Music

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 can be taken as MUSC 4400 (three credits). For the three-credit option, students may take an Individual Instruction lesson or Performance Ensemble or World Music Ensemble, alongside a component in Theory and Composition, Music Technology, or Music History.

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; a component in Theory and Composition, Music Technology, or Music History; a Performance Ensemble or World Music Ensemble; and required concert attendance through the Music Tuesdays (MUSC 5398) component.

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 Performance Ensemble or World Music Ensemble or a component in Theory and Composition, Music Technology, or Music History.

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, Music Technology, or Music History; two Performance Ensembles or World Music Ensembles; and attend required concerts through the Music Tuesdays (MUSC 5398) component.  

This course will be for beginning students in 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.

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.

Courses listed below are yearlong.

MUSC 5002 - Composition

John Yannelli

MUSC 5002 - Composition

Patrick Muchmore

MUSC 5013 - Piano

Martin Goldray

MUSC 5013 - Piano

Carsten Schmidt

MUSC 5013 - Piano

Bari Mort

MUSC 5019 - Piano (Jazz)

Billy Lester

MUSC 5010 - Harpsichord

Carsten Schmidt

MUSC 5020 - Voice

Mary Phillips

MUSC 5020 - Voice

Kirsten Brown

MUSC 5020 - Voice

TBD

MUSC 5072 - Electric Guitar

Glenn Alexander

MUSC 5072 - Electric Guitar

Bob Dellureficio

MUSC 5073 - Bass (Electric or Acoustic)

Bill Moring

MUSC 5071 - Acoustic Guitar

William Anderson

MUSC 5078 - Mandolin

William Anderson

MUSC 5075 - Banjo

William Anderson

MUSC 5080 - Percussion (Drum Set)

Matthew Wilson

MUSC 5080 - Percussion (Mallet)

Ian Antonio

MUSC 5030 - Flute

Roberta Michel

MUSC 5040 - Oboe

Stuart Breczinski

MUSC 5035 - Clarinet

Benjamin Fingland

MUSC 5039 - Bassoon

James Jeter

MUSC 5038 - Saxophone

John Isley

MUSC 5034 - Trumpet

Christopher Anderson

MUSC 5036 - Trombone

Jen Baker

MUSC 5044 - Euphonium

Mark Broschinsky

MUSC 5050 - Violin

Richard Rood

MUSC 5050 - Violin

Ragnhildur Petursdottir

MUSC 5052 - Viola

Junah Chung

MUSC 5055 - Violoncello

Helen An-Lin Bardin

MUSC 5057 - Harp

Amelia Theodoratus

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.

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.

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.

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 ‘n’ 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).

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 ‘n’ 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 ‘n’ 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 ‘n’ 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.

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.

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 during the fall term; short, written summary papers or class presentations will be required in the spring.

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.

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.

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 ‘n’ 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 ‘n’ roll.

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.

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 at the end of each semester in a chamber music concert.

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 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).

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 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.

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.

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 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. 

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 ‘n’ 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 ‘n’ roll.

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.

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.

In this course, students will focus on the basics of arranging and orchestrating for small to medium-size ensembles, with an emphasis on jazz harmony and techniques. This course will introduce students to the techniques of arranging and orchestration for two-horn, three-horn, and four-horn jazz ensembles, as well as techniques for arranging and orchestration in other commercial settings. Students will study the classic repertoire of small to medium-size jazz. contemporary classical, and large modern jazz ensembles and create small ensemble arrangements in multiple styles. Materials for study will be drawn from throughout the history of jazz and contemporary/commercial arranging practices. An end-of-year concert of the students‘ works will be presented by an ensemble consisting of members of the SLC faculty and other professionals from across the New York City area.

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. 

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. 

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. 

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.

From highlife and jújù in Nigeria, to soukous and makossa in Congo and Cameroon, to the sounds of Manding music in Guinea and “Swinging Addis” in Ethiopia, the decades following World War II saw an explosion of musical creativity that blossomed across sub-Saharan Africa. Syncretic styles merging African aesthetics with European, Caribbean, and American influences and instruments resulted in vibrant new musical genres that harken back to traditional African sources while exploring bold and original musical forms. As European powers formally withdrew from their former colonies, newly inspired African musicians took advantage of broadened artistic resources and created vital, contemporary musical expressions. This performance course will explore a wide range of African musical styles that emerged in the second half of the 20th century. We will undertake a broad musical history, considering prominent groups and individual musicians during this time period, and will perform tightly structured arrangements of some of their most effective and influential pieces. There will be some opportunities for genre-appropriate improvisation and soloing. A wide range of instruments will be welcome, including strings, horns, guitars, keyboards, drums, and various percussion instruments. Basic facility on one’s musical instrument is expected, but prior experience with African musical aesthetics is not assumed or required. 

Faso Foli is the name of Sarah Lawrence's West African performance ensemble. Faso foli 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. 

When we encounter dancing, what are we seeing, experiencing, and understanding? How do current representations of dance reflect, perpetuate, and/or disrupt familiar assumptions about personal and social realities? Embedded historical ideas and enforcements based on race, economic class, gender, social/sexual orientation, nationality/regional affiliation, and more are threaded through our daily lives. Performing arts inside and outside of popular culture often reinforce dominant cultural ideas and feelings. Can they also propose or inspire alternatives? In fall, we will view samples of dancing in film, video, digital media, television programs, and commercials, as well as live performance. These viewings—along with reading selected texts from the fields of dance and performance, literary criticism, feminist theory, queer theory, and cultural studies—will form the basis of class discussions and exercises. In spring, we will shift focus to viewing still images and live action, with readings from additional fields, including art criticism and neuroscience, as well as fine-tuning approaches to writing about our subject matter. Students will complete several class assignments each semester, as well as develop one or more substantial lines of inquiry for conference work. Conference projects may draw upon multiple disciplines, including those within humanities and creative arts. The central aim of this course will be to cultivate informed discussion and to produce new knowledge, increasing both individual and collective capabilities. We will use academic research, along with personal experience, to advance our recognition of dance as an elemental art form and as a potentially important orientation in adjacent studies. In both fall and spring, students will meet weekly with the instructor for individual conferences.

This course will introduce students to the fundamentals of recording sound for film and moving images. We will explore the vital role of the sound recordist in capturing clean dialogue and immersive environmental sounds. Through hands-on demonstrations and active participation, students will learn techniques to record high-quality sound, both on and off the film set, with available equipment while emphasizing the essential connection between sound and images. Class lessons will be supplemented with texts, films, and imageless soundscape screenings to bring the conceptual into the technical, as we form our understanding of recorded sounds.

By the 20th century, African Americans produced a distinctive ethos and aesthetic of pleasure not only in music and dance but also in sports and other creative arts. Artists like Paul Robeson, Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey, Billie Holiday, Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Lester Young, Duke Ellington, and John Coltrane were paradigmatic in that cultural production. In turn, the blues ethos and jazz aesthetics influenced the African American imagination in social, political, economic, and cultural life, as well as in architecture and science.

This course will aim to improve and perfect the students’ speaking, listening, reading, and writing skills, as well as their knowledge of Italy’s contemporary culture and literature. In order to acquire the necessary knowledge of Italian grammar, idiomatic expressions, and vocabulary, a review of all grammar will be carried out throughout the year. As an introduction to modern Italian culture and literature, students will be introduced to a selection of short stories, poems, and passages from novels, as well as specific newspaper articles, music, and films in the original language. Some of the literary works studied will include selections from Umberto Eco, Italo Calvino, Natalia Ginzburg, Gianni Rodari, Marcello D’Orta, Clara Sereni, Dino Buzzati, Stefano Benni, Antonio Tabucchi, Alberto Moravia, Achille Campanile, and Elena Ferrante. In order to address the students’ writing skills, written compositions will be required as an integral part of the course. Biweekly conference topics might include the study of a particular author, literary text, film, or any other aspect of Italian society and culture that might be of interest to the student. In small groups, conversation classes will be held twice a week with the language assistant; students will have the opportunity to reinforce what they have learned in class and hone their ability to communicate in Italian. When appropriate, students will be directed to specific internship opportunities in the New York City area, centered on Italian language and culture. 

The performance of a play is a complex cultural event that involves far more than the literary text upon which it is grounded. First, there is the theatre itself—a building of a certain shape and utility within a certain neighborhood of a certain city. On stage, we have actors and their training, gesture, staging, music, dance, and costumes alongside scenery and lighting. Offstage, we have the audience, its makeup, and its reactions; the people who run the theatre and the reasons why they do it; and finally the social milieu in which the theatre exists. In this course, we will study these elements as a system of signs that convey meaning (semiotics)—a world of meaning whose lifespan is a few hours but whose significances are ageless. The plays of Shakespeare will be our texts. Reconstructing the performances of those plays in the England of Elizabeth I and James I will be our starting place. Seeing how those plays have been approached and re-envisioned over the centuries will be our journey. Tracing their elusive meanings, from within Shakespeare’s Wooden O to their adaptation in contemporary film, will be our work. 

This course will offer an introduction to the history of western art music from antiquity to the present. The main activities will be focused on listening attentively and creatively to many musical compositions that show the development of genres and styles of classical music over 2,000 years and on creating a language to discuss our experiences and insights. We will also learn about the various elements of musical structures and how they combine to create each work. We will also study the historical and societal contexts of those compositions and see how this knowledge informs our listening and how those pieces can illuminate our understanding of the societies in which they were created. The course will feature regular in-class performances, and we will attend a number of concerts. No prior musical knowledge, such as reading of musical scores or music theory background, is required (though it can be utilized in conference work). While the main emphasis of the seminar will be on western classical music, music that students choose to study for their conference work can also be drawn from popular music traditions and nonwestern cultures. Biweekly in fall, students will alternate between individual conferences with the instructor and small-group activities. Biweekly in spring, students will meet with the instructor for individual conferences.

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.

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.

Explore the beautiful mathematics and physics of waves through both theory and experiment. This course will teach students valuable mathematical methods and basic computational skills that are necessary for more advanced physical-science classes. Lab class time will include using advanced lab equipment, analyzing data using Jupyter (IPython) notebooks, learning numerical techniques, and reporting the results using LaTeX. For conference work, students are encouraged to choose an American Journal of Physics article to replicate, analyze, and then present their findings at the semi-annual Sarah Lawrence College Science & Mathematics Poster Session.

This introductory course will offer a comprehensive foundation in spoken and written language, focusing on pronunciation, speaking, listening comprehension, reading, and writing. Intended for students with no prior knowledge of Spanish, the course will integrate classroom learning with language-lab exercises to reinforce and supplement material. Through a variety of activities, students will develop the skills necessary to engage in basic conversations, comprehend short texts, and express simple ideas in writing. By the end of the course, students will be able to understand basic spoken phrases, introduce themselves and talk about family and friends, express their needs in everyday situations, and write short personal essays. Additionally, the course will explore the rich diversity of Hispanic cultures through music, films, and poetry, strengthening students' cultural knowledge and appreciation. Through the study of women poets like Angelamaría Dávila, Alejandra Pizarnik, and Cristina Peri Rossi, as well as urban and punk music movements, students will explore themes of resistance, identity, and cultural change. Group conferences will provide an opportunity to expand upon what we have learned in the classroom and provide a space to address any additional questions or concerns regarding the materials presented thus far. While there are no individual conferences with the instructor, weekly individual meetings with a Spanish language assistant, in addition to class sessions, will be required.

This intensive drawing course challenges young artists to develop a disciplined, sustainable, and experimental practice that expands how they think, see, and make art. Each week, students will create 50 to 100 small works on paper, based on open-ended prompts designed to disrupt habits and deepen the relationship between subject and process. Students will work quickly and flexibly, experimenting with mediums and approaches to explore multiple solutions to each prompt. Alongside these daily drawings, students will develop a single, ambitious, labor-intensive piece throughout the semester—evolving slowly and reflecting time’s passage in contrast to our in-class exploratory drawings. This dynamic exchange fosters varied creative rhythms, bridging idea generation and final execution. The course will push students to redefine the medium of drawing and, in turn, transform their art-making practice. In fall and spring, students will meet biweekly with the instructor for individual conferences, alongside corequisite First-Year Studies Project (ARTS 1000), which will meet weekly as a group.

This intensive drawing course challenges young artists to develop a disciplined, sustainable, and experimental practice that expands how they think, see, and make art. Each week, students will create 50 to 100 small works on paper, based on open-ended prompts designed to disrupt habits and deepen the relationship between subject and process. We will work quickly and flexibly, experimenting with mediums and approaches to explore multiple solutions to each prompt. Alongside these daily drawings, students will develop a single, ambitious, labor-intensive piece throughout the semester—evolving slowly and reflecting time’s passage in contrast to our in-class exploratory drawings. This dynamic exchange fosters varied creative rhythms, bridging idea generation and final execution. The course will push students to redefine the medium of drawing and, in turn, transform their art-making practice.

This course is designed for seniors committed to deepening their artmaking practice over an extended period. Students will maintain individual studio spaces and are expected to work independently, creatively, and critically—challenging both themselves and their peers to explore new ways of thinking and making. The course will include prompts that encourage interdisciplinary approaches to art and culminates in a solo gallery exhibition during the spring, accompanied by a printed book documenting the show. Students will engage in regular critiques with visiting artists and faculty; discuss readings and a range of artists; visit galleries and studios; and participate in the Visual Arts Lecture Series, a program of lectures given by prominent contemporary artists and held at Sarah Lawrence College. Beyond studio work, students will develop skills in presenting their work—including writing artist statements and exhibition proposals, interviewing artists, and documenting their art. A series of professional-practice workshops will further prepare students for life beyond college.

This course will experiment and explore contemporary performance art. Through surveying a range of important artworks and movements, we will review the histories, concepts, and practices of performance art. Born from anti-art, performance art challenges the boundaries of artistic expression through implementing, as material, the concepts of space, time, and the body. Examples of artists reviewed will include John Cage, Joan Jonas, Adrian Piper, Bruce Nauman, Martha Rosler, Simone Forti, Mike Kelley, Paul McCarthy, Pope.L, Laurie Anderson, Joseph Beuys, Janine Antoni, Suzanne Lacy, Aki Sasamoto, and Anna Halprin, to name a few. We will review dialogues and movements introducing performance art, such as art interventions, sculpture, installation art, institutional critique, protest art, social media, video art, happenings, Dada, comedy, sound art, graphic notation, scores, collaboration, and dance/movement. Students will be able to relate the form and function of performance art through research, workshopping ideas, experimentation, and improvisation—thereby developing the ability to confidently implement any method of the performance art genre.

This is a course with writing at its center and other arts—mainly, but not exclusively, visual—around it. We will read several types of narratives—children’s books, folk tales, fairy tales, and graphic novels—trying our own written hand at many of these styles. Readings will include everything from ancient Egyptian love poems to contemporary Latin American literature. For conference work, students might create graphic novels, animations, quilts, a scientifically accurate fantasy involving bugs, rock operas, items of clothing with text attached, nonfiction narratives, and dystopian fictions with pictures, as examples of past imaginations. This course will be especially suited to students with an interest in another artistic form or a body of knowledge that they would like to make accessible to nonspecialists. 

This course will examine and produce a range of work—from the journalistic to the critical, from the practical to the mystical, from the factual to the fictional—in the vast landscape of arts writing. We will write short pieces along the lines of liner notes, catalogue copy for gallery shows, and short reviews. We will approach long reviews, critical essays, and deep and subjective interior meditations on our experience of artists and their work by reading broadly across time. Topics may include, but are not limited to: Samuel Johnson on Richard Savage; William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge on themselves; Friedrich Nietzsche on Richard Wagner; Theodor W. Adorno via Thomas Mann on Beethoven’s Opus 111; V. S. Naipaul on Gustave Flaubert; Amiri Baraka on Billie Holiday; Virginia Woolf on Thomas Hardy; Glenn Gould on Barbra Streisand; Mark Strand on Edward Hopper; Rosalind Krauss on photography; Susan Sontag on Leni Riefenstahl; Jean-Luc Godard on Nicholas Ray; Pauline Kael on Sam Peckinpah; the art criticism of Donald Judd; and contemporary phenomena such as fan fiction, crossovers, and alternate universes made up of familiar literary characters. Students should feel confident in their familiarity with one or two art forms, broadly understood, and should expect, along with the reading, to write several small and two larger (7-12 pages) pieces to be presented to the entire class. Conference work will comprise research projects on those artists or works of art, or both, that students, in consultation with the instructor, decide on as their special province.