice-based examination of the fretboard theory behind music of the 20th and 21st centuries including, but not limited to, the origins of the blues, bluegrass, folk, pop, rock, alternative, soul and funk as they relate to the electric and acoust...
MPRF498K	To Exist in Sound Improvised Vocality	Improvised music is alive. It connects you to the now, a sensory moment created together-space, players, audience-joined in solidarity. This course is dedicated to investigating the possibilities of free vocal improvisation as experienced through/in...
MPRF498L	Tuning Outside the Box	The aim of this class is to demystify alternate guitar tunings by combining hands-on experience with theoretical analysis and a thorough understanding of the instrument's history. 'Scordatura' (literally meaning 'mistuning') first appeared in German...
MPRF498M	Touring Musician 101	Woody Aplanalp has decades of experience touring with acts such as Lauryn Hill, Thomas Mapfumo, Aloe Blacc and Quetzal. Thomas Leeb has played thousands of solo concerts all over the world, the only continent he has not toured is Antarctica. Together...
MPRF498N	Class Guitar	Fundamentals of plectrum and fingerstyle guitar. Highly recommended for students interested in learning the basics in electric, steel string and nylon string guitar performance. This class serves as a foundation for the techniques, terminology and mu...
MPRF501	Jazz Improvisation	Course by permission of instructor only. Development of fundamental techniques required for group improvisation with an emphasis on gaining facility with jazz harmonic language.
MPRF502	Opera Theater	An intensive project-based class focused on rehearsing, producing and performing select opera/music-theater works in innovative interpretations. Works are often mounted in collaboration with other Schools within the Institute. The rigorous process cu...
MPRF503	Class Piano	Course available by Permission of Instructor only. Non-major piano instruction given in small group lessons. Access to a musical keyboard spanning at least four octaves and having full-sized keys is required."
MPRF505	At Practicum and Performance	The goal of this course will be to explore the Alexander Technique and how it applies to musicians. The course will focus on two main topics: learning about the Technique and discovering how musicians can use the Technique to reduce practice and perf...
MPRF506	Introductory Foundations in Guitar	Fundamentals of plectrum and fingerstyle guitar. Highly recommended for students interested in learning the basics in electric, steel string acoustic and nylon string guitar performance. This class serves as a foundation for the techniques, terminolo...
MPRF510	Graduate Vocal Coaching	Course open to Music School students only. Advanced, individual musical coaching sessions offered, when available, to students preparing recitals or other major performances, or whose repertoire demands regular coaching sessions. Sessions will cover...
MPRF512	Jazz Improvisation (1-On-1)	Course by Permission of Instructor only. Development of fundamental techniques required for group improvisation with an emphasis on gaining facility with jazz harmonic language. Meeting times outside of the regularly scheduled class meetings may be a...
MPRF516	Singing the Standards	Singing the Standards is a style survey, repertoire, and performance course introducing the vocal technique and delivery of jazz singing. The course will focus on listening and style analysis of recordings, videos, and assigned student participation...
MPRF519	Piano Workshop	Course open to Piano Program students only. Piano Workshop will be required every semester for piano majors and the collaborative arts specialization at both the BFA and MFA levels. MAP pianists and performer composers are encouraged but not required...
MPRF521	Trumpet Studio	Course open to Brass Program students only. Performance of ensemble works written for multiple trumpets.
MPRF522	Flute Studio Class	Flute Studio Class is a weekly meeting of the flute majors, BFA and MFA. Those studying flute as a secondary instrument are also invited to attend. We will discuss a variety of topics, including resume and website preparation, pedagogy, repertoire, p...
MPRF523	Harp Studio Class	Course open to Harp Program students only. Participants perform and study solo, chamber and orchestral repertoire, engaging in co-critique.
MPRF524	Oboe Studio Class	Course open to Oboe Program students only. In addition to our normal studies of fundamentals and reedmaking, the intention is to focus also on the major solos that oboists play in orchestral auditions. Also, we will form a Double Reed Quartet with ba...
MPRF525	Cello Studio Class	Course open to Cello Program students only. This course offers in depth work in skill building, problem solving in music preparation, ensemble playing, and contemporary cello literature. Students may also use the studio to perform for one another and...
MPRF526	Experimental Voice	Open to all levels of artists making work with, for, or through the voice. This course explores the voice in many different contexts through improvisation, experimental voice pieces, vocal exercises, and the development of voice-related pieces on a w...
MPRF528	String Workshop	Course open to String students only. Performance of ensemble works written for string instruments. Survey and reading of major chamber ensemble repertoire. Students also perform solo repertoire for the class. Contemporary, folk and traditional techni...

People's Theory

Co-taught by John Mandel and Michael Fink, Music School faculty. An interdisciplinary seminar for Art School students and composers and performers in the Music School, it includes participants from other disciplines as well. This critique aims to cra...

AART627

People's Theory

Co-taught by John Mandel and Michael Fink, Music School faculty. An interdisciplinary seminar for Art School students and composers and performers in the Music School, it includes participants from other disciplines as well. This critique aims to cra...

ICOM120

Coding Art Fundamentals

Unlock your creative potential with coding! In this introductory course, learn fundamental coding concepts using p5js, a visual programming language. You'll create interactive visual art pieces, exploring color theory, animation, basic programming pr...

ICOM121

Coding Music Fundamentals

This course extends previous graphics related programming experience into the audio domain. ChucK, a strongly-timed computer music language will be the focal language of the class, with opportunities to communicate to physical computing platforms lik...

MAIC100

Worlds of Music I: Europe & N. Am. 1900-

An overview of the music of this centuries-of-changes, and the exploding diversity in the arts and society as we are facing them today. The course covers the development of the most important and influential musical branches of the 20th and 21st cent...

MAIC101

Music II: Africa, Asia, L. Am.

This survey course is an introduction to music as a worldwide phenomenon covering folk, popular, art, tribal, religious, and ritual music of various geographical and cultural areas. Emphasis is placed on understanding music as a component of culture...

MAIC240

Jazz History

A survey of the history of jazz and African-American musical traditions, emphasizing critical listening and aural analysis

MAIC314

The Music of Flamenco

A study of the musical aspects (cante-singing and toque-guitar playing) in Flamenco through listening, reading and watching documentary films. We will look at the structure of many Flamenco forms (ie. Seguiriyas, Solea, Bulerias, Tangos, etc.), disc...

MAIC316

Blues Before 1960

A study of the development of the Blues through listening, watching documentary films and reading interviews with artists. We will concentrate on music, lyrics and each artist's individual style and consider the social and historical circumstances s...

MAIC317

Bach and Beyond: Rethinking Bach

This course is designed to develop a deep and meaningful understanding and appreciation of JS Bach, the man, the myth and the music. There will be guided listening in and out of class, as well as reading of materials from Bach's time along with la...

MAIC343

To Exist in Sound: Ambient & 4th World

It's been half a century since Brian Eno embarked on ambient music as a conceptual project, conceiving the idea for Discreet Music while lying incapacitated (recovering from a car accident), listening to a barely audible recording of harp music merge...

MAIC370

DIY

Do-it-yourself - and the related concept of release-it-yourself - has been the ideological and practical underpinning of radical music for at least a half-century. Often identified with the punk rock movement, the DIY imperative actually predates pu...

MAIC401

Improvisation: Uses & Lineage

Improvisation: Uses and Cross-Cultural Lineage This class will explore the nature of improvisation in all its forms-Indian music, flamenco, baroque, organ music, rock, jazz, contemporary, and "free" music. The class integrates material from a wide v...

MAIC403

Teaching Artistry

Teaching Artistry is a lecture class that will focus on best practices of teaching. Through a combination of demo lessons, video clips, field observations, and discussion, participants will explore various pedagogical approaches. Each of these approa...

MAIC404

College Pedagogy

This is a lecture class that will focus on best practices of teaching. Through a combination of demo lessons, video clips, field observations, independent research, and discussion, participants will explore various pedagogical approaches. Each of the...

MAIC412

Critical Reading

Open to BFA3 and BFA4 students only. Where does human perception leave off and the object begin? Can we know the substance of the artistic object, or are we dealing with mental representations of it? What can art itself know? How does it connect with...

MAIC420

Composing for Improvisers

This discussion-based seminar will present a survey of historical and contemporary musical idioms in which composers and sound artists have consciously and actively developed strategies for engaging performers in the act of improvisation. The goal of...

MAIC454

Sounding the Voice: Utterance, Phonetics

Sounding the Voice: Utterance, Phonetics, Advanced Diction, Articulation and Sense. This course is an intermediate study of language and phonology for singers and other artists who work with the voice. It focuses on phonetics and language-like sound...

MAIC455A

Focused Topics in Voice: Dada's Divas

DADA'S DIVAS is a two-semester course (one historical, one performative) dedicated to the (re)discovery of the Dada movement's female pioneers, most of whom have been overshadowed historically by their male counterparts. These women, operating indepe...

MAIC455B

Focused Topics in Voice: Dada's Divas

DADA'S DIVAS is a two-semester course (one historical, one performative) dedicated to the (re)discovery of the Dada movement's female pioneers, most of whom have been overshadowed historically by their male counterparts. These women, operating indepe...

MAIC470

Hip-Hop Theory and Praxis

Hip-Hop music and culture is fundamentally Black work. Hip Hop is Black work created in response to a set of conditions. In the words of Lupe Fiasco the question is always "Did you improve on the design? Did you do something new?" That's the question...

MAIC654

Sounding the Voice: Utterance, Phonetics

Sounding the Voice: Utterance, Phonetics, Advanced Diction, Articulation and Sense. This course is an intermediate study of language and phonology for singers and other artists who work with the voice. It focuses on phonetics and language-like sound...

MBLE104

Tabla Ensemble

Course available by Permission of Instructor only. The CalArts Tabla Ensemble is a performing ensemble that draws from the vast repertoire of North Indian tabla, ranging from classical to folk and traditional to contemporary.

MBLE106

Chamber Music

Course open to Music School students only. Small ensembles for strings, woodwinds, brass, percussion, keyboard instruments and voices, in varying combinations. Individual ensembles are coached by faculty members. Students may sign up for more than on...

MBLE109

Advanced World Percussion Ensemble

Course open to Music School students only. An experimental performance class which works toward combining instruments and musical structures from various cultures. Improvisation, composition and performance practice are integrated. Emphasis is give...

MBLE117

Jazz Student Ensemble

Course open to Music School students only. Performance of ensemble works written for small jazz groups and performed by all-student groups.

MBLE118

Jazz Faculty Ensemble

Course open to Music School students only, by Permission of Instructor only. Performance of ensemble works written for small jazz groups. Faculty members lead groups and play alongside the students.

MBLE120

Brass Ensemble

Course open to Music School students only, by Permission of Instructor only. Performance of ensemble works written for brass instruments, from quintet to dectet (or more).

MBLE121

Low Brass Studio Class

Course open to trombone and euphonium players regardless of program focus. Focused work on specific instrumental needs outside of demands of performances while also providing space for students to present works being prepared for recitals and auditio...

MBLE122

Percussion Ensemble

Course open to Percussion Program students only. Performance of ensemble works written for percussion instruments.

MBLE201

Beginning African Ensemble

Instruction in the performance of authentic traditional music and dances of West Africa. These performances include singing in the language and playing percussion instruments indigenous to the area of origin.

MBLE202

Advanced African Ensemble

Advanced instruction and performance of West African music and dance.

MBLE206

Beginning Talking Drum Ensemble

Talking Drum Ensemble is a performance-based class. Students will participate in drumming traditional music from the Dagbani speaking people of Ghana, West Africa. We will watch video and discuss various aspects of Dagomba music, in order to create c...

MBLE207

Dahomey Women's Ensemble

This is an all-women's ensemble that will primarily focus on learning how to play traditional drumming from Ghana, West Africa. Students will learn the complex layers and polyrhythms of this music as well as the songs and dances that accompany it....

MBLE210

Beginning Javanese Gamelan

Instruction in playing and singing in the central Javanese classical orchestra, a traditional Eastern art form that integrates dance, drama and music.

MBLE211

Advanced Javanese Gamelan

Advanced instruction in playing and singing in the central Javanese classical orchestra.

MBLE216

Advanced Talking Drum Ensemble

TALKING DRUM ENSEMBLE - MUSIC OF THE DAGOMBA PEOPLE OF NORTHERN GHANA. This class will be a performance-based ensemble, with students learning traditional drumming, singing and dance from the Dagomba of Northern Ghana. In this musical tradition, drum...

MBLE220

Beginning Balinese Gamelan

Instruction in the techniques of playing Balinese instruments, collectively called the Semar Pelgulingan.

MBLE221

Advanced Balinese Gamelan

Advanced instruction in the techniques of playing Balinese instruments, collectively called the Semar Pelgulingan.

MBLE222

Gender Wayang Ensemble

Small ensemble performances by quartet of metallaphones as accompaniment to Balinese shadow plays.

MBLE223

Balinese Flute Ensemble

Training in Balinese flute playing sixteen various-sized bamboo flutes accompanied by percussion instruments. Students will perform as an ensemble.

MBLE224

Kecak Ensemble

Balinese Monkey Chant ensemble. various-sized bamboo flutes accompanied by percussion instruments. Students will perform as an ensemble.

MBLE225

Korean Two-Stringed Instrument Workshop

In this course, students will learn basic performance techniques of the haegeum (a two-stringed instrument of Korea): bowing, fingering, jangdan (rhythmic pattern), jo (modes), and Korean music notation. Repertoire will include classical pieces, folk...

MBLE230

North Indian Ensemble

Course open to Music students only. Vocal and instrumental performance using both Indi various-sized bamboo flutes accompanied by percussion instruments. Students will perform as an ensemble.

MBLE235

Japan Ensemble

In Japan Ensemble we have three sections to teach students their choice of traditional Japanese instruments: Strings (Koto/Shamisen), Shakuhachi (the Japanese bamboo vertical flute), or Taiko (Japanese drums). Instruction is separated by instrument,...

MBLE240

Persia Electric Ensemble

This inaugural launch of the intersection between ancient and new forms is a year-long course. Paths will be re-traced along the Silk Road hundreds of years before, works rehearsed and performed on Persian and Western instruments alongside genres dev...

MBLE250

African Dance

Instruction in the traditional dances of West Africa.

MBLE252

Balinese Dance

Instruction in the traditional dances of Bali.

MBLE254

Javanese Dance (women)

Instruction in the traditional dance techniques of Indonesia. There are separate sections for women and men.

MBLE256

Javanese Dance (men)

Instruction in the traditional dance techniques of Indonesia. There are separate sections for women and men.

MBLE260

The Baltic Voice

The ensemble will study, learn and perform Baltic folk music, particularly vocal music from the country of Latvia. Emphasis will be placed on the aural traditions of regional vocal styles that include recitation songs, antiphonal singing, and part so...

MBLE300

The Ensemble

The Ensemble at CalArts is an umbrella course for conducted ensemble performance activities consisting of faculty performers and student musicians and is primarily devoted to the exploration and exposition of emerging languages in contemporary music...

MBLE302

Contemporary Vocal Ensemble

Contemporary Vocal Ensemble (CVE) is a chamber choir committed to "exploring and expanding ways of writing for choir, singing in choir, and listening to music for choir" (crossingchoir.org). CVE's programs focus on works composed within the last 50 y...

MBLE309

Period Instrument Ensemble

An Ensemble Dedicated to Historically Informed Performance Practice on Baroque Instruments Students will be immersed in weekly rehearsal and performance of repertoire from the 17th and 18th centuries on Baroque instruments, gaining experience with...

MBLE310

Improvisation Ensemble

Course open to Music School students only. Open to all instrumentalists and vocalists. With structured and unstructured improvisational studies, the course is designed to help the student develop his/her own creative voice. Concerts are presented r...

MBLE312

Interdisciplinary Improvisation Workshop

This course serves as an interdisciplinary introduction to structured improvisation through Soundpainting, a sign language for spontaneous composition originally developed by Walter Thompson as part of the vibrant downtown improv scene in 1980s New Y...

MBLE325

Creative Electronic Ensemble

Course open to Music School students only. An ensemble researching the interactive languages and the improvisational forms of live electronic music with a major philosophical focus on music technology and interactive, improvisational music.

MBLE327

Multi-Focus Ensemble

This is a course for ensembles that are entirely initiated, organized and run by students. The personnel, repertoire and rehearsal times and places are decided by ensemble members. In order for members to receive credit, the ensemble needs to be coac...

MBLE328

Collaborative Music Ensemble

Students work collectively to develop, rehearse and record experimental pop music in ensembles of 3-4 students each. Students will explore multiple approaches to collaboration: from rehearsing and recording as a live ensemble; to "turn-taking" overdu...

MBLE399

Independent Study

Under the direction of a specific faculty member, students complete projects defined in a contractual agreement made at the beginning of each semester.

MBLE435

Microtonal Ensemble

The microtonal ensemble will focus on hearing, playing, composing and improvising microtonally. We will develop our skills by looking at and playing contemporary pieces in a range of tuning systems, by improvising as a group, and by writing our own w...

MBLE450

Sonic Boom Ensemble

Course open to all CalArts students playing an instrument, but, of course, especially school of music students. Sonic Boom is an ensemble/band somewhere between avant-garde rock, noise, electronica, ambient, new music, and other things that fall bet...

MBLE460

Golia Large Ensemble

Course open to Music students only. The Large Ensemble, under the direction of faculty member Vinny Golia, is a loosely based chamber orchestra which improvises, and performs compositions and structured improvisations by Golia. The Large Ensemble is...

MBLE498C

Electroacoustic Ensemble

The electroacoustic ensemble explores electroacoustic and digital music performance practices using laptops, tablets, various sensors, controllers, synths, and multi-channel speakers. The ensemble will perform improvised and composed works and explor...

MBLE498D

Creative Repertory Ensemble

Students will immerse themselves in historical aspects of the resistance movement of the 1960s and 1970s as it relates to folk music and its intersection with afropunk and other elements of early rock and roll. The themes are futurism, androgyny and...

MBLE498E

Folk Singing Ensemble

The Folk Singing Ensemble, led by graduate student Elizabeth Ann Setzer, will delve into folk singing traditions from the Balkans, the Caucasus, and beyond. Through weekly rehearsals, virtual and in-person workshops with guest artists, and research/p...

MBLE500

The Ensemble

The Ensemble at CalArts is an umbrella course for conducted ensemble performance activities consisting of faculty performers and student musicians and is primarily devoted to the exploration and exposition of emerging languages in contemporary music...

MBLE501

Beginning African Ensemble

Instruction in the performance of authentic traditional music and dances of West Africa. These performances include singing in the language and playing percussion instruments indigenous to the area of origin.

MBLE502

Advanced African Ensemble

Open to African Music & Dance Program students only. Advanced instruction and performance of West African music and dance.

MBLE506

Beginning Talking Drum Ensemble

Talking Drum Ensemble is a performance-based class. Students will participate in drumming traditional music from the Dagbani speaking people of Ghana, West Africa. We will watch video and discuss various aspects of Dagomba music, in order to create c...

MBLE507

Dahomey Women's Ensemble

This is an all-women's ensemble that will primarily focus on learning how to play traditional drumming from Ghana, West Africa. Students will learn the complex layers and polyrhythms of this music as well as the songs and dances that accompany it....

MBLE509

Advanced World Percussion Ensemble

Course open to Music School students only. An experimental performance class which works toward combining instruments and musical structures from various cultures. Improvisation, composition and performance practice are integrated. Emphasis is give...

MBLE510

Beginning Javanese Gamelan

Instruction in playing and singing in the central Javanese classical orchestra, a traditional Eastern art form that integrates dance, drama and music.

MBLE511

Advanced Javanese Gamelan

Open to Balinese and Javanese Program students only. Advanced instruction in the techniques of playing Balinese instruments, collectively called the Semar Pelgulingan.

MBLE516

Advanced Talking Drum Ensemble

TALKING DRUM ENSEMBLE - MUSIC OF THE DAGOMBA PEOPLE OF NORTHERN GHANA. This class will be a performance-based ensemble, with students learning traditional drumming, singing and dance from the Dagomba of Northern Ghana. In this musical tradition, drum...

MBLE520

Beginning Balinese Gamelan

Advanced instruction in the techniques of playing Balinese instruments, collectively called the Semar Pelgulingan.

MBLE521

Advanced Balinese Gamelan

Open to Balinese and Javanese Program students only. Advanced instruction in the techniques of playing Balinese instruments, collectively called the Semar Pelgulingan.

MBLE522

Gender Wayang Ensemble

Small ensemble performances by quartet of metallaphones as accompaniment to Balinese shadow plays.

MBLE523

Balinese Flute Ensemble

Training in Balinese flute playing sixteen various-sized bamboo flutes accompanied by percussion instruments. Students will perform as an ensemble.

MBLE524

Kecak Ensemble

Balinese Monkey Chant ensemble.

MBLE525

Korean Two-Stringed Instrument Workshop

In this course, students will learn basic performance techniques of the haegeum (a two-stringed instrument of Korea): bowing, fingering, jangdan (rhythmic pattern), jo (modes), and Korean music notation. Repertoire will include classical pieces, folk...

MBLE530

North Indian Ensemble

Course open to Music School students only. Advanced vocal and instrumental performance using both Indian and European instruments.

MBLE535

Japan Ensemble

In Japan Ensemble we have three sections to teach students their choice of traditional Japanese instruments: Strings (Koto/Shamisen), Shakuhachi (the Japanese bamboo vertical flute), or Taiko (Japanese drums). Instruction is separated by instrument,...

MBLE540

Persia Electric Ensemble

This inaugural launch of the intersection between ancient and new forms is a year-long course. Paths will be re-traced along the Silk Road hundreds of years before, works rehearsed and performed on Persian and Western instruments alongside genres dev...

MBLE550

African Dance

Instruction in the traditional dances of West African Dance

MBLE552

Balinese Dance

Instruction in the traditional dances of Bali.

MBLE554

Javanese Dance (women)

Instruction in the traditional dance techniques of Indonesia. There are separate sections for women and men.

MBLE556

Javanese Dance (men)

Instruction in the traditional dance techniques of Indonesia. There are separate sections for women and men.

MBLE560

The Baltic Voice

The ensemble will study, learn and perform Baltic folk music, particularly vocal music from the country of Latvia. Emphasis will be placed on the aural traditions of regional vocal styles that include recitation songs, antiphonal singing, and part so...

MBLE602

Contemporary Vocal Ensemble

Contemporary Vocal Ensemble (CVE) is a chamber choir committed to "exploring and expanding ways of writing for choir, singing in choir, and listening to music for choir" (crossingchoir.org). CVE's programs focus on works composed within the last 50 y...

MBLE604

Tabla Ensemble

Course available by Permission of Instructor only. The CalArts Tabla Ensemble is a performing ensemble that draws from the vast repertoire of North Indian tabla, ranging from classical to folk and traditional to contemporary.

MBLE606

Chamber Music

Course open to Music School students only. Small ensembles for strings, woodwinds, brass, percussion, keyboard instruments and voices, in varying combinations. Individual ensembles are coached by faculty members.

MBLE609

Period Instrument Ensemble

An Ensemble Dedicated to Historically Informed Performance Practice on Baroque Instruments Students will be immersed in weekly rehearsal and performance of repertoire from the 17th and 18th centuries on Baroque instruments, gaining experience with...

MBLE610

Improvisation Ensemble

Course open to Music School students only. Open to all instrumentalists and vocalists. With structured and unstructured improvisational studies, the course is designed to help the student develop his/her own creative voice. Concerts are presented r...

MBLE612

Interdisciplinary Improvisation Workshop

This course serves as an interdisciplinary introduction to structured improvisation through Soundpainting, a sign language for spontaneous composition originally developed by Walter Thompson as part of the vibrant downtown improv scene in 1980s New Y...

MBLE617

Jazz Student Ensemble

Course open to Music School students only. Performance of ensemble works written for small jazz groups and performed by all-student groups.

MBLE618

Jazz Faculty Ensemble

Course open to Music School students only, by Permission of Instructor only. Performance of ensemble works written for small jazz groups. Faculty members lead groups and play alongside the students.

MBLE620

Brass Ensemble

Course open to Music School students only, by Permission of Instructor only. Performance of ensemble works written for brass instruments, from quintet to dectet (or more).

MBLE621

Low Brass Studio Class

Course open to trombone and euphonium players regardless of program focus. Focused work on specific instrumental needs outside of demands of performances while also providing space for students to present works being prepared for recitals and auditio...

MBLE622

Percussion Ensemble

Course open to Percussion Program students only. Advanced performance of ensemble works written for percussion instruments.

MBLE625

Creative Electronic Ensemble

Course open to Music School students only. An ensemble researching the interactive languages and the improvisational forms of live electronic music with a major philosophical focus on music technology and interactive, improvisational music.

MBLE627

Multi-Focus Ensemble

This is a course for ensembles that are entirely initiated, organized and run by students. The personnel, repertoire and rehearsal times and places are decided by ensemble members. In order for members to receive credit, the ensemble needs to be coac...

MBLE628

Collaborative Music Ensemble

Students work collectively to develop, rehearse and record experimental pop music in ensembles of 3-4 students each. Students will explore multiple approaches to collaboration: from rehearsing and recording as a live ensemble; to "turn-taking" overdu...

MBLE635

Microtonal Ensemble

The microtonal ensemble will focus on hearing, playing, composing and improvising microtonally. We will develop our skills by looking at and playing contemporary pieces in a range of tuning systems, by improvising as a group, and by writing our own w...

MBLE650

Sonic Boom Ensemble

Course open to all CalArts students, but , of course, especially for School of Music students. An ensemble/band falling somewhere between avant-garde rock, noise, electronica, ambient, new music, and other things that fall between the cracks. This co...

MBLE660

Golia Large Ensemble

Course open to Music School students only. The Large Ensemble, under the direction of faculty member Vinny Golia, is a loosely based chamber orchestra which improvises, and performs compositions and structured improvisations by Golia. The Large Ensem...

MBLE698C

Electroacoustic Ensemble

The electroacoustic ensemble explores electroacoustic and digital music performance practices using laptops, tablets, various sensors, controllers, synths, and multi-channel speakers. The ensemble will perform improvised and composed works and explor...

MBLE698D

Creative Repertory Ensemble

Students will immerse themselves in historical aspects of the resistance movement of the 1960s and 1970s as it relates to folk music and its intersection with afropunk and other elements of early rock and roll. The themes are futurism, androgyny and...

MBLE698E

Folk Singing Ensemble

The Folk Singing Ensemble, led by graduate student Elizabeth Ann Setzer, will delve into folk singing traditions from the Balkans, the Caucasus, and beyond. Through weekly rehearsals, virtual and in-person workshops with guest artists, and research/p...

MBLE699

Independent Study

Under the direction of a specific faculty member, students complete projects defined in a contractual agreement made at the beginning of each semester.

MBLE799

Independent Proj: Ensemble

Under the direction of a specific faculty member, students complete projects defined in a contractual agreement made at the beginning of the semester.

MCMP105

Music Notation

Open to Music Composition Program students only. A survey of conventional notation standards used by the music publishing industry. Guided remedial study in the use of music notation software is included on an individual basis as needed. Additional...

MCMP110

Introduction to Composition

Workshop in which students outside the Composition Program may acquire some experience with composing. Topics include aural and visual analysis, the processes of composition, form, structure, and methodology. When possible, music written in the works...

MCMP112

Composing Experimental Pop

This course will analyze the rhythmic, harmonic, melodic, timbral, and lyrical content of experimental pop and encourage students to perceive and describe its organization. Deconstructing compositions from a diverse range of artists including David...

MCMP120

Instrumental Composition I

Course open to Composition Program or Performer/Composer Program students only. This course comprises foundational studies in the art of musical composition, complementing private composition lessons with directed listening and analysis. Composition...

MCMP121

Instrumental Composition II

Open to Music Composition Program students; open to other students with permission of instructor. This course continues foundational studies in the art of musical composition, complementing private composition lessons with directed listening and anal...

MCMP130

Performer-Composer Laboratory

What does it mean to integrate performance and composition into one creative practice? How can we make new and relevant work for ourselves and one another? What might we need to know about each other's voices, instruments, and practices? This course...

MCMP131

Performer-Composer Laboratory

What does it mean to integrate performance and composition into one creative practice? How can we make new and relevant work for ourselves and one another? What might we need to know about each other's voices, instruments, and practices? This course...

MCMP290

Portfolio Review

The student must prepare and submit for review a cumulative portfolio of their creative work. This portfolio will contain work produced at CalArts, a substantial portion of which should have been presented in performance or other appropriate manner....

MCMP306

Arranging Experimental Pop

Experimental Pop artists who compose in a DAW have an unlimited arsenal of virtual musicians and drag-n-drop riffs available at their fingertips, ready to be deployed with the click of a mouse. No longer "constrained" by the natural order of instrume...

MCMP307

Arranging

Arranging is a "secret sauce" between composition and performance. It is a design involving style, sound, technique, and feeling. Arrangers have been somewhat mercurial figures who emerged from the jazz age, and who adapted to the possibilities and t...

MCMP308

The Art of the Mix

What do arranging and mixing look like in a modern recording studio or home studio? In the era of self-production (where the lines between composer, engineer, arranger and producer are blurred) and recording in a DAW with unlimited tracks and unlimit...

MCMP310

Jazz Composition

By permission of instructor only. Permission will be given on Course Advising Day each semester. During this one semester course, each student will complete at least seven new original compositions to be played and recorded in class. Course content w...

MCMP314

Jazz Arranging

Techniques and tools of arranging for mixed, small jazz ensembles, combined with advanced studies in hearing and transcribing the forms and materials of jazz literature.

MCMP317

Guitar(s) and ...

For Composer/Guitarists and other Composer/Instrumentalists: This course encourages courageous exploration of composition for guitar(s) with other instruments. The students workshop new original pieces composed specifically for the class to perform....

MCMP325

Experimental Music Workshop I

The Limits of Perception: This year the experimental music workshop class will deal with works that explore fundamental questions about musical perception. Repertoire we will work on or listen to will include John CageÈs 0È00» Alvin LucierÈs Vespers,...

MCMP326

Experimental Music Workshop II

Course open to Music School students only. The Limits of Perception: This year the experimental music workshop class will deal with works that explore fundamental questions about musical perception. Repertoire we will work on or listen to will includ...

MCMP330

Writing for Strings

Course available by permission of instructor only. Techniques of writing for strings in both individual and ensemble contexts. Course will include composition and recording projects.

MCMP331

Writing for Woodwinds

Writing for Woodwinds is a workshop in composing music for wind instruments. Instrumental techniques from the traditional to the extended are demonstrated and discussed. In addition to listening assignments and study of scores of music, which range f...

MCMP332

Writing for Harp

The course will incorporate a thorough investigation of the physical and notational aspects of harp techniques, with opportunities to apply what the student has learned in several composition projects. Throughout the course, students will compose sho...

MCMP333

Writing for Percussion

Learning to write for the vast family of percussion. Course will include some hands-on experience in basic percussion techniques. Students will write for solo and ensembles of percussion, including some world music traditions.

MCMP334

Writing for Brass

Techniques of writing for brass instruments in solo or mixed ensemble settings. This course will include composition and performance projects. Historical references will be explored alongside conventional and extended techniques, auxiliary instrument...

MCMP336

Writing for Voice

This course is geared to students who are interested in writing solo or ensemble vocal music and who would like to learn more about how the voice functions and how best to write for it. Topics covered may include the functioning of the voice as an i...

MCMP339

Writing for Everything Else

This course will examine the risks, rewards, realities, pleasures, pitfalls, and hazards of composing for instruments indigenous to cultures other than one's own. Technical and notation aspects related to writing for instruments played by performers...

MCMP342

Composition for Film & Television

Course available by permission of instructor only. This course offers the opportunity to develop skills and techniques to compose music for film and video. Participants are expected to score a number of short clips from original films. Class discussi...

MCMP343

Experiments in Film Sound

This course will explore the development of sound manipulation techniques for film--including Eisenstein's vertical montages, the BBC Radiophonic Workshop's musique concrete strategies, David Lynch's industrial drones, and Wendy Carlos' synthesized s...

MCMP368

Sonic Collage

In Sonic Collage, we will reimagine and recontextualize soundscapes by revisiting the art of the archive. Sonic Collage asks us to compose through the compost, to RE*member the dismembered and forgotten by sighting our sources. We will explore unorth...

MCMP369

The Studio As Instrument

How has the merging of composing, recording, and production afforded by developments in studio technology--from the multitrack analog studios of the 1960's to the DAW-based home studios of today--opened up new ways of creating music and new musical f...

MCMP399

Independent Study

Under the direction of a specific faculty member, students complete projects defined in a contractual agreement made at the beginning of each semester.

MCMP402

Orchestration

A study of orchestral instruments and their combinations from expressive, structural, historical, pragmatic, and exploratory perspectives. This course will integrate composing/arranging exercises for a variety of instruments and ensembles, directed...

MCMP404

Field Recording Workshop

Course available only by permission of instructor at Course Advising Day The Field Recording Workshop is an investigation into the historical, technical and aesthetic aspects of field recording as a means of documentation and as a musical practice. A...

MCMP405

Electroacoustic Seminar

In this seminar we will learn about and explore non-linear creative systems for composition and performance with the Experimental Sound Studio serving as our exploratory vessel. A mixture of group discussion, lecture, and in-class presentations will...

MCMP407

Music for a Concert Hall

In this course, we will discover the concert hall as an instrument. Instead of understanding the hall as a shell that provides a space for performers and audiences to engage with music, we will research the venue's acoustic properties, analyze its so...

MCMP408

Sound and Audio Walks

While sound walks guide the attention of audience members to the sounding reality of their immediate surroundings, audio walks constitute a simple form of augmented reality where audience members listen to audio through headphones while walking throu...

MCMP415

Choreographers & Composers

Course open to BFA4 Music School students only. This course brings together advanced composition students and advanced choreographers in projects combining the two disciplines.

MCMP416

Concert Theater

Performing Landscapes: Music, Text, Space, Body, & Design investigates contemporary music-based performance through the lens of alternative modalities and non-traditional strategies emerging from music, theater, movement, and space. Intended for MFA...

MCMP421

Cross-Genre Hybrid Music Composition

In this course students will focus on creating new compositions that are hybrid in nature. Students will be tasked with creating new works based on the blending or juxtaposition of varying sonic elements, drawn from specific historical eras or genres...

MCMP465

Composition with Max/MSP

A course designed for qualified music students to gain facility in using graphical programming environments. For over twenty years such environments have been used by composers, artists, musicians, and scientists to create truly unique customized pro...

MCMP490

Graduation Portfolio Review

In the semester preceding graduation, the student must prepare and submit for review a cumulative portfolio of their creative work. This portfolio will contain work produced at CalArts, a substantial portion of which should have been presented in per...

MCMP498O

Music-Photo-Fiction

This course takes music, photography and writing together as a unified creative process. In fact this is the combination in which recorded music typically appears on recorded media or online (eg. bandcamp) - but what are the ways that these media can...

MCMP498S

Making Music Videos

Students in this class will complete a number of collaborative music video production projects in groups that include students from the schools of music, dance, film/video and experimental animation. Music videos can be a wonderful tool for filmmake...

MCMP498T

Architectural Instrument Building

Students will design and build their own musical playground instruments, which they will then compose for and perform on. Discussions will include: instrument-building as pre-compositional process; instrumental architecture; and play theory, toys, an...

MCMP506

Arranging Experimental Pop

Experimental Pop artists who compose in a DAW have an unlimited arsenal of virtual musicians and drag-n-drop riffs available at their fingertips, ready to be deployed with the click of a mouse. No longer "constrained" by the natural order of instrume...

MCMP507

Arranging

Arranging is a "secret sauce" between composition and performance. It is a design involving style, sound, technique, and feeling. Arrangers have been somewhat mercurial figures who emerged from the jazz age, and who adapted to the possibilities and t...

MCMP508

Sound and Audio Walks

While sound walks guide the attention of audience members to the sounding reality of their immediate surroundings, audio walks constitute a simple form of augmented reality where audience members listen to audio through headphones while walking throu...

MCMP510

Introduction to Composition

Workshop in which students outside the Composition Program may acquire some experience with composing. Topics include aural and visual analysis, the processes of composition, form, structure, and methodology. When possible, music written in the works...

MCMP517

Guitar(s) and ...

For Composer/Guitarists and other Composer/Instrumentalists: This course encourages courageous exploration of composition for guitar(s) with other instruments. The students workshop new original pieces composed specifically for the class to perform....

MCMP602

Orchestration

A study of orchestral instruments and their combinations from expressive, structural, historical, pragmatic, and exploratory perspectives. This course will integrate composing/arranging exercises for a variety of instruments and ensembles, directed l...

MCMP604

Field Recording Workshop

The Field Recording Workshop is an investigation into the historical, technical and aesthetic aspects of field recording as a means of documentation and as a musical practice. As a workshop, we will actively engage in making recordings, comparing and...

MCMP605

Electroacoustic Seminar

In this seminar we will learn about and explore non-linear creative systems for composition and performance with the Experimental Sound Studio serving as our exploratory vessel. A mixture of group discussion, lecture, and in-class presentations will...

MCMP607

Music for a Concert Hall

In this course, we will discover the concert hall as an instrument. Instead of understanding the hall as a shell that provides a space for performers and audiences to engage with music, we will research the venue's acoustic properties, analyze its so...

MCMP608

The Art of the Mix

What do arranging and mixing look like in a modern recording studio or home studio? In the era of self-production (where the lines between composer, engineer, arranger and producer are blurred) and recording in a DAW with unlimited tracks and unlimit...

MCMP610

Jazz Composition

By permission of instructor only. Permission will be given on Course Advising Day each semester. During this one semester course, each student will complete at least seven new original compositions to be played and recorded in class. Course content...

MCMP614

Jazz Arranging

Techniques and tools of arranging for mixed, small jazz ensembles, combined with advanced studies in hearing and transcribing the forms and materials of jazz literature.

MCMP615

Choreographers & Composers

Course open to Music School students only. This course brings together advanced composition students and advanced choreographers in projects combining the two disciplines.

MCMP616

Concert Theater

Performing Landscapes: Music, Text, Space, Body, & Design investigates contemporary music-based performance through the lens of alternative modalities and non-traditional strategies emerging from music, theater, movement, and space. Intended for MFA...

MCMP620

Composing for Improvisers

This discussion-based seminar will present a survey of historical and contemporary musical idioms in which composers and sound artists have consciously and actively developed strategies for engaging performers in the act of improvisation. The goal of...

MCMP621

Cross-Genre Hybrid Music Composition

In this course students will focus on creating new compositions that are hybrid in nature. Students will be tasked with creating new works based on the blending or juxtaposition of varying sonic elements, drawn from specific historical eras or genres...

MCMP623

Modeling Propositional Music in Art-Sci

Propositional music is a point of view about composing that emerges from a unique philosophy, framework, and method for compositional practice in experimental music that proceeds from proposing models informed by pandisciplinary interests, and then p...

MCMP625

Experimental Music Workshop I

The Limits of Perception: This year the experimental music workshop class will deal with works that explore fundamental questions about musical perception. Repertoire we will work on or listen to will include John CageÈs 0È00» Alvin LucierÈs Vespers,...

MCMP626

Experimental Music Workshop II

Course open to Music School students only. The Limits of Perception: This year the experimental music workshop class will deal with works that explore fundamental questions about musical perception. Repertoire we will work on or listen to will includ...

MCMP630

Writing for Strings

Course open to Music School students only. Techniques of writing for strings in both individual and ensemble contexts. Course will include composition and recording projects.

MCMP631

Writing for Woodwinds

Writing for Woodwinds is a workshop in composing music for wind instruments. Instrumental techniques from the traditional to the extended are demonstrated and discussed. In addition to listening assignments and study of scores of music, which range f...

MCMP632

Writing for Harp

The course will incorporate a thorough investigation of the physical and notational aspects of harp techniques, with opportunities to apply what the student has learned in several composition projects. Throughout the course, students will compose sho...

MCMP633

Writing for Percussion

Learning to write for the vast family of percussion. Course will include some hands-on experience in basic percussion techniques. Students will write for solo and ensembles of percussion, including some world music traditions.

MCMP634

Writing for Brass

Course open to Music School students only. Techniques of writing for brass instruments in solo or mixed ensemble settings. This course will include composition and performance projects. Historical references will be explored alongside conventional an...

MCMP636

Writing for Voice

This course is geared to students who are interested in writing solo or ensemble vocal music and who would like to learn more about how the voice functions and how best to write for it. Topics covered may include the functioning of the voice as an in...

MCMP639

Writing for Everything Else

This course will examine the risks, rewards, realities, pleasures, pitfalls, and hazards of composing for instruments indigenous to cultures other than one's own. Technical and notation aspects related to writing for instruments played by performers...

MCMP642

Composition for Film & Television

Course available by permission of instructor only. This course offers the opportunity to develop skills and techniques to compose music for film and video. Participants are expected to score a number of short clips from original films. Class discussi...

MCMP643

Experiments in Film Sound

This course will explore the development of sound manipulation techniques for film--including Eisenstein's vertical montages, the BBC Radiophonic Workshop's musique concrete strategies, David Lynch's industrial drones, and Wendy Carlos' synthesized s...

MCMP665

Composition with Max/MSP

A course designed for qualified music students to gain facility in using graphical programming environments. For over twenty years such environments have been used by composers, artists, musicians, and scientists to create truly unique customized pro...

MCMP667

Global Studios and Audiotopias

This semester, the focus for this class will be on creating post-geographic and left-field electronic dance music, culminating in the facilitation of a dance music space where we can share work created in the class at CalArts Expo. Students in this c...

MCMP668

Sonic Collage

In Sonic Collage, we will reimagine and recontextualize soundscapes by revisiting the art of the archive. Sonic Collage asks us to compose through the compost, to RE*member the dismembered and forgotten by sighting our sources. We will explore unorth...

MCMP669

The Studio As Instrument

How has the merging of composing, recording, and production afforded by developments in studio technology--from the multitrack analog studios of the 1960's to the DAW-based home studios of today--opened up new ways of creating music and new musical f...

MCMP690

Graduation Portfolio Review

In the semester preceding graduation, students in certain programs must submit a portfolio of work for review. This portfolio will contain work produced at CalArts, a substantial portion of which should have been presented in performance or other app...

MCMP698M

Video Game Scoring

This course will focus on the unique challenges of music scoring for game environments. Parallels and distinctions with regard to concert music, film, TV, cartoons and other linear media music will be explored as students analyze and create music fo...

MCMP698O

Music-Photo-Fiction

This course takes music, photography and writing together as a unified creative process. In fact this is the combination in which recorded music typically appears on recorded media or online (eg. bandcamp) - but what are the ways that these media can...

MCMP698T

Architectural Instrument Building

Students will design and build their own musical playground instruments, which they will then compose for and perform on. Discussions will include: instrument-building as pre-compositional process; instrumental architecture; and play theory, toys, an...

MCMP699

Independent Study

Under the direction of a specific faculty member, students complete projects defined in a contractual agreement made at the beginning of each semester.

MCMP700

Doctoral Seminar

Course open to Music School students only. Functioning as a forum for the work-in-progress of DMA students, this weekly seminar will allow students regularly to present and discuss their work and associated materials, and to receive feedback from pro...

MCMP790

Doctoral Project

Course open to Music School students only. The Doctoral Project, beginning with intensive independent research and experimentation, and culminating in the creation of several distinct, yet interconnected components, prepares candidates for a noticeab...

MCMP791

DMA First-Year Review

Before the end of the first academic year in residence, each DMA student must engage in a comprehensive artistic, academic and pedagogical review with his/her Doctoral Examining Committee (DEC). The DEC will consider the following topics, and may req...

MCMP792

DMA Qualifying Examinations

DMA students must pass Written and Oral Qualifying Examinations before advancing to degree candidacy. The Qualifying Examinations are administered by the student's Doctoral Examining Committee.

MCMP794

DMA Final Review

Before the awarding of the degree each DMA student must pass a Final Review, conducted by his/her Doctoral Examining Committee. This review assesses the student's artistic, intellectual, academic, professional, and pedagogical standing in relation...

MCMP799

Independent Project

Under the direction of a specific faculty member, students complete projects defined in a contractual agreement made at the beginning of the semester.

MCOM320

Creative Coding with C++

Explore the fundamentals of C++ programming using OpenFrameworks, focusing on interactive and sensor-driven applications. Develop skills in creative coding, media interaction, and integration with tools like TouchDesigner and Max/MSP. This course lay...

MCOM335

Interactive Algorithmic Sound

This course focuses on interactive, procedural, generative, and algorithmic methods of sound creation. We will learn how to create systems of sound and explore the various ways of interacting and influencing them. Additionally, we will be looking at...

MCOM421

Creative Coding for AI Art

This course provides a foundational introduction to the Python programming language through hands-on and creative applications. In this course, we will explore programming in Python with a focus on machine learning applications for generative art mak...

MCOM440

Audio Programming With C++

Ever wondered what goes into your favorite music software? Learn how to build your own and open doors for both your personal creativity and career. In this course we'll explore the JUCE audio plugin framework, and the design software Figma to see how...

MCOM621

Creative Coding for AI Art

This course provides a foundational introduction to the Python programming language through hands-on and creative applications. In this course, we will explore programming in Python with a focus on machine learning applications for generative art mak...

MCOM635

Interactive Algorithmic Sound

This course focuses on interactive, procedural, generative, and algorithmic methods of sound creation. We will learn how to create systems of sound and explore the various ways of interacting and influencing them. Additionally, we will be looking at...

MCOM640

Audio Programming With C++

Ever wondered what goes into your favorite music software? Learn how to build your own and open doors for both your personal creativity and career. In this course we'll explore the JUCE audio plugin framework, and the design software Figma to see how...

MCSE309

Words for Music

This course will investigate the nature of writing words for music and setting pre-existing words to musicj. Students will develop an understanding of how musical time affects the perception of words and how words interact with the perception of musi...

MCSE461

Grant Writing for Artists

Grant Writing for Artists will provide students with a basic introduction to grant writing, hands-on experience preparing a grant application in a workshop setting, and critical discussion around the history and cultural practices related to funding...

MCSE609

Words for Music

This course will investigate the nature of writing words for music and setting pre-existing words to musicj. Students will develop an understanding of how musical time affects the perception of words and how words interact with the perception of musi...

MCSE661

Grant Writing for Artists

Grant Writing for Artists will provide students with a basic introduction to grant writing, hands-on experience preparing a grant application in a workshop setting, and critical discussion around the history and cultural practices related to funding...

MFOR100

Musician's Toolkit

Toolkit is designed as a preparation for a life in professional music, as well as an orientation to the college experience. It's especially helpful for first year undergraduates, but it is also open to upper division undergraduates and graduate stude...

MFOR101

Undergraduate Composers' Forum

Course open to Composition Program students only. Presentation and critique of student compositions and projects, both finished and in-process. Selected topics of relevance to composers will be addressed as time permits, such as notation standards, p...

MFOR102

Performance Forum

Course open to Music School students only. Undergraduate Performance Forum will provide an experiential approach to music-making through a series of open coachings by faculty and guests of student chamber music groups, and other performances by guest...

MFOR103

Voicearts Forum

Course open to Music School students only. A weekly forum for singers, this course focuses on developing performance-related skills through observation, practice and discussion. Sessions will be devoted to guest artist performances, master classes, e...

MFOR104

Experimental Pop Forum

Course open to Music School students only. Designed as a gathering where Experimental Pop Program students share and discuss their artistic work on a weekly basis, this forum will also include informal group critiques, opportunities to collaborate on...

MFOR106

Creative Technology Forum

Weekly gatherings and presentations on current directions in the field of music technology. Occasional workshops by visiting master computer music artists whenever possible. Critique, presentation, and performance of student projects and compositions...

MFOR107

Jazz Forum

Course open to Music School students only. Weekly presentations on current directions in jazz, emphasizing workshops by visiting master jazz artists whenever possible and including discussion, rehearsal, and performance of their music. Occasional joi...

MFOR110

First-Year Seminar in Music

Through music, presentations, and activities, this class provides an orientation to the diversity, experimental ethos, and vibrant creative community at CalArts' School of Music. It will also address resources available to music students and strategi...

MFOR111

Guitar Forum

Guitar Workshop is intended to be a common meeting ground for all guitar majors and other interested guitarists. The objective is to foster a non-competetive sense of community which encourages mutual inspiration and cross fertilization of ideas, pr...

MFOR200

Music Artists-In-Residence Week

Invited artists visit CalArts' campus to give presentations and workshops, perform, collaborate, and engage with the student body and the School of Music's facilities.

MFOR305

Performer-Composer Forum

Course open to Music School students only. The Performer-Composers Forum features master classes given by the instructor and special guests. Topics may include how new music gets created, music history, performance, composers, (alive and dead), getti...

MFOR500

Musician's Toolkit

Toolkit is designed as a preparation for a life in professional music, as well as an orientation to the college experience. It's especially helpful for first year undergraduates, but it is also open to upper division undergraduates and graduate stude...

MFOR501

Graduate Composers' Forum

Course open to Music School students only. Presentation and critique of student compositions and projects, both finished and in process.

MFOR502

Performance Forum

Course open to Music School students only. Graduate Performance Forum will provide an experiential approach to music-making through a series of open coachings by faculty and guests of student chamber music groups, and other performances by guests, st...

MFOR503

Voicearts Forum

Course open to Music School students only. A weekly forum for singers, this course focuses on developing performance-related skills through observation, practice and discussion. Sessions will be devoted to guest artist performances, master classes, e...

MFOR504

Experimental Pop Forum

Course open to Music School students only. Designed as a gathering where Experimental Pop Program students share and discuss their artistic work on a weekly basis, this forum will also include informal group critiques, opportunities to collaborate on...

MFOR505

Performer-Composer Forum

Course open to Music School students only. The Performer-Composers Forum features master classes given by the instructor and special guests. Topics may include how new music gets created, music history, performance, composers, (alive and dead), getti...

MFOR506

Creative Technology Forum

Course open to Music School students only. Weekly gatherings and presentations on current directions in the field of music technology. Occasional workshops by visiting master computer music artists whenever possible. Critique, presentation, and per...

MFOR507

Jazz Forum

Course open to Music School students only. Weekly presentations on current directions in jazz, emphasizing workshops by visiting master jazz artists whenever possible and including discussion, rehearsal, and performance of their music. Occasional jo...

MFOR508

ESP Forum

Course open to Experimental Sound Practices students only. This class centers on the presentation and critique of works by students in the Experimental Sound Practices specialization. Each student, during the academic year, is given a one-hour period...

MFOR511

Guitar Forum

Guitar Workshop is intended to be a common meeting ground for all guitar majors and other interested guitarists. The objective is to foster a non-competetive sense of community which encourages mutual inspiration and cross fertilization of ideas, pr...

MFOR600

Music Artists-In-Residence Week

Invited artists visit CalArts' campus to give presentations and workshops, perform, collaborate, and engage with the student body and the School of Music's facilities.

MHST205

Western Music History I

Lectures, reading, and listening covering the history and literature of Western musical styles from antiquity through the Baroque period.

MHST206

Western Music History II

Lectures, reading, and listening covering the history and literature of Western musical styles from the Classical through Modern periods.

MHST230

Audio-Visual Theory & Practice

This course explores the synesthetic potential of music and the moving image as it manifests itself throughout audio-visual practice: music video, film scoring, audio-visual performance and installation. We'll begin with Michel Chion's seminal text...

MHST300

Music Cultures

In the Roundabout of Troubadours, Revolutions, and Indigeneity: Music and Social Movements in Latin America. Centered on social movements, this course takes music culture as a starting point to explore political ideology and collective mobilization i...

MHST300B

Music Cultures: Middle East

Music Cultures: Middle East. A survey of the musics of the Middle East will include vocal and instrumental traditions of the Middle East; selected minority musics; and religious, folk, and popular music traditions (ancient and contemporary). Histori...

MHST300C

Music Cultures: Indonesia

Music Cultures: Indonesia Music of Indonesia. A survey of the highly diverse musical forms currently being practiced in Indonesia's 14,000 populated islands. Reaching far beyond gamelan, this course will also cover more recently developed styles suc...

MHST300D

Music Cultures: Southeast Asia

Music Cultures of Mainland Southeast Asia A survey of traditional and modern musical forms being practiced in Mainland SE Asia. This course will cover a wide variety of styles found in Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, and Myanmar. In addition to d...

MHST300F

Music of Korea: From Gugak to K-Pop

In this course, students will explore Korean traditional and contemporary music cultures and scenes. Topics will vary from traditional gugak to recent music genres, including K-pop, indie music, experimental music scenes, trot, and film music. Studen...

MHST300G

Black Temporalities and Black Time

Black Temporalities and Black Time: To fully engage with Black music we must understand Black time. We do this work together. In 'Black Temporalities & Black Time' we will explore non-linear storytelling and the elasticity of (un)time through the fra...

MHST300H

Latin Am Music: Traditions and Digital

This course will examine a variety of musical styles from Latin America, and at the same time analyze the political and historical context in which the music developed. The focus will be on the music of the Caribbean and Central America and South Ame...

MHST304

Music of Native North America

Course not available to BFA1 students. This is a survey course introducing the music cultures of North America; focusing on an interdisciplinary approach to view the history, social institutions, culture, literature, arts, and relationships of North...

MHST312

Ethnology of African Music Culture

Ethnology of African Music-The history of Ghanaian music, dance and culture. Talking and reading about the origin of Ghanaian music, dance and song as well as their culture and how those affect their everyday life. As Ghanaian are known for their e...

MHST325

Extended Duration in Music

This course investigates the relationship between live music performance of extended duration and sound-oriented installation art. Taking Erik Satie's "Vexations" (1893) and "Musique d'Ameublement" (1920) as points of departure, we will analyze 1950s...

MHST330

Studies in Experimental Pop

Since the 1960s, pop music has been a zone in which experimental, avant-garde impulses have coexisted with commercial and hedonistic imperatives. In this course, we will look at artists who have imported ideas and techniques from the music academy or...

MHST331

Studies in Avant-Rock & Noise

This second module of the two-semester Studies in Experimental Pop course might be better titled Studies in Experimental Rock. The focus shifts away from the mainstream of the pop charts and radio, towards the alternative and underground; there is le...

MHST342

Women in Western Music History

This would be a class on women in the history of Western art music from Ancient Music through the present day, combining musicology, sociology, music theory, ethnomusicology, political science, world history, hermeneutics, feminist theory, philosophy...

MHST344

Non-Traditional Film Music

This course is an introductory survey to film music history and analysis. We will primarily focus on international and experimental cinema, but will likely draw on certain Hollywood or independent American filmmakers who don't quite fit the mold and...

MHST345

Topics in Vocal Literature

Topics in Vocal Literature: The[R]Evolution of Solo Vocal Literature through the lens of the song cycle This course will focus on the evolution of vocal music-through the lens of the song cycle and its offspring-over the past few centuries up to the...

MHST346

Opera AND ___: Exploring Intersections

20th and 21st Century Opera's intersections with the musical and extra-musical. 20th and 21st century opera is "Opera AND ________." Opera has a variety of possible musical and non-musical intersections which we will explore this semester. Each week...

MHST350

Stylists & Innovators 1961-NOW

This course focuses on selected individuals and musical, political, and economic movements that have helped shaped a genre in jazz or improvised music and that have mostly been overlooked in current historical reporting. (While not a definitive overv...

MHST371

Jazz, Hip-Hop, & Urban Experimentalism

This discussion based seminar will present a survey of historical and contemporary musical idioms in which com-posers, producers, and sound designers associated with the fileds of hip hop, jazz and contemporary R&B have consciously and actively deve...

MHST399

Independent Study

Under the direction of a specific faculty member, students will complete projects defined in a contractual agreement made at the beginning of each semester.

MHST405

Focus Rock: Extreme Metal

Death, Black, Doom and Experimental Metal will be the focus of this class. We will do in-depth analysis of selected pieces (harmony, melody, rhythm, form, sound, lyrics) and research the influence of contemporary classical and experimental music on m...

MHST406

Focus Rock: Art Music & Rock

Focus Rock: Art Music & Rock - An unwritten history of cross-pollination Music is: organized sound - timbre and rhythm. This quote by Edgar Varese not only applies to (most) so-called new music (20th and 21st century classical contemporary music), b...

MHST407

Focus Rock: Noise

Make a joyful noise: the development and importance of noise elements in popular and experimental music of the 20th and 21st century. Noise has always been a part of music, if desired or not. But over time noise elements stopped being just an add-on...

MHST408

Focus Rock: Post-Punk

Post-Punk is another one of these music historical terms that were, of course, applied backwards. It is not really sure what it means, especially because it starts around the same time as punk (1977). Does it include or exclude simultaneous styles...

MHST409

Focus Rock: Electronica

Focus Rock: Electronica - Body Electric - Electronic Pop and Dance Music This class looks at the development of electronic popular music from its early days to its conquest of the international dance floors, creating the international rave community...

MHST410

The Elastic Voice

"Voice is the original instrument." So says Joan La Barbara, the doyenne of extended vocal technique. This course explores the extraordinary panoply of purposes to which the human voice has been deployed. While the focus is on popular music genres...

MHST412

What Is a Song?

An international survey of songwriting from ancient times (classical Greece, the Tang and Song dynasties, etc.), but with an emphasis on the repertoire of the last seventy years. The course examines in detail a wide range of songs: musical compositio...

MHST422

Experimental Music Post-Cage

Experimental Music of the post-Cage Generation This class will deal with the explosion of experimental music in the mid-20th century to the 1990s. Experimental music will be explored as more a method or set of approaches to creating music than as a g...

MHST423

Experimental Music Post-Cage II

This class will deal with the explosion of experimental music in the mid-20th century to the 1990s. Experimental music will be explored as more a method or set of approaches to creating music than as a genre. We will, over the course of two semesters...

MHST425

Survey of Sound Art

Sound Art draws on many fields, among them: experimental music, experimental theater, installation, sculpture, architecture, and poetry, but what all sound art works have as their primary focus is the experience of sound and listening. Following an i...

MHST440

Thinking Critically About Pop (& UnPop)

This class will explore a wide range of critical writing about popular music as well as various forms of underground or alternative music. We start with jazz criticism in the mid-20th Century, then proceed through various eras of rock and pop critici...

MHST451

Contemporary Composers

Selected readings from Busoni and beyond. Critical analysis of current trends in music and the arts.

MHST452

Music of Luigi Nono

The course will yield an overview of the music and the cultural contributions of the great Italian composer Luigi Nono. Our survey of his oeuvre and its evolution from his early works in the 1950's (with the amazing purity of his dodecaphonic counter...

MHST453

Music of James Tenney

James Tenney was a pioneer in multiple areas of music, all of which remain domains of vigorous creative activity to the present day. These include plunderphonia, computer music, process form, spectral music and extended just-intonation. His theoretic...

MHST457

Music & Surrealism

Surrealist forms of music could still arise, seeking the gold of sound as Breton sought the gold of time (Francois-Bernard Mache). Why did the surrealist movement of the early twentieth century principally embrace art and literature, leaving music on...

MHST458

Music of Edgard Varese

Besides Charles Ives, Arnold Schoenberg and Igor Stravinsky, the French-American composer Edgard Varese(1883-1965) was certainly the most radical and influential founding father of 20th century Western music. He established a method for a conceptual...

MHST459

Contemplative Practice & Music

The study of the contemplative arts, as they relate to the creation of musical experiences and musical compositions, will be investigated by actively privileging the concept of compassion and its manifestations, and by the routine practice of mindful...

MHST464

Music of Gyorgy Ligeti

In the early 1960s Gyorgy Ligeti (1923-2006) opened up new ways for post-serial sound composition by introducing the concept of micro-polyphony. In his later works since the mid 1970s, he successfully combined ideals of both minimalism and complexity...

MHST465

Music of Helmut Lachenmann

With his revolutionary concept of a 'concrete instrumental music', the leading and most influential contemporary German composer Helmut Lachenmann (born 1935) has hugely expanded the available repertoire of extended playing techniques on traditional...

MHST466

Music of Igor Stravinsky

Throughout the first half of the past century, Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971) impacted the contemporary music scene like a startling super-brilliant meteor. The course will combine biography, music theory, analysis, score study, guided listening and aes...

MHST467

Music of Arnold Schoenberg

During the first part of the past century, Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951) revolutionized the contemporary music scene more profoundly than anyone else. With his independent, courageous and radical set of mind and with his extraordinary ability to unde...

MHST469

Music of Feldman & Zimmermann

Pursuing the heritage of his mentor Edgard Varese with an infinite minimalist focus on the quality of sound, just how it floats, and with a unique sense of musical orchestration, Morton Feldman(1926-1987) introduced the quiet longing of Franz Schuber...

MHST472

John Cage: Music and Thought

This is class is designed as a critical inquiry into the aesthetic, theoretical and political implications of John Cage's music. In addition to sustained encounters with several of Cage's significant pieces it will look at the implications of those w...

MHST473

Cage, Sun Ra, Musique Concrete, Noise

As a parallel to the emergence of the American Experimental Tradition, and its "uprising" in the music of Cage and following, we will study the revolutionary works of Sun Ra (growing from and away from jazz) and the founding of Musique Concrete in Fr...

MHST474

Music of Karlheinz Stockhausen

Karlheinz Stockhausen is a composer who, especially in the 1950s and 60s, seemed to have re-defined the understanding of what music is about with each of his compositions. His theoretical writings and lectures are as legendary as his music. In the tr...

MHST498H

Ecomusicalities

Ecomusicalities This course is an introduction to ecologically oriented music, sound art, and the study of ecomusicology in the context of the contemporary environmental crisis. Ecology is conceived broadly as relational understandings of human and...

MHST498J

The Semiotics of Queerness in Music

This course explores the intersection of popular and dance music with queerness, examining how the meanings of queer identities are conveyed through music and music videos. Over the past 40 years, popular and dance music have been shaped by and have...

MHST498K

Disco:Emancipatory Dancefloors 1970-1990

The emergence of contemporary DJ-led dance music in the 1970's provoked a transformational way of experiencing music and the body. For many people who existed on the margins of society, these dance floors represented an open, deterritorialized, liber...

MHST500

Music Cultures

In the Roundabout of Troubadours, Revolutions, and Indigeneity: Music and Social Movements in Latin America. Centered on social movements, this course takes music culture as a starting point to explore political ideology and collective mobilization i...

MHST500B

Music Cultures: Middle East

Music Cultures: Middle East. A survey of the musics of the Middle East will include vocal and instrumental traditions of the Middle East; selected minority musics; and religious, folk, and popular music traditions (ancient and contemporary). Histori...

MHST500C

Music Cultures: Indonesia

Music Cultures: Indonesia Music of Indonesia. A survey of the highly diverse musical forms currently being practiced in Indonesia's 14,000 populated islands. Reaching far beyond gamelan, this course will also cover more recently developed styles such...

MHST500D

Music Cultures: Southeast Asia

Music Cultures of Mainland Southeast Asia A survey of traditional and modern musical forms being practiced in Mainland SE Asia. This course will cover a wide variety of styles found in Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, and Myanmar. In addition to d...

MHST500F

Music of Korea: From Gugak to K-Pop

In this course, students will explore Korean traditional and contemporary music cultures and scenes. Topics will vary from traditional gugak to recent music genres, including K-pop, indie music, experimental music scenes, trot, and film music. Studen...

MHST500G

Black Temporalities and Black Time

Black Temporalities and Black Time: To fully engage with Black music we must understand Black time. We do this work together. In 'Black Temporalities & Black Time' we will explore non-linear storytelling and the elasticity of (un)time through the fra...

MHST500H

Latin Am Music: Traditions and Digital

This course will examine a variety of musical styles from Latin America, and at the same time analyze the political and historical context in which the music developed. The focus will be on the music of the Caribbean and Central America and South Ame...

MHST504

Music of Native North America

This is a survey course introducing the music cultures of North America; focusing on an interdisciplinary approach to view the history, social institutions, culture, literature, arts, and relationships of North American Indigenous peoples and their...

MHST512

Ethnology of African Music Culture

Ethnology of African Music-The history of Ghanaian music, dance and culture. Talking and reading about the origin of Ghanaian music, dance and song as well as their culture and how those affect their everyday life. As Ghanaian are known for their e...

MHST514

The Music of Flamenco

A study of the musical aspects (cante-singing and toque-guitar playing) in Flamenco through listening, reading and watching documentary films. We will look at the structure of many Flamenco forms (ie. Seguiriyas, Solea, Bulerias, Tangos, etc.), disc...

MHST516

Blues Before 1960

A study of the development of the Blues through listening, watching documentary films and reading interviews with artists. We will concentrate on music, lyrics and each artist's individual style and consider the social and historical circumstances s...

MHST517

Bach and Beyond: Rethinking Bach

This course is designed to develop a deep and meaningful understanding and appreciation of JS Bach, the man, the myth and the music. There will be guided listening in and out of class, as well as reading of materials from Bach's time along with la...

MHST525

Survey of Sound Art

Sound Art draws on many fields, among them: experimental music, experimental theater, installation, sculpture, architecture, and poetry, but what all sound art works have as their primary focus is the experience of sound and listening. Following an i...

MHST530

Studies in Experimental Pop

Since the 1960s, pop music has been a zone in which experimental, avant-garde impulses have coexisted with commercial and hedonistic imperatives. In this course, we will look at artists who have imported ideas and techniques from the music academy or...

MHST531

Studies in Avant-Rock & Noise

This second module of the two-semester Studies in Experimental Pop course might be better titled Studies in Experimental Rock. The focus shifts away from the mainstream of the pop charts and radio, towards the alternative and underground; there is le...

MHST540

Jazz History

A survey of the history of jazz and African-American musical traditions, emphasizing critical listening and aural analysis.

MHST542

Women in Western Music History

This would be a class on women in the history of Western art music from Ancient Music through the present day, combining musicology, sociology, music theory, ethnomusicology, political science, world history, hermeneutics, feminist theory, philosophy...

MHST545

Topics in Vocal Literature

Topics in Vocal Literature: The[R]Evolution of Solo Vocal Literature through the lens of the song cycle This course will focus onthe evolution of vocal music-through the lens of the song cycle and its offspring-over the past few centuries up to the...

MHST546

Opera AND ___: Exploring Intersections

20th and 21st Century Opera's intersections with the musical and extra-musical. 20th and 21st century opera is "Opera AND ________." Opera has a variety of possible musical and non-musical intersections which we will explore this semester. Each week...

MHST550

Stylists & Innovators 1961-Now

This course focuses on selected individuals and musical, political, and economic movements that have helped shaped a genre in jazz or improvised music and that have mostly been overlooked in current historical reporting. (While not a definitive overv...

MHST571

Jazz, Hip-Hop, & Urban Experimentalism

This discussion based seminar will present a survey of historical and contemporary musical idioms in which com-posers, producers, and sound designers associated with the fileds of hip hop, jazz and contemporary R&B have consciously and actively deve...

MHST601

Improvisation: Uses & Lineage

Improvisation: Uses and Cross-Cultural Lineage This class will explore the nature of improvisation in all its forms-Indian music, flamenco, baroque, organ music, rock, jazz, contemporary, and "free" music. The class integrates material from a wide v...

MHST605

Focus Rock: Extreme Metal

Death, Black, Doom and Experimental Metal will be the focus of this class. We will do in-depth analysis of selected pieces (harmony, melody, rhythm, form, sound, lyrics) and research the influence of contemporary classical and experimental music on m...

MHST606

Focus Rock: Art Music & Rock

Focus Rock: Art Music & Rock - An unwritten history of cross-pollination Music is: organized sound - timbre and rhythm. This quote by Edgar Varese not only applies to (most) so-called new music (20th and 21st century classical contemporary music), b...

MHST607

Focus Rock: Noise

Make a joyful noise: the development and importance of noise elements in popular and experimental music of the 20th and 21st century. Noise has always been a part of music, if desired or not. But over time noise elements stopped being just an add-on...

MHST608

Focus Rock: Post-Punk

Post-Punk is another one of these music historical terms that were, of course, applied backwards. It is not really sure what it means, especially because it starts around the same time as punk (1977). Does it include or exclude simultaneous styles...

MHST609

Focus Rock: Electronica

Focus Rock: Electronica - Body Electric - Electronic Pop and Dance Music This class looks at the development of electronic popular music from its early days to its conquest of the international dance floors, creating the international rave community...

MHST610

The Elastic Voice

"Voice is the original instrument." So says Joan La Barbara, the doyenne of extended vocal technique. This course explores the extraordinary panoply of purposes to which the human voice has been deployed. While the focus is on popular music genres...

MHST612

What Is a Song?

An international survey of songwriting from ancient times (classical Greece, the Tang and Song dynasties, etc.), but with an emphasis on the repertoire of the last seventy years. The course examines in detail a wide range of songs: musical compositio...

MHST622

Experimental Music Post-Cage

Experimental Music of the post-Cage Generation This class will deal with the explosion of experimental music in the mid-20th century to the 1990s. Experimental music will be explored as more a method or set of approaches to creating music than as a...

MHST623

Experimental Music Post-Cage II

This class will deal with the explosion of experimental music in the mid-20th century to the 1990s. Experimental music will be explored as more a method or set of approaches to creating music than as a genre. We will, over the course of two semesters...

MHST625

Extended Duration in Music

This course investigates the relationship between live music performance of extended duration and sound-oriented installation art. Taking Erik Satie's "Vexations" (1893) and "Musique d'Ameublement" (1920) as points of departure, we will analyze 1950s...

MHST630

Audio-Visual Theory & Practice

This course explores the synesthetic potential of music and the moving image as it manifests itself throughout audio-visual practice: music video, film scoring, audio-visual performance and installation. We'll begin with Michel Chion's seminal text...

MHST640

Thinking Critically About Pop (& UnPop)

This class will explore a wide range of critical writing about popular music as well as various forms of underground or alternative music. We start with jazz criticism in the mid-20th Century, then proceed through various eras of rock and pop critici...

MHST643

To Exist in Sound: Ambient & 4th World

It's been half a century since Brian Eno embarked on ambient music as a conceptual project, conceiving the idea for Discreet Music while lying incapacitated (recovering from a car accident), listening to a barely audible recording of harp music merge...

MHST644

Non-Traditional Film Music

This course is an introductory survey to film music history and analysis. We will primarily focus on international and experimental cinema, but will likely draw on certain Hollywood or independent American filmmakers who don't quite fit the mold and...

MHST651

Contemporary Composers

Selected readings from Busoni and beyond. Critical analysis of current trends in music and the arts.

MHST652

Music of Luigi Nono

The course will yield an overview of the music and the cultural contributions of the great Italian composer Luigi Nono. Our survey of his oeuvre and its evolution from his early works in the 1950's (with the amazing purity of his dodecaphonic counter...

MHST653

Music of James Tenney

James Tenney was a pioneer in multiple areas of music, all of which remain domains of vigorous creative activity to the present day. These include plunderphonia, computer music, process form, spectral music and extended just-intonation. His theoretic...

MHST657

Music & Surrealism

Focused Topics Course: 'Surrealist forms of music could still arise, seeking the gold of sound as Breton sought the gold of time (Francois-Bernard Mache).' Why did the surrealist movement of the early twentieth century principally embrace art and lit...

MHST658

Music of Edgard Varese

Besides Charles Ives, Arnold Schoenberg and Igor Stravinsky, the French-American composer Edgard Varese(1883-1965) was certainly the most radical and influential founding father of 20th century Western music. He established a method for a conceptual...

MHST659

Contemplative Practice & Music

Focused Topics Course: The study of the contemplative arts, as they relate to the creation of musical experiences and musical compositions, will be investigated by actively privileging the concept of compassion and its manifestations, and by the rout...

MHST664

Music of Gyorgy Ligeti

In the early 1960s Gyorgy Ligeti (1923-2006) opened up new ways for post-serial sound composition by introducing the concept of micro-polyphony. In his later works since the mid 1970s, he successfully combined ideals of both minimalism and complexity...

MHST665

Music of Helmut Lachenmann

With his revolutionary concept of a 'concrete instrumental music', the leading and most influential contemporary German composer Helmut Lachenmann (born 1935) has hugely expanded the available repertoire of extended playing techniques on traditional...

MHST666

Music of Igor Stravinsky

Throughout the first half of the past century, Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971) impacted the contemporary music scene like a startling super-brilliant meteor. The course will combine biography, music theory, analysis, score study, guided listening and aes...

MHST667

Music of Arnold Schoenberg

During the first part of the past century, Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951) revolutionized the contemporary music scene more profoundly than anyone else. With his independent, courageous and radical set of mind and with his extraordinary ability to unde...

MHST669

Music of Feldman & Zimmermann

Pursuing the heritage of his mentor Edgard Varese with an infinite minimalist focus on the quality of sound, just how it floats, and with a unique sense of musical orchestration, Morton Feldman (1926-1987) introduced the quiet longing of Franz Schube...

MHST672

John Cage: Music and Thought

This is class is designed as a critical inquiry into the aesthetic, theoretical and political implications of John Cage's music. In addition to sustained encounters with several of Cage's significant pieces it will look at the implications of those w...

MHST673

Cage, Sun Ra, Musique Concrete, Noise

As a parallel to the emergence of the American Experimental Tradition, and its "uprising" in the music of Cage and following, we will study the revolutionary works of Sun Ra (growing from and away from jazz) and the founding of Musique Concrete in Fr...

MHST674

Music of Karlheinz Stockhausen

Karlheinz Stockhausen is a composer who, especially in the 1950s and 60s, seemed to have re-defined the understanding of what music is about with each of his compositions. His theoretical writings and lectures are as legendary as his music. In the tr...

MHST698H

Ecomusicalities

Ecomusicalities This course is an introduction to ecologically oriented music, sound art, and the study of ecomusicology in the context of the contemporary environmental crisis. Ecology is conceived broadly as relational understandings of human and...

MHST698J

The Semiotics of Queerness in Music

This course explores the intersection of popular and dance music with queerness, examining how the meanings of queer identities are conveyed through music and music videos. Over the past 40 years, popular and dance music have been shaped by and have...

MHST698K

Disco:Emancipatory Dancefloors 1970-1990

The emergence of contemporary DJ-led dance music in the 1970's provoked a transformational way of experiencing music and the body. For many people who existed on the margins of society, these dance floors represented an open, deterritorialized, liber...

MHST699

Independent Study

Under the direction of a specific faculty member, students will complete projects defined in a contractual agreement made at the beginning of each semester.

MHST703

Performer-Composer: History & Aesthetics

Course open to Music School students only. This course offers a broad historical, technical and aesthetic survey of the opportunities and challenges presented to the musician whose work integrates performance and composition. These are illuminated th...

MITM201C

Heavy Shit 5000

Punk, metal, grunge, doom sludge, hardcore, grindcore, powerviolence, and all their glorious sub and sub-sub genres. I'll tell you about the specific genres I know about and love. I invite everyone to bring a playlist of songs to share. We're going t...

MITM303

Alexander Technique for Perfomance

This course is designed to give you the tools to get what you want from your performance and life. We will cover accurate information about human design and coordination, flow state/ optimal performance, sustainability and performance readiness. We w...

MITM324B

Creative Producing Practicum

Creative Producing Practicum: School of Music Showcase at REDCAT is open to students who have been selected as performers and production team members for the School of Music Showcase at REDCAT. Student production team members will work alongside thei...

MITM324C

Channeling: Delia Derbyshire

The first in a new Winter Session series of hands-on music production courses, Channeling, where, each year, we will dive deeply into the work of a sonic practitioner, listen to their music and explore in the studio: how did they get those sounds? 20...

MITM324D

Hip-Hop As A Verb

We need brave new words to birth a brand-new world. Hip-hop is turning 50 this year and it is clear that it is beyond music and is a unifying cultural vehicle. Hip-Hop is also an embodied practice. In Hip-Hop as a Verb, we will dive into the doing of...

MITM324E

Frame Drum Workshops

Frame drum workshop This course will meet for three, one and a half hour workshops, each focused on a different holding position and thus evocative techniques, specifically freehand, lap, and tar positions. School instruments can be provided for cla...

MITM324F

Global Tambourine Workshops

This course will be a series of individually focused small group lessons/workshops on specific tambourines, their techniques, rhythms and repertoire. Topics include two classes each on Arabic riq, Brazilian pandeiro, and South Indian kanjira. School...

MITM324G

Sleep Ensemble

This is an ensemble exploring the notions of live performance sleep therapy music. Open to the institute, the course will move between lecture, practice, and performance and invites all sound making mediums to participate. The course will culminate i...

MITM324H

a deeper look, rest & relax, yoga nidra

This is a deeper dive into Yoga for artists. We will explore yoga nidra, deep rest and relaxation, and some simple poses for stress reduction and performance preparation.

MITM324J

Mature Sonic Listening

Students will participate on a mature outlook on how to listen to music. Together we will touch on the history of the music of Jazz, Hip Hop, and other genres and discuss the fundamental language of the genres and how it connects to modern day music.

MITM324K

Elijah McClain and Music

Elijah McClain was a violinist murdered by Aurora police on the night of Aug 24, 2019. His name was repeated on the streets along with those of others recently killed by police -George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Sandra Bland, and others - during the Blac...

MITM324L

Orchestration for concert stage and film

This course offers an introduction to orchestration for concert stage and film music. In the first week, lectures on orchestration basics will be held. In the second week, we will review the orchestration assignments submitted by students. Attendees...

MITM324M

Koto Sounds Into Your Art and Music

This course is a lecture and workshop and will explore the ways to integrate koto sounds into your art/music making. We will be exploring How the koto works: possibilities and limitations/n Like any instrument, koto has its own physical reality tha...

MITM324N

The Full Bodied Breath

Modern life and society have retrained the perfect breath we were born to take. Each breath we take dictates the confidence, connection and effectiveness of the sound we emanate no matter if we sing or speak, in performance or in life. Connecting to...

MITM324P

Gustav Mahler: The Last Monumental Symph

Inspiring composers as diverse as Shostakovich, Berg, and Schoenberg, but rooted in the traditions of Beethoven, Brahms, and Weber, Gustav Mahler had his feet planted solidly across two centuries of music. We will explore how and why.

MITM324R

Intro to North Indian Classical Music

This is an introductory course for students interested in learning Indian Classical vocal and instrumental Music. Students will learn the basics of Raag and Taal and be introduced to Swar Gram and Alankar so they may begin their individual practice.

MITM324S

Perfecting the Playlist

The playlist has become a steady fixture in our lives, presented by professional DJs in clubs and on the radio around the world. In this short course we will explore what it means to "perfect the playlist" - how to approach pacing, harmonic mixing, a...

MITM324T

Building Interactive Audiovisual System

Through this course, we will cover basic visual programming structures through polyphony, Matrix, and strengthening understandings of multichannel sound synthesis. The first week will break down the fundamentals of jitter and the second week will cov...

MITM324U

Writing for Clarinets

Class 1: B-flat & A Clarinet Intro 1 Class 2: B flat & A Clarinet Intro 2 Class 3: Recording Session-Clarinet Solo piece Every student has to compose a clarinet solo piece for B-flat or A clarinet of around 1 minute and submit it to the instructor...

MITM324V

How To: Win a Job! Orchestral Repertoir

An intensive exploration of orchestral excerpts from standard repertoire found on excerpt lists for symphony orchestra auditions. This course will cover audition preparation and rehearsal/performance etiquette. Students will spend the first week stud...

MITM324W

The Music of Henry Threadgill

By dividing Threadgill's music into four distinct periods, we will deconstruct its many points of influence; areas such as military marches, calypso, ragtime, and European expressionist art music. This course will aim to demonstrate how while these s...

MITM324X

All-Inclusive Music: a Multi-Pedagogical

All-Inclusive Music: A Multi-Pedagogical Journey of Composition & Improvisation This class is aimed at examining non-traditional methods of music composition & approaches to improvisation that allow for individuals of any training or pedagogical bac...

MITM324Y

Development, Rehearsal and Performance

The participants will form a chamber ensemble (5-10 musicians) with open instrumentation. Every member will play in the ensemble and contribute with one piece of their own for us to develop, rehearse and perform. This can be a fixed, notated score, a...

MITM324Z

Subversion as Practice : DIY Design

This course is open to all students interested in incorporating Sound as an element of their practice or project. Students are encouraged to have personal or collaborative projects in mind prior to attending. This is NOT a coding class. Computers a...

MITM325L

Sleep Ensemble

This is an ensemble exploring the notions of live performance sleep therapy music. Open to the institute, the course will move between lecture, practice, and performance and invites all sound making mediums to participate. The course will culminate i...

MITM331

Knit Stuff!

Knitting is scientifically proven to improve focus, connect intuitive and abstract thinking, promote math skills, and reduce stress and manage anxiety. You also get to play with soft fuzzy yarn and make nice things. Join Music School faculty Erika DK...

MITM380

Gamelan Pieces for Dance Accompaniment

In Bali or Java the Gamelan Orchestra, specially the most modern gamelan, is known for having a colorful orchestration and for its musical vitality, complex musical structures, and rhythmic complexity. The modern gamelan orchestra in Bali is known as...

MITM396

Winter Session Teaching Assignment

Credit bearing course for students who have been approved to teach a course during Winter Session in the School of Music. Credit is earned through course preparation and teaching.

MITM398K

Guitar Anatomy

This course is aimed at guitarists (acoustic, electric, classical) and bassists (electric) regardless of their major/specialization at CalArts. We will take a concise look at how different types of guitars are made, the function of their various part...

MITM408

Compositional Form

This course will present a historical survey of several compositional strategies, used by composers to effectively structure their music and the manner in which it unfolds. Music by Bach, Brahms, Scriabin, Finnissy, and others will be discussed.

MITM419

Music of Jackie McLean

In a musical career spanning nearly sixty years, the alto saxophonist and composer Jackie McLean (1931-2006) developed a model of collaborative and socially engaged pedagogy that was to prove enormously fruitful both for his own career and that of th...

MITM426

Taking Your Music on the Road

Taking Your Music on the Road - Concert Booking and Tour Planning for the Self-Promoting Musician?? This class will focus on the details of planning and promoting a regional tour for any kind of musical ensemble. It will include information about bo...

MITM467

Collecting Music

Building a Physical Music Collection: As in any endeavor there are advantages and disadvantages to building a physical music collection. We will be discussing the strengths and challenges of the three main physical forms of music for sale people hav...

MITM495

Writing Large Ensemble Music

Writing Large Ensemble Music for Improvisors Meetings which include lecture, discussion, listening and viewing of composers and large ensembles which use improvising as a focal point. An occasional guest may be invited to clarify events and happening...

MITM501C

Heavy Shit 5000

Punk, metal, grindcore, powerviolence, and all their glorious sub and sub-sub genres. Ulrich Krieger and I will tell you about the specific genres we know about and love. I invite everyone to bring a playlist of songs to share. We're going to sit aro...

MITM503

Alexander Technique for Performance

This course is designed to give you the tools to get what you want from your performance and life. We will cover accurate information about human design and coordination, flow state/ optimal performance, sustainability and performance readiness. We w...

MITM524B

Creative Producing Practicum

Creative Producing Practicum: School of Music Showcase at REDCAT is open to students who have been selected as performers and production team members for the School of Music Showcase at REDCAT. Student production team members will work alongside thei...

MITM524C

Channeling: Delia Derbyshire

The first in a new Winter Session series of hands-on music production courses, Channeling, where, each year, we will dive deeply into the work of a sonic practitioner, listen to their music and explore in the studio: how did they get those sounds? 20...

MITM524D

Hip-Hop As A Verb

We need brave new words to birth a brand-new world. Hip-hop is turning 50 this year and it is clear that it is beyond music and is a unifying cultural vehicle. Hip-Hop is also an embodied practice. In Hip-Hop as a Verb, we will dive into the doing of...

MITM524E

Frame Drum Workshops

Frame drum workshop This course will meet for three, one and a half hour workshops, each focused on a different holding position and thus evocative techniques, specifically freehand, lap, and tar positions. School instruments can be provided for clas...

MITM524F

Global Tambourine Workshops

This course will be a series of individually focused small group lessons/workshops on specific tambourines, their techniques, rhythms and repertoire. Topics include two classes each on Arabic riq, Brazilian pandeiro, and South Indian kanjira. School...

MITM524G

Sleep Ensemble

This is an ensemble exploring the notions of live performance sleep therapy music. Open to the institute, the course will move between lecture, practice, and performance and invites all sound making mediums to participate. The course will culminate i...

MITM524J

Mature Sonic Listening

Students will participate on a mature outlook on how to listen to music. Together we will touch on the history of the music of Jazz, Hip Hop, and other genres and discuss the fundamental language of the genres and how it connects to modern day music.

MITM524K

Elijah McClain and Music

Elijah McClain was a violinist murdered by Aurora police on the night of Aug 24, 2019. His name was repeated on the streets along with those of others recently killed by police -George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Sandra Bland, and others - during the Blac...

MITM524L

Orchestration for concert stage and film

This course offers an introduction to orchestration for concert stage and film music. In the first week, lectures on orchestration basics will be held. In the second week, we will review the orchestration assignments submitted by students. Attendees...

MITM524M

Koto Sounds Into Your Art and Music

This course is a lecture and workshop and will explore the ways to integrate koto sounds into your art/music making. We will be exploring How the koto works: possibilities and limitations Like any instrument, koto has its own physical reality that al...

MITM524N

The Full Bodied Breath

Modern life and society have retrained the perfect breath we were born to take. Each breath we take dictates the confidence, connection and effectiveness of the sound we emanate no matter if we sing or speak, in performance or in life. Connecting to...

MITM524P

Gustav Mahler: The Last Monumental Symph

Inspiring composers as diverse as Shostakovich, Berg, and Schoenberg, but rooted in the traditions of Beethoven, Brahms, and Weber, Gustav Mahler had his feet planted solidly across two centuries of music. We will explore how and why.

MITM524R

Intro to North Indian Classical Music

This is an introductory course for students interested in learning Indian Classical vocal and instrumental Music. Students will learn the basics of Raag and Taal and be introduced to Swar Gram and Alankar so they may begin their individual practice.

MITM524S

Perfecting the Playlist

The playlist has become a steady fixture in our lives, presented by professional DJs in clubs and on the radio around the world. In this short course we will explore what it means to "perfect the playlist" - how to approach pacing, harmonic mixing, a...

MITM524T

Building Interactive Audiovisual System

Through this course, we will cover basic visual programming structures through polyphony, Matrix, and strengthening understandings of multichannel sound synthesis. The first week will break down the fundamentals of jitter and the second week will cov...

MITM524U

Writing for Clarinets

Class 1: B-flat & A Clarinet Intro 1 Class 2: B flat & A Clarinet Intro 2 Class 3: Recording Session-Clarinet Solo piece Every student has to compose a clarinet solo piece for B-flat or A clarinet of around 1 minute and submit it to the instructor...

MITM524V

How To: Win a Job! Orchestral Repertoir

An intensive exploration of orchestral excerpts from standard repertoire found on excerpt lists for symphony orchestra auditions. This course will cover audition preparation and rehearsal/performance etiquette. Students will spend the first week stud...

MITM524W

The Music of Henry Threadgill

By dividing Threadgill's music into four distinct periods, we will deconstruct its many points of influence; areas such as military marches, calypso, ragtime, and European expressionist art music. This course will aim to demonstrate how while these s...

MITM524X

All-Inclusive Music: a Multi-Pedagogical

All-Inclusive Music: A Multi-Pedagogical Journey of Composition & Improvisation This class is aimed at examining non-traditional methods of music composition & approaches to improvisation that allow for individuals of any training or pedagogical bac...

MITM524Y

Development, Rehearsal and Performance

The participants will form a chamber ensemble (5-10 musicians) with open instrumentation. Every member will play in the ensemble and contribute with one piece of their own for us to develop, rehearse and perform. This can be a fixed, notated score, a...

MITM524Z

Subversion as Practice : DIY Design

This course is open to all students interested in incorporating Sound as an element of their practice or project. Students are encouraged to have personal or collaborative projects in mind prior to attending. This is NOT a coding class. Computers a...

MITM525L

Sleep Ensemble

This is an ensemble exploring the notions of live performance sleep therapy music. Open to the institute, the course will move between lecture, practice, and performance and invites all sound making mediums to participate. The course will culminate i...

MITM531

Knit Stuff!

Knitting is scientifically proven to improve focus, connect intuitive and abstract thinking, promote math skills, and reduce stress and manage anxiety. You also get to play with soft fuzzy yarn and make nice things. Join Music School faculty Erika DK...

MITM580

Gamelan Pieces for Dance Accompaniment

In Bali or Java the Gamelan Orchestra, specially the most modern gamelan, is known for having a colorful orchestration and for its musical vitality, complex musical structures, and rhythmic complexity. The modern gamelan orchestra in Bali is known as...

MITM596

Winter Session Teaching Assignment

Credit bearing course for students who have been approved to teach a course during Winter Session in the School of Music. Credit is earned through course preparation and teaching.

MITM598K

Guitar Anatomy

This course is aimed at guitarists (acoustic, electric, classical) and bassists (electric) regardless of their major/specialization at CalArts. We will take a concise look at how different types of guitars are made, the function of their various part...

MITM608

Compositional Form

This course will present a historical survey of several compositional strategies, used by composers to effectively structure their music and the manner in which it unfolds. Music by Bach, Brahms, Scriabin, Finnissy, and others will be discussed.

MITM626

Taking Your Music on the Road

Taking Your Music on the Road - Concert Booking and Tour Planning for the Self-Promoting Musician?? This class will focus on the details of planning and promoting a regional tour for any kind of musical ensemble. It will include information about bo...

MITM667

Collecting Music

Building a Physical Music Collection: As in any endeavor there are advantages and disadvantages to building a physical music collection. We will be discussing the strengths and challenges of the three main physical forms of music for sale people hav...

MITM695

Writing Large Ensemble Music

Writing Large Ensemble Music for Improvisors Meetings which include lecture, discussion, listening and viewing of composers and large ensembles which use improvising as a focal point. An occasional guest may be invited to clarify events and happening...

MITM796

Winter Session Teaching Assignment

Credit bearing course for students who have been approved to teach a course during Winter Session in the School of Music. Credit is earned through course preparation and teaching.

MLNG299

Independent Study

Under the direction of a specific faculty member, students complete projects defined in a contractual agreement made at the beginning of each semester.

MLNG699

Independent Study

Under the direction of a specific faculty member, students complete projects defined in a contractual agreement made at the beginning of each semester.

MLSN001

BFA Half Hour Lesson

Half hour BFA lesson (1 credit) meet 30 minutes weekly or 60 minutes bi-weekly. Lesson subjects range in styles or practices (instrumental or vocal performance, composition, production, etc). The subject of a lesson is determined in collaboration wi...

MLSN101

BFA Hour Lesson

Hour lessons (3 credits for BFA) meet 60 minutes weekly. Lesson subjects range in styles or practices (instrumental or vocal performance, composition, production, etc). The subject of a lesson is determined in collaboration with the lesson instructo...

MLSN501

MFA Half Hour Lesson

Half hour MFA lesson (1 credit) meet 30 minutes weekly or 60 minutes bi-weekly. Lesson subjects range in styles or practices (instrumental or vocal performance, composition, production, etc). The subject of a lesson is determined in collaboration wi...

MLSN601

MFA Hour Lesson

Hour lessons (4 credits for MFA) meet 60 minutes weekly. Lesson subjects range in styles or practices (instrumental or vocal performance, composition, production, etc). The subject of a lesson is determined in collaboration with the lesson instructo...

MLSN701

DMA Lesson

DMA lesson (variable credit from 0.5 to 4) Lesson subjects range in styles or practices (instrumental or vocal performance, composition, production, etc). The subject of a lesson is determined in collaboration with the lesson instructor. Instruction...

MPCD350

Career Designs for Musicians

Open to School of Music students only. This course will provide students with practical skills and insights into building their careers after graduation. Topics to be covered include: planning short- and long-term professional goals; locating and con...

MPCD351

Creative Producing for Music

This course will provide an overview of creative production for musicians ranging from small DIY events to larger, more formal concerts, fundraisers, festivals, and more. Through lectures, discussion, hands-on assignments, and visiting artist present...

MPCD352

Creative Producing Practicum

Creative Producing Practicum will provide instruction and hands-on experience related to the ideation, implementation, production, and marketing of real world events taking place through CalArts School of Music and REDCAT. Students will participate i...

MPCD399

Independent Study

Under the direction of a specific faculty member, students complete projects defined in a contractual agreement made at the beginning of the semester.

MPCD420

Teaching the Voice

The class is a practicum in learning to teach singing. The hands-on approach will require class participants to teach novice voice students rudimentary singing techniques privately and group settings. Work will center on learning to hear and diagnose...

MPCD460

Creative Entrepreneurship

This course teaches students how to build their own startup business from vision to global brand. The course will go through case-studies of successful and unsuccessful businesses. Students will be put into groups to create a business and learn to wo...

MPCD461

Music Creation to Commerce

A comprehensive journey and immersive guide from the genesis of a song to its successful release into the world. Learn how to balance your artistic authenticity with real life demands, and learn the skill sets required to successfully work in, naviga...

MPCD603

Teaching Artistry

Teaching Artistry is a lecture class that will focus on best practices of teaching. Through a combination of demo lessons, video clips, field observations, and discussion, participants will explore various pedagogical approaches. Each of these approa...

MPCD604

College Pedagogy

This is a lecture class that will focus on best practices of teaching. Through a combination of demo lessons, video clips, field observations, independent research, and discussion, participants will explore various pedagogical approaches. Each of the...

MPCD620

Teaching the Voice

The class is a practicum in learning to teach singing. The hands-on approach will require class participants to teach novice voice students rudimentary singing techniques privately and group settings. Work will center on learning to hear and diagnose...

MPCD650

Career Designs for Musicians

Open to School of Music students only. This course will provide students with practical skills and insights into building their careers after graduation. Topics to be covered include: planning short- and long-term professional goals; locating and con...

MPCD651

Creative Producing for Music

This course will provide an overview of creative production for musicians ranging from small DIY events to larger, more formal concerts, fundraisers, festivals, and more. Through lectures, discussion, hands-on assignments, and visiting artist present...

MPCD652

Creative Producing Practicum

Creative Producing Practicum will provide instruction and hands-on experience related to the ideation, implementation, production, and marketing of real world events taking place through CalArts School of Music and REDCAT. Students will participate i...

MPCD660

Creative Entrepreneurship

This course teaches students how to build their own startup business from vision to global brand. The course will go through case-studies of successful and unsuccessful businesses. Students will be put into groups to create a business and learn to wo...

MPCD661

Music Creation to Commerce

A comprehensive journey and immersive guide from the genesis of a song to its successful release into the world. Learn how to balance your artistic authenticity with real life demands, and learn the skill sets required to successfully work in, naviga...

MPCD670

DIY

Do-it-yourself - and the related concept of release-it-yourself - has been the ideological and practical underpinning of radical music for at least a half-century. Often identified with the punk rock movement, the DIY imperative actually predates pu...

MPCD704

Professional Development

Course open to Music School students only. This course will explore a broad range of tools and ideas for creating a life in the arts, including preparation for positions in education, artistic entrepreneurship, and work in non-profit and for-profit e...

MPCD740

DMA Teaching Practicum

Course open to Music School students only. Through this course, students will receive credit for teaching responsibilities and will enjoy faculty supervision as they develop pedagogical effectiveness and expertise in specific areas. They will furth...

MPRF101

Jazz Improvisation

Course by permission of instructor only. Development of fundamental techniques required for group improvisation with an emphasis on gaining facility with jazz harmonic language.

MPRF102

Jazz Improvisation (1-On-1)

Course by Permission of Instructor only. Development of fundamental techniques required for group improvisation with an emphasis on gaining facility with jazz harmonic language. Meeting times outside of the regularly scheduled class meetings may be a...

MPRF103

Class Piano

Course available by Permission of Instructor only. Non-major piano instruction given in small group lessons. Access to a musical keyboard spanning at least four octaves and having full-sized keys is required."

MPRF105

Yoga for Musicians

An integrated approach to various branches of yoga, including Hatha Yoga asanas, Pranayama, and Dhyana. Physical postures, breathing exercises, and meditation/ visualization techniques will be explored. Students will learn to increase efficiency, rel...

MPRF106

Introductory Foundations in Guitar

Fundamentals of plectrum and fingerstyle guitar. Highly recommended for students interested in learning the basics in electric, steel string acoustic and nylon string guitar performance. This class serves as a foundation for the techniques, terminolo...

MPRF110

Vocal Coaching

Course open to Music School students only. Centered on in-class coaching, discussion and critique of repertoire and performance, this course will emphasize the development of skills necessary for singing-artists. Students will learn foundational skil...

MPRF115

VoiceArts Foundation

This practicum course provides an introduction to a wide-range of topics, skills and contexts with which all voice-based artists need to be familiar, and lays a foundation for more advanced work. The course will explore issues critical to vocal artis...

MPRF119

Piano Workshop

Course open to Piano Program students only. Piano Workshop will be required every semester for piano majors and the collaborative arts specialization at both the BFA and MFA levels. MAP pianists and performer composers are encouraged but not required...

MPRF122

Flute Studio Class

Flute Studio Class is a weekly meeting of the flute majors, BFA and MFA. Those studying flute as a secondary instrument are also invited to attend. We will discuss a variety of topics, including resume and website preparation, pedagogy, repertoire, p...

MPRF123

Harp Studio Class

Course open to Harp Program students only. Participants perform and study solo, chamber and orchestral repertoire, engaging in co-critique.

MPRF124

Oboe Studio Class

Course open to Oboe Program students only. In addition to our normal studies of fundamentals and reedmaking, the intention is to focus also on the major solos that oboists play in orchestral auditions. Also, we will form a Double Reed Quartet with ba...

MPRF125

Cello Studio Class

Course open to Cello Program students only. This course offers in depth work in skill building, problem solving in music preparation, ensemble playing, and contemporary cello literature. Students may also use the studio to perform for one another and...

MPRF126

Experimental Voice

Open to all levels of artists making work with, for, or through the voice. This course explores the voice in many different contexts through improvisation, experimental voice pieces, vocal exercises, and the development of voice-related pieces on a w...

MPRF128

String Workshop

Course open to String students only. Performance of ensemble works written for string instruments. Survey and reading of major chamber ensemble repertoire. Students also perform solo repertoire for the class. Contemporary, folk and traditional techni...

MPRF129

Percussion Workshop

Course open to Percussion Program students only. Percussion Workshop is where students present works that have been prepared for recitals and the place where Percussion guest artists give their presentations. Sometimes one of the CalArts instructors...

MPRF130

Clarinet Studio Class

Course open to Clarinet Program students only. Clarinet Studio Class offers in-depth work in sound production,intonation, technical facility, styles of articulation and contemporary techniques through study of exercises, etudes, a broad spectrum of s...

MPRF131

Bassoon Studio Class

Course open to Bassoon Program students only. This course offers in depth work in the skills of reed making, sound production, general and contemporary bassoon techniques. Students may also use the class to perform for one another and receive feedba...

MPRF132

Brass Workshop

Brass Workshop provides a comprehensive look at topics related to professional performing standards and experimentation on brass instruments.

MPRF133

Woodwind Workshop

Course open to Music School students only. Performance of ensemble works written for woodwind instruments. Audition preparation and woodwind fundamentals are also studied.

MPRF203

Harmonic Improvisation

Emphasis on increasing facility with intricate harmonic techniques.

MPRF205

At Practicum and Performance

The goal of this course will be to explore the Alexander Technique and how it applies to musicians. The course will focus on two main topics: learning about the Technique and discovering how musicians can use the Technique to reduce practice and perf...

MPRF211

Bodies and Voice

Course open to Music School students only, by Permission of Instructor only. The course is intended as a laboratory to explore the body in relationship to the voice and the voice in relation to the emotional memory of the body. The laboratory will co...

MPRF216

Singing the Standards

Singing the Standards is a style survey, repertoire, and performance course introducing the vocal technique and delivery of jazz singing. The course will focus on listening and style analysis of recordings, videos, and assigned student participation...

MPRF217

Learning to Scream

Course not available to Voice Arts Program students. Voice training for band vocalists, singer/songwriters and other non-classical singing performers. Focus will be on learning rudimentary singing skills and exercises that support healthy and effici...

MPRF218

Institute Voice

Instruction and practice in the fundamentals of singing. Course includes basic technical exercises for building and strengthening the voice - breathing, range extension, agility etc. Students will perform in the class either live, online or with pre-...

MPRF221

African Song

Study of traditional West African songs - language and their meanings, and singing techniques. Special attention will be placed on tone production, melody, harmony and embellishment.

MPRF241

Fretboard Geography for Guitar

Knowing the notes over the entire guitar fretboard and understanding their relationships within scales, intervals and chords is essential for expanding your playing, composing, improvising and arranging chops in any genre. We'll explore the fingerboa...

MPRF242

Know Your Guitar - Inner Workings

We will take a concise look at how different types of guitars are made, the function of their various parts, how they interact and how they are affected by use, age, weather changes, rough handling, etc. We will learn how parts like woods, electronic...

MPRF250

Mature Listening Techniques

Mature Listening Techniques will focus on listening in depth to recordings while studying the history of different genres of music. Students will have an understanding of how to use these techniques in a professional setting and in everyday life.

MPRF260

Melodic Research

This course is a multileveled primer in melodic improvisation. Modes, scales and melodic concepts like Maqam, Dastgah, Raga will be introduced and compared. New theories like Harmolodics and Chromolodics will also be explored. At the next level, each...

MPRF290

Mid-Residence Recital

Successful completion of this course requires that the student successfully complete a Mid-Residence Recital as assessed by faculty. Students may be required to organize and participate in a Jury Exam at least two weeks in advance of the recital.

MPRF307

Conducting 1

Areas to be studied include: The development of a clear, readable beat in all patterns and in varying dynamic ranges, articulation of styles and textures, and techniques appropriate for both choral and instrumental conducting. Among difficulties stud...

MPRF310

Advanced Vocal Coaching

Course open to Music School students only. Moving on from foundational work, in this course students will further develop intellectual and musical skills necessary for singing-artists. Students will expand their vocal repertoire in all genres, develo...

MPRF322

Tabla

Course open to Music School students only. Group instruction in the techniques, theory and practice of North Indian Tabla.

MPRF324

Perspectives on Hand Drumming

Techniques of performance on hand drums of varied cultural origins.

MPRF328

Latin Percussion

Course open to Music School students only. Class instruction in general Latin percussion music.

MPRF330

TRIG: The Electronic Percussionist

This course is a series of hands-on workshops exploring the possibilities for percussionists performing with electronic controllers via computer music software, processors, sampling and loop based performance. This course explores the potential and r...

MPRF340

Contemporary Wind Performance

A workshop in special techniques as they have evolved in contemporary music. Topics may include various extended techniques, production of pitched and non-pitched sound, multi-phonics, microtonal systems and special tunings, circular breathing, impro...

MPRF399

Independent Study

Under the direction of a specific faculty member, students complete projects defined in a contractual agreement made at the beginning of each semester.

MPRF402

Opera Theater

An intensive project-based class focused on rehearsing, producing and performing select opera/music-theater works in innovative interpretations. Works are often mounted in collaboration with other Schools within the Institute. The rigorous process cu...

MPRF406

Musicians' Injury Prevention

This course is designed to help musicians prevent and rehabilitate musical instrument-based overuse injuries. It will also address injuries from other sources that might affect our ability to play our instruments. We will look at postural imbalances,...

MPRF408

Conducting 2

Course open to Music School students only, by Permission of Instructor only. A course for students who have completed theory and skills requirements and who have a foundation in the elements of conducting. Refinement of techniques with particular emp...

MPRF416

Anatomy for Musicians

The focus of this course is to study the muscular & skeletal systems of the human anatomy. Once the basics are learned, we'll apply this knowledge to how it relates to performing on musical instruments, posture and injury prevention. Optional suggest...

MPRF420

Tabla Accompaniment

Course open to Music School students only, by Permission of Instructor only. This course will teach students how to accompany vocal and instrumental music. Students will learn how to play with different thekas (rhythm cycles).

MPRF451

Singing the Books

Focused Topic in Vocal Performance: This workshop will focus on facilitating processes of constructing realizations of various 'songs' included in the Song Books, along with an overview of Cage's aesthetics. Students will engage in substantial discip...

MPRF452

Contemporary Vocal Techniques

Focused Topic in Vocal Performance: This course focuses on facilitating learning processes and specific techniques necessary for preparing and performing standard twentieth-century and contemporary experimental vocal works, as well as exposes student...

MPRF453

What Kind of Text Is That?

Focused Topic in Vocal Performance: Beginning with an historical and contextual study of vocal works that utilize unconventional or atypical texts, students will research and perform representative works while exploring, creating and building works a...

MPRF456

Readings in Voice Arts:

Readings in Voice Arts:Odyssey of the Voice Readings in VoiceArts is dedicated to group study of a wide array of voice-related writings, with specific readings chosen each semester from important writings on the study of the voice, evolution and dev...

MPRF471

Hip Hop Lab Practicum

Course is open to students who have previously completed MAIC-470 Hip-Hop Lab or MAIC-470 Hip-Hop Theory and Praxis, or by permission of instructor. We need brave new words to birth a brand-new world. Hip-hop is turning 52 this year and it is clear...

MPRF490

Graduation Recital

Enrollment in this course is required during the semester in which students perform their Graduation Recital, if one is required by program. Successful completion of the course requires that the student successfully complete the recital, as assesse...

MPRF498A

Spc Topics: Jazz Improv for the Vocalist

Topics in Performance Studies: Jazz Improvisation for the Vocalist A course designed for beginner and intermediate vocalists who want to develop skill in jazz improvisation. This course will emphasize the fundamentals of improvisation. Specific atte...

MPRF498B

Spc Topics: Mic Use for Vocalists

Topics in Performance Studies: Mic Use for Vocalists A course for vocalists that focuses on microphone technique and effective use of sound-reinforcement equipment. Topics include an overview of the PA system, types of microphones, distance and plac...

MPRF498D

Spc Topics: Indian Improv Concepts

Topics in Performance Studies: Indian Improvisation Concepts Improvisation Based on Ragas and Talas The class provides a breakdown and general overview of the Raga and Tala Systems of North Indian classical music. Through the fliter of Raga and Tala...

MPRF498G

Performance Practice: John Cage

In this class we will examine the profoundly influential and experimental works of John Cage through the performance and discussion of pieces chosen by the class's participants. The often idiosyncratic elements of Cagean performance practice will be...

MPRF498H

Music in the Oral Tradition

A practice-based examination of the fretboard theory behind music of the 20th and 21st centuries including, but not limited to, the origins of the blues, bluegrass, folk, pop, rock, alternative, soul and funk as they relate to the electric and acoust...

MPRF498K

To Exist in Sound Improvised Vocality

Improvised music is alive. It connects you to the now, a sensory moment created together-space, players, audience-joined in solidarity. This course is dedicated to investigating the possibilities of free vocal improvisation as experienced through/in...

MPRF498L

Tuning Outside the Box

The aim of this class is to demystify alternate guitar tunings by combining hands-on experience with theoretical analysis and a thorough understanding of the instrument's history. 'Scordatura' (literally meaning 'mistuning') first appeared in German...

MPRF498M

Touring Musician 101

Woody Aplanalp has decades of experience touring with acts such as Lauryn Hill, Thomas Mapfumo, Aloe Blacc and Quetzal. Thomas Leeb has played thousands of solo concerts all over the world, the only continent he has not toured is Antarctica. Together...

MPRF498N

Class Guitar

Fundamentals of plectrum and fingerstyle guitar. Highly recommended for students interested in learning the basics in electric, steel string and nylon string guitar performance. This class serves as a foundation for the techniques, terminology and mu...

MPRF501

Jazz Improvisation

Course by permission of instructor only. Development of fundamental techniques required for group improvisation with an emphasis on gaining facility with jazz harmonic language.

MPRF502

Opera Theater

An intensive project-based class focused on rehearsing, producing and performing select opera/music-theater works in innovative interpretations. Works are often mounted in collaboration with other Schools within the Institute. The rigorous process cu...

MPRF503

Class Piano

Course available by Permission of Instructor only. Non-major piano instruction given in small group lessons. Access to a musical keyboard spanning at least four octaves and having full-sized keys is required."

MPRF505

At Practicum and Performance

The goal of this course will be to explore the Alexander Technique and how it applies to musicians. The course will focus on two main topics: learning about the Technique and discovering how musicians can use the Technique to reduce practice and perf...

MPRF506

Introductory Foundations in Guitar

Fundamentals of plectrum and fingerstyle guitar. Highly recommended for students interested in learning the basics in electric, steel string acoustic and nylon string guitar performance. This class serves as a foundation for the techniques, terminolo...

MPRF510

Graduate Vocal Coaching

Course open to Music School students only. Advanced, individual musical coaching sessions offered, when available, to students preparing recitals or other major performances, or whose repertoire demands regular coaching sessions. Sessions will cover...

MPRF512

Jazz Improvisation (1-On-1)

Course by Permission of Instructor only. Development of fundamental techniques required for group improvisation with an emphasis on gaining facility with jazz harmonic language. Meeting times outside of the regularly scheduled class meetings may be a...

MPRF516

Singing the Standards

Singing the Standards is a style survey, repertoire, and performance course introducing the vocal technique and delivery of jazz singing. The course will focus on listening and style analysis of recordings, videos, and assigned student participation...

MPRF519

Piano Workshop

Course open to Piano Program students only. Piano Workshop will be required every semester for piano majors and the collaborative arts specialization at both the BFA and MFA levels. MAP pianists and performer composers are encouraged but not required...

MPRF521

Trumpet Studio

Course open to Brass Program students only. Performance of ensemble works written for multiple trumpets.

MPRF522

Flute Studio Class

Flute Studio Class is a weekly meeting of the flute majors, BFA and MFA. Those studying flute as a secondary instrument are also invited to attend. We will discuss a variety of topics, including resume and website preparation, pedagogy, repertoire, p...

MPRF523

Harp Studio Class

Course open to Harp Program students only. Participants perform and study solo, chamber and orchestral repertoire, engaging in co-critique.

MPRF524

Oboe Studio Class

Course open to Oboe Program students only. In addition to our normal studies of fundamentals and reedmaking, the intention is to focus also on the major solos that oboists play in orchestral auditions. Also, we will form a Double Reed Quartet with ba...

MPRF525

Cello Studio Class

Course open to Cello Program students only. This course offers in depth work in skill building, problem solving in music preparation, ensemble playing, and contemporary cello literature. Students may also use the studio to perform for one another and...

MPRF526

Experimental Voice

Open to all levels of artists making work with, for, or through the voice. This course explores the voice in many different contexts through improvisation, experimental voice pieces, vocal exercises, and the development of voice-related pieces on a w...

MPRF528

String Workshop

Course open to String students only. Performance of ensemble works written for string instruments. Survey and reading of major chamber ensemble repertoire. Students also perform solo repertoire for the class. Contemporary, folk and traditional techni...

MPRF529

Percussion Workshop

Course open to Percussion Program students only. Percussion Workshop is where students present works that have been prepared for recitals and the place where Percussion guest artists give their presentations. Sometimes one of the CalArts instructors...

MPRF530

Clarinet Studio Class

Course open to Clarinet Program students only. Clarinet Studio Class offers in-depth work in sound production,intonation, technical facility, styles of articulation and contemporary techniques through study of exercises, etudes, a broad spectrum of s...

MPRF531

Bassoon Studio Class

Course open to Bassoon Program students only. This course offers in depth work in the skills of reed making, sound production, general and contemporary bassoon techniques. Students may also use the class to perform for one another and receive feedbac...

MPRF532

Brass Workshop

Course open to Brass Program students only. Brass Workshop provides a comprehensive look at topics related to professional performing standards on brass instruments.

MPRF541

Fretboard Geography for Guitar

Knowing the notes over the entire guitar fretboard and understanding their relationships within scales, intervals and chords is essential for expanding your playing, composing, improvising and arranging chops in any genre. We'll explore the fingerboa...

MPRF542

Know Your Guitar - Inner Workings

We will take a concise look at how different types of guitars are made, the function of their various parts, how they interact and how they are affected by use, age, weather changes, rough handling, etc. We will learn how parts like woods, electronic...

MPRF550

Mature Listening Techniques

Mature Listening Techniques will focus on listening in depth to recordings while studying the history of different genres of music. Students will have an understanding of how to use these techniques in a professional setting and in everyday life.

MPRF560

Melodic Research

This course is a multileveled primer in melodic improvisation through a series of structural prompts. Modes, scales and melodic concepts like Maqam, Dastgah, Raga will be introduced and compared. New theories like Harmolodics and Chromolodics will al...

MPRF570

Hip-Hop Theory and Praxis

Hip-Hop music and culture is fundamentally Black work. Hip Hop is Black work created in response to a set of conditions. In the words of Lupe Fiasco the question is always "Did you improve on the design? Did you do something new?" That's the question...

MPRF571

Hip Hop Lab Practicum

Course is open only to students who have previously completed MAIC-570 Hip-Hop Lab, MAIC-570 Hip-Hop Theory and Praxis, or by permission of instructor. We need brave new words to birth a brand-new world. Hip-hop is turning 52 this year and it is cle...

MPRF590

Mid-Residence Recital

Successful completion of this course requires that the student successfully complete a Mid-Residence Recital as assessed by faculty. Students may be required to organize and participate in a Jury Exam at least two weeks in advance of the recital.

MPRF603

Harmonic Improvisation

Open to Jazz Program students only. Advanced harmonic development with jazz language.

MPRF604

Speial Studies in Collaborative Perform

Course open to Music School students only, by Permission of Instructor only. This course serves to develop and hone special skills required of pianists working with both singers and instrumentalists in a variety of repertoire. It will include individ...

MPRF605

Yoga for Musicians

An integrated approach to various branches of yoga, including Hatha Yoga asanas, Pranayama, and Dhyana. Physical postures, breathing exercises, and meditation/ visualization techniques will be explored. Students will learn to increase efficiency, rel...

MPRF606

Musicians' Injury Prevention

This course is designed to help musicians prevent and rehabilitate musical instrument-based overuse injuries. It will also address injuries from other sources that might affect our ability to play our instruments. We will look at postural imbalances,...

MPRF607

Conducting 1

Areas to be studied include: The development of a clear, readable beat in all patterns and in varying dynamic ranges, articulation of styles and textures, and techniques appropriate for both choral and instrumental conducting. Among difficulties stud...

MPRF608

Conducting 2

Course open to Music School students only, by Permission of Instructor only. A course for students who have completed theory and skills requirements and who have a foundation in the elements of conducting. Refinement of techniques with particular emp...

MPRF610

Physiology of the Voice

A comprehensive study of the anatomy and function of the singing mechanism. Emphasis will be placed on functional pedagogy and learning how to integrate the understanding of vocal systems with the practical application of teaching in both individual...

MPRF611

Bodies and Voice

The course is intended as a laboratory to explore the body in relationship to the voice and the voice in relation to the emotional memory of the body. The laboratory will consist of the physical exploration of voice mechanics within the body and its...

MPRF616

Anatomy for Musicians

The focus of this course is to study the muscular & skeletal systems of the human anatomy. Once the basics are learned, we'll apply this knowledge to how it relates to performing on musical instruments, posture and injury prevention. Optional suggest...

MPRF617

Learning to Scream

Course not available to Voice Arts Program students. Voice training for band vocalists. singer/songwriters and other non-classical singing performers. Focus will be on learning rudimentary singing skills and exercises that support healthy and effici...

MPRF618

Institute Voice

Instruction and practice in the fundamentals of singing. Course includes basic technical exercises for building and strengthening the voice - breathing, range extension, agility etc. Students will perform in the class either live, online or with pre-...

MPRF620

Tabla Accompaniment

Course open to Music School students only, by Permission of Instructor only. This course will teach students how to accompany vocal and instrumental music. Students will learn how to play with different thekas (rhythm cycles).

MPRF622

Tabla

Course open to Music School students only. Group instruction in the techniques, theory and practice of North Indian Tabla.

MPRF624

Perspectives on Hand Drumming

Techniques of performance on hand drums of varied cultural origins.

MPRF628

Latin Percussion

Course open to Music School students only. Class instruction in general Latin percussion music.

MPRF630

TRIG: The Electronic Percussionist

This course is a series of hands-on workshops exploring the possibilities for percussionists performing with electronic controllers via computer music software, processors, sampling and loop based performance. This course explores the potential and r...

MPRF633

Woodwind Workshop

Course open to Music School students only. Advanced performance of ensemble works written for woodwind instruments. Audition preparation and woodwind fundamentals are also studied.

MPRF640

Contemporary Wind Performance

A workshop in special techniques as they have evolved in contemporary music. Topics may include various extended techniques, production of pitched and non-pitched sound, multi-phonics, microtonal systems and special tunings, circular breathing, impro...

MPRF651

Singing the Books

Focused Topic in Vocal Performance: This workshop will focus on facilitating processes of constructing realizations of various 'songs' included in the Song Books, along with an overview of Cage's aesthetics. Students will engage in substantial discip...

MPRF652

Contemporary Vocal Techniques

Focused Topic in Vocal Performance: This course focuses on facilitating learning processes and specific techniques necessary for preparing and performing standard twentieth-century and contemporary experimental vocal works, as well as exposes student...

MPRF653

What Kind of Text Is That?

Focused Topic in Vocal Performance: Beginning with an historical and contextual study of vocal works that utilize unconventional or atypical texts, students will research and perform representative works while exploring, creating and building works a...

MPRF655B

Focused Topics in Voice: Dada's Divas

DADA'S DIVAS is a two-semester course (one historical, one performative) dedicated to the (re)discovery of the Dada movement's female pioneers, most of whom have been overshadowed historically by their male counterparts. These women, operating indepe...

MPRF656

Readings in Voice Arts:

Readings in Voice Arts:Odyssey of the Voice Readings in VoiceArts is dedicated to group study of a wide array of voice-related writings, with specific readings chosen each semester from important writings on the study of the voice, evolution and dev...

MPRF690

Graduation Jury & Recital

Enrollment in this course is required during the semester in which students perform their Graduation Recital, if one is required by program. Successful completion of the course requires that the student successfully complete the recital, as assesse...

MPRF698A

Spc Topics: Jazz Improv for the Vocalist

Topics in Performance Studies: Jazz Improvisation for the Vocalist A course designed for beginner and intermediate vocalists who want to develop skill in jazz improvisation. This course will emphasize the fundamentals of improvisation. Specific atte...

MPRF698B

Spc Topics: Mic Use for Vocalists

Topics in Performance Studies: Mic Use for Vocalists A course for vocalists that focuses on microphone technique and effective use of sound-reinforcement equipment. Topics include an overview of the PA system, types of microphones, distance and plac...

MPRF698D

Spc Topics: Indian Improv Concepts

Topics in Performance Studies: Indian Improvisation Concepts Improvisation Based on Ragas and Talas The class provides a breakdown and general overview of the Raga and Tala Systems of North Indian classical music. Through the fliter of Raga and Tala...

MPRF698G

Performance Practice: John Cage

In this class we will examine the profoundly influential and experimental works of John Cage through the performance and discussion of pieces chosen by the class's participants. The often idiosyncratic elements of Cagean performance practice will be...

MPRF698H

Music in the Oral Tradition

A practice-based examination of the fretboard theory behind music of the 20th and 21st centuries including, but not limited to, the origins of the blues, bluegrass, folk, pop, rock, alternative, soul and funk as they relate to the electric and acoust...

MPRF698K

To Exist in Sound Improvised Vocality

Improvised music is alive. It connects you to the now, a sensory moment created together-space, players, audience-joined in solidarity. This course is dedicated to investigating the possibilities of free vocal improvisation as experienced through/in...

MPRF698L

Tuning Outside the Box

The aim of this class is to demystify alternate guitar tunings by combining hands-on experience with theoretical analysis and a thorough understanding of the instrument's history. 'Scordatura' (literally meaning 'mistuning') first appeared in German...

MPRF698M

Touring Musician 101

Woody Aplanalp has decades of experience touring with acts such as Lauryn Hill, Thomas Mapfumo, Aloe Blacc and Quetzal. Thomas Leeb has played thousands of solo concerts all over the world, the only continent he has not toured is Antarctica. Together...

MPRF698N

Class Guitar

Fundamentals of plectrum and fingerstyle guitar. Highly recommended for students interested in learning the basics in electric, steel string and nylon string guitar performance. This class serves as a foundation for the techniques, terminology and mu...

MPRF699

Independent Study

Under the direction of a specific faculty member, students complete projects defined in a contractual agreement made at the beginning of each semester.

MPRF790

Performance Project

Course open to Music School students only. This guided independent study project will facilitate the student's creative work and will be geared towards the preparation and presentation of a unique event in which the student displays the integration o...

MPRF799

Independent Proj: Performance

Under the direction of a specific faculty member, students complete projects defined in a contractual agreement made at the beginning of the semester.

MSCM150

Fundamentals of Computer Music

This course is an introduction to the world of electronic sound (and computer music) using the Max/MSP software and aims to provide a conceptual understanding of sound synthesis. We'll be covering basic digital audio concepts such as the oscillator,...

MSCM155

Physical Modeling Synthesis

This course builds off of the foundations presented in Intro to Computer Music. Advanced synthesis (and analysis) techniques, including Modal synthesis and Fourier Analysis, Waveguide Physical Model synthesis of Strings and Winds, and Formant models...

MSCM309

Perception & Cognition of Sound & Music

The Perception and Cognition of Sound and Music - Course open to School of Music students only, with completion of the prerequisite. This course develops a scientific framework for understanding how we experience the sonic world. The science of heari...

MSCM310

Acoustics for Musicians

An introduction into the basics of acoustics, the natural and scientific foundation of the musical arts:waveforms, the overtone series, combination tones, tuning systems, doppler effects,dynamics, room acoustics, instrumental sounds, amplification, m...

MSCM410

Physiology of the Voice

This course will examine the anatomy and function of the vocal mechanism. Emphasis will be placed on understanding systems needed for the production of the singing voice. Topics covered will include, breathing, phonation, registration, vowel formatio...

MSCM650

Fundamentals of Computer Music

This course is an introduction to the world of electronic sound (and computer music) using the Max/MSP software and aims to provide a conceptual understanding of sound synthesis. We'll be covering basic digital audio concepts such as the oscillator,...

MSCM655

Physical Modeling Synthesis

This course builds off of the foundations presented in Intro to Computer Music. Advanced synthesis (and analysis) techniques, including Modal synthesis and Fourier Analysis, Waveguide Physical Model synthesis of Strings and Winds, and Formant models...

MTEC100

Intro to Concert Production

Course not available to Music Technology Program students. An introduction to concert production including both scheduled class meetings and practical production assignments at times to be arranged.

MTEC101

Concert Production I

Concert production concepts and practice including both scheduled class meetings and practical production assignments at times to be arranged.

MTEC104

The Art of Recording

The Art of Recording will provide both a practical and theoretical introduction to working with sound as musical material in a recording studio. Students will learn how to listen critically and creatively and to use their ears when generating, mani...

MTEC198

Music Technology Tutorial

This course is open to Music Technology students in their BFA4 year to schedule individual tutorials with members of the Music Technology faculty. Tutorial topics and meeting times will be determined in collaboration with the faculty member. Permiss...

MTEC212

Recording the Voice

In this course students with little or no recording experience will become familiar with creative ways their voice can be recorded in the comfort of their own home. Together, the class will build their own home studio to the level of their choice. Th...

MTEC214

Sound Design for Moving Image

Sound design for moving images is a class to explore the different sound components needed to create sound design for different types of projects, mostly focused on moving images, such as animation, tv, film and audiovisual art installations, any env...

MTEC215

Sound for Mixed Reality

This course will be looking at different methods for working with sound in mixed reality applications. Topics covered include C# programming for working with Audio inside Unity, spatialized audio in Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality applications,...

MTEC270

History of Electronic Dance Music

In this course we will examine the history of various styles of electronic dance music from the '70s to present time. We will learn where these genres came from, and how they led to the development of modern day dance music styles. We'll also explore...

MTEC308

Advanced Production Techniques

Open to BFA3 and BFA4 students only. This course provides students with advanced techniques for Audio Production in the studio. We will discuss microphone recording techniques to track drums, bass, guitar, winds, brass, vocals, and world percussion....

MTEC309

Mastering, an in Depth Look

In this course students will learn how to master music for digital platforms. We will learn what mastering is, the history of various mastering techniques and which modern tools work best for our individual needs. Through exploring all the options m...

MTEC330

Interface Design I

This course provides an introduction on how to build a custom interface for musical expression. We will discuss basic electronics and teach how to build a breadboard with a microcontroller and sensors from scratch. This class is intended for the novi...

MTEC365

Digital Recording Studio

Course open to BFA3 or BFA4 Music School students only, by Permission of Instructor only. A course designed for qualified students to gain facility in using the School of Music Digital Recording Studio. Students will learn current techniques and prin...

MTEC367

LiveMulti-TrackRecordingSession

This course utilizes the ROD, ROD booth, and ROD reverb chamber as a live multi track recording space. The course is centered around recording and mixing in the studio. Students will produce each project as a team from preproduction planning, to runn...

MTEC399

Independent Study

Under the direction of a specific faculty member, students complete projects defined in a contractual agreement made at the beginning of the semester.

MTEC415

Visual Programming

This course extends previous music related programming experience into the visual domain. Various facets of live visual performance will be explored, including generative visual art, preparing and working with rendered video content, and real-time au...

MTEC418

Algorithmic Art & Design

Learn interactive system design in TouchDesigner, exploring algorithmic art, generative visuals, and dynamic simulations. Develop skills in audio reactivity, image processing, data visualization, and the basics of projection mapping to craft immersiv...

MTEC420

Grids, Beats, & Groups

Grids/Beats/Groups will explore techniques for live electronic performance. Emphasizing spontaneity and human/machine collaboration, we will learn to break out of routine and engage audiences. We will explore classic systems, such as Roland's "XOX" s...

MTEC440

Machine Orchestra

This ensemble explores a musical paradigm where each musician has a Laptop controlling sound and media in an interactive manner. The aesthetic of each computer having its own sound source (multi-channel speaker arrays) will lead way to a new paradig...

MTEC450

Mechatronic Art and Music

This course will explore the use of robotic systems in artistic environments. It will teach students how to use the machine to make objects move. Each student will learn how to make custom electronics with a variety of actuators. Solenoids, motors an...

MTEC490

Music Technology BFA Project

Course open to BFA3 or BFA4 Music Technology Program students only. This is a project-based course in which students work with their mentor to create a final project in which all knowledge learned during the degree is culminated, helping build the st...

MTEC498B

User Exp Design: Ideation & Prototyping

User Experience Design: Ideation and Prototyping In this course, Creative Technology students will learn how to apply User Experience Design (UX) methods to generate ideas for innovative products and experiences that are delivered with an eye toward...

MTEC498C

Advanced Electronic Music Production

This course explores advanced electronic musical production techniques covering sound design, mixing and mastering. Various electronic based musical genres and production techniques from different decades will be explored, taking into account the tec...

MTEC498E

AI. Culture. Creativity.

This course explores the intentional design of socio-technical systems through the use of AI as a design material. Students will prototype AI projects through ethical and sociocultural lenses. In exploring systems-thinking and artificial decision-m...

MTEC498H

AI Sonic Explorations

This course is a survey and a series of hands-on workshops exploring the critical, speculative, and also practical ways of applying Artificial Intelligence to working with sound and musical composition. In particular, we will be focusing on using Ma...

MTEC500

Intro to Concert Production

Course not available to Music Technology Program students. An introduction to concert production including both scheduled class meetings and practical production assignments at times to be arranged.

MTEC501

Concert Production I

Concert production concepts and practice including both scheduled class meetings and practical production assignments at times to be arranged.

MTEC504

The Art of Recording

The Art of Recording will provide both a practical and theoretical introduction to working with sound as musical material in a recording studio. Students will learn how to listen critically and creatively and to use their ears when generating, mani...

MTEC508

Advanced Production Techniques

This course provides students with advanced techniques for Audio Production in the studio. We will discuss microphone recording techniques to track drums, bass, guitar, winds, brass, vocals, and world percussion. We will also discuss Mixing technique...

MTEC509

Mastering, an in Depth Look

In this course students will learn how to master music for digital platforms. We will learn what mastering is, the history of various mastering techniques and which modern tools work best for our individual needs. Through exploring all the options mo...

MTEC512

Recording the Voice

In this course students with little or no recording experience will become familiar with creative ways their voice can be recorded in the comfort of their own home. Together, the class will build their own home studio to the level of their choice. Th...

MTEC514

Sound Design for Moving Image

Sound design for moving images is a class to explore the different sound components needed to create sound design for different types of projects, mostly focused on moving images, such as animation, tv, film and audiovisual art installations, any env...

MTEC515

Sound for Mixed Reality

This course will be looking at different methods for working with sound in mixed reality applications. Topics covered include C# programming for working with Audio inside Unity, spatialized audio in Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality applications,...

MTEC520

Grids, Beats, & Groups

Grids/Beats/Groups will explore techniques for live electronic performance. Emphasizing spontaneity and human/machine collaboration, we will learn to break out of routine and engage audiences. We will explore classic systems, such as Roland's "XOX" s...

MTEC540

Machine Orchestra

This ensemble explores a musical paradigm where each musician has a Laptop controlling sound and media in an interactive manner. The aesthetic of each computer having its own sound source (multi-channel speaker arrays) will lead way to a new paradig...

MTEC550

Mechatronic Art and Music

This course will explore the use of robotic systems in artistic environments. It will teach students how to use the machine to make objects move. Each student will learn how to make custom electronics with a variety of actuators. Solenoids, motors an...

MTEC570

History of Electronic Dance Music

In this course we will examine the history of various styles of electronic dance music from the '70s to present time. We will learn where these genres came from, and how they led to the development of modern day dance music styles. We'll also explore...

MTEC598

Music Technology Tutorial

This course is open to Music Technology students in their MFA2 year to schedule individual tutorials with members of the Music Technology faculty. Tutorial topics and meeting times will be determined in collaboration with the faculty member. Permiss...

MTEC600

Topics in Music Technology

Open to Music Technology Program students only. A venue for formal issues within expertise of music technology faculty. Topics may include, advanced interface design, robotic design, machine learning, music information retrieval, music and image, Ope...

MTEC613

Coding Art Fundamentals

Unlock your creative potential with coding! In this introductory course, learn fundamental coding concepts using p5js, a visual programming language. You'll create interactive visual art pieces, exploring color theory, animation, basic programming pr...

MTEC614

Coding Music Fundamentals

This course extends previous graphics related programming experience into the audio domain. ChucK, a strongly-timed computer music language will be the focal language of the class, with opportunities to communicate to physical computing platforms lik...

MTEC615

Digital Fabrication

This course teaches students modern skills in digital design. Students will learn how to express their ideas using CAD software in 2D and 3D forms. Mathematical measurements and scaling will be addressed throughout the assignments. Students will also...

MTEC616

Visual Programming

This course extends previous music related programming experience into the visual domain. Various facets of live visual performance will be explored, including generative visual art, preparing and working with rendered video content, and real-time au...

MTEC617

Media & Web Development

This course provides an introduction to the process of modern web development. Each student will learn the basics of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript and how to combine them into a functioning portfolio website. Students will learn how to work with rich med...

MTEC618

Algorithmic Art and Design

Learn interactive system design in TouchDesigner, exploring algorithmic art, generative visuals, and dynamic simulations. Develop skills in audio reactivity, image processing, data visualization, and the basics of projection mapping to craft immersiv...

MTEC620

Creative Coding with C++

Explore the fundamentals of C++ programming using OpenFrameworks, focusing on interactive and sensor-driven applications. Develop skills in creative coding, media interaction, and integration with tools like TouchDesigner and Max/MSP. This course lay...

MTEC630

Interface Design I

This course provides an introduction on how to bui

MTEC655

Adv Sound Synthesis: Physical Modeling

This course builds off of the foundations presented in Intro to Computer Music. Advanced synthesis (and analysis) techniques, including Modal synthesis and Fourier Analysis, Waveguide Physical Model synthesis of Strings and Winds, and Formant models...

MTEC665

Digital Recording Studio

Course open to Music School students only, by Permission of Instructor only. A course designed for qualified students to gain facility in using the School of Music Digital Recording Studio. Students will learn current techniques and principles of sou...

MTEC667

Live Multi-Track Recording Session

This course utilizes the ROD, ROD booth, and ROD reverb chamber as a live multi track recording space. The course is centered around capturing and mixing live performances in the studio. Students will produce each project as a team from preproduction...

MTEC668

Intro to Sound Production

This course provides a basic understanding of working with a digital audio workstation. Students will learn proper gain staging, where and how distortion enters recordings, how to set levels and panning, effective sub group mixing, and an introductio...

MTEC690

Music Technology MFA Project

Open to Music Technology Program students only. Course open to Music Technology Program students only. The MFA in Music Technology Final Project serves as the culmination of the degree program, synthesizing several distinct components into an integra...

MTEC691

Thesis

Successful completion of this course requires that the student successfully complete a thesis requirement as assessed by faculty.

MTEC698B

User Exp Design: Ideation & Prototyping

User Experience Design: Ideation and Prototyping In this course, Creative Technology students will learn how to apply User Experience Design (UX) methods to generate ideas for innovative products and experiences that are delivered with an eye toward...

MTEC698C

Advanced Electronic Music Production

This course explores advanced electronic musical production techniques covering sound design, mixing and mastering. Various electronic based musical genres and production techniques from different decades will be explored, taking into account the tec...

MTEC698E

AI. Culture. Creativity.

This course explores the intentional design of socio-technical systems through the use of AI as a design material. Students will prototype AI projects through ethical and sociocultural lenses. In exploring systems-thinking and artificial decision-m...

MTEC698H

AI Sonic Explorations

This course is a survey and a series of hands-on workshops exploring the critical, speculative, and also practical ways of applying Artificial Intelligence to working with sound and musical composition. In particular, we will be focusing on using Ma...

MTEC699

Independent Study

Under the direction of a specific faculty member, students complete projects defined in a contractual agreement made at the beginning of the semester.

MTEC767

Live Multi-Track Recording Session

This course utilizes the ROD, ROD booth, and ROD reverb chamber as a live multi track recording space. The course is centered around capturing and mixing live performances in the studio. Students will produce each project as a team from preproduction...

MTHY001

Fundamental Musicianship

Course open to Music School students only. Course open to Music School students only. A course devoted to musical literacy and the competence necessary to pursue the Musicianship Skills and Music Theory course sequences in the Core Curriculum. Train...

MTHY002

Theory Performance Lab

In this introductory course, linear/scalar forms are studied in a wide range of musical styles, possibly including Hindustani, Persian, African, Blues, Rock & Roll, Medieval, other Western, etc., along with hybrid forms. Ear training exercises are in...

MTHY099

Music Theory/Skills Hold

For incoming undergraduate students, this placeholder course reserves 8 credit units for required music theory and/or musicianship skills coursework determined by placement examination during Orientation Week.

MTHY101

Musicianship Skills A

A sequence of four courses in ear training and basic musicianship skills related to the comprehension of tone and tonal relationships in music including intervallic, harmonic and melodic comprehension and fundamental rhythmic skills. Exercises includ...

MTHY102

Musicianship Skills B

A sequence of four courses in ear training and basic musicianship skills related to the comprehension of tone and tonal relationships in music including intervallic, harmonic and melodic comprehension and fundamental rhythmic skills. Exercises includ...

MTHY108

Transcription Skills

A course in furthering critical musicianship skills through exercises in analysis and transcription. Music covering a variety of styles, including jazz, is used to form the basis of ear training exercises.

MTHY111

Tonal Theory & Applications A

An introduction to the structure of tonal music, exploring melodic construction, systems of consonance and dissonance, cadences, harmonic function, sequences, modulations and simple forms. Musical examples are drawn from Western classical, jazz and p...

MTHY112

Tonal Theory & Applications B

A further exploration of tonal structure, including harmonic prolongation, chromatic harmony, tritone substitutions, third relations and modulations to distantly related keys. Musical examples are drawn from the Western classical, jazz and popular tr...

MTHY120

Beginning Svar Graam (vocal)

Exercises in singing scales.

MTHY121

Beginning Svar Graam (instrumental)

Instruction will be provided in basic techniques of note combination and rhythmic articulation that form the basis for improvisational skills in North Indian music. These skills will be practiced and extended using improvisational exercises drawn fro...

MTHY203

Musicianship Skills C

A sequence of four courses in ear training and basic musicianship skills related to the comprehension of tone and tonal relationships in music including intervallic, harmonic and melodic comprehension and fundamental rhythmic skills. Exercises includ...

MTHY204

Musicianship Skills D

The goal of this course is to help students to not be afraid of any kind of music they encounter. Cross-stylistic strategies of identifying musical material are used towards this end, including octave equivalence, Jazz hearing, set-theory, microtonal...

MTHY210

Non-Tonal Theories

An introduction to modern Western musical structures such as extended harmonic relations, pitch-class set theory, serialism, indeterminacy, process, and extended tuning systems.

MTHY214

Counterpoint

The contrapuntal aspect present to some degree in almost all styles of music will be explored through listening, reading, analysis, and composition. Of primary concern will be the evolution of European counterpoint from is origins through 16th centur...

MTHY215

Song Writing & Analysis

This class is designed to help students sharpen critical skills that will help them analyze and perform songs from a mix of styles ranging from those found in the medieval era to those of the present day. These skills will then be linked to students'...

MTHY216

Different Tonalities

This course will examine different approaches to finding a sense of tonality after the dissipation of common practice tonal function. Surveying examples from Western Art music, Classical Jazz, and Pop from about 1900 to the present day, the approache...

MTHY217

Form

The structural and expressive functions of musical form are explored through listening, analysis, and composition. General considerations of formal design accompany a survey of selected formal structures in classical, avant-garde, and popular musics.

MTHY220

Rhythm: a Global Perspective

This class is designed to teach rhythm from a broader, global perspective by examining rhythmic concepts, devices, structures and approaches found in music cultures from around the world. In studying varying facets and approaches (as well as convergi...

MTHY222

North Indian Theory

Course open to Music School students only. A study of the raga and tala systems of North India, formal structures and the practical application of these in performance and improvisation.

MTHY224

Java/Bali: Music-Dance-Theory

The history, theory and performance traditions of Javanese and Balinese gamelan music and the associated dance forms.

MTHY226

Ghanaian Rhythm Theory

This class will cover various musical concepts from the Ewe and Dagomba people of Ghana, West Africa. The class will focus primarily on rhythmic concepts from these language groups. The concept will be illustrated through traditional repertoire, and...

MTHY228

Journey to the Persian Music

An introduction to Traditional Persian Music from the 1900 to present. The discourse will focus on the historical development of writings on Persian Music as a Radif and critical discipline. We will analyze established theoretical and philosophical i...

MTHY240

Jazz Keyboard Theory

Fundamentals of jazz harmony, primarily covering chord symbols, voicings, and voice leading. Meeting times outside of the regularly scheduled class meetings may be available by arrangement with the instructor. ***If students cannot make the 2-4 time...

MTHY274

Fretboard Theory

Course available by Permission of Instructor only. Introduction to the practical application of traditional music theory to composition and arranging for guitar.

MTHY277

Baroque Accompaniment

Baroque accompaniment studies for basso continuo realization from figured bass and stylistic considerations for instrumentalists (keyboard, cello, gamba, bass, bassoon).

MTHY306

The Experimenting Ear

How can we parse and make sense of the varied sonic phenomena that comprise our world? Can we build a vocabulary that helps us recognize and recall its components, like frequency, duration, and form, as accurately as we do those described as music? H...

MTHY307

Advanced Sight-Reading for Singers

This course will focus on analyzing basic elements of a musical structure and then applying that analysis in practice through singing. This will be done through rhythmic and melodic exercises, listening and dictation. The repertoire will consist of s...

MTHY315

A Search for Meaningful Interpretation

Meaningful Interpretation is conceived as a semester-long examination of the effect of musical narrative on the listener, and the critical role that the performer's skills play in eliciting that understanding between composition and audience. It is e...

MTHY322

Advanced Svar Graam (vocal)

Exercises in singing scales. practices from the Baroque to Contemporary periods. Individual projects will include research into contemporaneous literature on interpretive practices. Classes will include performances of selected works with discussions...

MTHY323

Advanced Svar Graam (instrumental)

Instruction will be provided in basic techniques of note combination and rhythmic articulation that form the basis for improvisational skills in North Indian music. These skills will be practiced and extended using improvisational exercises drawn fro...

MTHY341

Film Music History & Analysis

This class presents an overview of the history of film music from scores composed for silent films through contemporary films. A wide variety of stylistic scoring approaches, effectiveness of music, and connection of music to the emotion of the scene...

MTHY399

Independent Study

Under the direction of a specific faculty member,

MTHY403

Intonation Workshop I

Let's make use of the results of acoustical research concerning the various phenomena constituting the timbre of tuned compound sounds (as first described in 1863 by the physicist Hermann von Helmholtz in his historic book 'On the Sensations of Tone...

MTHY404

Intonation Workshop II

Course open to Music School students only. This course is a continuation of Intonation Workshop A, which is a prerequisite for attending Workshop B. This second course will be dedicated to individual and group projects (of both instrumentalists and c...

MTHY406

Rhythm Cognition Seminar

This course will serve as an introduction to various concepts of musical time and rhythm, as viewed from the perspective of music theory and music psychology. Computer science research on the nature of rhythm perception will also be discussed. Partic...

MTHY411

Electroacoustic Music Analysis

Course open to Music students only. Analysis of electroacoustic music and discussion of associated compositional techniques.

MTHY425

Tala Systems

Course open to Music School students only. This class will cover the concepts of Tala - organizing time into units, both duple and triple meters. The North Indian tala system will be explored, ranging from 3 beats to 128 beats. Students will learn th...

MTHY450

Chamber Thought

Focused Topics Course: In-depth analysis of selected chamber compositions with an emphasis on 20th century works.

MTHY451

Orchestral Thought

Focused Topics Course: In-depth analysis of selected orchestral compositions with an emphasis on 20th century works.

MTHY498

Topics in Music Theory

Special Topics courses offer in-depth treatments of topics in their subject area, and are offered on a one-time or trial basis.

MTHY500

Fundamental Musicianship

Course open to Music School students only. A course devoted to musical literacy and the competence necessary to pursue the Musicianship Skills and Music Theory course sequences in the Core Curriculum. Training is provided in basic areas, including re...

MTHY501

Graduate Theory Review

Course open to Music School students only. This class is a review of basic to intermediate concepts and skills in music reading, music theory and music analysis (covering material from a typical undergraduate theory sequence). It is meant for incomin...

MTHY503

Graduate Post-Tonal Review

This module-length class is a review of basic to intermediate concepts and skills in the theory and analysis of Western music after 1900. It is meant for incoming graduate students who do not pass the post-tonal section of the theory diagnostic test...

MTHY506

The Experimenting Ear

How can we parse and make sense of the varied sonic phenomena that comprise our world? Can we build a vocabulary that helps us recognize and recall its components, like frequency, duration, and form, as accurately as we do those described as music? H...

MTHY507

Advanced Sight-Reading for Singers

This course will focus on analyzing basic elements of a musical structure and then applying that analysis in practice through singing. This will be done through rhythmic and melodic exercises, listening and dictation. The repertoire will consist of s...

MTHY508

Transcription Skills

Course by permission of instructor only. A course in furthering critical musicianship skills through exercises in analysis and transcription. Music covering a variety of styles, including jazz, is used to form the basis of ear training exercises.

MTHY510

Acoustics for Musicians

Course open to Music School students only. An introduction into the basics of acoustics, the natural and scientific foundation of the musical arts:waveforms, the overtone series, combination tones, tuning systems, doppler effects,dynamics, room acous...

MTHY511

Non-Tonal Theories

An introduction to modern Western musical structures such as extended harmonic relations, pitch-class set theory, serialism, indeterminacy, process, and extended tuning systems.

MTHY512

Tonal Theory & Applications A

An introduction to the structure of tonal music, exploring melodic construction, systems of consonance and dissonance, cadences, harmonic function, sequences, modulations and simple forms. Musical examples are drawn from Western classical, jazz and p...

MTHY513

Tonal Theory & Applications B

A further exploration of tonal structure, including harmonic prolongation, chromatic harmony, tritone substitutions, third relations and modulations to distantly related keys. Musical examples are drawn from the Western classical, jazz and popular tr...

MTHY514

Counterpoint

The contrapuntal aspect present to some degree in almost all styles of music will be explored through listening, reading, analysis, and composition. Of primary concern will be the evolution of European counterpoint from is origins through 16th centur...

MTHY515

Song Writing & Analysis

This class is designed to help students sharpen critical skills that will help them analyze and perform songs from a mix of styles ranging from those found in the medieval era to those of the present day. These skills will then be linked to students'...

MTHY516

Different Tonalities

This course will examine different approaches to finding a sense of tonality after the dissipation of common practice tonal function. Surveying examples from Western Art music, Classical Jazz, and Pop from about 1900 to the present day, the approache...

MTHY517

Form

The structural and expressive functions of musical form are explored through listening, analysis, and composition. General considerations of formal design accompany a survey of selected formal structures in classical, avant-garde, and popular musics.

MTHY520

Beginning Svar Graam (vocal)

Exercises in singing scales.

MTHY521

Beginning Svar Graam (instr)

Instruction will be provided in basic techniques of note combination and rhythmic articulation that form the basis for improvisational skills in North Indian music. These skills will be practiced and extended using improvisational exercises drawn fro...

MTHY522

Advanced Svar Graam (vocal)

Exercises in singing scales.

MTHY523

Adv Svar Graam (instrumental)

Instruction will be provided in basic techniques of note combination and rhythmic articulation that form the basis for improvisational skills in North Indian music. These skills will be practiced and extended using improvisational exercises drawn fro...

MTHY540

Jazz Keyboard Theory

Course open to Music School students only. Fundamentals of jazz harmony, primarily covering chord symbols, voicings, and voice leading. Meeting times outside of the regularly scheduled class meetings may be available by arrangement with the instructo...

MTHY541

Musicianship Skills A

A sequence of four courses in ear training and basic musicianship skills related to the comprehension of tone and tonal relationships in music including intervallic, harmonic and melodic comprehension and fundamental rhythmic skills. Exercises includ...

MTHY542

Musicianship Skills B

A sequence of four courses in ear training and basic musicianship skills related to the comprehension of tone and tonal relationships in music including intervallic, harmonic and melodic comprehension and fundamental rhythmic skills. Exercises includ...

MTHY543

Musicianship Skills C

A sequence of four courses in ear training and basic musicianship skills related to the comprehension of tone and tonal relationships in music including intervallic, harmonic and melodic comprehension and fundamental rhythmic skills. Exercises includ...

MTHY544

Musicianship Skills D

The goal of this course is to help students to not be afraid of any kind of music they encounter. Cross-stylistic strategies of identifying musical material are used towards this end, including octave equivalence, Jazz hearing, set-theory, microtonal...

MTHY574

Fretboard Theory

Course available by Permission of Instructor only. Introduction to the practical application of traditional music theory to composition and arranging for guitar.

MTHY577

Baroque Accompaniment

Baroque accompaniment studies for basso continuo realization from figured bass and stylistic considerations for instrumentalists (keyboard, cello, gamba, bass, bassoon).

MTHY603

Intonation Workshop I

Course open to Music School students only. Let's make use of the results of acoustical research concerning the various phenomena constituting the timbre of tuned compound sounds (as first described in 1863 by the physicist Hermann von Helmholtz in hi...

MTHY604

Intonation Workshop II

Course open to Music School students only. This course is a continuation of Intonation Workshop A, which is a prerequisite for attending Workshop B. This second course will be dedicated to individual and group projects (of both instrumentalists and c...

MTHY606

Rhythm Cognition Seminar

This course will serve as an introduction to various concepts of musical time and rhythm, as viewed from the perspective of music theory and music psychology. Computer science research on the nature of rhythm perception will also be discussed. Partic...

MTHY611

Electroacoustic Music Analysis

Course open to Music students only. Analysis of electroacoustic music and discussion of associated compositional techniques.

MTHY612

Critical Reading

A course designed to improve listening, understanding and appreciation of electroacoustic music. Through an integrated curriculum of listening, analyzing, reading, and vocalizing, course participants will gain greater facility in their ability to pe...

MTHY615

A Search for Meaningful Interpretation

Meaningful Interpretation is conceived as a semester-long examination of the effect of musical narrative on the listener, and the critical role that the performer's skills play in eliciting that understanding between composition and audience. It is e...

MTHY620

Rhythm: a Global Perspective

This class is designed to teach rhythm from a broader, global perspective by examining rhythmic concepts, devices, structures and approaches found in music cultures from around the world. In studying varying facets and approaches (as well as convergi...

MTHY622

North Indian Theory

Course open to Music School students only. A study of the raga and tala systems of North India, formal structures and the practical application of these in performance and improvisation.

MTHY624

Java/Bali: Music-Dance-Theory

The history, theory and performance traditions of Javanese and Balinese gamelan music and the associated dance forms.

MTHY625

Tala Systems

Course open to Music School students only. This class will cover the concepts of Tala - organ

MTHY626

Ghanaian Rhythm Theory

This class will cover various musical concepts from the Ewe and Dagomba people of Ghana, West Africa. The class will focus primarily on rhythmic concepts from these language groups. The concept will be illustrated through traditional repertoire, and...

MTHY628

Journey to the Persian Music

An introduction to Traditional Persian Music from the 1900 to present. The discourse will focus on the historical development of writings on Persian Music as a Radif and critical discipline. We will analyze established theoretical and philosophical i...

MTHY641

Film Music History & Analysis

This class presents an overview of the history of film music from scores composed for silent films through contemporary films. A wide variety of stylistic scoring approaches, effectiveness of music, and connection of music to the emotion of the scene...

MTHY650

Chamber Thought

Focused Topics Course: In-depth analysis of selected chamber compositions with an emphasis on 20th century works.

MTHY651

Orchestral Thought

Focused Topics Course: In-depth analysis of selected orchestral compositions with an emphasis on 20th century works.

MTHY698

Topics in Music Theory

Special Topics courses offer in-depth treatments of topics in their subject area, and are offered on a one-time or trial basis.

MTHY699

Independent Study

Under the direction of a specific faculty member, students complete projects defined in a contractual agreement made at the beginning of each semester.

MTHY750

Topic-Driven Research

Course open to Music School students only. Topic-Driven Research is an independent-study project that will provide the basis for the material tested during the written and oral examinations, while simultaneously laying the foundation for the Doctoral...

Department: School of Music