Course Outlines

COURSE OUTLINES

Note: In the outlines below you will find classes and lectures I have created for instruction in my fields of study. There is freedom within the courses to create an entire semester or year of instruction as well as a single class lecture/interactive lesson. If there is interest in the topics below for a particular institution or department there is flexibility in the class design. 

Eastern European Folk Exploration 

Music will include Balkan, Klezmer, Ukrainian, Hungarian, Romani and Russian folk music. For each type of music instrumentation will be covered as well as how traditional modes and pieces influenced modern works

Units

1. 1. Cover various Eastern European modes (Freygish/Mishabeirach scales, Phrygian Dom, and all related scales) Cover the beauty of the flatted 2nd and augmented 3rd 

A. “Klezmer” - etymology, language mash-up 

B. Klezmer music forms: Freylakh, Bulgar, Doyna, Zhok, Hosidl, Sher, Nign

C. Klezmer music examples

D. Naftule Brandwein, David Krakauer, Alicia Svigals, Lisa Gutkin and The Klezmatics, SoCalled, 

Mostly Kosher, Jerusafunk, (short list)        

1. 2. Hungarian folk modes including the Hungarian major scale 

A. Music references include 

1. 2. 1. 1. 1. Irén Lovász, Bea Palya, Bela Bartok, Zoltan Kodaly - explore their use of trad Hungarian modes as well as straying from them

   3. Ukrainian folk modes - trad and more cont folk modalities, how they differ from Russian folk and trad klezmer - Use of the Ukrainian dorian scale. Look at Ukrainian music forms, polyphonic singing, folk melodies, Vesnianky 

A. Ukrainian composers: 

1. 3. 1. 1. 1. Myroslav Skoryk, Artemiy Vedel and Mariana Sodovska

Course assignments:

• Listening to recorded music, videos and life music and submitting written responses 

• Create an original composition inspired by eastern European folk music. Compositions should pay heed to rhythmic and meter specifications, scale modalities as well as melodic lines. Additionally, the composer’s own voice and originality should be present. 

The History of Protest Music in the United States

This course explores the history of protest music in the United States. It will follow social justice and human rights movements chronologically looking at the music that defined them. Musicians to be studied would include: Charles Seeger/Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie, Bob Dylan, Billie Holiday, Sharon Jones (Including “Tear it Down” and her cover of “This Land is Your Land”), Public Enemy, Queen Latifa, Lady Gaga 

Upon completion of this course students will be able to:

• Respond to the query, “What is protest music?” and “What is its purpose?” 

• Understand the social movements that have been addressed in protest songs - The Women’s Movement, Labor Movement, Civil Rights Movement, LGBTQ Rights and how they have been impacted by song, and how the music has impacted these movements

• Discuss and write about particular protest songs and their content as they relate to their subject matter

• Research, analyze and a protest song cover 

• Compose and perform an original protest song

Class assignments:

1. Find an article on a particular protest song, songwriter or about protest music being embraced or critiqued and submit a written response of 500-700 words. 

2. Pick a protest song either from the list provided, or from one that is professor-approved. Why is it considered a protest song? How is the subject matter explored in the song? Perform this song solo or with classmates and be prepared to begin with a short introduction about the song. (Possible class Q&A)

3. Group project: Work in teams of 2-3 to write an original protest song. Decide on the issue that will be addressed and a game plan for writing lyrics and music. 

4. Final project: performance of original protest songs

Texts/Materials Utilized: 

• Playing for Change: Music and Musicians in the Service of Social Movements by Rob Rosenthal and Richard Flacks

• Talkin’ ‘Bout a Revolution: Music and Social Change in America by Dick Weissman

• “2020 was the year of Protest Music” - NPR (2020) https://www.npr.org/2020/12/07/943264940/2020-was-the-year-of-protest-music

• Numerous song lyrics, audio recordings and videos of artists listed in the class description, among others

Music and Text Exploration 

This course is a text and creative writing exploration for use in more traditional singer songwriter contexts and well as within more experimental modes (poetry/spoken word and sound design)

Upon completion of the course students will be able to:

1. Understand and utilize text to communication concepts and emotions

2. Articulate and use both traditional and non-traditional songwriting forms/structure

3. Understand and explore concepts such as rhyme scheme and prosody to create new works

4. Connect language phrasing to musical phrasing, including use of pentameter, stressed and not stressed syllables and how this relates to music forms

This course includes a slew of creative writing exercises:

1. Free Write: stream of conscious non-rhyming narrative with a single word or sentence prompt.

2. 5 word: 5 words are chosen at random and each word is to be used in a poem. TBD details regarding length, rhyme scheme if any, etc.

3. Group Theme: songwriting teams of 2-3 people are created to come up with lyrics to a song based on a singular theme given to the class

4. Quick writes: Either solo or in pairs, have an in class time limit in which to create the text to a song, either following a particular song structure (verses, chorus, bridge, etc) or spoken word open form based on decided upon theme. 

Innovative Inspiration for Composition 

As composers we start with the proverbial blank canvas that we hope to paint up with music notation. But, where does the impetus, the inspiration, begin to get a music composition going? This is the first question of this course, and the answers will begin to jumpstart how to look outside of your own “regular practices” to find new and innovative ways to inspire your music composition. 

1. Discussion - Class discussion to share ideas around the genesis of a piece of music. What are students’ methods currently at use to springboard a musical idea or even an entire composition. Is there motivation to go to a source outside your own musical ideas for inspiration? What are they? 

2. Look at a variety of composers to examine their own inspirations to write. It could be a poem, an illustration, a person in history, a story - fiction or non-fiction. 

3. What might be out-there or unexpected inspirations? Particular food, the weather, a supermarket, etc.

4. What type of unconventional means could be added to the composition based on the inspiration. (Sound design, and unconventional instrument, spoken word, etc) 

Look at:

1. “Harold in Italy” (1834) by Hector Berlioz inspire by “George Gordon” by Lord Byron 

2. “I Sing the Body Electric” (1980) by Michael Gore and Dean Pitchford inspired by the Walt Whitman poem (same title) 

3. “Isle of the Dead” (1908) by Sergei Rachmananoff inspired by Arnold Böcklin’s painting (same title)

4. “Breaking the Waves” (2016) by Missy Mazolli, an opera based on the Lars Von Trier film (same title) 

5. Multiple works by Chanda Dancy

6. Multiple works by Laurie Anderson 

The final project would be to first submit a proposal for a new composition with 2 or more instruments that includes an outside “non-music” source for inspiration. This might be text, a piece of visual art, a location, etc. Music need not be submitted, just the inspirational source, and what part it will play in the creation of the composition. Once it is approved, final project will be uploaded for final review. 

Optional amendment to final project: Use spoken word text in composition. This can be recorded by you and/or or another person, and can be original text or existing poem/narrative text. 

Coming up... Courses on Degenerate Music of the Third Reich and The History of Jewish Tarot