Selected undergraduate courses: Spring 2010
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Music 20S.02: The Music-Theater Paradox (ALP, W)
WF 2:50 PM - 4:05 PM, George Lam

There are many labels that describe works of music-theater: a play with incidental music, performance art, musical theater, opera. Course discusses and dissects a few works that straddle categories, questioning the sometimes-solid boundaries between the creators’ vision and audience expectations. Examines works by Giuseppe Verdi, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Jonathan Larson, Stephen Sondheim, Mozart and da Ponte, Leonard Bernstein, John Adams and Philip Glass, others.

Music 49S.01 Drama Through Music (ALP, CCI)
MW 4:25PM - 5:40PM, Harry Davidson

Sex, seduction, murder, deceit, infidelity, betrayal, jealousy, impersonation, thievery, evil spirits: the stuff of opera. This seminar will examine the works of five great composers of opera: Purcell, Mozart, Wagner, Verdi and Berg. Then to get an idea of what goes into a performance, students will witness the preparation of the Duke Symphony Orchestra's spring opera production, "Cosi fan tutte."(No prior musical experience necessary.)

Music 49S.02: From Opera to Film (ALP, CCI, CZ)
TuTh 1:15 PM- 2:30 PM, Jacqueline Waeber

How the musical theater has influenced the cinematographic aesthetic and made its way into films, from
La Traviata to Moulin Rouge.

Music 70: Music, Sound, and Style (ALP, CCI, CZ)
TuTh 2:50 PM- 4:05 PM, Anthony Kelley

Current pop, jazz, classical and world music through discussion of style, history, culture and taste.

Music 117S.01: Theory and Practice of Post-Tonal Music (ALP)
TuTh 10:05AM - 11:20AM, Stephen Jaffe

Tonality changed in the early 20th century. It has been practiced in a variety of idioms, from neoclassical tonalities, to modal jazz, from blues to theater songs. Music 117 is introduction to 20th- and 21st-century music, with emphasis on both analysis and model composition in a range of idioms. We will analyze music by Debussy, Bartok, Copland, Ruth Crawford Seeger, and Messiaen, not to mention Adams, Britten, Berg, Shostakovich, Stravinsky, Webern and others.  

Music 121: Masterpieces of Choral Music (ALP, W)
MW 11:40 AM- 12:55 PM, Kerry McCarthy

A writing course exploring a wide variety of choral music, including the great works
of the Renaissance and Baroque (such as Handel's Messiah), settings of the Requiem
by Mozart, Verdi, and Brahms, and the highlights of 20th-century choral literature.

Music 125: Listening to Music: The European-American Tradition (ALP, CCI)
TuTh 2:50 PM- 4:05 PM, R. Larry Todd

Explores the elements, forms, and genres of the European and American traditions from the sixteenth
to the twenty-first century, with attention to the growing dialogue between ''classical'' repertoire and
popular genres of the past century.

Music 126S: The Art of Performance (ALP)
F 11:55 AM- 2:25 PM, Penelope Jensen, Verena Mösenbichler-Bryant

Fundamental issues in musical performance, examined through performing,
comparative listening, readings, and discussion. In-class performance required.

From screaming to whispering, twanging to humming, praying to protesting, this class
samples voices from musical traditions around the world, including the United States,
to understand how, what, where, and why we sing.