Topic for Fall 2016: The History of Recorded Sound
Since the late nineteenth century the history of music has been inextricably tied to the history of recorded sound. In this course we will study the history of sound recording and examine the impact of recorded sound on practices of composing, performing, and listening to music. To supplement our analysis of historical recordings and tape music compositions we will read and discuss essays and articles by composers and performers, as well as material and cultural histories of recorded sound. Not open to students who have completed, or need to complete this topic under MUCO 210.

Topic for Fall 2016: 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 Winter 2017: 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 Spring 2017: Music and Memory
An exploration of the diverse ways that musical creation, practice, and reception are bound up with memory. We will examine music and ideas from the Middle Ages to the present, focusing on the ways music can function as, be affected by, create, invoke, and interrogate memory.

Topic for Spring 2017: The Blues
The course explores topics in the history of African American blues music, from the late 19th century to the present, including: the early recorded history of the blues, "classic" blues singers, the blues revival, boogie woogie, jump blues, and rhythm and blues. In addition to studying various blues genres, we will study blues forms and styles in the context of jazz, European modernist music, African American classical music, American musical theater and opera, and rock ’n’ roll. Not open to students who have completed, or need to complete this topic under MUCO 210.

Topic for Spring 2017: The German Lied and National Identity
In this course, we will examine Lieder from the 18th to the 20th centuries from a socio-cultural perspective to explore the multiple ways that the genre has been bound up with German national identity.