This course will examine the diverse forms and social contexts of Latin American and Caribbean music, while exploring the ways that musical performance has been used to negotiate power relations in the social, political, and economic spheres since the Conquest. Focusing on musical genres and movements from Argentina, Brazil, Cuba, Haiti, Mexico, Peru, and Trinidad, students will learn to recognize the techniques and instruments used in a wide array of traditional and contemporary styles, particularly those which have grown out of the hybridization of African, Middle Eastern, European, Asian, and Native American performance strategies. While knowledge of music theory and performance skills are not necessary, it is essential that students be prepared for intensive music listening in and out of class.
CORE REQUIREMENT MET: LATIN AMERICA • FINE ARTS

This course surveys music of African Americans, with an emphasis on 20th century classical and vernacular genres. We will examine this musical web in three units: Classical, Jazz & Blues, and Rock & Contemporary Vernaculars. Featured artists include William Grant Still, Marian Anderson, Fats Waller, Big Momma Thornton, Sam Cooke, Jimi Hendrix, Sweet Honey in the Rock, TV on the Radio, Wu-Tang Clan, and Cee-Lo Green. Through extensive listening, reading, and group dialogue, this class will explore how the paradigms of African American cultural experience are deeply interwoven within the musical narratives of the U.S. and its cultural satellites. No prior musical training is necessary.
CORE REQUIREMENT MET: UNITED STATES and FINE ARTS

Pop music blogs, online social networks, home recording studios, and mashup/remix communities are emerging musical spaces in the digital era. In this course we will study music-cultures that are enabled and generated by digital media and technology. We ask how digital media shape the mode of production, transmission, and reception of contemporary popular music. Using principles of ethnomusicology, we will examine how music as a "digital vernacular" creates a sense of place and self in the increasingly globalized world; how social, media, and technological institutions organize 21-century music participation at the grassroots, independent level. A laptop computer is required.
CORE REQUIREMENT MET: FINE ARTS ● INTERCULTURAL

This course will survey film music from its silent film era origins to the present, focusing on its many functions through in-class viewing, analysis, and critique of film clips. The works of many prominent film composers as well as some lesserknown figures will be examined in terms of style and approach, as well as their own views on the film-scoring process. Fundamental information on music, film, and psychology of music will be introduced, and the role of music in other media (such as TV and experimental video) will be explored.
CORE REQUIREMENT MET: INTERCULTURAL • FINE ARTS

Designed for students with some beginning experience in music theory and an ability to read music. Covers scales, keys, modes, intervals, and basic tonal harmony. Prerequisite: MUSC 101, or a passing grade on the Music Theory placement examination, or an AP Music Theory score of 3 or higher, or permission of instructor. Requires concurrent enrollment in MUSC 150A.

Prerequisite: Permission of department.
2 units

As part of human cognition, our perception, production, and understanding of music has elicited many questions: What is music in relation to "sound"? Is music an evolutionary adaptation? What is the relationship of music and emotions, or memory? Can music influence perception in other modalities? What is the meaning of music? Can music make us smarter? Is music a language? What is biological and what is cultural in the esthetics of music? This course will reframe many of these questions from the interdisciplinary standpoint of cognitive science, acoustics, music theory, and semiotics to explore music as a cognitive process Topics will include the perception of pitch, timbre, rhythm, and localization; music and the brain; cognitive aspect of the esthetics of music; the relationship between music and language in terms of their structures and neurological processing; music and memory; music and emotions; music and meaning. We will also discuss the role music plays in cross-modal interactions, either in the real world, or in films and multimedia art works. Prerequisite: Any Cognitive Science class or Music class, or instructor's approval. Same as COGS 241
CORE REQUIREMENT MET: MATH/SCIENCE ● FINE ARTS 

Students will explore extensions of chromatic harmonic practice through the turn of the 20th century, and will be introduced to the musical language of iconic 20th-century composers (Schoenberg, Stravinsky, Debussy, Bartok). Students will engage in analytic and compositional projects in consultation with Music History faculty. Prerequisite: Music 250 or permission of instructor. Requires concurrent enrollment in Music 250A.

This course surveys the two centuries that gave rise to European art music's most enduring legacies: opera, instrumental art music, and, especially, the major-minor tonal system, which, as the system that informs most music today, is arguably Europe's greatest-ever cultural export. The emergence of this tonal system will enable instrumental music to sustain a listener's attention through dramatic forms and without the aid of words; comprehending how these forms behave will be one of our central tasks. In turn, the cultivation of instrumental genres will fuel the operatic accomplishments of Classical composers, notably Mozart. Our study of vocal and instrumental music will proceed chronologically and focus on individual cities, starting with Florence and ending with Vienna. With the only prerequisite in taking this course being the ability to read musical notation, students from other disciplines who are eager for music-intensive study are especially welcome. Music majors and minors taking the course will be given assignments tailored to their knowledge and departmental expectations. Freshmen may not enroll in this course. Prerequisite: sophomore Status
CORE REQUIREMENT MET: PRE-1800 ● EUROPE

This course surveys Western musical practice of the 20th century, commencing with the wide-ranging artistic responses to the music and writings of Richard Wagner, in Europe and in the United States, and the emergence of a "musical modernism," as new forms and new pitch systems take hold. We will then follow the radical experimentation of the 1920s ultra-modernists through to the post-minimalist eclecticism of John Adams and Kaija Saariaho at the century's end, throughout alert to the political, philosophical, and cultural forces shaping the music at issue. With the only prerequisite in taking this course being the ability to read musical notation, students from other disciplines who are eager for music-intensive study are especially welcome. Music majors and minors taking the course will be given assignments tailored to their knowledge and departmental expectations.
CORE REQUIREMENT MET: FINE ARTS ● INTERCULTURAL

Introduction to conducting technique from a choral/vocal perspective. Students will learn to develop musical interpretation through score study, analysis, and clear gestural vocabulary. Prerequisite: Ability to read music; choral experience preferred. 

Over the past century, music has played a central role in political and social movements that seek to shift the balance of power in local, national, and transnational contexts. From the songs of the African American freedom struggle to the music of the nueva cancion movement in Chile, from the live performance practice of the Occupy and immigrant rights movements to the raucous sounds of Russia’s Pussycat Riot, music has been an important mode of circulating alternative political messages and inspiring rebellion against the status quo. How can music be used to convey political messages and extend the reach of social movements? Why does music enhance cohesion and solidarity among movement participants and/or sway or destabilize oppositional forces? Are there differences between mass-mediated modes of political protest and live, grassroots political performances? When voices raised in song become powerful, what protocols are established to censor and repress them. We will examine these questions in the context of social movements which have inspired mass participation, comparing and contrasting case studies from Europe, Asia, Africa, the Americas.
CORE REQUIREMENT MET: INTERCULTURAL

Preparation for junior recital. Requirements include more extensive practice expectations as well as research and preparation of program notes. Prerequisite: approval of the department. May be repeated once for credit.
2 units

Topics in Musical Analysis.

Topics in Music Analysis is a small, discussion-oriented seminar emphasizing analytic and critical approaches to a musical topic. prerequisite: Junior standing

Unfamiliar Chopin: Of the composers for the piano, Fryderyk Chopin (1810-1849) remains among the most popular, over a century and a half after his death. Pianists and listeners all have their favorite Chopin compositions and performers, and even those professing to be new to Chopin's music soon realize that they have heard some of it. This seminar will work to defamiliarize this music, and thereby invigorate one's understanding of it, by analyzing individual Chopin pieces in terms of contemporaneous understandings of genre, notational practice, piano technique, piano manufacture, operatic compositional practice, singing practice, and dance and other popular musics. Our reading of historical documents and current scholarship will complement the study of the melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic features of individual works. Students will develop, in consultation with the instructor and early in the semester, a music-analytic and argument-driven research paper topic and stage the drafting and revising of that paper over the course of the semester. Prerequisite: MUSC 250. Open only to juniors and seniors.

This course provides individual coaching and advisement to students preparing to present their senior comprehensive project. May be repeated once for credit Prerequisite: Junior Standing
2 units

Advanced study and performance of choral music. Emphasis is placed on the more difficult traditional choral repertoire, but the study of world music and popular music is included. Includes many performances with Men's Glee Club, both on and off campus. Enrollment is for the full year and is by audition during the first week of the fall semester. 2 hours rehearsal per week plus 2.5 hours rehearsal per week with Men's Glee Club. Sight reading ability and previous musical experience highly recommended.
1 unit
CORE REQUIREMENT PARTIAL: FINE ARTS

Semester-long instruction with music tradition-bearers allows students to develop the technique and language to approach musical styles from outside the Western art music canon, while exposing them to alternative modes of musical pedagogy. In addition to practicing secular rumba drumming, students will study the sacred rhythms of Santería and learn to sing the songs of the Orishas in the Yoruba dialect of Lucumi. In addition to weekly rehearsals with the ensemble, students will be expected to practice on their own and to participate in a public performance at the end of the semester. No prior music experience is required.
1 unit
CORE REQUIREMENT MET PARTIAL: FINE ARTS

A symphonic ensemble for qualified instrumentalists from the college communities of Occidental and the California Institute of Technology (students, faculty, staff, and their families). The orchestra presents several concerts on both campuses each year. Prerequisite: audition during the first week of the semester.
1 unit
CORE REQUIREMENT PARTIAL: FINE ARTS

The Occidental Jazz Ensemble consists of instrumentalists from Occidental who are interested in performing jazz of various styles. Charts and styles are determined according to the instrumentalists in the ensemble and their particular jazz interests. The Jazz Ensemble presents several concerts during the academic year. Enrollment is by audition with the instructor.
1 unit
CORE REQUIREMENT PARTIAL: FINE ARTS

Fundamentals of singing: voice production, diction, repertoire, musicianship.
Recommended as preparation for private lessons. Fee: $195.
1 unit
CORE REQUIREMENT PARTIAL: FINE ARTS

An introduction to classical guitar including basic technique and musicianship. The traditional repertoire as well as 20th century and flamenco will be explored. Fee: $195.
1 unit
CORE REQUIREMENT PARTIAL: FINE ARTS

The Alexander Technique helps students move naturally. They learn to prevent excess tension and replace it with a more effectively balanced movement pattern throughout the body. Does not satisfy Music Major applied music requirement. Fee: $195.
1 unit
CORE REQUIREMENT PARTIAL: FINE ARTS