Your final project is an analysis of piece of your choosing. The purpose of the project is for you to apply the skills you’ve learned in class, to a piece that you enjoy and want to share with the rest of the class.
Continue reading Final project (Su20)Category: Summer 2020
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Week 7 (Jul 13): Writing a theory paper (Su20)
Our focus for the remaining weeks of the semester will be creating your own projects and learning to write a music-academic paper. Essentially, a music theory paper is an argument paper. You are going to argue for your own interpretation of a piece/idea, and you will support your argument through musical facts.
Continue reading Week 7 (Jul 13): Writing a theory paper (Su20)Week 6 (Jul 6): Analysis Symposium #2 (Su20)
Because Week 4 and 5 topics aren’t able to be integrated as easily as Week 1 and 2, some groups will be doing a sonata analysis while others will do a pop analysis.
The process is essentially the same for all groups—just be sure you know which repertoire you should be analyzing.
Continue reading Week 6 (Jul 6): Analysis Symposium #2 (Su20)Week 5 (Jun 29): Techniques for Pop Music (Su20)
This week, we’ll discuss pop music through two lenses: tonality and lyrics. Before you begin, you’ll have to familiarize yourself with form in pop music, if you are not already comfortable with terms like “verse,” “chorus,” “bridge,” etc.
You will read about the unique problems that pop music has with tonality and reflect on harmony in pop music vs classical music. You will also learn how to analyze the structure and poetry of lyrics. This goes beyond the kinds of meaning-based lyric analyses you see on sites like Genius.com and instead analyzes the poetic structure of the lyrics. We will learn through Lori Burns’s excellent approach. Your analysis assignment will incorporate both of these issues.
Continue reading Week 5 (Jun 29): Techniques for Pop Music (Su20)Week 4 (Jun 22): Techniques for Tonal Music (Su20)
This week you will learn how to approach the nuances of rhythm in tonal music. You’ll get introduced to the concepts through Edward Klorman’s excellent summary of popular approaches, listening to several pieces by Strauss, Mozart, Bach, Haydn, and others.
You will also learn a new approach to sonata form. You probably learned the basics of sonata form in your undergraduate degree, but this week we will learn one of the newer and more nuanced approaches to sonata form: Sonata Theory according to James Hepokoski and Warren Darcy (2006).
Continue reading Week 4 (Jun 22): Techniques for Tonal Music (Su20)Week 3 (Jun 15): Analysis Symposium #1 (Su20)
For our first analysis symposium, we will focus on a classic piece by Anton Webern: his 5 Movements for String Quartet. We will be looking specifically at movements 2 and 3.
Download the score from the readings folder.
Continue reading Week 3 (Jun 15): Analysis Symposium #1 (Su20)Week 2 (Jun 8): Techniques for Atonal Music (Su20)
This week, you will learn about set theory and segmentation. You’ll analyze music using set theory, apply set theory terminology, and critique the usefulness of set theory.
Continue reading Week 2 (Jun 8): Techniques for Atonal Music (Su20)Week 1 (Jun 1): Broadly Applicable Techniques (Su20)
This week, you will learn about postmodernism and its significance in music scholarship. You will also learn about narrative theory in literature and how it applies to music analysis.
Continue reading Week 1 (Jun 1): Broadly Applicable Techniques (Su20)