Topic for Fall 2012: A History of Early Music Revivals
This course will examine when, where, how and why musicians have revived musical works and practices from the period roughly encompassing 800-1750 AD. In addition to studying early music movements, students will explore issues of performance practice and presentation by performing early musical works of their own choosing.

Topic for Winter 2013: National Identity and the American Musical
From its origins in vaudeville and minstrel shows to the present day, musicals have participated in the formation of American national identity. This course will examine the relationship between music theater and politics and the changing face of national identity through a historical survey of the American musical.

Topic for Winter 2013: History of the Symphony
This course will explore the development of the symphony from its origins to the present day, focusing on the functions, ideologies, and discourses—musical and non-musical—that shaped that development and perceptions of the symphony over time. We will also address issues of meaning, value, and interpretation as they apply to specific works.

Topic for Spring 2013: Music and the Fairy Tale
This course will explore the ways that music embodies, constructs, deconstructs, interrogates, and communicates values and meanings in a variety of fairy tale contexts in popular and classical realms.

Topic for Spring 2013: Popular Music -- History, Analysis, Interpretation
In this course we will read and discuss intriguing examples of scholarly and critical writing on popular music, focusing on the history, analysis and interpretation of genres that have attracted the most attention from musicologists, music theorists, and music journalists. Topics may include the music of Tin Pan Alley, the blues, country, girl groups, soul, heavy metal, punk, hip hop, and pop megastars.