Music Theory Course Placement

Instructor: Liam Hynes-Tawa 
Offered: Spring 2025 

Course description: In Music 2, students will learn the fundamental elements of music and staff notation, learning standard terminology and fundamental techniques through a variety of methods and repertories. We will study the principles of musical organization (within a range of styles and historical periods) by means of composition projects, score analysis, improvisation, and aural skills. We will begin to think critically about larger topics, such as how music communicates emotion, and how this might change between cultures. No prior experience with music performance or with reading notation is required. 

Who should take this class? This course is best suited for students with little to no background in music, at least in terms of terminology and notation. Students who are already familiar with the fundamentals of music should consider Music 51a.

What will I take away from this class? By the end of the course students will have learnt the basics of music terminology and notation, as well as the norms of Western harmony as far as the composition and analysis of simple chord progressions is concerned. Students will also have gained the experience of writing and performing a few simple pieces of their own. 

Prerequisites: No prior experience with music performance or with reading notation is required. Open to all students.

Instructor: Liam Hynes-Tawa 
Offered: Fall 2024 

Course description: In Music 51a, we will explore topics in tonal harmony, rhythm and meter, acoustics, form, and melodic structure in popular music, Western art music, and gagaku. Students will work with a variety of notational systems, including Western staff notation, the Nashville number system, lead sheet notation, and others. In addition, the class features a series of workshops on digital audio workstation GarageBand to develop skills for manipulating and analyzing recorded material. 

Who should take this class? Students with a strong interest in the “nuts and bolts” of music who are looking to learn about the stylistic conventions of popular music and European tonal music, and to understand how musical pieces in these genres are put together.  

What will I take away from this class? This course will help students develop a solid foundation for critical listening, aural and notation-based analysis, and musical interpretation. Students will gain basic fluency in recording and manipulating audio files. These skills can be applicable to a variety of musical contexts: performance, composition, songwriting, music criticism, and listening. 

Prerequisites: Competency with material from Music 2 is required. Students are expected to be able to read Western staff notation fluently (treble and bass clef) and be familiar with the following concepts: major and minor scales, time signatures, key signatures, triads, and chord structure including seventh chords.

Instructor: Michèle Duguay 
Offered: Spring 2025 

Course description: Students will build on knowledge and skills acquired in 51a, gaining greater familiarity with advanced theoretical and analytical approaches on diatonic modes, chromatic harmony, chord extensions, form, and timbre. Repertoires from Western art music and popular music are a central focus, and students will be working from a variety of notational systems. Continuing the trajectory established in Music 51a, the class features a series of workshops on digital audio workstation Logic Pro and audio analysis software Sonic Visualiser.  

Who should take this class? Students with a strong interest in the “nuts and bolts” of music who are looking to learn about the mechanisms of chromatic harmony, modality, timbre, and rhythm in popular music and Western art music.  

What will I take away from this class? In this course you will continue to strengthen your critical listening and musical interpretation skills through aural, score-based, and computer-assisted audio analysis. These skills are applicable to performance, composition, songwriting, music criticism, and listening, and will prepare you for more advanced topic-based courses such as Music 150 and composition courses. 

Prerequisites: Students must have previously completed Music 51a. Students are expected to be able to read Western staff notation and lead sheets and be familiar with the following concepts: diatonic harmony, syncopation, AABA and verse-chorus forms, the twelve-bar blues, and the harmonic series.  

NOTE: Students wishing to place directly into Music 51b without first completing Music 51a must receive permission from the course instructor.

Instructor: Alexander Rehding 
Offered: Spring 2025 

Course description: We take a deep dive into form and style during the classical period of European art music (ca. 1750–1800). This class is intense but greatly rewarding. You will learn to analyze and interpret musical forms (especially sonata forms) and will engage in model composition in the classical style, e.g. string quartets and piano music.  

Who should take this class? This course is for musical performers, composers, and listeners who want to deepen their understanding and appreciation of the classical style that is so central to Western art music. If you are already steeped in that repertoire that’s great. But even if you are not (yet) super familiar with your Mozarts, Haydns, Beethovens, and Chevaliers de Saint-Georges, you will find this course rewarding.  

What will I take away from this class? By the end of this intense semester you will live and breathe music in the classical style: if you identify as a composer, you will be able to write pieces that could be ChatGPT-like, pitch-perfect versions of Mozart-style compositions; if you are a performer, your detailed understanding of the stylistic features of this central repertoire will help you hone your interpretations; and if you are a listener you will be able to follow scores of some complexity and appreciate the subtleties of musical form in real time. For those who wish to go further, the knowledge conveyed in this course will be foundational for exploration of European art music in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Prerequisites: Competency with material from Music 51a is a must. Competency with material from Music 51b is recommended. You will need a solid understanding of tonal harmony and voice leading. The kinds of harmonic progressions you will encounter are often simpler than in many other tonal styles (e.g. Bach chorales) – but instead the subtleties in other parameters (such as texture and phrase rhythm) play a more prominent role. Writing string quartet textures, we will also be using the alto clef (but if you are not familiar with it you will be able to pick it up quickly.)

Instructor: Richard K. Wolf
Offered: Fall 2024 

Analysis of south Indian classical composition and improvisational forms as performed today, as well as in the context of historical forms. Students will learn how to listen to and analyze the music through singing, reciting rhythm mnemonics, and learning to play the vina (a kind of lute). Students who so wish will also have the opportunity to play this music on instruments with which they are already familiar.

Prerequisites: By permission of instructor following interview first day of class.

Instructor: Michèle Duguay 
Offered: Fall 2024 

Course Description: How can music analysis inform the way we understand, listen to, and write about popular music? This course introduces tools and methods for studying features and compositional styles of popular music after 2000. Through weekly readings and aural skills exercises, students will become familiar with recent analytical approaches to song form, texture, rhythm & meter, instrumental and vocal timbre, sampling, and music videos. In weekly written work, students will conduct their own music analyses by implementing tools introduced in class and using various audio editing and analysis software. An ever-present concern of the class will be how analytical methods and insights interact with issues of race, gender, and sexuality. The course will focus primarily on U.S. popular music broadly construed, and students will have several opportunities to analyze and provide critical insight on the music of their own choosing. 

Who should take this class? Avid music-makers, producers, and listeners of popular music who want to develop a vocabulary for engaging critically with their musical experience. This class tends to be oversubscribed; a lottery will likely be used. Students should be prepared to provide a precise description of how this course aligns with their academic and professional goals. 

What will I take away from this class? You will be able to articulate with precision how the sonic features of popular music (form, rhythm & meter, timbre) shape your listening. Skills learned in this course can be applied to journalism, music criticism, songwriting, music production, and humanistic inquiry more broadly. 

Prerequisites: None. Basic knowledge of major and minor scales and chords is highly recommended. Hands-on musical experience (e.g. performance, composition, or production) is also recommended. Students outside the music department are welcome to enroll, and no knowledge of Western staff notation is required.