Courses

Penn's Music department is committed to World-class undergraduate and graduate education.   Non-majors and beginners can choose from many courses, ranging from music theory and histories of opera, world music, popular music,  jazz, and the music of Africa.  These introductory courses are numbered 0000-1999.  More advanced undergraduate classes, intended for music majors and minors, are numbered 2000-4999.  Offerings above 5000 are considered graduate courses.  See here for a general description of all music courses.

 

Title Instructors Location Time Description Cross listings Fulfills Registration notes Syllabus Syllabus URL
MUSC 0050-036 College Music Program Michael Ketner Private study in voice, keyboard, strings, woodwind, brass, percussion, and non-western instruments. Such study is designed to meet the artistic, technical, and/or professional needs of the student. Note: This is not a syllabus. Course requirements and assessment will be determined by the private instructor. Private lessons in the College House Music cannot be taken Pass/Fail. Please visit http://www.sas.upenn.edu/music/performance. Students cannot register through Penn In Touch. Registration will be maintained by the music department upon receipt of application and instructor permission. An additional lesson fee will be charged to student account for participation in this program.
MUSC 0050-037 College Music Program Chase J Castle
Michael Ketner 		Private study in voice, keyboard, strings, woodwind, brass, percussion, and non-western instruments. Such study is designed to meet the artistic, technical, and/or professional needs of the student. Note: This is not a syllabus. Course requirements and assessment will be determined by the private instructor. Private lessons in the College House Music cannot be taken Pass/Fail. Please visit http://www.sas.upenn.edu/music/performance. Students cannot register through Penn In Touch. Registration will be maintained by the music department upon receipt of application and instructor permission. An additional lesson fee will be charged to student account for participation in this program.
MUSC 0050-040 College Music Program Michael Ketner Private study in voice, keyboard, strings, woodwind, brass, percussion, and non-western instruments. Such study is designed to meet the artistic, technical, and/or professional needs of the student. Note: This is not a syllabus. Course requirements and assessment will be determined by the private instructor. Private lessons in the College House Music cannot be taken Pass/Fail. Please visit http://www.sas.upenn.edu/music/performance. Students cannot register through Penn In Touch. Registration will be maintained by the music department upon receipt of application and instructor permission. An additional lesson fee will be charged to student account for participation in this program.
MUSC 0070-001 Ensemble Performance: Univ. Wind Ensemble Paul Bryan
Michael Ketner 		Successful participation in a music department sponsored group. Ensemble groups: University Orchestra, University Wind Ensemble, Choral Society, University Choir, Collegium Musicum, Baroque and Recorder Ensemble, Chamber Music Society, Arab Music Ensemble, Samba Ensemble, Penn Flutes, Opera and Musical Theater, and Jazz Combo. This course must be taken for a letter grade (Pass/Fail registration option may not be utilized for this course).
MUSC 0070-002 Ensemble Performance: Univ. Orchestra Thomas Tok-Young Hong
Michael Ketner 		Successful participation in a music department sponsored group. Ensemble groups: University Orchestra, University Wind Ensemble, Choral Society, University Choir, Collegium Musicum, Baroque and Recorder Ensemble, Chamber Music Society, Arab Music Ensemble, Samba Ensemble, Penn Flutes, Opera and Musical Theater, and Jazz Combo. This course must be taken for a letter grade (Pass/Fail registration option may not be utilized for this course).
MUSC 0070-003 Ensemble Performance: Jazz Combo Michael Ketner
Daniel M Paul 		Successful participation in a music department sponsored group. Ensemble groups: University Orchestra, University Wind Ensemble, Choral Society, University Choir, Collegium Musicum, Baroque and Recorder Ensemble, Chamber Music Society, Arab Music Ensemble, Samba Ensemble, Penn Flutes, Opera and Musical Theater, and Jazz Combo. This course must be taken for a letter grade (Pass/Fail registration option may not be utilized for this course).
MUSC 0070-004 Ensemble Performance: Penn Baroque&Recorder Michael Ketner
Gwyn Meredith Roberts 		Successful participation in a music department sponsored group. Ensemble groups: University Orchestra, University Wind Ensemble, Choral Society, University Choir, Collegium Musicum, Baroque and Recorder Ensemble, Chamber Music Society, Arab Music Ensemble, Samba Ensemble, Penn Flutes, Opera and Musical Theater, and Jazz Combo. This course must be taken for a letter grade (Pass/Fail registration option may not be utilized for this course).
MUSC 0070-005 Ensemble Performance: Collegium Musicum Margaret B. Gruits
Michael Ketner 		Successful participation in a music department sponsored group. Ensemble groups: University Orchestra, University Wind Ensemble, Choral Society, University Choir, Collegium Musicum, Baroque and Recorder Ensemble, Chamber Music Society, Arab Music Ensemble, Samba Ensemble, Penn Flutes, Opera and Musical Theater, and Jazz Combo. This course must be taken for a letter grade (Pass/Fail registration option may not be utilized for this course).
MUSC 0070-006 Ensemble Performance: Penn Chamber Music Soc Michael Ketner
Thomas E Kraines 		Successful participation in a music department sponsored group. Ensemble groups: University Orchestra, University Wind Ensemble, Choral Society, University Choir, Collegium Musicum, Baroque and Recorder Ensemble, Chamber Music Society, Arab Music Ensemble, Samba Ensemble, Penn Flutes, Opera and Musical Theater, and Jazz Combo. This course must be taken for a letter grade (Pass/Fail registration option may not be utilized for this course).
MUSC 0070-007 Ensemble Performance: Penn Chorale Elizabeth Braden
Michael Ketner 		Successful participation in a music department sponsored group. Ensemble groups: University Orchestra, University Wind Ensemble, Choral Society, University Choir, Collegium Musicum, Baroque and Recorder Ensemble, Chamber Music Society, Arab Music Ensemble, Samba Ensemble, Penn Flutes, Opera and Musical Theater, and Jazz Combo. This course must be taken for a letter grade (Pass/Fail registration option may not be utilized for this course).
MUSC 0070-008 Ensemble Performance: Opera/Music Thea Wksp Margaret B. Gruits
Michael Ketner 		Successful participation in a music department sponsored group. Ensemble groups: University Orchestra, University Wind Ensemble, Choral Society, University Choir, Collegium Musicum, Baroque and Recorder Ensemble, Chamber Music Society, Arab Music Ensemble, Samba Ensemble, Penn Flutes, Opera and Musical Theater, and Jazz Combo. This course must be taken for a letter grade (Pass/Fail registration option may not be utilized for this course).
MUSC 0070-010 Samba Ensemble Michael Ketner
Michael Lacheen Stevens 		Successful participation in a music department sponsored group. Ensemble groups: University Orchestra, University Wind Ensemble, Choral Society, University Choir, Collegium Musicum, Baroque and Recorder Ensemble, Chamber Music Society, Arab Music Ensemble, Samba Ensemble, Penn Flutes, Opera and Musical Theater, and Jazz Combo. This course must be taken for a letter grade (Pass/Fail registration option may not be utilized for this course).
MUSC 0070-013 Penn Flutes Michele C. Kelly
Michael Ketner 		Successful participation in a music department sponsored group. Ensemble groups: University Orchestra, University Wind Ensemble, Choral Society, University Choir, Collegium Musicum, Baroque and Recorder Ensemble, Chamber Music Society, Arab Music Ensemble, Samba Ensemble, Penn Flutes, Opera and Musical Theater, and Jazz Combo. This course must be taken for a letter grade (Pass/Fail registration option may not be utilized for this course).
MUSC 0070-014 Ensemble Performance: Arabic Percussion Beg: Arabic Percussion Beginner Michael Ketner
Hafez J. Kotain 		R 7:00 PM-8:29 PM Successful participation in a music department sponsored group. Ensemble groups: University Orchestra, University Wind Ensemble, Choral Society, University Choir, Collegium Musicum, Baroque and Recorder Ensemble, Chamber Music Society, Arab Music Ensemble, Samba Ensemble, Penn Flutes, Opera and Musical Theater, and Jazz Combo. This course must be taken for a letter grade (Pass/Fail registration option may not be utilized for this course).
MUSC 0070-015 Ensemble Performance: Arabic Percussion Adv: Arabic Percussion Advanced Michael Ketner
Hafez J. Kotain 		R 5:15 PM-6:44 PM Successful participation in a music department sponsored group. Ensemble groups: University Orchestra, University Wind Ensemble, Choral Society, University Choir, Collegium Musicum, Baroque and Recorder Ensemble, Chamber Music Society, Arab Music Ensemble, Samba Ensemble, Penn Flutes, Opera and Musical Theater, and Jazz Combo. This course must be taken for a letter grade (Pass/Fail registration option may not be utilized for this course).
MUSC 0100B-001 Marian Anderson Performance Program Michael Ketner Special instruction in vocal and instrumental performance for music majors and minors only. Students must demonstrate in an audition that they have already attained an intermediate level of musical performance. They also must participate in a Music Department ensemble throughout the academic year, perform in public as a soloist at least once during the year (recital), perform a jury at the end of the spring semester, and attend and participate in masterclasses.
MUSC 0160-301 First-Year Seminar: Sound Cultures in Modern Korea Laurie Lee TR 10:15 AM-11:14 AM The primary goal of the first-year seminar program is to provide every first-year student the opportunity for a direct personal encounter with a faculty member in a small setting devoted to a significant intellectual endeavor. Specific topics will be posted at the beginning of each academic year. Please see the College's First-year Seminar website for information on current course offerings http:/www .college.upenn.edu/courses/seminars/freshman.php. Fulfills Arts and Letters sector requirement. Arts & Letters Sector
MUSC 0180B-401 Music in Urban Spaces Molly Jean Mcglone F 1:45 PM-3:14 PM Music in Urban Spaces is a year-long experience that explores the ways in which individuals use music in their everyday lives and how music is used to construct larger social and economic networks that we call culture. We will read the work of musicologists, cultural theorists, urban geographers, sociologists and educators who work to define urban space and the role of music and sound in urban environments, including through music education. While the readings make up our study of the sociology of urban space and the way we use music in everyday life to inform our conversations and the questions we ask, it is within the context of our personal experiences working with music programs in public neighborhood schools serving economically disadvantaged students, that we will begin to formulate our theories of the contested musical micro-cultures of West Philadelphia. This course is over two-semesters where students register for .5 cus each term (for a total of 1 cu over the entire academic year) and is tied to the Music and Social Change Residential Program in Fisher Hassenfeld College House which will sponsor field trips around the city and a final concert for youth to perform here at Penn, if possible. Students are expected to volunteer in music and drama programs in Philadelphia neighborhood public schools throughout the course experience. URBS0180B401 Cultural Diviserity in the U.S.
Humanties & Social Science Sector
MUSC 1270-001 Introduction to Electronic Musicmaking Natacha Diels MW 12:00 PM-1:29 PM An exploration of composition, style, and technique in a variety of popular and experimental electronic music genres. We'll study and practice making works in genres including acousmatic music, beat-driven music such as hip-hop and techno, pop songwriting, and sound art. As we proceed, we'll investigate techniques including field recording, sampling, sound synthesis, and generative music. Within each genre, we'll begin from the analysis and technique of exemplary music, then work towards presentation and group discussion of student composition projects.
MUSC 1280-001 Audio Production Qiujiang Lu M 1:45 PM-4:44 PM Audio Production is designed for students interested in taking their mixing, mastering, and recording skills to the next level. During this course we will conduct critiques and analysis of student projects as well as learn from local industry professionals. Through listening assignments we will refine our ears to identify the effects digital signal processing production tools have on recorded sounds. While we will examine current practices from many different genres, a special emphasis will be placed on exploring experimental approaches that you might be able to integrate into your artistic practice. A good understanding of Logic Pro is necessary to enter this course. Significant experience working with Pro Tools may substitute pending approval from the instructor.
MUSC 1290-001 History of Electronic Music Natacha Diels MW 10:15 AM-11:44 AM This course is a nonlinear history of electronic music, primarily in the United States. It is divided into ten topical milestones of electronic music history. Each week one topic is addressed, divided between mainstream and experimental perspectives and their interactions. Topics include early experimental electronic instruments, sampling/hip-hop, disco, and noise/glitch. Much of the class is about listening and learning to analyze music in terms both subjective and objective. Students will also train their ears to identify concrete elements within a musical track such as development and instrumentation, and consider abstract elements such as meaning and perception.
MUSC 1300-001 1000 Years of Musical Listening Mauro P. Calcagno
Flannery Hope Jamison
Sarah Le Van 		MW 12:00 PM-1:29 PM We know that we like music and that it moves us, yet it is often difficult to pinpoint exactly why, and harder still to explain what it is we are hearing. This course takes on those issues. It aims to introduce you to a variety of music, and a range of ways of thinking, talking and writing about music. The majority of music dealt with will be drawn from the so-called "Classical" repertory, from the medieval period to the present day, including some of the 'greats' such as Handel, Beethoven, Mozart, Berlioz, and Verdi, but will also introduce you to music you will most likely never have encountered before. This course will explore the technical workings of music and the vocabularies for analyzing music and articulating a response to it; it also examines music as a cultural phenomenon, considering what music has meant for different people, from different societies across the ages and across geographical boundaries. As well as learning to listen ourselves, we will also engage with a history of listening. No prior musical knowledge is required. (Formerly Music 021). Fulfills College Cross Cultural Foundational Requirement. Cross Cultural Analysis
Arts & Letters Sector
MUSC 1300-002 1000 Years of Musical Listening Sophia Noelle Cocozza TR 12:00 PM-1:29 PM We know that we like music and that it moves us, yet it is often difficult to pinpoint exactly why, and harder still to explain what it is we are hearing. This course takes on those issues. It aims to introduce you to a variety of music, and a range of ways of thinking, talking and writing about music. The majority of music dealt with will be drawn from the so-called "Classical" repertory, from the medieval period to the present day, including some of the 'greats' such as Handel, Beethoven, Mozart, Berlioz, and Verdi, but will also introduce you to music you will most likely never have encountered before. This course will explore the technical workings of music and the vocabularies for analyzing music and articulating a response to it; it also examines music as a cultural phenomenon, considering what music has meant for different people, from different societies across the ages and across geographical boundaries. As well as learning to listen ourselves, we will also engage with a history of listening. No prior musical knowledge is required. (Formerly Music 021). Fulfills College Cross Cultural Foundational Requirement. Arts & Letters Sector
Cross Cultural Analysis
MUSC 1300-003 1000 Years of Musical Listening J.W. Clark MW 10:15 AM-11:44 AM We know that we like music and that it moves us, yet it is often difficult to pinpoint exactly why, and harder still to explain what it is we are hearing. This course takes on those issues. It aims to introduce you to a variety of music, and a range of ways of thinking, talking and writing about music. The majority of music dealt with will be drawn from the so-called "Classical" repertory, from the medieval period to the present day, including some of the 'greats' such as Handel, Beethoven, Mozart, Berlioz, and Verdi, but will also introduce you to music you will most likely never have encountered before. This course will explore the technical workings of music and the vocabularies for analyzing music and articulating a response to it; it also examines music as a cultural phenomenon, considering what music has meant for different people, from different societies across the ages and across geographical boundaries. As well as learning to listen ourselves, we will also engage with a history of listening. No prior musical knowledge is required. (Formerly Music 021). Fulfills College Cross Cultural Foundational Requirement. Cross Cultural Analysis
Arts & Letters Sector
MUSC 1400-401 Jazz Style and History Max Allan Johnson MW 10:15 AM-11:44 AM This course is an exploration of the family of musical idioms called jazz. Attention will be given to issues of style development, selective musicians, and to the social and cultural conditions and the scholarly discourses that have informed the creation, dissemination and reception of this dynamic set of styles from the beginning of the 20th century to the present. Fulfills Cultural Diversity in the U.S. AFRC1400401 Cultural Diviserity in the U.S.
MUSC 1420-001 Thinking About Popular Music Jasmine A Henry MW 10:15 AM-11:44 AM Catchy yet controversial. Fun but hard-hitting. Popular music is not just entertaining: it presents societal issues, raises questions, expresses ideas. This course considers how popular music of the 20th century manifested the hopes, contradictions, ingenuity, and challenges of life in the United States, as seen and heard through the experiences of musicians and audiences. We will address three core questions: (1) How is “talent” and “good” music distinguished? (2) What happens when we treat music as “property,” especially with respect to broader ideas of ownership and credit? (3) When, how, and why is music considered dangerous? We delve into these questions by profiling musicians’ lives, analyzing the musical traits of specific repertoire, investigating changes in how music circulates, and situating popular music in U.S. cultural history. This course is not a chronological survey and does not aim to cover all U.S. popular music (or global popular music). Instead, each core question is addressed through case studies. Over the course of the semester students learn listening and analytic skills, how to engage critically with a range of writings about music, how to develop compelling arguments and articulate them verbally in class discussions and in writing assignments. Arts & Letters Sector
Cultural Diviserity in the U.S.
MUSC 1420-002 Thinking About Popular Music Kwame Kruw Ocran TR 12:00 PM-1:29 PM Catchy yet controversial. Fun but hard-hitting. Popular music is not just entertaining: it presents societal issues, raises questions, expresses ideas. This course considers how popular music of the 20th century manifested the hopes, contradictions, ingenuity, and challenges of life in the United States, as seen and heard through the experiences of musicians and audiences. We will address three core questions: (1) How is “talent” and “good” music distinguished? (2) What happens when we treat music as “property,” especially with respect to broader ideas of ownership and credit? (3) When, how, and why is music considered dangerous? We delve into these questions by profiling musicians’ lives, analyzing the musical traits of specific repertoire, investigating changes in how music circulates, and situating popular music in U.S. cultural history. This course is not a chronological survey and does not aim to cover all U.S. popular music (or global popular music). Instead, each core question is addressed through case studies. Over the course of the semester students learn listening and analytic skills, how to engage critically with a range of writings about music, how to develop compelling arguments and articulate them verbally in class discussions and in writing assignments. Arts & Letters Sector
Cultural Diviserity in the U.S.
MUSC 1500-400 World Musics and Cultures Ryan L Tomski CANCELED This course examines how we as consumers in the "Western" world engage with musical difference largely through the products of the global entertainment industry. We examine music cultures in contact in a variety of ways-- particularly as traditions in transformation. Students gain an understanding of traditional music as live, meaningful person-to-person music making, by examining the music in its original site of production, and then considering its transformation once it is removed, and recontextualized in a variety of ways. The purpose of the course is to enable students to become informed and critical consumers of "World Music" by telling a series of stories about particular recordings made with, or using the music of, peoples culturally and geographically distant from the US. Students come to understand that not all music downloads containing music from unfamiliar places are the same, and that particular recordings may be embedded in intriguing and controversial narratives of production and consumption. At the very least, students should emerge from the class with a clear understanding that the production, distribution, and consumption of world music is rarely a neutral process. Fulfills College Cross Cultural Foundational Requirement. AFRC1500403, ANTH1500403 Arts & Letters Sector
Cross Cultural Analysis
MUSC 1500-401 World Musics and Cultures Shivanand Boddapati
Jiwon Kwon
Carol Ann Muller
Echezonachukwu Chinedu Nduka
Kingsley Kwadwo Okyere 		TR 12:00 PM-1:29 PM This course examines how we as consumers in the "Western" world engage with musical difference largely through the products of the global entertainment industry. We examine music cultures in contact in a variety of ways-- particularly as traditions in transformation. Students gain an understanding of traditional music as live, meaningful person-to-person music making, by examining the music in its original site of production, and then considering its transformation once it is removed, and recontextualized in a variety of ways. The purpose of the course is to enable students to become informed and critical consumers of "World Music" by telling a series of stories about particular recordings made with, or using the music of, peoples culturally and geographically distant from the US. Students come to understand that not all music downloads containing music from unfamiliar places are the same, and that particular recordings may be embedded in intriguing and controversial narratives of production and consumption. At the very least, students should emerge from the class with a clear understanding that the production, distribution, and consumption of world music is rarely a neutral process. Fulfills College Cross Cultural Foundational Requirement. AFRC1500401, ANTH1500401 Cross Cultural Analysis
Arts & Letters Sector
MUSC 1500-402 World Musics and Cultures Laurie Lee TR 1:45 PM-3:14 PM This course examines how we as consumers in the "Western" world engage with musical difference largely through the products of the global entertainment industry. We examine music cultures in contact in a variety of ways-- particularly as traditions in transformation. Students gain an understanding of traditional music as live, meaningful person-to-person music making, by examining the music in its original site of production, and then considering its transformation once it is removed, and recontextualized in a variety of ways. The purpose of the course is to enable students to become informed and critical consumers of "World Music" by telling a series of stories about particular recordings made with, or using the music of, peoples culturally and geographically distant from the US. Students come to understand that not all music downloads containing music from unfamiliar places are the same, and that particular recordings may be embedded in intriguing and controversial narratives of production and consumption. At the very least, students should emerge from the class with a clear understanding that the production, distribution, and consumption of world music is rarely a neutral process. Fulfills College Cross Cultural Foundational Requirement. AFRC1500402, ANTH1500402 Arts & Letters Sector
Cross Cultural Analysis
MUSC 1500-403 World Musics and Cultures Ryan L Tomski TR 8:30 AM-9:59 AM This course examines how we as consumers in the "Western" world engage with musical difference largely through the products of the global entertainment industry. We examine music cultures in contact in a variety of ways-- particularly as traditions in transformation. Students gain an understanding of traditional music as live, meaningful person-to-person music making, by examining the music in its original site of production, and then considering its transformation once it is removed, and recontextualized in a variety of ways. The purpose of the course is to enable students to become informed and critical consumers of "World Music" by telling a series of stories about particular recordings made with, or using the music of, peoples culturally and geographically distant from the US. Students come to understand that not all music downloads containing music from unfamiliar places are the same, and that particular recordings may be embedded in intriguing and controversial narratives of production and consumption. At the very least, students should emerge from the class with a clear understanding that the production, distribution, and consumption of world music is rarely a neutral process. Fulfills College Cross Cultural Foundational Requirement. AFRC1500405, ANTH1500405 Arts & Letters Sector
Cross Cultural Analysis
MUSC 1500-404 World Musics and Cultures James Sykes TR 3:30 PM-4:59 PM This course examines how we as consumers in the "Western" world engage with musical difference largely through the products of the global entertainment industry. We examine music cultures in contact in a variety of ways-- particularly as traditions in transformation. Students gain an understanding of traditional music as live, meaningful person-to-person music making, by examining the music in its original site of production, and then considering its transformation once it is removed, and recontextualized in a variety of ways. The purpose of the course is to enable students to become informed and critical consumers of "World Music" by telling a series of stories about particular recordings made with, or using the music of, peoples culturally and geographically distant from the US. Students come to understand that not all music downloads containing music from unfamiliar places are the same, and that particular recordings may be embedded in intriguing and controversial narratives of production and consumption. At the very least, students should emerge from the class with a clear understanding that the production, distribution, and consumption of world music is rarely a neutral process. Fulfills College Cross Cultural Foundational Requirement. AFRC1500404, ANTH1500404 Cross Cultural Analysis
Arts & Letters Sector
MUSC 1700-001 Introduction to Theory and Musicianship David Acevedo
Eliana Hannah Fishbeyn
Jamuna S. Samuel 		TR 10:15 AM-11:44 AM This course will cover basic skills and vocabulary for reading, hearing, performing, analyzing, and writing music. Students will gain command of musical rudiments, including notation, reading and writing in treble and bass clefs, intervals, keys, scales, triads and seventh chords, and competence in basic melodic and formal analysis. The course will include an overview of basic diatonic harmony, introduction to harmonic function and tonicization. Musicianship skills will include interval and chord recognition, rhythmic and melodic dictation and familiarity with the keyboard. There will be in-depth study of selected compositions from the "common practice" Western tradition, including classical, jazz, blues and other popular examples. Listening skills--both with scores (including lead sheets, figured bass and standard notation), and without--will be emphasized. There is no prerequisite. Students with some background in music may place out of this course and into Music 170, Theory and Musicianship I. Fulfills College Formal Reasoning and Analysis Foundational Requirement. Formal Reasoning & Analysis
MUSC 1700-002 Introduction to Theory and Musicianship Andrew Matthias Mcintosh Burke TR 12:00 PM-1:29 PM This course will cover basic skills and vocabulary for reading, hearing, performing, analyzing, and writing music. Students will gain command of musical rudiments, including notation, reading and writing in treble and bass clefs, intervals, keys, scales, triads and seventh chords, and competence in basic melodic and formal analysis. The course will include an overview of basic diatonic harmony, introduction to harmonic function and tonicization. Musicianship skills will include interval and chord recognition, rhythmic and melodic dictation and familiarity with the keyboard. There will be in-depth study of selected compositions from the "common practice" Western tradition, including classical, jazz, blues and other popular examples. Listening skills--both with scores (including lead sheets, figured bass and standard notation), and without--will be emphasized. There is no prerequisite. Students with some background in music may place out of this course and into Music 170, Theory and Musicianship I. Fulfills College Formal Reasoning and Analysis Foundational Requirement. Formal Reasoning & Analysis
MUSC 2500-001 Introduction to Ethnomusicology James Sykes TR 1:45 PM-3:14 PM This course introduces students to the field of ethnomusicology through a series of case studies that explore a range of traditional, popular, and art musics from around the world. The course takes as a point of departure several works of musical ethnography, musical fiction, and musical autobiography and, through in-depth reading of these texts, close listening to assigned sound recordings, and in- class case studies, generates a context within which to think and write about music. Fulfills the requirements of the Music major.
MUSC 2710-001 Theory and Musicianship II Jamuna S. Samuel TR 12:00 PM-1:29 PM Continuation of techniques established in Theory and Musicianship I. Explores chromatic harmony. Concepts will be developed through analysis and model composition. Musicianship component will include sight singing, clef reading, harmonic dictation and keyboard harmony.
MUSC 2710-101 Theory and Musicianship II Catherine B Chamblee WF 12:00 PM-12:59 PM Continuation of techniques established in Theory and Musicianship I. Explores chromatic harmony. Concepts will be developed through analysis and model composition. Musicianship component will include sight singing, clef reading, harmonic dictation and keyboard harmony.
MUSC 3200-001 Modular Electronic Music Systems & Performance Eugene Lew W 3:30 PM-6:29 PM MUSC3200 offers an introduction to electronic music/sound production with a focus on modular hardware systems and performance. Guest artists will join us for in-class visits and performances during the semester. Meetings will take place in the classroom, in concert spaces and in the studio. Preference given to Music majors and minors for registration.
MUSC 3440-001 Black Music and Sports Jasmine A Henry MW 1:45 PM-3:14 PM Sports and music have significantly shaped American socio-cultural dynamics, from Paul Robeson's prominence as a concert artist and football player to quarterback Colin Kaepernick's protest during the national anthem in 2016. This course examines the intersection of sports, music, and race within United States popular culture. We will consider how sports and music have historically been among the first spaces that have enabled African Americans to break the color line, serving as measures of race relations. Key topics include the historical relationship between sports and music and issues of gender, class, race, and religion. We will also consider how race, criminal justice, politics, patriotism, and militarism shape audience perceptions of athletes and musicians.
Additionally, we will consider the role of capitalism and exploitation, particularly in treating musicians and athletes as "property." Furthermore, we will investigate the complexities of Black athleticism and musicianship, challenging stereotypes and examining media coverage from the early 20th century to the present. More specifically, we will consider how sports and music are represented across various cultural mediums, including TV, film, podcasts, and social media, and how these representations impact public perceptions. Our explorations will draw from multiple academic disciplines, including (ethno)musicology, gender and sexuality, Black cultural production, and performance dance studies. Overall, equipped with analytical tools and theoretical frameworks, students will be prepared for further research and critical inquiry into the broader study of United States popular culture.
MUSC 4301-401 Seminar in Music History: Sex and Power in The Coronation of Poppea Mauro P. Calcagno F 1:45 PM-4:44 PM This is an advanced seminar, primarily for juniors and seniors who are prepared to engage deeply and critically with a specialized research topic. The topic of the seminar focuses on a particular genre or body of repertoire, music-maker or composer, or the cultural and social dynamics of a period in music and Italian or American history. Among the topics that we will explore are: opera and its literary and figurative sources 1600-1900; opera performance 1600-today; music and rhetoric ca. 1500-1800; text, music, and image ca. 1500-1750. ITAL4301401
MUSC 6700-301 Analytical and Theoretical Approaches Anna T Weesner F 10:15 AM-1:14 PM This course focuses on the analytical methods and theoretical approaches. Topics may include: the politics of listening; score-based analysis; social and critical theories; issues and politics of translation, inscription, and transcription; questions of form; the history of theory; performance studies; the history of musical notation; voice and vocality; and sound studies. Students will typically begin to put these methodological ideas into practice through a series of hands-on assignments which could be either individual or collaborative in nature.
MUSC 7200-301 Seminar in Composition: Composing While Black in America: 1965-2025 Tyshawn Sorey W 10:15 AM-1:14 PM Seminar in selected compositional problems, with emphasis on written projects. See department website (under course tab) for current term course description: https://music.sas.upenn.edu
MUSC 7210-001 Composition Studio and Forum Tyshawn Sorey W 3:30 PM-6:29 PM Composer's Forum is a regular meeting of graduate composers, often along with other members of the Penn composing community, in which recent performances are discussed, musical issues taken up, and visitors occasionally welcomed to present their work or offer master classes. In addition to weekly Forum meetings, students will be paired with a composer for individual lessons in composition. Ph.d. Candidates in Composition in their third year in the program will continue non-credit participation in both forum and lessons.
MUSC 7360-301 Topics in Musicology: Sound Conversion: Religious Change in Music, Medieval to Modern Mary C. Caldwell
Glenda Goodman 		R 1:45 PM-4:44 PM This seminar investigates topics unfolding across different historical periods.
MUSC 7500-301 Seminar in Ethnomusicology: Deep Listening to the Music of Africa, Old and New Diasporas Carol Ann Muller W 5:15 PM-8:14 PM In Born in Blackness (2021), Howard French argues that while the modern world economy was built on the backs of African slaves, Africa has been written out of this history. Musically, academics have mostly believed that because there is so little African music writing, we cannot know the deep musical past of Africa and her peoples. In this seminar we will read, listen to, view, experience, create projects focused on the full complexity and diversity of the music of Africa. We will reflect on ways in which we might come to know the deep past of the place of human origins—we will use science, archeology, fossil evidence, anthropology, and orally transmitted knowledge to come to an understanding of the deep African past as it speaks to the contemporary moment. We will divide the continent into five geographic regions: Southern, East, Central, West and North; add in the Sahel; the surrounding islands and bodies of water; and expand our ideas of diaspora from the long and complex history of slavery across many pieces of land and water around the world, ending up in the present moment in the United States. We will engage with contemporary African music making in the city of Philadelphia, and as it comes to other places in the United States. To the best of our ability, the sources of our knowledge will have been generated by African scholars in an effort to decolonize our study of the African continent. All are welcome in this seminar.
MUSC 7700-301 Studies in Music Theory and Analysis: Film and the Formation of the Modern Subject T 1:45 PM-4:44 PM Instructor:: Michael Klein is a visiting professor from Temple University.

Cultures constantly replicate themselves to maintain power relations that will keep people (subjects) in their place. With its fantasies of the image, sound, and narrative, films are among the most powerful ideological tools (Althusser would say “Ideological State Apparatuses”: quite a phrase to unpack) in shaping culture. In this seminar we will study theories of both subjectivity and film (especially in terms of sound). Readings will include work by Sigmund Freud, Jacques Lacan, Judith Butler, and others in terms of subjectivity. For film, we will read Michel Chion, Claudia Gorbman, Robyn Stilwell, and others. Films will come primarily from the digital age and will include Everything, Everywhere All at Once, Snowpiercer, Black Panther, Spirited Away, and many others in whole or part. The objective is to understand how the three fantasies of film, sound in particular, address us and make us as subjects in the neoliberal world.