MIT OpenCourseWare: New Courses in Music and Theater Arts

21M.380 Music and Technology: Recording Techniques and Audio Production (MIT)

Ariza, Christopher — 2013-01-17T09:19:34+05:00

This course covers foundations, practices, and creative techniques in audio recording and music production, including microphone selection and placement, mixing, mastering, signal processing, automation, and digital audio workstations.

21M.785 Playwrights' Workshop (MIT)

Brody, Alan — 2012-11-07T15:43:35+05:00

This course provides continued work in the development of play scripts for the theater. Writers work on sustained pieces in weekly workshop meetings, individual consultation with the instructor, and in collaboration with student actors, directors, and designers. Fully developed scripts are eligible for inclusion in the Playwrights' Workshop Production.

21M.710 Script Analysis (MIT)

Brody, Alan — 2012-11-07T15:43:28+05:00

This course focuses on reading a script theatrically with a view to mounting a coherent production. Through careful, intensive reading of a variety of plays from different periods and different aesthetics, a pattern emerges for discerning what options exist for interpretating a script. The Fall 2005 version of this course contains alternate readings and assignments sections.

21M.269 Studies in Western Music History: Quantitative and Computational Approaches to Music History (MIT)

Cuthbert, Michael Scott — 2012-09-14T12:09:53+05:00

The disciplines of music history and music theory have been slow to embrace the digital revolutions that have transformed other fields' text-based scholarship (history and literature in particular). Computational musicology opens the door to the possibility of understanding—even if at a broad level—trends and norms of behavior of large repertories of music. This class presents the major approaches, results, and challenges of computational musicology through readings in the field, gaining familiarity with datasets, and hands on workshops and assignments on data analysis and "corpus" (i.e., repertory) studies. Class sessions alternate between discussion/lecture and labs on digital tools for studying music. A background in music theory and/or history is required, and experience in computer programming will be extremely helpful. Coursework culminates in an independent research project in quantitative or computational musicology that will be presented to the class as a whole.

21M.220 Early Music (MIT)

Cuthbert, Michael Scott — 2012-08-23T08:13:45+05:00

This course examines European music from the early Middle Ages until the end of the Renaissance. It includes a chronological survey and intensive study of three topics: chant and its development, music in Italy 1340-1420, and music in Elizabethan England. Instruction focuses on methods and pitfalls in studying music of the distant past. Students' papers, problem sets, and presentations explore lives, genres, and works in depth. Works are studied in facsimile of original notation, and from original manuscripts at MIT, where possible.

21M.380 Music and Technology: Live Electronics Performance Practices (MIT)

Ariza, Christopher — 2012-01-05T14:55:22+05:00

This course is a creative, hands-on exploration of contemporary and historical approaches to live electronics performance and improvisation, including basic analog instrument design, computer synthesis programming, and hardware and software interface design.

21M.630J Black Matters: Introduction to Black Studies (MIT)

Alexandre, Sandy — 2011-07-18T10:16:13+05:00

This class is an interdisciplinary survey that explores the experiences of people of African descent through the overlapping approaches of history, literature, anthropology, legal studies, media studies, performance, linguistics, and creative writing. It connects the experiences of African Americans and of other American minorities, focusing on social, political, and cultural histories, and on linguistic patterns. Activities include lectures, discussions, workshops, and required field trips that involve minimal cost to students.

21M.380 Music and Technology: Algorithmic and Generative Music (MIT)

Ariza, Christopher — 2011-06-17T12:08:54+05:00

This course examines the history, techniques, and aesthetics of mechanical and computer-aided approaches to algorithmic music composition and generative music systems. Through creative hands-on projects, readings, listening assignments, and lectures, students will explore a variety of historical and contemporary approaches. Diverse tools and systems will be employed, including applications in Python, MIDI, Csound, SuperCollider, and Pure Data.

21M.542 Interdisciplinary Approaches to Musical Time (MIT)

Marks, Martin — 2011-01-12T10:44:44+05:00

This course is an interdisciplinary exploration of three broad topics concerning music in relation to time.Music as Architecture: the creation of musical shapes in time;Music as Memory: how musical understanding depends upon memory and reminiscence, with attention to analysis of musical structures; andTime as the Substance of Music: how different disciplines such as philosophy and neuroscience view the temporal dimension of musical processes and/or performances.Classroom discussion of these topics is complemented by three weekend concerts with pre-concert forums, jointly presented by the Boston Chamber Music Society (BCMS) and MIT Music & Theater Arts.

21M.611 Foundations of Theater Practice (MIT)

Sonenberg, Janet — 2011-01-12T10:44:26+05:00

The goals of this class are two-fold: the first is to experience the creative processes and storytelling behind several of theater's arts and to acquire the analytical skills necessary in assessing the meaning they transmit when they come together in production. Secondly, we will introduce you to these languages in a creative way by giving you hands-on experience in each. To that end, several Visiting Artists and MIT faculty in Theater Arts will guest lecture, lead workshops, and give you practical instruction in their individual art forms.

21M.715 The Craft of Costume Design (MIT)

Held, Leslie Cocuzzo — 2010-08-03T09:05:40+05:00

This class provides an overview of some of the techniques used in creating costume pieces that are crafted rather than sewn. We will use a variety of materials and techniques to create specific costume pieces while at the same time exploring alternative applications possible for each material/technique.

21M.380 Music and Technology (Contemporary History and Aesthetics) (MIT)

Ariza, Christopher — 2010-06-28T14:43:45+05:00

This course is an investigation into the history and aesthetics of music and technology as deployed in experimental and popular musics from the 19th century to the present. Through original research, creative hands-on projects, readings, and lectures, the following topics will be explored. The history of radio, audio recording, and the recording studio, as well as the development of musique concrète and early electronic instruments. The creation and extension of musical interfaces by composers such as Harry Partch, John Cage, Conlon Nancarrow, and others. The exploration of electromagnetic technologies in pickups, and the development of dub, hip-hop, and turntablism. The history and application of the analog synthesizer, from the Moog modular to the Roland TR-808. The history of computer music, including music synthesis and representation languages. Contemporary practices in circuit bending, live electronics, and electro-acoustic music, as well as issues in copyright and intellectual property, will also be examined. No prerequisites.

21M.065 Introduction to Music Composition (MIT)

Makan, Keeril — 2010-03-05T12:01:21+05:00

Through a progressive series of composition projects, students investigate the sonic organization of musical works and performances, focusing on fundamental questions of unity and variety. Aesthetic issues are considered in the pragmatic context of the instructions that composers provide to achieve a desired musical result, whether these instructions are notated in prose, as graphic images, or in symbolic notation. No formal training is required; this version of the class is a general elective suitable for a relatively large-enrollment class. Weekly listening, reading, and composition assignments draw on a broad range of musical styles and intellectual traditions, from various cultures and historical periods.

21M.606 Introduction to Stagecraft (MIT)

Perlow, Karen — 2009-12-20T21:41:27+05:00

Offered in the spring and fall terms, Introduction to Stagecraft is a hands-on course that gets students working with the tools and techniques of theatrical production in a practical way. It is not a design course but one devoted to artisanship. Among the many remarkable final projects that have been proposed and presented at the end of the course have been a Renaissance hourglass blown in the MIT glass shop and set into a frame turned on our set shop lathe; a four harness loom built by a student who then wove cloth on it; a number of chain mail tunics and coifs; a wide variety of costume and furniture pieces and electrified period lighting fixtures.

21M.013J The Supernatural in Music, Literature and Culture (MIT)

Shadle, Charles — 2009-12-15T12:04:37+05:00

This class explores the relationship between music and the supernatural, focusing on the social history and context of supernatural beliefs as reflected in key literary and musical works from 1600 to the present. Provides a better understanding of the place of ambiguity and the role of interpretation in culture, science and art. Explores great works of art by Shakespeare, Verdi, Goethe (in translation), Gounod, Henry James and Benjamin Britten. Readings will also include selections from the most recent scholarship on magic and the supernatural. Writing assignments will range from web-based projects to analytic essays. No previous experience in music is necessary. Projected guest lectures, musical performances, field trips.

21M.304 Writing in Tonal Forms II (MIT)

Shadle, Charles — 2009-12-11T16:25:51+05:00

This course builds on the composition techniques practiced in 21M.303 Writing in Tonal Forms I. Students undertake further written and analytic exercises in tonal music, including a sonata-form movement for string quartet. Students will also have the opportunity to write short works that experiment with the expanded tonal techniques of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Musicianship laboratory is required.

21M.303 Writing in Tonal Forms I (MIT)

Child, Peter — 2009-11-13T15:10:16+05:00

Written and analytic exercises based on 18th- and 19th-century small forms and harmonic practice found in music such as the chorale preludes of Bach; minuets and trios of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven; and the songs and character pieces of Schubert and Schumann. Musicianship laboratory is required.

21M.732 Beginning Costume Design and Construction (MIT)

Held, Leslie Cocuzzo — 2009-07-07T19:50:48+05:00

This is an intermediate workshop designed for students who have a basic understanding of the principles of theatrical design and who want a more intensive study of costume design and the psychology of clothing. Students develop designs that emerge through a process of character analysis, based on the script and directorial concept. Period research, design, and rendering skills are fostered through practical exercises. Instruction in basic costume construction, including drafting and draping, provide tools for students to produce final projects.

21M.342 Composing for Jazz Orchestra (MIT)

Harvey, Mark — 2009-06-22T13:21:39+05:00

This class explores composition and arrangement for the large jazz ensemble from 1920s foundations to current postmodern practice. Consideration given to a variety of styles and to the interaction of improvisation and composition. Study of works by Basie, Ellington, Evans, Gillespie, Golson, Mingus, Morris, Nelson, Williams, and others. Open rehearsals, workshops, and performances of student compositions by the MIT Festival Jazz Ensemble and the Aardvark Jazz Orchestra.

21M.351 Music Composition (MIT)

Child, Peter — 2009-04-20T15:20:30+05:00

This course features directed composition of larger forms of original writing involving voices and/or instruments. It includes a weekly seminar in composition for the presentation and discussion of work in progress. Students are expected to produce at least one substantive work, performed in public, by the end of the term. Contemporary compositions and major works from 20th-century music literature are studied.