MUS 289 - Composition

Spring 2006

Place Jean Macey Music Annex

Time Tuesdays 11–1 and Thursdays 11–12

Instructor Doug Dunston

Office Fitch Hall 215

Phone ext. 5200

Email ddunston@nmt.edu

Course website www.nmt.edu/~music

Composing
In most university music programs, music composition is an upper-division course restricted to
music majors, drawing on lower-division course material in harmony and counterpoint. In this
course, you will develop a working knowledge of structural principles of music composition by
using software that allows you to manipulate and modify “chunks” of sound.

Thinking about quality

Music composition is an ideal subject for honing your critical thinking skills; you will find you
need to develop your own rubrics for evaluating your own and others’ work. These rubrics will
be developed and revised collaboratively over the course of the semester, and you will be re-
quired to analyze the appropriateness and effectiveness of your own metrics.

Communicating
A music composition course also provides an environment in which you will learn to 1) listen
simultaneously on levels of detail and overarching structure, and 2) express your findings in dif-
ferent ways, depending on whether you are offering analysis and criticism for the instructor, or
proactive feedback for your peers.

Final project
The final project of the semester will consist of a public performance and a report. In the per-
formance, you will play back an original composition using computer multitrack and sequencing
software and then respond to audience questions. In a separate, written report, you will discuss
your original goals for the composition, list techniques that were used in achieving these goals
or overcoming difficulties in the compositional process, and evaluate the strengths of your com-
position in terms of the rubric developed by the class. In addition, you will listen to your peers’
final compositions prior to the semester-end performance and share your feedback with them
through a formal evaluation.
rev. 13. January, 2006 page 1
Notes and requirements: All page numbers refer to J. Bamberger, Developing Musical
Intuitions (DMI). The Impromptu software is available for free download online at
www.tuneblocks.com The musical excerpts referred to in the text will be available as MP3s for
download at this course’s website. Some assignments will require the use of Mac computers
with GarageBand 2 or Logic Express 7 installed.

Acknowledgment: this course draws extensively from the course “Developing Musical
Structures”, taught by Jeanne Bamberger in 2002 at MIT, published on the MIT
OpenCourseWare site and licensed according to the Creative Commons License.

Course schedule
Reading: pp. ix-xi, 1-7
Projects: 1.1, 1.2 (pp. 8-34) to be discussed Week 2, class 2
Listening: pp. 35-51 to be discussed Week 2, class 1
Week 1
Class 1: Tuesday, 17. January
Introduction to Impromptu; log book; working with a keyboard
Class 2: Thursday, 19. January
Introduction to composing your own tunes; repetition; beginning, middle, and ending

Reading: Basics 1 (pp. 52-57) to be discussed Week 2, class 1

Week 2
Class 1: Tuesday, 24. January
Listening and analysis of examples; discussion of Basics 1
Class 2: Thursday, 26. January
Paper 1 due in class; playing Projects 1.2 and discussion

Reading: pp. 59-63

Projects: 2.1, 2.2 (pp. 67-98) to be discussed Week 4, class 2
Listening: pp. 64-66 to be discussed Week 3, class 2 and Week 4, class 1
Week 3
Class 1: Tuesday, 31. January
Continuing discussion of Projects 1.2; introduction to metrical structure
Class 2: Thursday, 2. February
Duple and triple meter; listening to “Bhimpalasi” and Hindemith
Week 4
Class 1: Tuesday, 7. February
Listening to Lanner, Sousa; introduction to GarageBand
Class 2: Thursday, 9. February
Projects 2.1, 2.2 due in class; performance and discussion

rev. 13. January, 2006 page 2

Week 5
Class 1: Tuesday, 14. February
Continuing discussion of Projects 2.1, 2.2, and performances; discussion of rhythm notations
Class 2: Thursday, 16. February
Meanings of “fast” and “slow”; conventional tempo indicators

Reading: pp. 118-122

Project: 2.3 (pp. 99-108) to be discussed Week 7, class 2
Listening: pp. 109-118, 123-128 to be discussed Week 6, class 1 and Week 7, class 1
Week 6
Class 1: Tuesday, 21. February
Rhythmic conflict; listening to Petruchka, Mozart piano concerto, flamenco, “Night and Day”
(pp. 109-118)
Class 2: Thursday, 23. February
Making and playing percussion accompaniments for tunes; Impromptu examples
Week 7
Class 1: Tuesday, 28. February
Rhythmic complexity; listening to Ziporyn, Haydn, African drumming, Stravinsky’s Rite of
Spring (pp. 123-128)
Class 2: Thursday, 2. March
Paper 2 due in class; performance and discussion of Project 2.3 pieces

Reading: Introduction to Part III of DMI (pp. 136-143)

Projects: 3.1 (pp. 144-158) to be discussed Week 8, Class 2
Week 8
Class 1: Tuesday, 7. March
Continuing performance and discussion of Project 2.3 pieces; introduction to intervals,
scales, chords
Class 2: Thursday, 9. March
Tonic function and harmonic departure and return; discussion of project 3.1
Week 9 – Spring Break

Reading: Basics 3 (pp. 200-211)

Project: 3.2 to be discussed Week 11, class 1
Listening: pp. 187-199 to be discussed Week 10, class 1
Week 10
Class 1: Tuesday, 21. March
Harmonic function integrating with meter and motive; listening to examples from Bach,
Haydn, Chopin, Liszt, Helps (pp. 187-199)
Class 2: Thursday, 23. March
Introduction to Logic Express

rev. 13. January, 2006 page 3

Week 11
Class 1: Tuesday, 28. March
Review of Basics 1,2,3; discussion of Projects 3.2; discussion of final projects
Class 2: Thursday, 30. March
Quiz on Basics 1,2,3

Reading: Introduction to Part IV of DMI, p. 213

Projects: 4.1, 4.2 to be discussed Week 12, class 2 and Week 13, class 2, respectively
Week 12
Class 1: Tuesday, 4. April
Listening to large-scale pieces; real-time analysis; improvisation
Class 2: Thursday, 6. April
Discussion of Project 4.1 pieces
Week 13
Class 1: Tuesday, 11. April
Continuing discussion of Project 4.1 pieces; extended techniques with GarageBand and Logic
Express
Class 2: Thursday, 13. April
Discussion of Project 4.2 pieces
Week 14
Class 1: Tuesday, 18. April
Discussion of final projects
Class 2: Thursday, 20. April
Continuing discussion of final projects
Week 15
Class 1: Tuesday, 25. April
Peer evaluations of final projects
Class 2: Thursday, 27. April
Continuing peer evaluations
Week 16
Class 1: Tuesday, 2. May
Paper 3 due in class; final project performances in the evening
Class 2: Thursday, 4. May
Directions for further study

rev. 13. January, 2006 page 4