Classes

Music 1: Introduction to Western Art Music, From Bach to Beyoncé

Semester: 

Spring

Offered: 

2021
This course introduces you to a variety of art music repertories, and a range of ways to think, talk, and write about them. While we explore some of the great “classics” of the Western musical canon, including works by male composers such as Bach, Beethoven, and Stravinsky, we also discover the critical roles played by renowned female performers, patrons, and writers, as well as the significant impacts made by artists of color, such as Pulitzer-prize winner Kendrick Lamar, and Beyoncé. Ending in the present day, we investigate what music means in a global context, and a world increasingly... Read more about Music 1: Introduction to Western Art Music, From Bach to Beyoncé

Music 24: Social Engagement Through Music

Semester: 

Spring

Offered: 

2019
Musicians and music scholars regularly practice social engagement by exploring the myriad ways music confronts and resolves challenges of everyday life. With our course, the central goal will be to provide a hands-on forum for understanding social engagement through immersion in a semester-long, team-based project working with musicians in Boston’s new-immigrant communities. At the same time, the class will explore an intellectual framework for those activities, probing the historical circumstances, economic and political realities, and community needs that have engaged musicians and scholars... Read more about Music 24: Social Engagement Through Music

Music 292R: Music and Philanthropy

Semester: 

Fall

Offered: 

2018
Philanthropy, or the desire to promote human welfare through donations of money, time, labor, and influence, is a central means of assisting art that might not otherwise exist if left to the capitalist marketplace. The roots of philanthropy come from some measure of charity, generosity, and social conscience, just as its existence is rooted in ever increasing global wealth and power inequality. With the exercise of any source of economic, social, or cultural capital, an examination of power is necessary. In this course, we will understand what role philanthropy has played in supporting music... Read more about Music 292R: Music and Philanthropy