Courses
The listing of a course description here does not guarantee a course’s being offered in a particular semester. Please refer to the published schedule of classes on the Student Link for confirmation a class is actually being taught and for specific course meeting dates and times.
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CFA MH 105: Music Appreciation
Basic materials of music; analysis of masterpieces of music with reference to cultural background; group attendance of concerts with preliminary discussion period. Course does not presuppose a technical knowledge of music. 2 cr. -
CFA MH 106: Music and Culture
This course introduces music across history, genre, and cultures, examining music's relationship to politics, race, religion, and identity. We'll approach music as a human activity enmeshed in social, political, economic, philosophical, religious, ecological, and individual contexts. Effective Fall 2019, this course fulfills a single unit in the following BU Hub area: Aesthetic Exploration. -
CFA MH 211: History & Literature of Music 1
Historical survey of music tracing the history, performance, cultural significance, and development of musical styles from the Middle Ages to approximately the end of the Baroque. Required for all students in the BM and BA Music routes. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Historical Consciousness, Research and Information Literacy. -
CFA MH 401: Graduate Music History Review
Review of music history and literature from the Middle Ages to present. 2 cr. -
CFA MH 404: Approaches to Sacred Music East and West
This course aims to develop a cultural awareness of diversity and global citizenship through a deeper understanding of diverse religious beliefs and sacred music practices. Students will explore civic engagement through participation in several musical subcultures in the Boston area. Effective Fall 2019, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: The Individual in Community, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Research and Information Literacy. -
CFA MH 408: Bob Dylan: Music and Words
This course examines Bob Dylan's music and lyrics from 1962 to 1975 in the context of his life, artistic influences, and milieu. We will explore the wealth of criticism and reaction his songs have inspired, paying special attention to questions concerning the nature of his art--for example, his dependence on musical tradition or the relationship between song lyrics and poetry--and past and current critical discussion about his legacy. Effective Fall 2019, this course fulfills a single unit in the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Writing-Intensive Course. -
CFA MH 433: The Beatles
"The Beatles": Selected topics exploring the relationship between popular music and culture, from American popular song and musical theatre, to worldbeat, blues, R&B, rock, Hip-hop, and techno. 4 cr. -
CFA MH 436: Musical Culture
This course offers both an introductory look at four selected regions/countries among the diverse musical cultures around the world: West Africa, Bulgaria, Brazil, and Korea. Through these musical practices, we will investigate the ways in which many of these styles are the product of long running intra/intercultural dialogues, struggles, and negotiation processes that continue to produce new hybrid forms. Because of the vast array of people and cultures within each selected area, this course is necessarily selective and introductory. A variety of scholars and performing artists will be invited to give a workshop on music/dance and discuss their lives as musicians. Over the course of the semester, you will gain an understanding of the myriad ways people use music to construct and individual group identities, the diverse ways groups incorporate music into their lives, and how to understand music within a broader historical, political, and economic context. You will also be introduced to basic musical concepts and terminology, and acquire listening skills that will enable you to better encounter and understand music in this course and beyond. Effective Fall 2019, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Research and Information Literacy. -
CFA MH 499: Directed 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 MH 561: World Music Ensemble
Learn to perform traditional world music in the context of an ensemble taught by specialists of African, Balinese, Latin American, and many other types of world music. The specific musical style and type of group will change with each semester. Improve your rhythmic skills; lower performance anxiety. Enrollment is open to all students. No previous musical experience is necessary. 1 cr. May be repeated for credit. -
CFA MH 620: Radical Restagings / Radicals Restaging
"Radical Restagings / Radicals Restaging" Imagine attending a performance of Daphnis et Chlo?--the staged ballet rather than the orchestral suite. To the sounds of Ravel's familiar, ethereal score, the curtain lifts. But instead of a lithe ballerina in a diaphanous costume, a roller-skated dancer appears on stage. What is happening? And why? In this course, we will investigate both the whats and whys of productions like this wacky version of Daphnis: choreographers who entirely reimagine canonical ballets such as Swan Lake, Giselle, Sleeping Beauty, and The Rite of Spring among others. To that end, we work to understand the political as well as the aesthetic implications of these remade productions. Said another way, this course rethinks what ballet (with its musical as well as its danced components) can--and perhaps should--do. -
CFA MH 623: History and Literature of Opera
Rossini, Donizetti, and Bellini; sociopolitical backgrounds of Italian opera in the nineteenth century; Verdi: Aida, Otello, Falstaff; verismo and its exponents. Influence of Wagner on Italian opera; Giacomo Puccini. 3 cr. -
CFA MH 631: Individual Composers
This course will study the work of a single composer in depth, analyzing the work as a product both of individual style and of historical and cultural context. 3 cr. May be repeated for credit. -
CFA MH 720: Pro-Sem in Mus+eth
This course provides an overview of the historical development of the disciplines, explores research techniques, and introduces influential theoretical perspectives, including: empiricism, psychology, criticism, representation, gender, and globalization. 3 cr. -
CFA MH 771: Special Topics in Ethnomusicology
Case study of specifically defined areas in the forefront of ethnomusicological research. Individual research papers and class research projects as assigned by the instructor. 3 cr. May be repeated for credit. -
CFA MH 799: Master's Thesis
Ongoing work toward completion of Master's Thesis. 3 cr. -
CFA MH 820: Prosem Mus+eth
Required for graduate students in Musicology and Ethnomusicology. This course provides an overview of the historical development of the disciplines, explores research techniques, and introduces influential theoretical perspectives, including: empiricism, psychology, criticism, representation, gender, and globalization. Fall Semester. 4 credits. -
CFA MH 824: Listening to Mozart: Chamber and Orchestral Music
Arnold Schoenberg famously venerated Mozart; yet when he arrived in America, he was asked why he never used Mozart's music in his teaching. Because, he said in his still highly Germanic syntax, "In Mozart everything is to hear, but not to see." In this seminar, we'll try to get at what "is to hear" in Mozart: by listening to the music, intently and repeatedly, in recordings and, if possible, live performances; and in equally intensive discussion of what we hear -- free- floating discussion that will follow only the directions of the participants' interest and exclude no possibility a priori. We shall not, however, exclude the possibility of bolstering our perceptions through background reading of recent and earlier literature -- analytic, historic, and hermeneutic. We shall not attempt anything like a survey. Indeed, I imagine we'll devote attention to only a handful of pieces. I do not have an advance list of these (although I do have my favorites) -- I will be grateful if participants will send me suggestions before our first meeting. -
CFA MH 854: Music and Culture
Examines music as both artifact and agent of broader cultural developments. The seminar will focus on specific musical repertories and practices within their relevant historical, social, and political contexts. 4 cr. May be repeated for credit. -
CFA MH 871: Special Topics in Ethnomusicology
Case study of specifically defined areas in the forefront of ethnomusicological research. Individual research papers and class research projects as assigned by the instructor. 4 cr. May be repeated for credit.
