Music Curriculum: 2012-2013

All courses are year long except those listed (F) = Fall/First semester or (S) = Spring/Second semester

I. Individual Instruction (Composition, Piano, Voice, Instrument)
A student may elect to study in two areas, thereby creating a “split”; e.g., a full lesson in voice and a half lesson in piano

IIa. Theory and Composition
Required for all students; entry level determined by diagnostic exam:

• Theory I: Materials of Music (required), taken along with Hearing and Singing
• Theory II: Basic Tonal Theory and Composition (required), taken along with Survey of Western Music
• One of the following Advanced Theory* courses is required after Theory II:
  • Advanced Theory: Advanced Tonal Theory and Analysis
  • Advanced Theory: Jazz Theory and Harmony I
  • Advanced Theory: Twentieth-Century Theoretical Approaches I: Post-Tonal and Rock Music
    * Note: With Advanced Theory it is required to take either a year-long seminar or two semesterlong
    seminars in music history, which include Keyboard Literature, Mozart and Beethoven: Music from
    1720-1810 (Fall); Debussy and the French School (Spring); Jazz History; The Music of J. S. Bach (Fall),
    Music of Transcendent Experience (Spring), and Ethnomusicology of Africa, Asia, and the Middle East:
    Structures of Music, Structures of Power.
• Sight Reading and Aural Skills
  • Hearing and Singing (required with Theory I)
  • Basic Aural Skills (required)
  • Intermediate Aural Skills
  • Sight Reading for Instrumentalists
• Music Technology:
  • Introduction to Electronic Music and Music Technology
  • Recording, Sequencing and Mastering Electronic Music
  • Studio Composition and Music Technology
• Compositional Techniques
  • Twentieth-Century Compositional Techniques
  • Orchestration

IIb. Music History Courses

• Survey of Western Music (required with Theory II)
• The Music of J.S. Bach
• Music of Transcendent Experience
• Keyboard Literature
• Ethnomusicology of Africa, Asia, and the Middle East: Structures of Music, Structures of Power
• Mozart and Beethoven: Music from 1720-1810 (F)
• Debussy and the French School (S)
• Jazz History

III. Performance Classes

• Choral Ensembles:
  • Women’s Vocal Ensemble
  • Chamber Choir
• Jazz Ensembles and Classes:
  • The Blues Ensemble
  • Jazz Colloquium
  • Jazz Performance and Improvisation Workshop
  • Jazz Vocal Ensemble
• Voice Classes:
  • Diction for Singers (required)
  • Jazz Vocal Seminar
  • Self Discovery Through Singing
  • Seminar in Vocal Performance (required)
  • So This is Opera?
  • Studio Class
• World Music Ensembles:
  • African Classics of the Post-Colonial Era (F)
  • Bluegrass Performance Ensemble (S)
  • Gamelan Angklung Chandra Buana (F) (required for all students taking Ethnomusicology of Africa, Asia, and the Middle East: Structures of Music, Structures of Power)
  • West African Percussion Ensemble Faso Foli (S)
• Other Ensembles and Classes:
  • Awareness Through MovementⓉ for Musicians
  • Baroque Ensemble
  • Conducting
  • Chamber Music
  • Chamber Music Improvisation
  • Experimental Improvisation Ensemble
  • Evolution of a Performance
  • Guitar Class
  • Guitar Ensemble
  • Keyboard Lab
  • Sarah Lawrence Orchestra (required for instrumentalists)
  • Sarah Lawrence String Orchestra
  • Senior Recital (S)
  • Violin Masterclass

IV. Concert Attendance/Music Tuesdays Requirement

V. Courses offered to the College community that constitute one-third of a student’s total program (seminars or lecture with conferences)

• Ethnomusicology of the Americas: Music, Language & Identity
• Lecture (F): “Non-Western” Western Musics in Europe and Asia
• Seminar (S): Music, Circulation, and Appropriation

VI. Music Courses in Rotation Not Offered in 2011-2012

• Idea of a New Style
• Beethoven
• Jazz Composition and Arranging
• Saxophone Ensemble
• Ethnomusicology of the Americas” Music, Language and Identity
• Music, Circulation, and Appropriation
• Theoretical Foundations of Electronic Music
• Digital Audio Workstations and MIDI
• Theoretical Foundations of Electronic Music