Music

This credit-bearing course will consist of a combination of various individual components that can be taken as MUSC 4400 (two credits). For the two-credit option, students may take an Individual Instruction lesson and either a Performance Ensemble or World Music Ensemble, or take a component in Theory and Composition, Technology, or History.

This credit-bearing course will consist of a combination of various individual components that can be taken as MUSC 4400 (three credits). For the three-credit option, students may take an Individual Instruction lesson, a Performance Ensemble or World Music Ensemble, and a component in Theory and Composition, Technology, or History.

This credit-bearing course will consist of an individual component that can be taken as MUSC 4400 (one credit). For the one-credit option, components may include an Individual Instruction lesson or a Performance Ensemble or a World Music Ensemble. 

This credit-bearing course will consist of a combination of various individual components that together constitute a Music Third. For the 10-credit option, components include an Individual Instruction lesson or Beginning Lesson for Music Thirds, a component in Theory and Composition, a Performance Ensemble or World Music Ensemble, and required concert attendance through the Music Tuesdays (MUSC 5398) component.

If desired, but not required, other components—such as in technology or history—may be added by permission of the program director. In certain cases, substitutions may be made with permission of the program director.

This credit-bearing course will consist of a combination of various individual components that together constitute a Music Two Thirds. For the 20-credit option, students will complete two Individual Instruction lessons; two components in Theory and Composition, Technology, or History; two Performance Ensembles or World Music Ensembles; and attend required concerts through the Music Tuesdays (MUSC 5398) component.  

This is a beginning course in basic vocal technique. Each student’s vocal needs are met within the structure and content of the class.

This is a beginning course in basic vocal technique. Each student’s vocal needs are met within the structure and content of the class.

This is a beginning course in basic vocal technique. Each student’s vocal needs are met within the structure and content of the class.

This is a beginning course in basic vocal technique. Each student’s vocal needs are met within the structure and content of the class.

This course will be for beginning students in either acoustic or electric guitar.

This course is designed to accommodate beginning piano students who take this course as the core of their music program. Instruction will take place in a group setting, with eight keyboard stations and one master station. Students will be introduced to elementary keyboard technique and simple piano pieces.

The impact of The Beatles has been immeasurable. In their seven years as a recording band, they explored and enlarged every aspect of songwriting technique, producing one musical milestone after the next. This course will trace the development of The Beatles chronologically through their 12 original English albums and the singles that were released alongside them. We will focus on the ways in which The Beatles used harmony, phrase structure, rhythm, structural ambiguity, and sonority in continuously innovative ways. We will also look at some of the musical styles and cultural phenomena that The Beatles assimilated and transformed—from early rock & roll, Motown, and The Goon Show to 1960s counterculture—and explore how The Beatles, in turn, influenced music and culture in the 1960s. There will also be guest-led discussions by other members of the music faculty on the following topics: The Beatles and the evolution of studio recording, the use of electronic music techniques (Yannelli), Norwegian Wood and the great sitar explosion (Higgins), electric guitar techniques (Alexander), and acoustic guitar techniques (Anderson).

This course will examine how music and its global circulation make the relationships between people audible. In the social contexts of listening and musical performance, we will understand how music and its movement across community-based, regional, and national boundaries shape people’s lives. As recordings, musicians, and ideas about music move, we will learn how they sound interpersonal relationships by using selected ethnographic examples of art and popular music from across Asia. Class topics may include Javanese gamelan, South Indian classical music, Japanese taiko, Southeast Asian heavy metal, Iranian pop, brass bands, Japanese hip-hop, Bollywood, music from the Silk Road Project, world jazz, Japanese noise, K-pop, the music of M.I.A., World Music 2.0, and others. Course themes related to the circulation of music will include the ideology of tradition, cultural imperialism, sound technologies, and the more recent proliferation of cultural nationalisms that seek to impede circulation. By encountering musical diversity through listening and reading materials, students will develop the critical thinking skills to make connections between sonic and textual resources and to better understand the many ways in which music and sound are meaningful around the world. Participation in Solkattu, our Indian vocal percussion ensemble, or African Classics, our African popular music ensemble, is strongly encouraged. No prior musical experience is necessary.

The goal of this course is to recapitulate an experience had by the instructor, having attended a visual-arts museum that had its collection displayed in an unusual fashion. Instead of grouping art in rooms according to genre, chronology, nationality, or particular artists, the art was arranged by intriguing concepts. A room might contain an O’Keeffe painting, a centuries-old Indigenous piece from Australia, a Rodin sculpture, and a poem that were, in some way, connected by a fascinating idea. Thus, in this course, every class will begin with some concept from mathematics, poetry, philosophy, astronomy, and more; then, we will gradually explore music that engages with that concept in some way. The musical examples each week will span centuries and cultures—one week might have an avant-garde piano sonata by Boulez, a 1980s art-rock song by Laurie Anderson, and a Kendrick Lamar album; the next week might have an ancient Sumerian song, a piece by Debussy, and a work from the Indian Carnatic tradition. Gradually, more and more connections between the seemingly disparate topics will be revealed. Per the course title, it is not everything exactly—and it is more like “across the semester” rather than “all at once”—but, by the end, students will know a whole lot more across a wide range of disciplines. And, most importantly, we will listen to a metric ton of fantastic music.

Out of one of the worst atrocities of humanity, we were gifted with the extraordinary music that would become known as the blues. In this course, we will explore and analyze the origins of the blues, the uniqueness of this great American art form, and how it is related to jazz but takes a completely different path—ultimately leading us to rock & roll and all forms of popular music. We will dissect the unique components of the blues, which defied conventional music theory as we knew it, made it different from any music that came before it, and out of which rock & roll was born. Through listening to and analyzing these early developments, from African drumming pieces to field hollers, work songs, spirituals, early country blues, Delta blues, urban blues, and Chicago electric blues, we will discover the African culture and musical concepts that survived and how they are the foundation of every part of popular music—be it jazz, Afro-Cuban, Caribbean, country, rock & roll, soul, gospel, runk, rhythm and blues, hip-hop, rap, Brazilian, and on and on. We will study the unique African contributions of music in form, rhythm, melody, tone, and timbre that has now permeated all styles of music. Without this incredible, invaluable, unique contribution, our music today would be very different—and there would have been no Louis Armstrong, Miles Davis, Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry, Ray Charles, Bob Dylan, James Brown, The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones, Jimmy Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Dusty Springfield, Aretha Franklin, Diana Ross & The Supremes, Otis Redding, Sam Cooke, Elvis Costello, Stevie Wonder, Prince, Kendrick Lamar, Beyonce, and on and on and on...right up to every new artist today. 

This course will be a chronological survey of Western music from the Middle Ages to the present. The course will explore the cyclical nature of music that mirrors philosophical and theoretical ideas established in Ancient Greece and how that cycle most notably reappears every 300 years: the Ars nova of the 14th century, Le nuove musiche of the 17th century, and the New Music of the 20th century and beyond. The course will involve reading, listening, and class discussions that focus on significant compositions of the Western musical tradition, the evolution of form, questions of aesthetics, and historical perspective. There will be occasional quizzes in fall; short, written summary papers or class presentations will be required in spring.

This course will examine punk rock as a musical style and as a vehicle for cultural opposition. We will investigate the musical, cultural, and political conditions that gave birth to the genre in the 1970s and trace its continuing evolution through the early 2000s—in dialogue with and opposition to other musical genres, such as progressive rock, heavy metal, ska, and reggae. We will begin with the influence of minimalism on “proto-punk” artists like the Velvet Underground and Patti Smith, which will provide a foundation for seeing how minimalism—as well as modernism, atonality, and electronic music—continue to resonate in punk and rock music. We will examine the intellectual background of early UK punk, with readings by Guy Debord and the Situationist International, and look at the theories of Gramsci and Foucault on the question of institutional power structures and the possibility of resistance to them. To deepen our understanding of punk style and the culture of opposition, there will also be readings by Theodor Adorno, Mikhail Bakhtin, Roland Barthes, Antonin Artaud, William S. Burroughs, Kathy Acker, Julia Kristeva, and others. We will trace the splintering of punk into various subgenres and the challenges of negotiating the music industry while remaining “authentic” in a commercialized culture. Another major focus will be on the Riot Grrrl bands of the 1990s as a catalyst for third-wave feminism. Given the DIY aesthetic at the heart of punk and in addition to listening to, analyzing, and reading about the music, students who want to incorporate creative work will be given the opportunity to work with musicians and write some punk songs. In light of the abundant documentary film footage relating to punk culture, the course will include a film viewing every other week.

This course will look at the intersections of music, culture, and nature. We will study how artists and musicians use music and sound to address climate change by surveying important trends in the young field of ecomusicology, such as soundscape studies, environmental musical criticism, acoustic ecology, and animal musicalities. Themes will range from music versus sound and the cultural construction of nature to aurality and the efficacy of sonic activism. Class sessions may include Appalachian coal-mining songs, Indigenous music from the Arctic, art music composition, soundscapes, field recordings, birdsong, soundwalks, and musical responses to environmental crises such as Hurricane Katrina and the nuclear accident in Fukushima, Japan. Participation in the Solkattu Ensemble (Indian vocal percussion) is strongly encouraged. No prior experience in music is necessary.

We will begin in Babel itself, the ancient site of Babylon, where archaeologists have discovered many tablets about music. Nearby sites have the earliest examples of musical notation, some dating as far back as 1400 BCE. We will learn some aspects of how their music worked and begin building a vocabulary for talking about and notating music in general. Across the course of the semester, we will learn many different musical languages, such as the music of Ancient Greece, the old court music of Japan, drum ensembles of central Africa, and the world of European classical music. We will also delve into many different modern musics, including the rise of sampling and turntablism in hip-hop, the theory of so-called “atonal” music, and the development of electronic sound. In short, the course will be devoted to learning a sampling of crucial aspects of the multitudinous vocabularies and grammars that pervade music across the world and across time. No prior study of nor the ability to read music is required. By the end of the semester, students will be able to read basic musical ideas in a few different notation systems and will have some understanding of important aspects of not only standard European music theories but also many others that are too-often learned only by specialists.

For singers and/or guitarists, this ensemble will take on any Beatles song that works with the acoustic guitar. Singers and guitarists at any level are welcome, as are singers who play some guitar and guitarists who sing.

These performance ensembles are geared toward learning and performing various traditional, as well as hybrid, styles of blues and rock music. The blues, like jazz, is a purely American art form, and all styles of rock & roll originate out of the blues. The ensembles are open to investigating Delta blues, performing songs by artists such as Robert Johnson, Son House, Charlie Patton, Skip James, and others; Texas blues; and Chicago electric blues that might open the doors to Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, and Buddy Guy. The course is open for students to discover the likes of Albert King, B. B. King, and Freddie King, alongside modern blues artists such as Johnny Winter, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Joe Bonamassa, and pioneer rockers Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, Peter Green, Jimi Hendrix, and Janis Joplin. It is always suggested that students discover and pick songs that have a close or discernible relationship to the blues; however, the ensemble is open to include most styles and genres of rock & roll.

These performance ensembles are geared toward learning and performing various traditional, as well as hybrid, styles of blues and rock music. The blues, like jazz, is a purely American art form, and all styles of rock & roll originate out of the blues. The ensembles are open to investigating Delta blues, performing songs by artists such as Robert Johnson, Son House, Charlie Patton, Skip James, and others; Texas blues; and Chicago electric blues that might open the doors to Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, and Buddy Guy. The course is open for students to discover the likes of Albert King, B. B. King, and Freddie King, alongside modern blues artists such as Johnny Winter, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Joe Bonamassa, and pioneer rockers Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, Peter Green, Jimi Hendrix, and Janis Joplin. It is always suggested that students discover and pick songs that have a close or discernible relationship to the blues; however, the ensemble is open to include most styles and genres of rock & roll.

This ensemble will meet weekly to rehearse and perform a wide variety of modern jazz music and other related styles. Repertoire in the past has included works by composers Thelonious Monk, Duke Ellington, Miles Davis, and Herbie Hancock, as well as some rock, Motown, and blues. All instruments are welcome. 

No longer do vocalists need to share valuable time with those wanting to focus primarily on instrumental jazz and vice versa. This ensemble will be dedicated to providing a performance-oriented environment for the aspiring jazz vocalist. We will mostly concentrate on picking material from the standard jazz repertoire. Vocalists will get an opportunity to work on arrangements, interpretation, delivery, phrasing, and intonation in a realistic situation with a live rhythm section and soloists. Vocalists will learn how to work with, give direction to, and get what they need from the rhythm section. The course will provide an environment for vocalists to learn to hear forms and changes and also to work on vocal improvisation, if they so choose. This will not only give students an opportunity to work on singing solo or lead vocals but also to work with other vocalists in singing backup or harmony vocals for and with each other. And the course will serve as a great opportunity for instrumentalists to learn the true art of accompanying the jazz vocalist, which will prove to be a valuable experience in preparing for a career as a professional musician.

No longer do vocalists need to share valuable time with those wanting to focus primarily on instrumental jazz and vice versa. This ensemble will be dedicated to providing a performance-oriented environment for the aspiring jazz vocalist. We will mostly concentrate on picking material from the standard jazz repertoire. Vocalists will get an opportunity to work on arrangements, interpretation, delivery, phrasing, and intonation in a realistic situation with a live rhythm section and soloists. Vocalists will learn how to work with, give direction to, and get what they need from the rhythm section. The course will provide an environment for vocalists to learn to hear forms and changes and also to work on vocal improvisation, if they so choose. This will not only give students an opportunity to work on singing solo or lead vocals but also to work with other vocalists in singing backup or harmony vocals for and with each other. And the course will serve as a great opportunity for instrumentalists to learn the true art of accompanying the jazz vocalist, which will prove to be a valuable experience in preparing for a career as a professional musician.

This performance ensemble will be an opportunity for students, regardless of the degree of previous experience on an instrument or voice, to explore a wide range of genres and styles and to prepare for a concert at the end of the semester. The goal of this course is to apply the musical terms as they are encountered in Theory I: Materials of Music (MUSC 5105) to an active musical context. Students wishing to explore songwriting on their own will have an opportunity to do so in spring.

Various chamber groups—from quartets or quintets to violin and piano duos—are formed each year, depending on the number and variety of qualified instrumentalists who apply. Groups will have an opportunity to perform in a chamber music concert at the end of each semester.

This course is open to any student who has a passion for ensemble singing. No audition is required. Emphasis will be placed on intonation, blend, and techniques of good vocal production necessary to produce a resonant and warm sound. Repertoire covered is from the baroque to the contemporary period, especially newly composed works. Performances are both a cappella and accompanied.

This is an experimental performing ensemble that explores a variety of musical styles and techniques, including free improvisation, improvisational conducting, and various other chance-based methods. The ensemble is open to all instruments (acoustic and electric), voice, electronic synthesizers, and laptop computers, as well as performing artists of mixed media (e.g., Soundscapes, video, film and graphic projection). Students must be able to demonstrate a level of proficiency on their chosen instrument. Composer-performers, dancers, and actors are also welcome. Performance opportunities will include concerts and collaboration with other programs, such as dance, theatre, film, and performance art, as well as community outreach.

This ensemble will cover the American folk-rock music movement from Guthrie through the hippies, including union songs and protest songs. Singers and guitarists at any level are welcome, as are singers who play some guitar and guitarists who sing.

In this course, saxophone students will prepare material arranged specifically for saxophone ensemble, drawing from all genres of music: classical, jazz, and contemporary styles. The course will stress instrumental technique, as well as ensemble and performance rehearsal methods and approaches. There will be at least one public performance during the term.

We will focus on the performance of instrumental and vocal repertoire from c. 1600-1750. Weekly coachings will be supplemented by sessions that introduce students to some basic principles of Baroque performance practices. The work of this course will culminate in a concert at the end of the semester.

This component will offer students the opportunity to share with the larger College community the results of their sustained work in performance study. During the semester of their recital, students will receive additional coachings by their principal teachers (instructor varies by instrument).

The music faculty wants students to have access to a variety of musical experiences; therefore, all Music Thirds are required to attend all Music Tuesday events and three music department-sponsored concerts on campus per semester, including concerts presented by music faculty and outside professionals that are part of the Concert Series. (The required number of concerts varies from semester to semester.) Music Tuesdays consist of various programs, including student/faculty town meetings, concert presentations, guest-artist lectures and performances, master classes, and collaborations with other departments and performing-arts programs. 

The Sarah Lawrence Electronic Music Studio is a state-of-the art facility dedicated to the instruction and development of electronic music composition. The studio contains the latest in digital audio hardware and software for synthesis, recording, and signal processing, along with a full complement of vintage analog synthesizers and tape machines. Beginning students will start with an introduction to the equipment, basic acoustics, and principles of studio recording; signal processing; and a historical overview of the medium. Once students have acquired a certain level of proficiency with the equipment and material—usually by the second semester—the focus will be on preparing compositions that will be heard in concerts of electronic music, student composers’ concerts, music workshops, and open concerts.

This course will focus on creating electronic music, primarily using software-based digital audio workstations. Materials covered will include MIDI, Pro Tools, Digital Performer, Logic, Reason, Ableton Live, Max/MSP, Tracktion, and elements of Sibelius and Finale (as connected to media scoring). Assignments will focus on composing individual works and/or creating music and designing sound for various media, such as film, dance, and interactive performance art. Students may also choose to evolve collaborative projects with students from those other areas. Projects will be presented in class for discussion and critique.

Students will work on individual projects involving aspects of music technology—including, but not limited to, works for electro-acoustic instruments (live and/or prerecorded), works involving interactive performance media, laptop ensembles, Disklavier, and improvised or through-composed works. Projects will be presented in class for discussion and critique.

In this course, we will study elements of music such as pitch, rhythm, intensity, and timbre. We will see how they combine in various musical structures and how those structures communicate. Studies will include notation and ear training, as well as theoretical exercises, rudimentary analyses, and the study of repertoire from various eras of Western music.

In this course, we will study elements of music such as pitch, rhythm, intensity, and timbre. We will see how they combine in various musical structures and how those structures communicate. Studies will include notation and ear training, as well as theoretical exercises, rudimentary analyses, and the study of repertoire from various eras of Western music.

As a skill-building course in the language of tonal music, this course will cover diatonic harmony and voice leading, elementary counterpoint, and simple forms. Students will develop an understanding through part writing, analysis, composition, and aural skills.

Students in this course will study the building blocks and concepts of jazz theory, harmony, and rhythm. Topics will include the study of the standard modes and scales, as well as the use of melodic and harmonic minor scales and their respective modals systems. The course will include the study and application of diminished and augmented scales and their role in harmonic progression, particularly the diminished chord as a parental structure. In-depth study will be given to harmony and harmonic progression through analysis and memorization of triads, extensions, and alterations, as well as substitute chords, reharmonization, and back cycling. We will look at polytonality and the superposition of various hybrid chords over different bass tones and other harmonic structures. We will study and apply all of the above to their characteristic and stylistic genres, including bebop, modal, free, and progressive jazz. The study of rhythm, which is possibly the single most-important aspect of jazz, will be a primary focus, as well. We will also use composition as a way to absorb and truly understand the concepts discussed. 

In this course, students will focus on the basics of arranging and orchestrating for small to medium-size ensembles. Offered in partnership with the Jazz Colloquium (MUSC 5313) ensemble, students will write for the instrumentation of the ensemble and will have the opportunity to hear their arrangements performed by Jazz Colloquium. This course will introduce students to the techniques of arranging and orchestration for two-horn, three-horn, and four-horn jazz ensembles. Students will study the classic repertoire of small to medium-size jazz groups and create small ensemble arrangements in various styles. Materials for study will be drawn from throughout the history of jazz and contemporary/commercial arranging practices.

This course will be an examination of various theoretical approaches to music of the 20th century, including post-tonal, serial, textural, minimalist, and pop/rock music. Our primary text will be Joseph Straus’s Introduction to Post-Tonal Theory, but we will also explore other relevant texts—including scores and recordings of the works themselves. This course will include study of the music of Schoenberg, Webern, Pink Floyd, Ligeti, Bartók, Reich, Radiohead, Nine Inch Nails, Corigliano, and Del Tredici, among others.

This course will be an introduction to a wide array of compositional languages, primarily within a notated context. We will talk about a wide variety of harmonic palettes, including some examples of microtonality à la Ben Johnston and Alois Hába. We will explore various serial procedures, such as the “classical” serialism of Arnold Schoenberg and Anton Webern and the rotational ideas of Ruth Crawford Seeger and Igor Stravinsky. We will discuss various methods for guiding improvisation, including the “diamond clef” compositions of Anthony Braxton. Rhythmic and metric ideas will be introduced, including asymmetric time signatures, metric modulation as pioneered by Elliott Carter, and rhythmic serialism as in the work of Milton Babbitt and Olivier Messiaen. We will discuss the potential uses of rhythmic and harmonic symmetry as, for example, in the chord progressions of John Coltrane’s Giant Steps. Students will learn about these topics through score study and through their own small compositional projects. As we jump from topic to topic, the instructor will also have students practice increasingly complex notational mini-projects and will introduce students to the rudiments of orchestration for keyboards, strings, woodwinds, brass, and percussion. At the end of the course, students will have gained a broad range of musical languages with which to express their own personal voice and will have had considerable practice in communicating those ideas effectively. 

We will begin with a review of diatonic harmony and voice leading before jumping into the world of chromatic harmony. We will discuss sequences, as well as techniques for modulation, before moving into an in-depth discussion of many different formal structures, such as fugue, through-composed songs, and sonata form. The course will end with a discussion of extensions of the tonal idea, such as basic jazz chords and neotonality. Composers discussed will include the usual suspects from the common-practice Baroque, Classical, and, especially, Romantic eras but also will extend to more recent examples, such as Debussy, Ravel, Davis, Coltrane, Talma, Price, and Glass. 

Solkattu is the practice of spoken rhythmic syllables that constitute the rhythmic basis of many forms of Indian music. Using our voices, students will learn unique rhythms by progressing through increasingly complex rhythmic patterns and rhythmic cycles. Students will develop individualized rhythmic precision, confidence, and group solidarity through the practiced coordination of reciting patterns of syllables while clapping an independent rhythmic cycle. All are welcome—students with no musical background and musicians specializing in any instrument will benefit from this ensemble. No prior experience in music is necessary.

In this performance course, open to all instruments and vocalists, we will explore and perform different types of Afro Cuban and Brazilian music, including mambo, son montuno, merengue, bossa nova and samba. We will study the different types of “clave” used in these styles. Compositions will range from traditional Afro Cuban, Tito Puente’s Picadillo, and Eddie Palmieri’s Bilongo to Brazilian music by Antonio Carlos Jobim and Joao Gilberto, such as Desafinado, Corcovado, and Bim Bom. We will play music of the American Songbook in a Latin jazz style, such as Gershwin’s Summertime and Cole Porter’s Night and Day, as well as jazz classics such as A Night in Tunisia, Manteca, and Nica’s Dream.

Faso Foli, the name of Sarah Lawrence's West African performance ensemble, is a Malinke phrase that translates loosely as “playing to my father’s home.” In this course, we will develop the ability to play expressive melodies and intricate polyrhythms in a group context, as we recreate the celebrated musical legacy of the West African Mandé Empire. These traditions have been kept alive and vital through creative interpretation and innovation in Africa, the United States, and other parts of the world. Correspondingly, our repertoire will reflect a wide range of expressive practices, both ancient in origin and dynamic in contemporary performance. The instruments we play—balafons, dun dun drums, and djembe hand drums—were constructed for the College in 2006, handcrafted by master builders in Guinea. Relevant instrumental techniques will be taught in the class, and no previous experience with African musical practice is assumed. Any interested student may join.