Columbia University in the City of New York · Courses
MUSI UN
25 courses with the subject MUSI UN, 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.
MUSI UN1002FUNDAMENTALS OF MUSIC3.00
Introduction to music, including notation, written and aural skills, and basic conceptual resources of music theory. Exploration of scale, mode, rhythm, meter, texture and form, with reference to a diverse range of musics. Spring 2026: MUSI UN1002 Course Number Section/Call Number Times/Location Instructor Points Enrollment MUSI 1002 001/12516 M W 1:10pm - 2:25pm 814 Dodge Building Michael Rose 3.00 26/30 Fall 2026: MUSI UN1002 Course Number Section/Call Number Times/Location Instructor Points Enrollment MUSI 1002 001/11266 M W 1:10pm - 2:25pm 814 Dodge Building Michael Rose 3.00 27/30
This course is designed for students who have little or no experience with playing, performing, reading, studying, composing, or improvising music. Students will be introduced to both skills and concepts that will enable them to participate in music making and deepen their appreciation of all types of music
In this course we will study major works by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) in the Enlightenment cultures of players, listeners, and the operatic stage. Drawing on the influential persona theory of Edward T. Cone (The Composer’s Voice) that seeks to answer the question “If music is a language, then who is speaking?” we will consider the multiple personas Mozart constructed as vehicles for musical expression. For instrumental music (chamber music, concerto, symphony, fantasia) our topics will include musical sociability, the agency of instrumental protagonists, and the projection of affective states. For comic opera, the natural home of deceptive practices, we will consider the many ironies of persuasion. To what extent is the composer “in the work”? These insights may be applied to other composers in the western classical tradition. Reading knowledge of music is NOT required in this course
With the arrival of the first Jewish immigrants in New York in the mid-1600s until today, Jewish music in the City has oscillated between preserving traditions and introducing innovative ideas. This course explores the variety of ways people have used music to describe, inscribe, symbolize, and editorialize their Jewish experience. Along these lines, it draws upon genres of art music, popular music, and non-Western traditions, as well as practices that synthesize various styles and genres, from hazzanut to hiphop. Diverse musical experiences will serve as a window to address wider questions of identity, memory, and dislocation. We will also experience the Jewish soundscape of New York’s dynamic and eclectic music culture by visiting various venues and meeting key players in today’s music scene, and thus engage in the ongoing dialogues that define Jewishness in New York. A basic familiarity with Judaism and Jewish culture is helpful for this course, but it is by no means required. You do not need to know Jewish history to take this class, nor do you need to be able to read music. Translations from Hebrew and Yiddish will be provided, and musical analysis will be well explained. Fall 2026: MUSI UN2030 Course Number Section/Call Number Times/Location Instructor Points Enrollment MUSI 2030 001/11268 M W 11:40am - 12:55pm 716 Hamilton Hall Tina Fruehauf 3.00 17/25 Hebrew
The course explores the relationship between music and myth in Western culture, with particular emphasis on the role that mythological narratives continued to play in societies where rituals and other forms of symbolic behavior were gradually displaced and abandoned. Greek civilization provided the model for a dramatic representation of human behavior rooted in the union of music and myth. Despite the decline of ritual in modern Western societies, the model of ancient tragedy continued to inspire ritual-like performances of mythological themes in complex literary, musical, and theatrical works. We will develop in-depth analyses of myths that gave rise to particularly influential and rich musical traditions, including those of Odysseus, Orpheus, Oedipus, Ariadne, and Semele, as well as Wagner’s use of Norse mythology. In the process, we will investigate how myths were borrowed, adapted, reinterpreted, transformed, or recreated within the context of changing cultural configurations and against the backdrop of different claims about the meaning of the knowledge preserved and transmitted as myth
An introduction to the potential of digital synthesis by means of the MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface). Teaches proficiency in elementary and advanced MIDI techniques. Challenges some of the assumptions about music built into the MIDI specifications and fosters a creative approach to using MIDI machines. Spring 2026: MUSI UN2205 Course Number Section/Call Number Times/Location Instructor Points Enrollment MUSI 2205 001/12524 T Th 2:40pm - 3:55pm 320h Prentis Hall Corie Rose Soumah 3 18/18 MUSI 2205 002/12526 M W 1:10pm - 2:25pm 320h Prentis Hall Anna Meadors 3 18/18 Fall 2026: MUSI UN2205 Course Number Section/Call Number Times/Location Instructor Points Enrollment MUSI 2205 001/11278 T Th 6:10pm - 7:25pm 320h Prentis Hall Theodore Moore 3 15/15 MUSI 2205 002/11280 M W 1:10pm - 2:25pm 320h Prentis Hall Anna Meadors 3 13/15
MUSI UN2230History and Practice of Electronic Music3.00
This course will provide a critical survey of the development of electronic and computer music and sound from around the globe. From early experiments and precursors in the late 19th century through to modern-day experimental and popular music practices, this course aims to trace the development of technologies used in the production of electronic and computer derived sound and music alongside the economic, cultural, and social forces that contribute to the development of audiences. The course will focus intently on listening through a series of curated playlists in an effort to unpack style and genre distinctions. Readings and listening examples will be paired with small, hands-on assignments, that demonstrate the effect of music making tools on the process and structure of musical genres and styles ranging from the experimental practices of musique concrete, drone, and harsh noise to the mainstream practices of dub, techno, vaporwave, hyperpop, and hip hop and more
Elementary analysis and composition in a variety of modal and tonal idioms. Spring 2026: MUSI UN2318 Course Number Section/Call Number Times/Location Instructor Points Enrollment MUSI 2318 001/12527 T Th 1:10pm - 2:25pm 404 Dodge Building Peter Susser 3 14/20 Fall 2026: MUSI UN2318 Course Number Section/Call Number Times/Location Instructor Points Enrollment MUSI 2318 001/11286 T Th 1:10pm - 2:25pm 404 Dodge Building Cheng Lim 3 18/20
Elementary analysis and composition in a variety of tonal idioms. Spring 2026: MUSI UN2319 Course Number Section/Call Number Times/Location Instructor Points Enrollment MUSI 2319 001/12528 M W 1:10pm - 2:25pm 405 Dodge Building Galen DeGraf 3.00 4/20 Fall 2026: MUSI UN2319 Course Number Section/Call Number Times/Location Instructor Points Enrollment MUSI 2319 001/11296 M W 1:10pm - 2:25pm 405 Dodge Building Cheng Lim 3.00 9/20
The aim of music cognition is to understand the musical mind. This course is an introduction to a variety of key topics in this field, including human development, evolution, neural processing, embodied knowledge, memory and anticipation, cross-cultural perspectives, and emotions. The course explores recent research on these topics, as well as ways in which this research can be applied to music scholarship. Readings are drawn from fields as diverse as music theory, psychology, biology, anthropology, and neuroscience, and include general works in cognitive science, theoretical work focused on specific musical issues, and reports of empirical research
In this course, students at all levels of experience and musical interest will participate in solo and group activities and projects with a focus on musical beat, meter, and rhythm patterns, developing a sense of steady and changing tempo, and an understanding how rhythm contributes to style in music. Rhythmic articulation, nuance, and interpretation will be developed through the impact of agogic, metric, tonal, and dynamic accent. This course combines the standards of conservatory musicianship with standards of critical thinking, here represented as critical listening. The repertoire for Musicianship: Rhythm covers vocal and instrumental music, and is open to classical, pop, jazz, folk, music theatre, computer, and international music styles and genres
In this course, students at all levels of experience and musical interest will participate in solo and group activities and projects with a focus on scales, intervals, melodic contour and phrasing, and how they contribute to style in music. The repertoire for Musicianship: Melody covers vocal and instrumental music, and is open to classical, pop, jazz, folk, music theatre, computer, and international music styles and genres
In this course, students at all levels of experience and musical interest will examine the phenomenon of simultaneous sound with chords and chord progressions, and experience harmony’s impact on musical structure and style. Harmonic articulation, nuance, and interpretation will be developed through the exploration of agogic, metric, tonal, and dynamic accent. The repertoire for Musicianship: Harmony covers vocal and instrumental music, and is open to classical, pop, jazz, folk, music theatre, computer, and international music styles and genres
MUSI UN2415Listening to a Mediterranean Geography of Protest: Popular Songs and the 1970s3.00
The decade of the 1970s was marked by uprisings on both sides of the Mediterranean, by progressive movements that laid the groundwork for socio-political struggles in the face of evolving global structures of power, and by battles against leftist political movements in which the dominant systems adopted extreme means of police and military violence and repression. Using a broad definition of protest songs, the course focuses on the musicopoetic production of dissent as a site of social and political critique. It examines the link between different forms of protest, change, and socio-political meanings of musicopoetic expressions, and explores how songs articulating protest function in specific contexts and in relation to what should be understood as a geography of protest in the Mediterranean. To this end the course asks: what is a protest song? What kind of political and social action can a song take? How does a song reflect societal concerns? And what impact have protest songs had in creating change? Organized through a series of case studies, the course looks at popular songs encoded with socio-political meaning that emerged during the 1970s around the shores of the Mediterranean. We will pay close attention to poetic texts, music features and performance styles to examine songs’ capacity to intervene in socio-political struggles of the past, and what these songs can still offer us in the present
This course offers an introduction to jazz improvisation for instrumentalists. Through recordings, transcriptions, daily performance and selected readings, students will actively engage the history of jazz through their instruments and intellect. The idea of improvisation will be explored in an historical context, both as a musical phenomenon with its attendant theory and mechanics, and as a trope of American history and aesthetics. This class is for instrumentalists who wish to deepen their understanding of the theory, history and practice of jazz improvisation. The history of jazz will be used as a prism through which to view approaches to improvisation, from the cadences of the early Blues through the abstractions of Free Jazz and beyond. The student will be exposed to the theory and vocabularies of various jazz idioms, which they will also learn to place in their social and historical contexts
MUSI UN3011Foundations of House Music Production3.00
This course introduces students to the history, aesthetics, and production techniques of house music from its emergence in Chicago in the early 1980s through later developments in New York, New Jersey, Detroit, and Europe. Combining hands-on studio practice with discussion of selected readings, the course examines how club culture, social conditions, and recording technologies shaped the sound of house music across different eras and regional scenes. Students learn historically grounded approaches to drum programming, sound design, sampling, remixing, effects processing, arrangement, and mixing through a combination of imitation studies and original creative work. By the end of the semester, each student will complete an original house track that demonstrates technical control, stylistic awareness, and historical understanding
MUSI UN3128History of Western Music: Middle Ages to Baroque3
Topics in Western music from Antiquity through Bach and Handel, focusing on the development of musical style and thought, and analysis of selected works. Fall 2026: MUSI UN3128 Course Number Section/Call Number Times/Location Instructor Points Enrollment MUSI 3128 001/11310 T Th 2:40pm - 3:55pm 622 Dodge Building Susan Boynton 3 20/35
MUSI UN3129History of Western Music: Classical Era to 20th Century3.00
Prerequisites: MUSI V2318-2319. May be taken before or concurrently with this course. Topics in western music from the Classical Era to the 20th Century, focusing on the development of musical style and thought, and on analysis of selected works. Pre-req: Music Theory II or permission of instructor
This course provides an immersive experience in music composition, focusing on both practical and theoretical aspects within a given instrumentation. Please refer to the topic for the instrumentation for this semester’s course. This class is open to students with no prior experience in composition. Students of varying music backgrounds are welcome. Permission of the instructor may be required for enrollment. The class will explore a variety of compositional approaches, including traditional, experimental, and interdisciplinary methods. During the semester, students will complete several creative and theoretical exercises ranging from short composition projects to analytical responses to diverse works. Students will also engage in individual and group feedback sessions as well as in-class readings of selected compositional projects by the performers. The final project will be an original work between 5 and 7 minutes, which will be workshopped, rehearsed, performed in a public concert, and recorded by professional musicians towards the end of the term
A one-hour weekly lab is required, to be scheduled at the beginning of the term. Intermediate analysis and composition in a variety of tonal idioms. Spring 2026: MUSI UN3321 Course Number Section/Call Number Times/Location Instructor Points Enrollment MUSI 3321 001/12538 M W 1:10pm - 2:25pm 620 Dodge Building Cheng Lim 3 8/20 Fall 2026: MUSI UN3321 Course Number Section/Call Number Times/Location Instructor Points Enrollment MUSI 3321 001/11337 M W 1:10pm - 2:25pm 622 Dodge Building Joseph Dubiel 3 5/20
Intermediate analysis and composition in a variety of tonal and extended tonal idioms. Spring 2026: MUSI UN3322 Course Number Section/Call Number Times/Location Instructor Points Enrollment MUSI 3322 001/12539 T Th 1:10pm - 2:25pm 622 Dodge Building Cheng Lim 3 7/20
Music Majors and Concentrators. This course seeks to approach the study of music and society by comparatively studying repertories from different parts of the world, how the history of ideas and methods of studying such repertoires shaped them, the practices that constitute them and the ways they are understood and used by different peoples. Central to this course is the interrelationship between the constitution of a repertoire and the history of the construction of knowledge about it. Spring 2026: MUSI UN3400 Course Number Section/Call Number Times/Location Instructor Points Enrollment MUSI 3400 001/12540 T Th 4:10pm - 5:25pm 622 Dodge Building Aaron Fox 3.00 21/30 Fall 2026: MUSI UN3400 Course Number Section/Call Number Times/Location Instructor Points Enrollment MUSI 3400 001/11339 T Th 4:10pm - 5:25pm 622 Dodge Building Aaron Fox 3.00 25/28
MUSI UN3413Ecstasy ＆ Agony: Queer Electronic Dance Music in New York City3.00
Queer dance floors balance utopian longing and material constraint. Sweat, flesh, and rhythm intermingle, allowing queer people to build counter-publics on the dance floor. At the same time, queer clubs have been entangled in the gentrification of traditionally Black and brown neighborhoods. This course explores tensions within queerness surrounding race and class by examining New York based queer electronic dance music scenes from the 1970s to the present. Through practice-based assignments, students will learn electronic music production techniques to develop their own dance music. Through journaling, students will reflect on how their identies have been shaped by dance
Open to honors candidates in music only. A creative/scholarly project conducted under faculty supervision, leading to completion of an honors essay, composition, or the equivalent. Spring 2026: MUSI UN3995 Course Number Section/Call Number Times/Location Instructor Points Enrollment MUSI 3995 002/11764 Alessandra Ciucci 3 0/5 MUSI 3995 003/11946 Zosha Di Castri 3 1/5 MUSI 3995 004/11947 Julia Doe 3 0/5 MUSI 3995 007/11948 Aaron Fox 3 2/5 MUSI 3995 009/11949 Bradford Garton 3 0/5 MUSI 3995 010/11950 Giuseppe Gerbino 3 0/5 MUSI 3995 011/11951 Georg Friedrich Haas 3 0/5 MUSI 3995 012/11952 Marcos Balter 3 0/5 MUSI 3995 013/11953 Mariusz Kozak 3 0/5 MUSI 3995 015/11954 Jeffrey Milarsky 3 0/5 MUSI 3995 016/11955 Seth Cluett 3 0/5 MUSI 3995 017/11956 Elaine Sisman 3 0/5 MUSI 3995 018/11957 Benjamin Steege 3 1/5 MUSI 3995 020/11958 Peter Susser 3 0/5 MUSI 3995 022/11959 Knar Abrahamyan 3 0/5 MUSI 3995 023/11960 Ruth Opara 3 0/5 Fall 2026: MUSI UN3995 Course Number Section/Call Number Times/Location Instructor Points Enrollment MUSI 3995 001/11725 Susan Boynton 3 1/5 MUSI 3995 002/11726 Alessandra Ciucci 3 0/5 MUSI 3995 003/11727 Zosha Di Castri 3 0/5 MUSI 3995 005/11728 Joseph Dubiel 3 0/5 MUSI 3995 006/11729 Kevin Fellezs 3 0/5 MUSI 3995 007/11730 Aaron Fox 3 1/5 MUSI 3995 010/11731 Giuseppe Gerbino 3 0/5 MUSI 3995 011/11732 Georg Friedrich Haas 3 0/5 MUSI 3995 013/11733 Mariusz Kozak 3 0/5 MUSI 3995 016/11734 Seth Cluett 3 0/5 MUSI 3995 019/11735 Magdalena Baczewska 3 0/5 MUSI 3995 020/11736 Peter Susser 3 1/5 MUSI 3995 021/11739 Christopher Washburne 3 0/5 MUSI 3995 023/11737 Ruth Opara 3 0/5
A creative/scholarly project conducted under faculty supervision. Spring 2026: MUSI UN3998 Course Number Section/Call Number Times/Location Instructor Points Enrollment MUSI 3998 002/11968 Alessandra Ciucci 3 0/5 MUSI 3998 003/11969 Zosha Di Castri 3 0/5 MUSI 3998 004/11970 Julia Doe 3 0/5 MUSI 3998 006/11971 Aaron Fox 3 0/5 MUSI 3998 009/11972 Bradford Garton 3 0/5 MUSI 3998 010/11973 Giuseppe Gerbino 3 0/5 MUSI 3998 011/11974 Georg Friedrich Haas 3 0/5 MUSI 3998 012/11975 Marcos Balter 3 0/5 MUSI 3998 013/11976 Mariusz Kozak 3 0/5 MUSI 3998 015/11977 Jeffrey Milarsky 3 0/5 MUSI 3998 016/11978 Seth Cluett 3 1/5 MUSI 3998 017/11979 Elaine Sisman 3 0/5 MUSI 3998 018/11980 Benjamin Steege 3 0/5 MUSI 3998 019/20193 Magdalena Baczewska 3 5/5 MUSI 3998 020/11981 Peter Susser 3 0/5 MUSI 3998 022/11982 Anna Meadors 3 1/5 MUSI 3998 023/11983 Ole Mathisen 3 0/5 MUSI 3998 024/11984 Knar Abrahamyan 3 0/5 MUSI 3998 025/11985 Ruth Opara 3 0/5 Fall 2026: MUSI UN3998 Course Number Section/Call Number Times/Location Instructor Points Enrollment MUSI 3998 001/11738 Susan Boynton 3 0/5 MUSI 3998 002/11740 Alessandra Ciucci 3 0/5 MUSI 3998 003/11741 Zosha Di Castri 3 0/5 MUSI 3998 005/11742 Joseph Dubiel 3 0/5 MUSI 3998 006/11743 Aaron Fox 3 2/5 MUSI 3998 007/11744 Kevin Fellezs 3 0/5 MUSI 3998 010/11746 Giuseppe Gerbino 3 0/5 MUSI 3998 011/11747 Georg Friedrich Haas 3 0/5 MUSI 3998 016/11748 Seth Cluett 3 0/5 MUSI 3998 019/11749 Magdalena Baczewska 3 0/5 MUSI 3998 020/11750 Peter Susser 3 0/5 MUSI 3998 021/11751 Christopher Washburne 3 0/5 MUSI 3998 023/11752 Ruth Opara 3 0/5
