Music: Composition & Theory

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  • CFA MT 421: Senior Composition 7
    Prereq: CFA MT 322. More advanced original work in contemporary musical composition. Undergraduate. 3 cr.
  • CFA MT 422: Senior Composition 8
    Prereq: CFA MT 421. More advanced original work in contemporary musical composition. Undergraduate. 3 cr.
  • CFA MT 431: Orchestration 1
    Basic techniques in scoring for chorus, orchestra, band, and ensembles. Ranges and transpositions of voices and instruments; idiomatic writing, score reading, and clef transposition. 2 cr.
  • CFA MT 432: Orchestration 2
    Basic techniques in scoring for chorus, orchestra, band, and ensembles. Ranges and transpositions of voices and instruments; idiomatic writing, score reading, and clef transposition. 2 cr.
  • CFA MT 435: Composing with Electronic Sounds and Computers 1
    Offers aesthetic and technical knowledge for creative work in electronic media via computers, recording equipment, and digital audio software. Develops skills in synthesis, recording, and live sound. Assignments include literature, listening, aspects of acoustic and electronic theory, and creative work. Required for Music Composition and Theory Majors. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in the following BU Hub area: Digital/Multimedia Expression.
    • Digital/Multimedia Expression
  • CFA MT 436: Composing with Electronic Sounds and Computers 2
    Prereq: CFA MT 435 or equivalent experience and permission from instructor. Expansion of aesthetic and technical knowledge in the domains of computer music, sound manipulation and sound recording. Introduction to computer-assisted composition environments and real-time interaction between electronics and instruments.
  • CFA MT 499: Independent Study: Undergraduates
    Individual projects arranged between undergraduate students and faculty, often in areas outside of the regular curriculum. Plans must be submitted in advance of registration. Variable credit.
  • CFA MT 520: Composers' Forum
    Required seminar for all composers. Visiting composers present and discuss their music. Students also present their own music and lead topics for discussion.
  • CFA MT 600: Analytical Techniques
    Systematic and empirical investigations into formal and compositional procedures of selected masterworks from the tonal repertoire. Lectures leading to individual analytical projects.
  • CFA MT 601: Analytical Techniques 1
    Systematic and empirical investigations into formal and compositional procedures of selected masterworks from the tonal repertoire. Lectures leading to individual analytical projects. Credits not applicable to MusAD in Composition. 3 cr.
  • CFA MT 602: Analytical Techniques 2
    Analysis of contemporary music. Investigation into compositional methods and procedures used in twentieth-century music. Lectures leading to individual analytical projects. Credits not applicable to MusAD in Composition. 3 cr.
  • CFA MT 621: Graduate Composition
    Prereq: Two years of composition. Original work in advanced musical composition. May be repeated for credit. 3 cr.
  • CFA MT 630: Orchestration
    Orchestration I Contemporary orchestral techniques, focusing on scoring for modern winds, brass, strings and mixed ensembles, including full orchestra. Concepts include chord spacing, melodic projection, layering and delineation of material, and extended instrumental techniques. Materials are approached through readings, listening, writing and analytical work.
  • CFA MT 631: Orchestration 1
    Basic techniques in scoring for chorus, orchestra, band, and ensembles. Ranges and transpositions of voices and instruments; idiomatic writing, score reading, and clef transposition. 3 cr.
  • CFA MT 632: Orchestration 2
    Prereq: CFA MT 631. Contemporary orchestral techniques. Advanced study in scoring for modern orchestras, ensembles, choruses, and bands. 3 cr.
  • CFA MT 635: Composing with Electronic Sounds and Computers 1
    Aesthetic and technical knowledge needed to complete individual, creative work using electronic media alone or with acoustic instruments. Use of computers, recording equipment, digital editing software, and sound analysis software: developing basic skills in synthesis, sampling, digital recording and live performance techniques. Listening assignments provide an introduction to existing literature and relevant aspects of acoustic and electronic theory. May not be taken concurrently with CFA MT436. 2 cr. This course fulfills a single unit in the following BU Hub area: Digital/Multimedia Expression.
    • Digital/Multimedia Expression
  • CFA MT 636: Composing with Electronic Sounds and Computers 2
    Prereq: CFA MT 635 or equivalent experience and permission from instructor. Expansion of aesthetic and technical knowledge in the domains of computer music, sound manipulation and sound recording. Introduction to computer-assisted composition environments and real-time interaction between electronics and instruments. 2 cr.
  • CFA MT 642: Tonal Counterpoint
    The study of the early eighteenth-century styles of J.S. Bach and his contemporaries, with an emphasis on the relationship between theory and practice. Special attention will be paid to composing and analyzing invertible counterpoint, canon, two-part inventions and fugue. This is a graduate course, cross-listed with the graduate course MT 342. 2 cr.
  • CFA MT 645: Contemporary Techniques 1
    Analysis and original application of contemporary compositional techniques and processes. 2 cr.
  • CFA MT 668: Understanding Opera
    Exploring opera from its beginnings c. 1600 to the present, this course focuses on close readings of scores and their text/music relationships through a primarily analytic lens. Discussions, in general chronological order, will center on the problems of analyzing opera, and the analytic application to these multilayered texts of phrase rhythms, sonata forms, la solita forma and extended/interrupted harmonic structures.

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