SYLLABUS

MUSIC 104

(timings are tentative)

Fall 1997

September 2 - 11

Get acquainted, organizational; WWW literacy.
Recapitulation: The tonal system, a historical perspective. Common language/grammar. Enharmonic ambiguities in late romantic music. Atonality.
Aesthetic trends at the turn of the century in Europe.
Modes in medieval/renaissance Western music, in East-European folklore. Stravinsky and Bartok.

First assignment due 9/17

September 15 - 22

Messiaen and his musical technique.
Non-tonal centricity. Varese.
Neo-classicism and constructivism. Stravinsky, again.

First quiz: 9/22

September 23 - October 8

Tone-row music and serialism. The row as a constructive device.
Transformations of the row; matrix, combinatoriality, symmetries.
Integral serialism. Boulez and the "domains" technique.
Structuralism

First listening test 10/3
First creative assignment due 10/6

October 8 - 23

Indeterminacy. John Cage and chance music; the influence of Zen and DADA
Aleatory music; existentialism.
Textkomposition, improvisations, concept music; classes of compositions and open works.
The "new" notation. Other trends and techniques.

Second assignment due 10/9
Second listening test 10/20
Second quiz 10/28

October 27 - December 11

Music, mathematics, science, and technology.
Electronic music: new sounds, new attitudes.
Music Formalization and various mathematical and scientific models for music.
Computer Music: computer-assisted composition and sound synthesis techniques
MIDI, synthesizers; notation of music by computers.
Virtual environments and sonification of complex scientific data.

Third assignment due 11/3
Third listening test 11/10
Second creative assignment due 11/13
Third quiz 11/20
Fourth assignment due 12/4
Fourth listening test 12/9

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