Introduction to Music (3)
A comprehensive view of music designed to develop critical ability as a listener; significant composers, representative works, forms, and styles.
Music and Film (3)
Relationship between music and film from the silent era of live accompaniment to the modern era of synchronized sound tracks; philosophical relationship of music to visual arts.
Music, Culture, and Technology (3)
Introduction to the history of modern sonic culture from the invention of the phonograph to the present. In the past 150 years, blaring car horns, public cinemas, phonographs, radio sets, and crowded trains have presented listeners with sounds they had never heard before. In this class, we will explore the origin of the today's music market amidst this changing world. The class focuses on historical sources through reading and discussion. Some class meetings are also devoted to a semester project, in which the class divides into teams to make a podcast that creates an audio portrait of the city of Newark.
Opera and Music Drama (3,3)
A study of the development of dramatic forms in music, based on a selection of significant operas.
Women in Music (3)
Women in pop, jazz, and classical music; their lives and society's changing attitudes toward women performers and composers.
American Music (3)
Survey of a representative sampling of U.S. musical traditions, including Native American, African-American, Ukrainian, Irish, Italian, Polish, Hispanic, and others; processes of change, development, and preservation, as well as musical features.
Survey of Western Music (3,3)
The forms and styles of Western music from the early medieval period to the present day.
A survey of jazz from its earliest roots to its present level of sophistication; lectures illustrated by recordings and live performances.
Rock Music and Culture (3)
This course explores post-1945 music in America through both its cultural impact and its diverse stylistic tangents, from postwar rhythm and blues and classic rock and roll, to hip-hop, techno, and other recent genres.
World Music (3)
Introduction to the anthropology of music. World, folk, and ethnic musical styles and instruments; methods of approach to diverse instrumental and vocal performance styles; lecture-demonstrations by visiting musicians.
The Age of Bach (3)
Discussion of vocal and instrumental forms of the early 18th century, with emphasis on the works of Bach.
The Age of Beethoven (3)
The evolution of the classical style; emphasis on the life and works of Beethoven.
Music in the Romantic Era (3)
A study of the period ca. 1815 to 1900; works of Schubert, Schumann, Berlioz, Liszt, Brahms, Wagner, and Verdi.
Music in the 20th Century (3)
Study of the principal stylistic tendencies from ca. 1900 to the present; works of Debussy, Schoenberg, Stravinsky, Hindemith, and Bartók; experimental music and the contributions of American composers.
Topics in Jazz (3)
Changing topics, which may include the work of a particular performer, or style, or the sociology of jazz.
Topics in Music History (3)
Changing topics delving into intriguing aspects of music history.