43 courses with the subject MUSC, each shown exactly as we captured it from the college's catalog, with every element we hold. Where the wording looks broken, that is our reading of the catalog, not the college's text.
MUSC 10001 I Got Rhythm: The Science of Musical Time6
An introduction to the empirical study of musical rhythm. In this class you will, among other things, test your "natural pace," invent a new form of rhythmic notation, read some Greek philosophy, recreate some classic experiments in time perception, study the nuances of musical performance, and explore the neurobiological underpinnings of "groove." Class readings will be drawn from philosophy, psychology, music theory, evolutionary biology, anthropology, and mathematics. Musical examples discussed will range from Gregorian chant to Stevie Wonder. Course assignments will involve group projects and various short writing assignments. Offered: Fall 2025 Liberal Arts Requirements: AI/WR1, Argument & Inquiry/WR1 QRE, Quantitative Reasoning only allowed to register for one A&I course at a time. If a student wishes to change the A&I course they are enrolled in they must DROP the enrolled course and then ADD the new course. Please see our Workday guides Drop or 'Late' Drop a Course and Register or Waitlist for a Course Directly from the Course Listing for more information. Tags: CL: 100 level Faculty: Justin London
Student is a member of the First Year First Term class level cohort. Students are
MUSC 101Music Fundamentals
A course designed to prepare students with little or no musical background for Carleton’s music courses, ensembles, and applied music studies. We will cover the fundamentals of music notation: notes and chords in treble and bass clefs, intervals, key signatures, scales, time signatures, and the realization of basic rhythmic patterns. Student activities will include singing, conducting, structured listening, and written assignments in staff notation. Offered: Fall 2025 Credits: 2 Liberal Arts Requirements: ARP, Arts Practice Tags: CL: 100 level Faculty: Jeremy Tatar
A course in aural skills, with an emphasis on melody. Primary activities will include singing in solfège (moveable do, do-based minor) while conducting, short rhythmic and melodic dictation exercises of up to four measures in length, and an introduction to improvisation. By the end of this course, you’ll know: “what makes a successful melody?” Recommended Preparation: MUSC 101 (Music Fundamentals) or an appropriate score on the Music Theory Placement exams on the music department website. Students with questions about placement are strongly encouraged to discuss with the instructor. Offered: Winter 2026 Liberal Arts Requirements: ARP, Arts Practice Tags: CL: 100 level MUSC Foundation and Theory Faculty: Jeremy Tatar
Continuation of Musicianship I, with an emphasis on singing in solfège (moveable do, do-based minor) and dictation skills. Building on content from MUSC 103, we will explore more advanced solfège techniques, including chromaticism and modulation. Dictation exercises will focus on longer excerpts structured around standard four- and eight-measure schemas, as well as harmonic progressions and two- voice excerpts. Recommended Preparation: MUSC 103 (Musicianship I) or an appropriate score on the Music Theory Placement exams on the music department website. Students with questions about placement are strongly encouraged to discuss with the instructor. Offered: Spring 2026 Liberal Arts Requirements: ARP, Arts Practice
This course explores a number of approaches to composing, producing, and hearing music, by way of learning how to use a digital audio workstation, as well as exploring music creation via traditional notation as well as text-based and dataflow programming. Students will combine and hybridize these methods in order to create, revise, and reiterate new work. Open to all interested students; no prior experience with music, programming, or production required. Sophomore Priority section is available Offered: Fall 2025, Spring 2026 Credits: 6 Liberal Arts Requirements: ARP, Arts Practice Tags: CL: 100 level DGAH Skill Building Faculty: Andrea Mazzariello
Arranging music for vocal groups is a unique balance between artistic integrity, expressivity, and practicality. This balance will be explored experientially first by broadening student’s compositional skills and then by applying these skills to their own vocal arrangements for choirs and a cappella groups. Class activities will include studying vocal ranges, scoring for vocal ensembles, and arranging/transcribing music for various combinations of vocal groups. Not offered in 2025-26 Liberal Arts Requirements: ARP, Arts Practice grade of C- or better. Tags: CL: 100 level
We all watch movies, whether it’s in a theater, on television, a computer, or a smartphone. But we rarely listen to movies. This class is an introduction to film music and sound. The course begins with a module on how film music generally works within a narrative. With this foundation, the course then concentrates on the role film music and sound play in shaping our understanding of the film’ stories. Over the course of the term, students will study a variety of films and learn about theories of film music and sound. Class assignments include a terminology quiz, cue chart, and a short comparative essay. The course will culminate in a final project that may take the form of a term paper or creative project.
A survey of film musicals from their beginnings in the 1920s to the present. The course will cover the definition and attributes of film musicals, how a film musical differs from a film with music, and then continue with a historical survey of various eras of musicals, such as early sound film musicals, the film musical at its zenith, the adaptation of Broadway musicals to the screen, and current postmodern musicals and animated musicals by Disney and Pixar. The course will also discuss how musicals convey evolving cultural attitudes of gender, race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation, as well as good vs. evil. Offered: Spring 2026 Liberal Arts Requirements: IDS, Intercultural Domestic Studies LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis Tags: CAMS Extra Departmental CL: 100 level Faculty: Brooke Okazaki
This course will consider the musical elements of Rock. The instructor will create a theme for the term focusing on a subset of rock history (girl groups, concept albums, etc.). Using guided listening and student responses, the class will focus on a single album (or other group of tracks) per week throughout the term. No theme will repeat during any four-year period, allowing students to take the course multiple times. This course may be offered as a stand-alone class or as a coordinated trailer to “History of Rock.” Not offered in 2025-26 Grading: S/CR/NC Liberal Arts Requirements: No Exploration Tags: CL: 100 level
This course examines the causes, methods and logic behind attempts to censor music by governments, commercial corporations and religious authorities through guided listening, reading, and writing assignments. Lectures focus first on the “entartete musik” of Nazi Germany. Contemporary cases of music censorship are then selected from a wide range of countries, including the United States, South Africa, and Russia. The music studied includes that by Pussy Riot, Paul Simon, Pete Seeger, and Richard Wagner. Offered: Spring 2026 Credits: 6 Liberal Arts Requirements: IS, International Studies LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis WR2 Writing Requirement Tags: CL: 100 level Faculty: Hector Valdivia
This course provides an overview of the history of conducting, as well as an introduction to score analysis and the physical skills required for communicating with an ensemble. Extensive classroom time is given to conducting the other members of the class in order to develop a repertory of non-verbal gestures that communicate form, timbre, ensemble.
Ability to read music. Offered: Winter 2026 Liberal Arts Requirements: ARP, Arts Practice Tags: CL: 100 level Faculty: Hector Valdivia
MUSC 130The History of Jazz6
A survey of jazz from its beginnings to the present day focusing on the performer/composers and their music. Offered: Fall 2025 Liberal Arts Requirements: IDS, Intercultural Domestic Studies LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis WR2 Writing Requirement 2 CX, Cultural/Literature Tags: CL: 100 level AFST Literary Artistic Analysis AMST Production Consumption of Culture AMST Race Ethnicity Indigeneity Faculty: Andy Flory
MUSC 140Playlist Remix: The World in Your Headphones6
Tired of what Spotify has been serving up to you? In this class we’ll explore the sounds, stories, and social meaning of music from around the globe. We’ll consider how music connects to identity, politics, ritual, and resistance. We will ask: Can music be used as a weapon? Why does music bring people together? What ethical considerations should we take into account when consuming music from other parts of the word? By the end of the course, you’ll understand how people use music to tell their stories, fight for change, build community, and vibe to the beat of their favorite song. Recommended Preparation: No prior music lessons or experience necessary. You do not need to be able to read music. Offered: Fall 2025 Liberal Arts Requirements: IS, International Studies LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis WR2 Writing Requirement 2 CX, Cultural/Literature Tags: CL: 100 level MUSC Elective Faculty: Sarah Lahasky
Individual instruction focusing on the student’s original compositions. Course work includes the study of compositional techniques, analysis of relevant works, and use of relevant technologies. The course is designed as an introduction to the field for any interested student. Offered: Fall 2025, Winter 2026, Spring 2026 Grading: S/CR/NC Credits: 1 Liberal Arts Requirements: ARP, Arts Practice To request permission, click this link and fill out the request form. Please note: the link will open in a new window. Once you have received permission from the instructor, you will be able to return to this page to register for the course. Tags: CL: 100 level MUSC Composition Faculty: Andrea Mazzariello
Jury Applied Lessons – Required 10 credits Any combination of 1- or 2-credit juried lessons ( MUSL 2XX starting 2025-2026 academic year; previously MUSC with “J”). Normally these 10 credits of applied study will be on the same instrument/voice, but in areas such as non- Western and American folk, students may petition to count lessons on more than one instrument/voice. Composition MUSC 153: Private Lessons in Composition and MUSC 253: Private Lessons in Composition do not satisfy this requirement. Ensemble – Required 3 credits Three credits from any course number MUSE 185 to MUSE 199 (inclusive) starting in 2025-2026 academic year, previously MUSC. Music Performance Seminar – Required
MUSC 205Disability in Popular Music: Representations, Roles, and Receptions6
How do public discourses around bodies and minds shape different styles of popular music? How do musicians and fans challenge ableism? Are certain disabilities more prominent in certain kinds of musics? And: can any of this even be heard? To address these questions, we will explore the life and music of artists such as Stevie Wonder, Joni Mitchell, Victoria Canal, Billie Eilish, and Django Reinhart, and examine how disability functions in subcultures such as punk, hip hop, and K-pop. Readings will be drawn from cultural disability studies, music theory, media studies, and the medical humanities. Not offered in 2025-26 Liberal Arts Requirements: HI, Humanistic Inquiry IDS, Intercultural Domestic Studies WR2 Writing Requirement 2 Tags: CL: 200 level MUSC Ethnomusicolgy or Pop
This course is an introduction to the history and techniques of creating musical audio recordings in an analog environment. It focuses on methods of documenting music and principles of analog audio through hands-on demonstrations and exercises, critical readings and student writing and recording analysis. Topics include audio levels, preamplifiers and microphones, dynamic and spacial effects, console architecture, signal flow and usage of various historical formats of analog media (LP, cassette, DAT and audio tape). Readings and scholarly perspectives on audio and analog recording processes come from fields such as musicology, ethnomusicology and sound studies. Recommended Preparation: MUSC 108 Offered: Spring 2026 Liberal Arts Requirements: ARP, Arts Practice Tags: CL: 200 level MUSC Elective Faculty: Andy Flory
MUSC 213J-Pop: Listening to Music in Modern Japan6
Japanese popular music encompasses a wide variety of genres, from World War II propaganda tunes to anime soundtracks. But how does this music relate to the history of modern Japan? What is “modern” (or post-modern) about this specific music? This class will examine the creation and consumption of Japanese popular music from around 1945 to present, focusing on how popular music worked in the cultural and political milieu. Through the study of Japanese folk, jazz, rock, hip-hop, bubble gum pop, and film music, students will engage with broader historical trajectories in society. We will discuss music as it relates to issues of race, gender, and pop culture in Japan and around the world. Offered: Winter 2026
MUSC 215Western Music and its Social Ecosystems, 1830-Present6
How does music shape society? What does it feel like to participate in musical life—as a creator, performer, listener, leader, fan, or critic? These questions will guide us as we study the history of Western music with an emphasis on social experience. We’ll explore music from the Romantic era to our contemporary moment, with our ears and eyes trained toward the repertoire’s civic and interpersonal meanings. Along the way, you’ll respond to current concert programming and curate playlists that speak to your communities on campus and beyond. Front of mind will be expansive themes of belonging and identity. Offered: Winter 2026 Liberal Arts Requirements: LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis WR2 Writing Requirement 2 Tags: CL: 200 level MUSC Pertinent MUSC Western Art EUST Transnational
This course focuses on both traditional notation-based approaches to composition (which involve collaboration with a performer) as well as the direct shaping of sounds in digital systems. Students will listen extensively, in many genres and traditions of music and sound, applying this critical listening to
MUSC 233Music in the American South Program: Music, Heritage, Capitalism6
This course instructs students in the inner workings of the music, cultural memory, and business. The goals are to expose students to a long history of music business and heritage practices that consider the history of our program sites while also examining the current landscape of music and heritage through economic lenses. Special attention is given to musical styles and critical topics that are relevant to our host cities. These include musical tourism and cultural legacy building, industry work within the current music business, and ethics and responsibility of record companies, music publishers and other profit- seeking businesses oriented toward musical histories. Not offered in 2025-26 Liberal Arts Requirements: HI, Humanistic Inquiry IDS, Intercultural Domestic Studies Tags: CL: 200 level
What is Music, and what exactly is a “musical composition,” especially in the age of recorded music and sampling? Can music tell a story, express an emotion, or convey a proposition? And if music can do any of these things, how does it do it? Last but not least, how are we to judge the value of musical pieces and musical practices? Do we need to judge popular music differently from so-called “art” music? To address these questions we will listen to a wide range of musical examples, from Bach and Mozart to the Beatles and Jimi Hendrix, and we will read a wide range of writings about music, from Plato, Rousseau, and Kant to current philosophers, including Scruton, Kivy, Davies, Carroll, and Gracyk. Offered: Winter 2026 Credits: 6 Liberal Arts Requirements: LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis WR2 Writing Requirement 2 Level Course not including Lesson or Ensemble courses OR one PHIL 100, 200, 300 Level Course not including Independent Studies with a grade of C- or better. Tags: CL: 200 level PHIL Pertinent
This course is designed to increase your awareness of musical styles in Latin America within particular social, economic, and political contexts. We will cover topics related to popular, folkloric, classical, and indigenous musics spanning from Mexico to South America’s Southern Cone. The course will include elements of performance and dance instruction in addition to a critical examination of lived experiences across the region. No previous musical experience is necessary. Offered: Fall 2025 Liberal Arts Requirements: IS, International Studies LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis Tags: CL: 200 level LTAM Electives MUSC Ethnomusicolgy or Pop Faculty: Sarah Lahasky
Individual instruction focusing on developing the student's individual musical aesthetic and voice through exercises and original compositions. Course work includes the study of compositional techniques, analysis of relevant works, and use of relevant technologies. The course is particularly directed toward the major who wishes to pursue the composition option in the Senior Integrative Exercise. Repeatable: This course is repeatable. Variable Credit: During registration in the Credits field, enter 1 for half-hour lessons or 2 for one-hour lessons. Offered: Fall 2025, Winter 2026, Spring 2026 Liberal Arts Requirements: ARP, Arts Practice To request permission, click this link and fill out the request form. Please note: the link will open in a new window. Once you have received permission from the instructor, you will be able to return to this page to register for the course. Tags: CL: 200 level MUSC Composition Faculty: Andrea Mazzariello
This course requires permission from the instructor.
MUSC 308Seminar in Music Analysis6
An introduction to advanced analytical techniques for Western Art Music, focusing particularly on the area of musical form. Drawing on a range of sources and styles, this course will also introduce students to theoretical approaches concerning compositional schemas, semiotics, and theories of rhythm and meter. Musical forms to be considered include binary, ternary, rondo, variations, fantasies, and sonata form. At its core, this course asks: “how does music get *big*?” Offered: Fall 2025 Liberal Arts Requirements: LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis or better. Tags: CL: 300 level MUSC Seminar MUSC Western Art Faculty: Jeremy Tatar
Students will prepare a creative musical performance through the exploration of sources, comparison of recordings, score analysis, and performance science. Group meetings explore the pedagogy of preparation that synthesizes intuition and intellect to create a compelling sound and interpretation. Learn to maximize the results of your efforts to improve technical and musical consistency in performance. Offered: Winter 2026 Credits: 3 Liberal Arts Requirements: ARP, Arts Practice lesson with a grade of C- or better. Tags: CL: 300 level Faculty: Nikki Melville
Required of senior majors. The integrative exercise may be fulfilled by completion of a significant composition, performance, or research-paper project. Students who wish to fulfill Music 400 with such projects must meet department-specified qualifying criteria. Offered: Fall 2025, Winter 2026 Grading: S/NC Credits: 6 Faculty: Brooke Okazaki
