Music Course Listings | Willamette University Classes

Music

MUSC 111 Basics of Singing (2)

This course is designed to help students develop greater confidence and skill as a singer. The class is geared toward the beginning who is interested in learning the basics of healthy vocal technique. All singing styles and genres are welcomed. Students will learn and perform songs both alongside and in front of their classmates in a positive, encouraging environment. No musical training is required.

General Education Requirement Fulfillment: Arts & Humanities
Prerequisite: Students without any musical training may prefer to start by taking MUSC 160
Offering: Alternate Spring semesters
Instructor: Engbretson

MUSC 121 Creating Music with Technology (4)

Creating music offers insights into the composer's art and a means of personal expression. Current technology allows the opportunity to compose music even for those without traditional skills or training. Intended for the non-music major, this hands-on class will directly involve students in the creation and recording of original music and sound resources. Final project recordings will be presented in a virtual concert.

General Education Requirement Fulfillment: Arts & Humanities
Prerequisite: Students should have basic computing and computer file management skills
Offering: Annually
Instructor: Nord, Miley

MUSC 138 A World of Development: An Introduction to Western Classical Music (4)

This introductory course is designed to give students a deeper understanding of Western classical music by studying different musical styles and trends from each major time period. It will increase students’ grasp of musical fundamentals and structure as well as enhance their powers of aural perception. Students will learn the basic elements of Music, understand some common musical forms and be able to distinguish some of the differences in the masterworks of major composers. No musical background is required. Given the range of subject matter this course shall not attempt an exhaustive survey but students will learn about the variety of music in its evolving historical and cultural context, to enjoy it, to get inside it, and to focus on developing listening skills. Discussion of the ways in which the music of other cultures have influenced both historical and modern trends will also be pursued.

General Education Requirement Fulfillment: Arts & Humanities
Offering: Annually
Instructor: Coen

MUSC 140 Class Piano I (2)

Let’s make music together! This is a course designed for students with little to no piano background wanting to further explore keyboard music. Students will learn reading on the grand staff, ensemble playing, keyboard technique and theory, and perform repertoire from the jazz, pop and classical styles.

General Education Requirement Fulfillment: Arts & Humanities
Offering: Annually
Instructor: Zimmerman

MUSC 160 Fundamentals of Music Literacy (4)

Introduction to the Fundamentals of Music intended for those students with little or no background in music. The course covers such topics as treble and bass clefs, major and minor scales, simple and compound meters, triads and seventh chords, and elementary counterpoint. Composition and in-class performance is emphasized.

General Education Requirement Fulfillment: Arts & Humanities
Offering: Every semester
Instructor: Gulua

MUSC 161 Musicianship I (4)

Review of the rudiments of music, including clefs, notations, meters and their signatures, key signatures, scales, intervals, triads, and seventh chords. Two-voice composition; triads and seventh chords; the basic phrase model; chorale harmonization and figured bass; leading-tone, predominant, and 6/4 chords; tonic expansions, root progressions, and the mediant triad; the interaction of melody and harmony; and cadences. Laboratory.

General Education Requirement Fulfillment: Arts & Humanities
Prerequisite: by placement or MUSC 160
Corequisite: MUSC 161Y Musicianship I Lab (1)
Offering: Fall semester
Instructor: Miley

MUSC 162 Musicianship II (4)

The course content will include: diatonic sequences, secondary dominants, phrase rhythm, and motivic analysis, tonicization of scale degrees other than V, modulation to closely related keys, binary and ternary forms. Laboratory.

General Education Requirement Fulfillment: Arts & Humanities
Prerequisite: MUSC 161
Corequisite: MUSC 162Y Musicianship II Lab (1)
Offering: Spring semester
Instructor: Duerksen

MUSC 180 Class Piano II (2)

The course is designed for those who have successfully completed MUSC 140 or have attained a similar level of proficiency. Emphasis will be on music reading skills and basic keyboarding technique. The laboratory instructional context is reinforced by performance-based assessment.

Using the piano lab in a group setting, this course teaches students to read the grand staff more fluently, effectively learn ensemble music, and to play piano repertoire with appropriate technique, in addition to the exploration of sight reading and keyboard theory. Class Piano is paced for the motivated student. More advanced students will be given supplemental repertoire and technique.

General Education Requirement Fulfillment: Arts & Humanities
Prerequisite: MUSC 140
Offering: Annually
Instructor: Zimmerman

MUSC 187 Music Virtuosity Across Cultures (4)

TThis course explores the nature of virtuosity in music as culturally defined and constrained. With each musical tradition explored, students will also examine the culture’s specific values which define the terms of the music’s reception, and come to recognize how music is expressed through vocal or instrumental traditions. Is virtuosity performative, or even considered “art”? Is the virtuosity valued, or devalued? Indeed – how is virtuosity defined? Case studies will be taken from traditions that span history and the globe, and considered in terms of the value placed on speed, complexity, improvisational skill, and memory Connections of each tradition to dance and religion will also be discussed.

General Education Requirement Fulfillment: Arts & Humanities; World Engagement-CV
Offering: Alternate Fall semesters
Instructor: Coen

MUSC 190 Independent Study (2 or 4)

Independent study in a course of one's choice. To be used at the discretion of an individual professor in order to fulfill a student's graduation requirements or to satisfy a student's interests. Such an option will usually be open only to seniors.

General Education Requirement Fulfillment: Arts & Humanities
Offering: Every semester
Instructor: Staff

MUSC 199 Topics in Music (1-4)

A semester-long study of topics in Music. Topics and emphases will vary according to the instructor. This course may be repeated for credit with different topics. See the New and Topics Courses page on the Registrar’s webpage for descriptions and applicability to majors/minors in other departments.

General Education Requirement Fulfillment: Topic dependent
Prerequisite: Topic dependent
Offering: Occasionally
Professor: Staff

MUSC 207 Improvisation I: Free (4)

Improvisation is an approach to music making that crosses boundaries of medium, style, and culture from rock to raga, jazz to new music. With a focus on free and semi-structured approaches, this class will experiment with a range of musical elements and ideas through hands-on improvisational performance. Interactive improvising with other art forms will also be explored. All instrumentalists/vocalists are welcome. No prior improvisational experience is necessary.

General Education Requirement Fulfillment: Arts & Humanities
Prerequisite: Consent of instructor
Offering: Alternate Spring semesters
Instructor: Nord

MUSC 212 Jazz: America and Beyond (4)

This course will present an overview of the evolution, contexts, and creative processes behind the artistry of Jazz music and musicians. Primary focus will be on the recordings of seminal artists. Concert attendance and in-class guest performers will offer additional opportunity for insight into the unique process engaged in improvisational creation. Reading and discussion will offer additional perspectives on the music and the musicians who make it. Students will synthesize these elements, constructing their own understanding of Jazz music and it many dimensions.

General Education Requirement Fulfillment: Arts & Humanities; World Engagement; PDE
Prerequisite: MUSC 121
Offering: Alternate years
Instructor: Nord, Miley

MUSC 214 Knowing the Score: A History of Music for Film (4)

General Education Requirement Fulfillment: Arts & Humanities
Offering: Alternate years
Instructor: Miley

MUSC 218 Beethoven, His Legacy and the Power of Music (4)

For two centuries, Beethoven has been received and interpreted as the composer who liberated music, and the composer of revolution. Born at a pivotal point in European social and music history, he took the conventions of the ‘classical’ style and molded them into the beginnings of Romanticism in music. The discussions and writing surrounding the reception of his music shaped an entire discourse, often contentious, regarding the true nature of music, and whether it has the possibility to convey meaning. This class will combine elements of a music appreciation course, which deepens our awareness of the way the human experience is reflected in music, along with developing the necessary listening skills to grasp the subtlety of Beethoven’s compositional process. To underscore the universality of rhythm, melody, harmony, structure, and the ways in which these interdependent elements are negotiated, musical examples of many cultures, genres, styles, and historic periods will also be examined.. Concert attendance will be strongly encouraged, if not required. A love for, and curiosity about, music will make the experience more gratifying.

General Education Requirement Fulfillment: Arts & Humanities
Offering: Every semester
Instructor: Coen

MUSC 221 Live Audio Reinforcement (2)

This course introduces core concepts and practices of live sound engineering through hands-on experience. Students will learn the fundamentals of sound and psychoacoustics, preamps, digital mixing consoles, signal routing, gain structure, and essential audio technologies such as microphones, signal processing, power amplifiers, loudspeakers and monitors. Sound reinforcement system concepts will be comprehensively applied through modeled live performance scenarios involving proper equipment design, setup, operation and maintenance, performer-technician communications, and intentional listening.

General Education Requirement Fulfillment: Arts & Humanities
Prerequisite: MUSC 121
Offering: Spring semester
Instructor: Staff

MUSC 242 Music History I (4)

Survey of Music History from Antiquity music to 20^th Century. An introduction and overview of the history of Western Music, basic terminology, the development of musical styles in various historical eras, and the contributions of significant composers. Lectures and presentations supplemented by score study, performance and critical listening.

General Education Requirement Fulfillment: Arts & Humanities
Prerequisite: MUSC 162
Offering: Annually
Instructor: Staff

MUSC 245 The Recording Studio Revolution (4)

The recording studio and audio recording technology have revolutionized the way we create, judge, learn, and even define music. Once exclusively the means to document a live performance, studio practice and multitrack technologies have evolved to become the means to compose and produce original music track by track. This class will trace the history of audio recording technology and recording studio practice through readings and listening. Examples will range from the earliest jazz and classical music recordings, to the first sampling and electronic music recordings of the 1940s, to the revolutionary recordings made by Les Paul, Jimi Hendrix, and the Beatles, to contemporary rock, pop, and hip-hop productions.

General Education Requirement: Arts & Humanities
Offering: Alternate years
Instructor: Nord

MUSC 261 Musicianship III (4)

Topics include: Modal mixture chromatic mediants and submediants, the Neapolitan and augmented sixths, popular song and art song, variation and rondo, sonata form, advanced chromaticism. Laboratory.

General Education Requirement Fulfillment: Arts & Humanities
Prerequisite: MUSC 162
Corequisite: MUSC 162Y Musicianship III Lab (1)
Offering: Fall semester
Instructor: Duerksen

MUSC 266 Diction for Singers I (2)

Principles of English and Italian phonetics for singing. Learning to apply the International Phonetic Alphabet to song texts in each language.

General Education Requirement Fulfillment: Arts & Humanities
Offering: Alternate Fall semesters
Instructor: Skovira

MUSC 267 Diction for Singers II (2)

Principles of French and German phonetics for singing. Learning to apply the International Phonetic Alphabet to song texts in each language.

General Education Requirement Fulfillment: Arts & Humanities
Offering: Alternate Spring semesters
Instructor: Skovira

MUSC 281 Opera: Gender, Sexuality, "Others" (4)

In this course we will examine operas from the 17^th century to the present day to gain an understanding of the historical and cultural conditions in which operas have been composed and staged, and to examine recurring themes developed in these works. Topics to be selected from: the impact of star performers (castrati and divas); character types (courtesans); constructions of exotic “others”; and the world of contemporary opera composition and performance, with a focus on works by composers from historically underrepresented groups. Prior musical experience beneficial though not required.

General Education Requirement Fulfillment: Arts & Humanities
Offering: Annually
Instructor: Duerksen

MUSC 290 Independent Study (2 or 4)

General Education Requirement Fulfillment: Arts & Humanities
Offering: Every semester
Instructor: Staff

MUSC 299 Topics in Music (1-4)

General Education Requirement Fulfillment: Topic dependent
Prerequisite: Topic dependent
Offering: Occasionally
Professor: Staff

MUSC 307 Jazz Harmony and Repertoire (4)

Continuing studies in improvisational music and jazz performance practice. Course focuses on understanding chord/scale relationships, exploration of melodic, motivic, and rhythmic improvisational practice, transcription and performance of important recorded improvisations, and developing fluency in jazz language through analysis and memorization of notable jazz standards representing a variety of common song forms. Students will apply theory to their own voice or instrument.

General Education Requirement Fulfillment: Arts & Humanities
Prerequisite: MUSC 162
Offering: Alternate years
Instructor: Miley

MUSC 314 Knowing the Score: A History of Music for Film (4)

This course provides a historical overview of music for film, beginning with the earliest attempts to apply sound to moving pictures in the late 1800s through the present day. Particular attention will be given to major stylistic trends and musical developments across the years as they relate to film scoring as a vital and constantly evolving form of artistic expression. This 300-level section is intended for Music majors. Students taking this course will meet concurrently with MUSC 214, and will complete additional research projects via writing assignments and creative work in the Ford Hall digital music lab.

General Education Requirement Fulfillment: Arts & Humanities
Prerequisite: MUSC 162, MUSC 339
Offering: Alternate years
Instructor: Miley

MUSC 315 Music and Sound for Visual Media (4)

This course continues studies begun in MUSC 121 or MUSC 339 through advanced applications of Digital Audio Workstation processes and software synthesis to create sound and music for film and other visual media. Students will learn and apply techniques of sound editing, music composition, electronic orchestration, and mixing/mastering, in order to compile a portfolio of original works demonstrating mastery of music composition and sound editing for film. Final project is a fully-scored animated short in conjunction with Animation program students from Pacific Northwest College of Art.

General Education Requirement Fulfillment: Arts & Humanities
Prerequisite: MUSC 121, MUSC 339
Offering: Spring
Instructor: Miley

MUSC 318W Beethoven, His Legacy and the Power of Music (4)

For two centuries, Beethoven has been received and interpreted as the composer who liberated music, and as the composer of revolution. The discussions and writing surrounding the reception of his music, from other artists and intellectual luminaries, shaped the entire narrative regarding the true nature of music as an art, and whether it had the possibility to convey meaning. The structures developed by his generation still dominate composition. Students taking this course which is co-listed with MUSC 218 will engage with the topic in a more rigorous fashion through the completion of 3 writing projects and one oral presentations.

Discussion and study of Beethoven: the composers of the period, the structures and syntax created, along the growing discourse of the 19th century over the absolute v.s. program music paradox, all satisfy the normal requirements of a topics in music history course.

The papers will extend from the analysis of one work which epitomizes the type of larger structure which became so dominant during the period to a paper which allows the study to correlate a feature of classical style composition with a technique developed later in 19-21st century composition.

General Education Requirement Fulfillment: Writing-centered; Arts & Humanities
Prerequisite: Consent of Instructor
Offering: Every semester
Instructor: Coen

MUSC 331W Advanced Topics in Music Theory and Analysis (4)

In this course students will apply the analytical techniques mastered in Theory III and IV to a few select works that will be studied in depth. The aim of the course is to enhance the understanding of musical style as it applies to individual composers and to musical periods, to engage historical and modern-day music-theoretical and musicological writings relevant to these composers and their works, and to hone students' writing skills in the context of musical analysis.

General Education Requirement Fulfillment: Writing-centered; Arts & Humanities
Prerequisite: MUSC 261 or MUSC 265
Offering: Alternate springs
Instructor: Duerksen

MUSC 339 Desktop Music Production (4)

Students will explore DAW-based desktop music production techniques through their application to creative projects. These techniques will include virtual instrument sequencing, multimedia sound design and scoring, synthesis, signal processing, and mixing. Collaborative projects across media will be a prominent feature of the class.

General Education Requirement Fulfillment: Arts & Humanities
Prerequisite: Music Major or Minor or instructor consent
Offering: Alternate years
Instructor: Nord

MUSC 340 Methods of Musical Composition (2)

This course serves as an introduction to formal compositional techniques and processes as they pertain to creating original music. Students will analyze form and language in tonal and atonal music, learn to understand and apply select modern contemporary compositional techniques (such as set theory, serial process, minimalism, digital looping/layering, and spatial notation) through regular composition assignments, as well as study the scores and/or recordings of important works in the classical, jazz, and popular music idoms. Final project is the creation and recording of a complete work for mixed ensemble.

General Education Requirement Fulfillment: Arts & Humanities
Prerequisite: MUSC 162
Offering: Alternate years
Instructor: Miley

MUSC 343 Music History II (4)

Examination of 20^th century art music from the western canon. On a rotating basis, topical foci may include electronic and electro-acoustic music, symphonic and large ensemble concert music, opera and vocal music, chamber music, and music from historically under-represented groups. Lectures and presentations supplemented by score study, critical listening, readings in contemporaneous literature, lab work, criticism and cultural history.

General Education Requirement Fulfillment: Arts & Humanities
Prerequisite: MUSC 242
Offering: Annually
Instructor: Staff

MUSC 345 Conducting (4)

Conducting technique, score preparation, rehearsal technique and expressive ensemble conducting. Students gain the necessary skills to effectively communicate musical ideas to their ensembles.

General Education Requirement Fulfillment: Arts & Humanities
Prerequisite: MUSC 162
Offering: Alternate years
Instructor: Staff

MUSC 351 Vocal Pedagogy (2)

This course will examine the anatomy and physiology of the vocal instrument and study the history, theory, and practice of the teaching of singing in Western music. Direct observation of Willamette University voice faculty in studio lessons will be included in the course activities, which will culminate in the practical teaching experience of a series of lessons given by students.

General Education Requirement Fulfillment: Arts & Humanities
Prerequisite: MUSL 170, MUSL 270 (four semesters of private voice instruction)
Offering: On demand
Instructor: Skovira

MUSC 390 Independent Study (2 or 4)

General Education Requirement Fulfillment: Arts & Humanities
Offering: Every semester
Instructor: Staff

MUSC 399 Topics in Music (1-4)

General Education Requirement Fulfillment: Topic dependent
Prerequisite: Topic dependent
Offering: Occasionally
Professor: Staff

MUSC 425 Recording Studio Music Production (4)

This course will focus on audio recording and mixing technique in a DAW-based studio environment. Through a series of hands-on recording sessions, critical listening exercises, and readings students will develop competency in a range of techniques. These competencies will then be applied to each student’s independent production of an audio portfolio CD. Students can also expect a number of collaborative projects across disciplines with a view towards developing competencies applicable to the range of media production settings.

General Education Requirement Fulfillment: Arts & Humanities
Prerequisite: MUSC 121 or MUSC 339
Offering: Alternate Spring semesters
Instructor: Nord

MUSC 429 Topics in Music (1-4)

General Education Requirement Fulfillment: Topic dependent
Prerequisite: Topic dependent
Offering: Occasionally
Professor: Staff

MUSC 445 Topics in Music History (4)

Advanced study in music history, topics ranging from a specialized course in one composer (eg. Stravinsky), period (eg. late nineteenth-century), genre (eg. symphony), syntax and style (eg. serialism of the 1950's) or combination of these elements (eg. romantic opera from Weber to Wagner). Faculty and student interests and needs will determine specific content.

General Education Requirement Fulfillment: Arts & Humanities
Prerequisite: MUSC 343
Offering: Alternate years
Instructor: Duerksen

MUSC 490 Independent Study (2 or 4)

General Education Requirement Fulfillment: Arts & Humanities
Offering: Every semester
Instructor: Staff

MUSC 495 Senior Project (2)

Senior music majors will complete a summative project to review by a faculty committee. The project may be a recital, a large-scale composition, a studio production with supporting materials, or a research thesis paper. In each case the work is proposed, planned, and completed in consultation with sponsoring faculty member(s).

Offering: Every semester
Instructor: Staff