Fall 2024: "Video Game Music: Analysis and Pedagogy" (Dr. Gui Hwan Lee)

This undergraduate seminar will explore diverse analytical and pedagogical approaches to video game music. Through the existing scholarship as well as case studies, students will acquire practical skills for analyzing video game music and integrating it into music theory classroom.

In Part 1, students will be engaged with a project where AP Music Theory topics are reorganized through video game music.

In Part 2, students will learn the existing scholarship such as ludomusicology and other subdisciplines associated with video game music, as well as diverse analytical approaches to case studies.

In Part 3, aiming at individual presentations and research papers, students will discuss how the existing theories, concepts, or terms in music theory can be repurposed for video game music analysis.

Fall 2023: Tap Dancers as Composers (Dr. Judith Ofcarcik)

In this class, we will explore the idea of tap dancers as composers by studying the history of tap dance, learning theories of rhythm/meter, and creating transcriptions that highlight the intersection of pre-existing music and newly created tap-dance rhythms. We will also have the opportunity to learn some basic tap steps!

Spring 2023: Race and Gender in Music (Dr. John Peterson)

In this seminar we will investigate together the role that race and gender have (and continue to) play(ed) in shaping the field of music, writ large. We will read widely, both inside and outside music, to understand how race and gender are constructed, the power structures that have historically formed around race, and the impact of those structures on how music is written, performed, consumed, and understood. We will interact with a wide variety of musics, unbound by genre, and we will consider what structures may need to be re-formed, re-imagined, re-contextualized, or dismantled altogether as we continue to collectively strive for equity and inclusivity in our field. 

Spring 2022: Unsung Voices: Voice and Representation in Song (Dr. Judith Ofcarcik)

In this seminar we will explore songs and song cycles that bring up issues of voice and representation, asking the questions of "whose voice is heard?" and "whose voice is left unheard?" We will analyze the songs' text and music by drawing on a variety of contemporary theories including feminine and post-colonial theories. Repertoire will be drawn from the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries.

Fall 2021: Music and/as Social Change (Dr. John Peterson)

In a December 2013 article in Africa Renewal, a publication of the United Nations, Dana Da Silva argues that although music has the power to move and change us, today's music "mostly does not seem to have the same earth-moving society-shaping effects as that of the past." Is that true? In response to that provocative position, this course asks several basic questions: How can/has music effect(ed) social change? What types of music cause social change, and what kinds of social change are generated or accompanied by music? And finally, how does today's music compare? While the course will engage a broad range of research from musicology, music theory, and critical race theory, we will also rely on studies from cognitive science, such as Tal-chen Rabinowitch's recent study, "The Potential of Music to Effect Social Change."

Spring 2021: Music Theory and the White Racial Frame (Dr. John Peterson)

This course takes as its starting point Phil Ewell's poignant plenary address at the 2019 meeting of the Society for Music Theory, which was since published in article form in Music Theory Online. Put simply this class asks, "How has/does music theory project and uphold a white racial frame, and what can we do to dismantle it?" Together we will explore how issues of race and culture intersect and interact with music theory and analysis, we will brainstorm ways in which music theory and analysis can be diversified, and we will take on a group project (determined together) that directly facilitates more equitable representation in theoretical and analytical work, or which at the very least identifies further areas that need attention if more equitable representation is to be achieved.

Spring 2020: "Modes of Listening" (Dr. John Peterson)

Our work in this course relates to a single question: what do we hear when we listen to music? In this course, we will immerse ourselves in modes of analysis and criticism that largely fall under the umbrella term “music and meaning.” Each of these analytical modes represents a way to hear and interpret music from a different perspective. Put simply, this course will teach you to process music in new ways, and to better communicate what you are hearing to others. The course is intended for students who are interested in thinking seriously about how we hear and interpret music, and who are willing to engage in challenging reading, writing, and discussion assignments.

Spring 2019: "Audiences, Multimedia, and Video Game Music" (Dr. John Peterson)

The role of the musician and the composer in audience engagement is a rising issue in music cognition studies. What do audiences attend to in performance? Why are some works more successful than others at retaining the attention span of an audience? In this course, we’ll investigate these questions through three projects. Project 1 will approach these questions through an IRB-approved study in which non-musicians and musicians, and within those communities, concert-goers and non-concert-goers are surveyed with respect to their attitudes toward concert attendance. Based on the results, students involved in project 1 will make recommendations and complete demonstrations based on those recommendations involving a chosen piece of music. The end result will involve literature review, research around a piece of music, and analysis of the chosen piece. Project 2 will approach these questions from the standpoint of video game music, looking at the often deep affinity gamers feel toward the music and how that experience might transfer to the concert hall. Students participating in this project will study video game music, including its interaction with the game and discussions of the music in online forums. They will make recommendations for ways to use their findings to program concerts, and they will provide a demonstration that involves a piece of their choice, research surrounding the piece, and analysis of the piece itself. Project 3 provides foundational research for projects 1 and 2. Here, students will investigate recent multimedia works and their impact on audiences. While students may decide to make strides toward creating a multimedia work of their own, the main goal of this project is to produce a paper and presentation that discusses current trends in multimedia works, provides analysis of selected works, and provides some discussion of how such multimedia works might affect audience engagement.

Spring 2018: "Public Music Theory" (Dr. John Peterson)

Communicating with audiences and the general public is a necessary, but often overlooked, component of what it means to be a musician. How does one communicate complex ideas about music to a generalist audience? In what ways can one maintain the integrity of one’s ideas, but invite others with limited, no, or non-traditional music training to engage in a deeper way with music? In this class we’ll explore various media and strategies others have employed to provide non-specialist audiences opportunities to learn more about music.