MUSI 1310 Basic Musical Skills

3.0 credits

Section 1 (Rah Hite): MWF / 9:00-9:50 am / OCH 107
Class Number: 12982

Section 2 (Ben Rous): MWF / 10:00-10:50 am / OCH 107
Class Number: 12983

Section 2 (Neda Nadim): MWF / 11:00-11:50 am / OCH 113
Class Number: 19766

Study of the rudiments of music and training in the ability to read music. Prerequisite: No previous knowledge of music required.

MUSI 1410 Symphonic Listening

Ben Rous
3.0 credits
Section 100: MW / 11:00-11:50 am / OCH 107
Class Number: 12990

Discussion Sections:

Section 101 (Katie King): R / 9:30-10:20 am / OCH S008
Class Number: 12991

Section 102 (Katie King): R / 11:00-11:50 am / OCH S008
Class Number: 12992

Section 103 (Katie King): R / 12:30-1:20 pm / OCH S008
Class Number: 12993

Symphonic Listening focuses on the sounds and forms of symphonic music. Listening skills are emphasized, with no prior musical knowledge required. We will learn to recognize orchestral instruments by their timbre, discern levels of consonance and dissonance, identify types of textures, and think critically about how musical content expresses cultural context. Students will gain a framework for understanding symphonic music of any genre.

MUSI 1620 History of the Wind Band

Drew Koch
2.0 credits
T / 9:30-10:50 am / 101 Hunter Smith Band Building
Class Number: 13076

MUSI 2021 Creative Discovery

Elliott Tackitt
3.0 credits
MW / 3:00-3:50 pm / 101 Hunter Smith Band Building
Class Number: 13621

Discover your creative potential! We often wonder about an artist’s immense creativity, seemingly harnessed with ease. Each of us has tremendous resources of creativity, often under-explored. In this course, students learn to unlock their own potential.

No previous artistic experience is required. Class activities include readings and discussions; weekly responses collected via a Google Form; two reflective papers; a presentation on a “found” resource; and one creative project in a medium of the student’s choice.

MUSI 2120 History of Jazz

Scott DeVeaux
3.0 credits
Section 100: MW / 12:00-12:50 / Nau Hall 101
Class Number: 20062

Discussion Sections:

Sections 101 (Dilshan Weerasinghe): T / 9:30-10:20 am / OCH S008
Class Number: 20063

Sections 102 (Dilshan Weerasinghe): T / 11:00-11:50 am / OCH S008
Class Number: 20064

Sections 103 (Dilshan Weerasinghe): T / 12:30-1:20 pm / OCH S008
Class Number: 20065

Section 104 (Alonya Castillo): F / 9:00-10:50 am / OCH S008
Class Number: 20066

Section 105 (Alonya Castillo): R / 10:00-10:50 am / OCH S008
Class Number: 20067

Section 106 (Alonya Castillo): R / 11:00-11:50 am / OCH S008
Class Number: 20066

Perhaps you have heard this anecdote. Someone asks, "What is jazz?"" And the answer is, "If you have to ask, you willl never know." But that's no longer true.

In this class, we will teach you about jazz. We will explain what music improvisation is, and how it works. We will offer guides about how to listen to the music. And we will tell you the story of jazz: how it fits into American history, and more specifically Black history. You will come to know the music and the personalities of jazz titans such as Louis Armstrong, John Coltrane, Billie Holiday, and Charlie Parker. And you will get to see the intertwining of styles and recordings that make up the jazz tradition.

This class presupposes no musical knowledge, beyond the desire to learn about traditions that may be outside your experience. With that in mind, the first two chapters in the textbook Jazz concentrates on musical elements.  Learn as much as you can by 1) reading Chapters 1-2; 2) watching the lecture videos on Collab under Chapters 1-2; 3) consulting the Norton study space, which has ample discussion of terms and concepts.

The course itself tells the story of jazz,  starting with the origins in the complex musical culture of the early 20th century and proceeding, step by step.  We will arrive at the present in three ways: 1) through the modernist narrative, which leads to the jazz avant-garde; 2) the fusion narrative, which links jazz to popular culture; and 3) the historicist narrative, framing the jazz present in terms of its past. 

MUSI 2302 Keyboard Skills (Beginning)

2.0 credits, instructor permission

Section 1 (Shelby Sender): TR / 11:00 am - 12:15 pm / OCH 113
Class Number: 11023

Section 2 (Shelby Sender): TR / 12:30-1:45 pm / OCH 113
Class Number: 14494

Introductory keyboard skills; includes sight-reading, improvisation, and accompaniment at the keyboard in a variety of styles. No previous knowledge of music required. Satisfies the performance requirement for music majors.

MUSI 2304 Keyboard Skills (Intermediate)

John Mayhood
2.0 credits, instructor permission
TR / 9:30-10:45 am / OCH 113
Class Number: 11024

Intermediate keyboard skills for students with some previous musical experience. Satisfies the performance requirement for music majors. Restricted to: Instructor permission by audition.

MUSI 2307 Play Guitar! 1

Mike Rosensky
2.0 credits
MW / 1:00-1:50 pm / OCH B012
Class Number: 12981

Fundamentals of playing guitar, with an emphasis on rhythmic training along with some music theory.  This class will start from scratch and is meant for beginners.  Experienced guitarists are encouraged to enroll in MUSI 3307 Play Guitar! 2.

MUSI 2311 Vocal Performance Class

Pam Beasley and Brenda Patterson
2.0 credits
Section 4: T / 3:30-5:00 pm / OCH 107
Class Number: 19774

Vocal Performance requires a broad skillset. This course offers students a toolbox of practical techniques & methodologies including study of diction and language, physical expression, textual analysis, dramatic storytelling/acting, collaboration with a pianist, physical/vocal health, and many other components of stagecraft that can be addressed well in group lessons. A baseline level of music-learning and -preparation ability, as well as some prior experience in any genre of vocal solo performance, is ideal.

MUSI 2340 Learn to Groove

Robert Jospe
2.0 credits

Section 1: MW / 10:00-10:50 am / 101 Hunter Smith Band Building
Class Number: 11490

Section 2: MW / 11:00-11:50 am / 101 Hunter Smith Band Building
Class Number: 14497

"Learn to Groove" hand drumming and rhythmic fluency with Robert Jospe. This is a hands on drumming/percussion class using congas, djembes, claves, shakers, etc. This class is designed to enhance ones knowledge of syncopated patterns associated with jazz, rock, African and Latin American music and to improve ones facility in playing these patterns. This course will follow my book "Learn To Groove" and can include music students, non music students and is open to students of all skill levels. The course requires that students have or purchase a hand drum of their own. Congas, bongos, djembes, doumbeks or any other hand drums are appropriate.

MUSI 2342 Learn to Groove Intermediate

Robert Jospe
2.0 credits
MW / 1:00-1:50 pm / 101 Hunter Smith Band Building
Class Number: 14495

"Learn to Groove" hand drumming and rhythmic fluency with Robert Jospe. This is the intermediate level of the class. It is a hands on drumming/percussion class using congas, djembes, claves, shakers, etc. This class is designed to enhance ones knowledge of syncopated patterns associated with jazz, rock, African and Latin American music and to improve ones facility in playing these patterns.

MUSI 2360 EcoSonics: Environmental Sound Art Composition

Matthew Burtner
3.0 credits
TR / 11:00-11:50 / OCH B012
Class Number: TBA

Discussion Sections:

Section 101 (Qi  Shen): TBA
Class Number: TBA

Section 102 (Qi  Shen): TBA
Class Number: TBA

Section 103 (Qi  Shen): TBA
Class Number: TBA

From singing glaciers to coral reef rhythms, from infrasonic elephant vocalizations to ultrasonic moth hearing, EcoSonics explores the world of environmental sound and music from a creative perspective. This introductory course will focus on many amazing sounds of the natural world, and it will examine the role of environment in shaping musical thought, production, and culture. Whether made by the wind or by humans, our listening examples come from all over the world and from many genres and species. In addition to exploring key concepts of environment and sound, weekly studio sections and creative projects will provide opportunities to actively explore current environmental music production techniques. No previous music experience is required. Listening with open ears and mind is required!

MUSI 2559 New Course in Music
Topic: Meet the Beatles

Scott DeVeaux
3.0 credits
MWF / 11:00-11:50 / OCH 113
Class Number: 20763

MUSI 2600 Jazz Improvisation

Mike Rosensky
3.0 credits
TR / 3:30-5:00 pm / OCH B012
Class Number: 11316

The Jazz Improvisation Workshop explores the basic techniques and procedures for improvising in jazz and other musical contexts. No previous jazz or improvising experience is required but students must demonstrate a degree of fluency on their main instrument, an ability to read music and some familiarity with the basics of music theory. An individual interview/audition with the instructor is required before registering for this class.

MUSI 2993: Independent Study

1.0 - 3.0 credits
Instructor permission and instructor number required to enroll.

MUSI 3040 20th- and 21st-Century Music

Jade Conlee
3.0 credits
TR / 3:30-4:45 / OCH 113
Class Number: 20291

Moving backward in time from the 2020s to 1900, we will listen together to pop music, jazz, classical and everything in between. Central questions for this course include: What can music teach us about race, gender, colonialism, technology, and the environment in the 20th and 21st centuries? How did musicians respond to the major political events (American and global) of their eras? How does historical perspective change how we listen? An incomplete list of musicians we will study includes Charlie XCX, Beyoncé, Avril Lavigne, the Backstreet Boys, DJ Screw, Whitney Houston, NWA, Kenny G, Michael Jackson, Gerard Grisey, Alice Coltrane, Carlos Santana, Bob Marley, Pauline Oliveros, Harry Belafonte, John Cage, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Iannis Xenakis, Art Blakey, Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday, Bessie Smith, Kurt Weil, Jean Sibelius, Eric Satie.

MUSI 3050 Music and Discourse

3.0 credits

Section 1 (Karl Hagstrom Miller): MWF / 10:00-10:50 am / OCH B012
Class Number: 14099

Section 2 (Molly Joyce): MWF / 1:00-1:50 pm / OCH 113
Class Number: 19762

Studies the range of music that has flourished since the end of the 19th century including modernist and post-modern art music, popular music, and world music, through historical, critical, and ethnographic approaches.

MUSI 3060 Motown vs. Everybody: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

JoVia Armstrong
3.0 credits
TR / 9:30-10:45 / OCH B012
Class Number: 14732

This course explores Motown Record Corporation's profound impact on culture and society, tracing its roots back to its inception and structural model of The Ford Motor Company. Along with its exceptionally talented artists, such as Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye, the record label played a significant role in breaking down racial barriers and unifying people from diverse backgrounds through the undeniable power of music. In addition, we will compare Motown to two other record labels, Stax Records and Philadelphia International Records, to better understand how all three reflected the political and social movements of the U.S. from the late 1950s to the late 1970s. As these three labels reflect the ideas of assimilation, integration, and self-reliance in Black America, we will explore why music is a powerful tool in resistance and examine how music as resistance continues to be relevant in today's society.

MUSI 3307 Play Guitar! 2

2.0 credits
Mike Rosensky
MW / 2:00-2:50 pm / OCH B012
Class Number: 13090

The course will have flexibility from semester to semester depending on the makeup of the class.  Topics may include: Bar Chord/Power Chord Refresher, (Advanced) Syncopated Strumming, Blues Form, Three-Note Major and Minor Triads up and down the fretboard, Pentatonic Scale Positions, Major Scale Positions, Scale Patterns, Song Analysis, Composition, Improvisation, Seventh Chords, Chords of Higher Tension, Funk Grooves, Introduction to Jazz Guitar.

MUSI 3310 Theory I

3.0 credits

Section 1 (John Walker): MWF / 9:00-9:50 pm / OCH B012
Class Number: 11778

Section 2 (Carlehr Swanson): MWF / 11:00-11:50 am / OCH B012
Class Number: 14413

Studies the pitch and rhythmic aspects of several musical styles, including European art music, blues, African drumming, and popular music. Focuses on concepts and notation related to scales and modes, harmony, meter, form, counterpoint, and style.

MUSI 3320 Theory II

Michael Puri
3.0 credits
TR / 9:30-10:45 am / OCH 107
Class Number: 11988

Studies pitch and formal organization in European concert music of the 18th and 19th centuries. Includes four-part vocal writing, 18th-century style keyboard accompaniment, key relations, and form. Students compose numerous short passages of music and study significan compositions by period composers.

MUSI 3332 and 3334 Musicianship I and II

2.0 credit

These lab courses give practical experience with many aspects of musical perception, performance, and creation. These will include sight-reading and sight-singing; dictation of melody, rhythm, and harmony; aural identification of intervals, chords, and rhythmic patterns; and exercises in musical memory and improvisation. Lectures, dictations, exercises, and quizzes will be in person on Mondays and Wednesdays. Singing and rhythm practice will be online on Fridays, and most homework assignments will also be completed online. Please contact Prof. Adam Carter with questions or concerns.

MUSI 3332 Musicianship I

Section 1 (Mary Beth Bauerman): MWF / 12:00-12:50 pm / OCH 113
Class Number: 10804

Section 2 (Brian Lindgren): MWF / 12:00-12:50 pm / OCH B012
Class Number: 13337

MUSI 3334 Musicianship II

Adam Carter
MWF / 12:00-12:50 pm / OCH 107
Class Number: 10805

MUSI 3374 Composing Mixtapes

A.D. Carson
3.0 credit
TR / 9:30-10:45 am / NCH 398
Class Number: 19775

Discussion Sections:

Lab 101 (Varun Kishore): M / 9:00-9:50 am / NCH 398
Class Number: 19776 

Lab 102 (Varun Kishore): M / 10:00-10:50 am / NCH 398
Class Number: 19777

Lab 103 (Varun Kishore): M / 11:00-11:50 am / NCH 398
Class Number: 19778

This course focuses on the craft of writing rap songs as well as the collection, selection, and integration of other media to collaborate toward the composition of a class mixtape. Experience writing raps or producing beats will be helpful, but it is not necessary that students have previous experience to take this course. Students will listen to, attempt to deconstruct, create, and evaluate a broad range of music and literature while collaborating on the mixtape. Along with composing the mixtape, students will learn songwriting techniques and some alternate theoretical approaches to composing other hip-hop works.

MUSI 3400 Ecoacoustics

Matthew Burtner
Gabrielle Cerberville
3.0 credits
TR / 2:00-3:15 / OCH 107
Class Number: 14101

Ecoacoustics explores the intersection between ecology and music. It engages with natural systems of change and the unique sonic energy of places. Students learn recording and analysis techniques, and create their own ecoacoustic sound works as we study seminal works from the musical and artistic fields of acoustic ecology, sonology, soundscape composition, sonification, earthwork art, and deep listening.

MUSI 3510 Music and Community Engagement
Topic: Sound Justice

Nomi Dave
Sia Mohebbi
3.0 credits
TR / 9:30-10:45 am / Wilson 117
Class Number: 13072

This class explores connections between sound, listening, and the law. How do legal proceedings play out in sound? What does the law hear – and what does it not? Course materials include court cases and transcripts, music, film, novels, and academic articles. The class has a civic engagement component that offers students opportunities to meet with lawyers, artists, and other community members in Charlottesville and beyond, to produce research and creative work. It also provides a space to respond to and engage current events. The class can be used to fulfill the music major requirements, but musical or other artistic experience is not necessary.

MUSI 3993 Independent Study

1.0-3.0 credits
Instructor permission and instructor number required to enroll.

4523 Issues in Ethnomusicology
Topic: African Electronic Music

Noel Lobley
3.0 credits
MW / 2:00-3:15 pm / Wilson 142
Class Number: 19763

In 2018, the renowned British music journal Fact boldly claimed that “the world’s best electronic music festival is in Uganda.” Indeed, African cities have long been places for some of the most futuristic music, sounds that reverberate between local identities and international avant-garde scenes. Explosive, hypnotic and ultra-modern electronic sounds meld stunning dance forms with musical theatre and fashion, articulating the urban youth experience in cities as diverse and vibrant as Johannesburg, Nairobi, Kinshasa, Lagos, Dar es Salaam, and Kampala.

In this course, we will engage multiplex genres of electronic music from the African continent, including Congolese congotronics, Ugandan acholitronix, Tanzanian singeli, and South African shangaan electro and gqom apocalyptic bass music, paying close attention to innovations in artistic practice, remix culture and Afrofuturism. Blending critical and contextual work with exciting opportunities for real world outputs, we will be engaging with professional artists from different electronic scenes, such as the boiling Nyege Nyege collective and The Black Power Station, alongside other professional partners in music production, radio and written journalism, as well as exhibition and museum curation. As a way to open professional avenues for students, coursework will be driven towards the organization of an end of the semester multi-modal event representing in Charlottesville the electronic music bursting from the African continent. Building on each other’s interests and skills, students will all be working to imagine, design and curate this event.

No prior musical experience is required

4543 Sound Studio

Ted Coffey
3.0 credits
R / 5:00-7:30 / OCH B011
Class Number: 19780

Studies in computer music studio techniques, sound synthesis using a variety of software packages based on the Macintosh platform, and the creation of original music using new technologies. Prerequisite: MUSI 3390 or instructor permission.

MUSI 4559 New Course in Music
Topic: Black Music in Virginia

Elizabeth Ozment
3.0 credits
M / 2:00-4:30 pm / Wilson 244
Class Number: 19764

What lessons do music archives hold about the individual and collective experiences of early black Virginians? How have black Virginians engaged music to envision and enact freedom for themselves and others? What did black epistemologies, their unique ways of knowing the world, sound like? This course argues that music history helps us understand people, traditions, and cultural change. Virginia’s black music history presents us with opportunities for intellectual and moral contemplation about courage, resilience, innovation, transformation, and community; educating us about how the Virginia we currently live in came to be. The music studied in this course invokes memories of those who witnessed slavery and the transition to legal freedom. We will read about traumas and social paradoxes that are both historic and painfully present in U.S. society. We will examine black Virginians practices during slavery, the advent of emancipation, reconstruction, and during Jim Crow. Selected music recordings will mediate cultural, political, economic, and gendered dynamics of southern life and connect our class to a broader American music history. We will also examine the history of African American music preservation, and the representation of music history in museums and other public spaces. There will be opportunities for us to collaborate with musicians, librarians, museum curators, and scholars from other universities. We will investigate public discourse about Virginia’s black music history in groundbreaking scholarship, recordings, exhibitions, and use our findings to design a museum exhibit. In doing so, we will engage in a multi-sensory study of the past.

MUSI 4582 Composition II

Leah Reid
3.0 credits
T / 2:00-4:30 pm / OCH B011
Class Number: 19765

Composition II is an advanced undergraduate music composition course. Students will receive a combination of weekly individual lessons intermixed with monthly group sessions. The course will provide a forum for students to listen, discuss, workshop, develop, and explore inspirations, compositions, and ideas. Over the course of the semester, students are expected to compose a large-scale work or a series of smaller works for the instrumentation and in the style of their choosing (including electronics).

Note: individual lesson times may be scheduled outside the listed course times. Lesson times will be scheduled the first day of class. 

Prerequisite: MUSI 3380, 3390, or permission from the instructor. Students are expected to have some prior composition experience and must be proficient with standard music notation. The course can be repeated for credit.

MUSI 4770 Choral Arranging

Michael Slon
3.0 credits
Lecture: MW / 2:00-3:15 / OCH 107
Class Number: 19809

This class will explore the art of writing for chorus and small vocal ensemble, and will aim at developing practical skills in creating and transcribing arrangements. Students will study a variety of examples from the repertoire, and attention will be paid to fundamentals of writing for the voice, setting text, etc. In addition, the class will serve as workshop chorus, such that student arrangements can be performed and studied in the classroom.

Prerequisites: MUSI 3310 or Instructor permission. A basic knowledge of music theory, and a basic ability to sing from written sources will prove essential.

4950 Performance Concentration Seminar

Daniel Sender
3.0 credits
TBA
Class Number: 12185

MUSI 4993 Independent Study

1.0-3.0 credits
Instructor permission required to enroll.