FYS: Courses
 

 
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300 Steele Building
CB# 3504
UNC-Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, North Carolina
27599-3504

email: fys@unc.edu
phone: (919)843-7773

 
 


Course Descriptions

Music

MUSC/PHYS 051 [006D]: The Interplay of Music and Physics
Communication Intensive (CI); Physical and Life Science (PL) [GC Natural Science - no lab, physical]
Laurie McNeil & Brent Wissick
This course is for students who are interested in how music is made, how sound is produced in instruments, and how those sounds have been used in musicmaking from the twelfth century to the present day. Students study the basics of physics and music: wave motion, resonance, the perception of sound, scales, harmony, and music theory. The final project is a public performance of an original composition, a suite written especially for an "orchestra" made up of instruments that the students have constructed.

MUSC 052 [006K]: Building a Nation: The Stage-Musicals of Rogers and Hammerstein, 1943-9
Communcation Intensive (CI); Literary Arts (LA) [GC Aesthetic/Fine Arts]
Tim Carter, Jessica Sternfeld
The first three major collaborations of composer Richard Rogers and lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II, 'Oklahoma!' (1943), 'Carousel' (1945), and 'South Pacific', revolutionized the Broadway musical. But they are also important historical and social documents, coming from a decade of tempestuous change as America emerged from war in Europe and the Far East to deal with political and social reform, and deep self-examination. We shall take an interdisciplinary approach to study these theatrical works both for themselves and for what they tell us about their times. We shall also treat them as case-studies for how to study music and popular culture in the context of the humanities.

MUSC 053 [006K]: Rock and Roll Music: The First Wave, 1955-1964
Social & Behavioral Science/Other (SS) [GC Aesthetic/Fine Arts]
John Covach
This course will focus on the period from the birth of rock and roll in 1955 to he eve of Beatlemania in early 1964. The course will proceed in three units of approximately equal duration. The first unit will explore the American popular-music industry in the decades leading up and including the1950s. How did the spread of radio, and later television, technological advances in recording, the development of LP and 45 rpm records, and the emergence and first flowering of youth culture in the United States make it possible for rock music to dominate the popular-music scene almost as soon as it was introduced into mainstream (white, middle-class) culture? The next unit will examine the first rich but relatively brief flurry of rock and roll activity in the 1955-58 period, focusing especially on the wide variety of styles (some still regionally based). The third unit considers how the music industry regains control of rock and roll in the 1958-64 period. This leads to both banal teen idols like Fabian and innovative producers such as Phil Spector. Throughout the course rock and roll music will be considered in the context of the American culture in which it developed. Issues of race relations, demographic marketing, and technological innovation will be stressed. This course is designed for both music majors and non-majors, and no technical knowledge of music (such as the ability to read music or play an instrument) is required.

MUSC 054 [006K]: Music and Magic
Communcation Intensive (CI); Visual and Performing Arts (VP) [GC Aesthetic/Fine Arts]
Jon Finson
Meet any witches lately? Maybe a sorcerer or perhaps a ghost ship sailing the seas for all eternity? During the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries composers became increasingly interested in supernatural an spiritual reality. We will examine these Romantic themes in very colorful orchestral music, songs, and operas, encountering some highly entertaining characters along the way. Listening, reading, introduction to basic musical terms, exams, papers.

MUSC 055 [006K]: A Love Affair in Renaissance Drama & Music
Communication Intensive (CI); Literary Arts (LA); The World Before 1750 (WB) [GC Aesthetic/Fine Arts]
Anne MacNeil
In this course, we will read Battista Guarini's pastoral drama Il pastor fido (in its English translation) and listen to Claudio Monteverdi's Fifth Book of Madrigals (which sets excerpts from Il pastor fido) as a way of introducing students to late-Renaissance dramatic literature and acclaim and censure. Guardini and Monteverdi broke the rules of "good" composition and both were ridiculed by their more conservative colleagues. Their innovations, however, would later become the foundation of opera, and critics would come to applaud them for their insight and creativity. In-class activities will include reading passages of Il pastor fido out loud; analyzing the text for thematic development, rhyme schemes, and poetic form; discussing how Monteverdi's musical settings of the text work as interpretations f both form and content of the poetry; writing brief (ten-to fifteen minute) "imaginings" of how the plot might develop form a certain point or what a character might do next; and small-group exercises on how the students would set passages of the text to music. Grades will be determined according to attendance, class participation and brief daily assignments (such as one-page essays or 5-minute oral presentations).

MUSC 056 [006K]: Early Modern Court Spectacle
Communcation Intensive (CI); Historical Analysis (HS); The World Before 1750 (WB) [GC Aesthetic/Fine Arts]
Anne MacNeil
The aim of this course is to cultivate an understanding of the performative spectacles mounted by the courts of Italy, France and England in the 16th and 17th centuries. We will work to establish methods of analysis for multi-media events that encompass music, literature, theater, costume and dance, and we will seek to understand the expression of politics in art. The core repertory of court spectacles for our study includes
Shakespeare's The Tempest, Guarini's Il pastor fido and Molière's Le malade imaginaire. Students will be guided through the processes of writing a research paper, making oral presentations of their work, and providing critical commentary on the work of others.

MUSC 057 [006K]: Music and Drama: Verdi's Operas and Italian Romanticism
Communication Intensive (CI); Literary Arts (LA); The World Before 1750 (WB) [GC Aesthetic/Fine Arts]
John Nádas
Why does opera - this ancient and most artificial of arts - continue to attract growing audiences? Because opera entertains them in a special way. Of course, there are the skeptics who may sneer about the fat sopranos, the preening tenors, and silly plots. The truth is grater than that, however, for opera can touch the soul as few arts can, when the audience is receptive to its magic. Most importantly, unlike musical concerts and spoken plays, opera combines several arts in a unique way. First and foremost, language and music together can do what neither could do alone. Perhaps no better examples of this art form can be found than the stunning operas created during the nineteenth century in Italy, especially those of Giuseppe Verdi. Most important for his career, a distinctive Italian brand of Romanticism was formulated by which Verdi's artistic tastes were formed and one in which his imagination was nourished, very much stimulated by the Romantic literature of northern Europe. Schiller, Hugo, and - especially - Shakespeare were the touchstones of his sensibility and encouraged his propensity for boldness and originality of operatic subjects. We will trace Vedri's artistry from early works such as Nabucco, Ernani and Macbeth, through the brilliance of Triviata, Rigoletto and Trovatore, and finally to one of the sublime masterpieces from the end of the century, Otello. The class will also include weekly reading and listening assignments, class participation in discussions, two briefs papers as follow-ups to class viewings of operas, mid-term and final exams, and a final project - interpretative and analytic presentations plus a written paper.

MUSC 058 [006K]: Music in Motion: American Popular Music and Dance
Communication Intensive (CI); Social and Behavioral Sience (SS) [GC Aesthetic/Fine Arts]
Jocelyn Neal
Within American popular culture there are histories and living traditions of vernacular dance and music whose characteristics are determined by the interaction of musical rhythms, dance pasterns, an cultural practice. This course explores the structures within those musical genres that identify "dance music," the way that various dance styles employ body movement to interact with those musical rhythms, and the cultural signifiers of these traditions. The primary focus will be Swing music and dance, and Country music and dance, with excursions into Tejano and Polka styles. Through critical reading, listening, and creative participation, students study how music and dance patterns intersect in these lifestyles and how the music/dance interactions embody social representations of the participant communities. This course includes weekly reading, writing, and listening assignments; class participation in exercises and activities; two field observation trips and follow-up writings; listening exam; final project (interpretative and analytic multimedia presentation plus paper).

MUSC 059 [006K]: Twentieth Century Music and Visual Art
Communcation Intensive (CI); Historical Analysis (HS) [GC Aesthetic/Fine Arts]
Severine Neff, Mayron Tsong
The shift to the Information Age has led American society to wed the visual medium to the auditory. Consider, for example, the shift from the telephone to email or from recording to MTV. This interconnection of the aural and visual corresponds to an artistic phenomenon that has pervaded our century: the linking of art, music, and visual art. Thus, in studying the relationship between twentieth-century music, painting, architecture, and sculpture, we in fact study a principle of our everyday life.
The course will focus on works by prominent composers and visual artists including John Cage, Igor Stravinsky, Arnold Schoenberg, Marcel Du Champ, Wassily Kandinsky, and Pablo Picasso. Each class meeting will include a short overview of a musical composition and its relation to a piece of visual art. Further class discussion will be devoted to a range of issues: the correspondence between color, line, and sound; musical pieces and visual art on the same topic; meanings and styles of music notation; and the aesthetics of multi-media works. The course requires weekly reading and listening assignments; four 5-8-page papers; two listening and slide-identification exams; and participation in the creation of a media piece to be performed in class.

MUSC 060 [006K]: American Literature and its Music
Communication Intensive (CI); Literary Arts (LA) [GC Aesthetic/Fine Arts]
Thomas Warburton
Through the ages, literature has been an impetus for the composing of music. Especially in the twentieth century, American literature has impelled important musical works. "American Literature and its music" will study two kinds of interaction between American literature and music: operas based on works of literature, notably George Gershwin's Porgy and Bess (based on Heyward's novel Porgy) and Virgil Thomson's Four Saints in Three Acts (based on Gertrude Stein) and settings of American poets Elizabeth Bishop, Walt Whitman, and Emily Dickinson. Second, we will read recent novels in which music plays an integral part, including E.L. Doctorow, Ragtime and Toni Morrison, Jazz. We will question how literature is enhanced and interpreted by the music. We will also observe the role of music in American culture. Class activities will include reading and interpreting the literature aloud, brief oral presentations on important cultural issues, group discussion (some led by students), and brief formal written essays.

MUSC 061 [006K]: Reverberations
Communication Intensive (CI); Social and Behavioral Sience (SS) [GC Aesthetic/Fine Arts]
Mark Katz
The same musical performance can represent different things to  different people who experience it.  What sounds beautiful to this  person can be noise to another;  a deeply meaningful performance for  one listener might, for a different listener, be mere background  music.  The same can be said of musical cultures, which can seem  foreign or familiar, comforting or threatening, depending on one's  perspective.  The purpose of this course is to explore how music and  musical cultures are represented and perceived, to understand the  many ways in which musical meaning arises.

This focus of this semester's seminar will be the DJ.  At heart, the  DJ, or disc jockey, is someone who plays records.  Some DJs play  records on the radio, others spin in dance clubs, while still others  mix and manipulate records so that they essentially create new works  of music. In this course we will examine the art and culture of the  DJ in order to understand their important and often misunderstood  role in modern musical life.  Readings and discussion will be  supplemented by guest lectures and performances by area DJs, a visit  to a local radio station, and hands-on experience using the  instructor's turntables.

MUSC 062 [006K]: Vienna, City of Dreams
Communication Intensive (CI); Historical Analysis (HS) [GC Aesthetic/Fine Arts]
Jon Finson
Join us at the turn of the twentieth century in Vienna, crucible for much of modern life as we know it today. We will explore the birth of modern architecture and city planning in the development of the Ringstraße, watch eroticism pervade art in the paintings of Klimt, read Freud's search for the roots of human behavior in the subconscious, and seek for the roots of Zionism and the Nazi party in Austrian politics. Above all we will listen to the glorious music of Brahms, Johann Strauss, Jr., Gustav Mahler, Richard Strauss, and Arnold Schoenberg. Class projects will include a walking history of architectural style on the UNC campus (that parallels the architecture of Vienna), a possible exhibition at the Ackland of fin-de-siècle Austrian or German art, and reports on various historical figures or composers, discussions of texts by such authors as Carl Schorske and, Freud, and group listening to music.

MUSC 063 : Music on Stage and Screen
Visual and Performing Arts (VP); Communication Intensive (CI)
Anne MacNeil
Music on Stage and Screen is designed to offer students the tools and techniques for understanding multi-media, staged musical works like opera, musical theater, and film. The goal of the seminar is to develop students's analytical skills in verbal and non-verbal media and to encourage their visualization of the potential and implications of artistic forms and structures. No ability to read music is required. We will discuss musical, visual, and textual narratives, source materials, and the various means by which such multi-media artworks are transmitted to modern audiences (written scores, LPs/CDs, staged performances, movies, etc.). But analysis does not stop with the examination of existing materials. Seminar participants will also engage in practical issues of design as a way of presenting their analyses of dramatic musical structures. By asking members of the class to work with the material context of scenes, students are encouraged to consider their own creativity as an analytical statement and as an integral part of the historicized life of a work of art.

Music on Stage and Screen is designed to accommodate a continually changing repertory of staged musical works. This approach allows the class to take advantage of live performances by local and regional companies, like the UNC Opera Workshop, Playmakers Repertory Company, the Opera Company of North Carolina, the Washington National Opera, and the National Theatre.

MUSI 064: What is a Work of Art? Listening to Music
Visual and Performing Arts (VP); Communication Intensive (CI); North Atlantic World (NA)
James Moeser; and Emil Kang
This seminar will focus on the incredibly wide variety of performances in the Carolina Performing Arts and Music from the Hill Series at Memorial Hall.  Through attendance at concerts, research on works being performed and the performing artists themselves, including opportunities to meet these artists, students explore questions such as: How does music reflect culture?  What makes a great work of musical art?  What is the relationship between composition and performance?  What are the obligations of the performer to the composer?  What goes into the preparation of a performance?  What is the impact of the audience on the performer?  How much improvisation takes place in a live performance?   What makes a particular performance outstanding, or by contrast, unsuccessful?

Students will be provided tickets and expected to attend a minimum of ten performances from the Carolina Performing Arts and Music from the Hill Series.  Among the major performances offered are:

  • YAS, Iran’s most popular hip-hop artist, the first rapper granted permission by the Iranian government to release his music to the general public.  Today, hip-hop and rap are becoming the fastest growing musical genre in the Middle East, and YAS is the voice of his generation.  Thursday, Sept. 17, 7:30
  • Sonny Rollins, tenor saxophone.  The Village Voice calls Sonny Rollins “the last jazz immortal.”  First recorded in 1949, he was recognized as one of the most promising, spontaneous, and creative tenor players on the jazz scene, sought after by Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, and the Modern Jazz Quartet.  Tuesday, Sept. 22, 7:30.
  • Ravi and Anoushka Shankar.  Ravi Shankar, legendary sitarist, composer, teacher, and writer, is India’s most esteemed musical ambassador.  His daughter Anoushka is an innovator in her own right, becoming the youngest person ever nominated for a Grammy Award in World Music and going on to win a Best Supporting Actress nomination for her debut role in Dance Like a Man.  Tuesday, Oct. 6, 7:30.
  • Bela Fleck, Zakir Hussain and Edgar Meyer.  Banjoist supreme Bela Fleck, Indian tabla master Zakir Hussain, and double bass virtuoso Edgar Meyer join together to perform an intimate concert of original music that explores intertwining strands between American roots music and the classical Indian tradition.  Sunday, Oct. 11, 7:30
  • Bruckner Orchestra Linz with Dennis Russell Davies, conductor.  One of the leading orchestras of central Europe, Bruckner Orchestra Linz has made a name for itself with its recordings of all of Bruckner’s symphonies.  Dennis Russell Davies is among today’s most inventive conductors revered for his command of both traditional and contemporary music.  This concert will feature the Bruckner Fourth Symphony as well as the Phillip Glass Violin Concerto and Symphony No. 7.  Wednesday, Nov. 11, 7:30 p.m.
  • Bang on a Can All-Stars and Trio Mediaeval.  Part chamber ensemble and part rock band, Bang on a Can All-Stars create music as intense and intoxicating as it is unconventional.  They join forces with Norway’s Trio Mediaeval, a vocal group specializing in early music, in a Carolina Performing Arts-commissioned performance of Julia Wolfe’s Steel Hammer, influenced by legends and music of Appalachia.  Tuesday, Nov. 17, 7:30 p.m.
  • Leif Ove Andsnes, piano, and Robin Rhode, visual artist:  Pictures Reframed.  A performance of Mussorgsky’s epic piano suite Picture at an Exhibition by Grammy-awarding winning pianist Leif Ove Andsnes, with Berlin-based visual artist Robin Rhode, in a specially designed set that surrounds the piano with visuals. 

               
Participants in this seminar will have an opportunity to meet with performing artists to discuss their work.  In preparation for these discussions, participants will be expected to research both the works being performed and the artists themselves, and to keep a journal. 





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