MUS

Subject

MUS

Type

course

Edition

2026-2027

Catalog

2026-2027 Catalog

Source

catalog.davidson.edu

Instructor Berlin Chamber Singers is a mixed-voice ensemble for advanced singers or sight-readers interested in pursuing challenging repertoire in a chamber setting. It is this setting that will facilitate a student’s development into an advanced choral singer. Members are expected to be members of Chorale, with limited exceptions. Auditions are a part of the regular Davidson College Choirs auditions held during the first week of classes, followed by registration on the music webpage. Prerequisites & Notes Permission of director required.

Subject

MUS

Type

course

Edition

2026-2027

Catalog

2026-2027 Catalog

Source

catalog.davidson.edu

Instructor Brown The Jazz Ensemble is an auditioned “big band” of approximately 18 musicians. The group rehearses and performs throughout the year, with several events highlighting the schedule, including performances at the Town of Davidson’s Concerts on the Green, multiple concerts, and annual tours. Auditions take place the first week of Fall semester, followed by registration on the music webpage. Prerequisites & Notes Permission of director required.

Subject

MUS

Type

course

Edition

2026-2027

Catalog

2026-2027 Catalog

Source

catalog.davidson.edu

Instructor Keith Auditions take place the first week of Fall semester. After auditioning, students register on the music webpage. Spring registration takes place during course preferences registration or regular drop/add. An auditioned ensemble of approximately 50 student musicians, the Symphony Orchestra performs a wide range of repertoire from the Baroque to the present. Less than five percent of the group is music majors, so the orchestra is an excellent place for students of all backgrounds to rehearse and perform in a collaborative atmosphere while honing their technical skills and broadening their musical knowledge and experience. The orchestra performs two to three concerts per semester, and annually features student concerto competition winners and guest soloists. The group also tours every year, with the Jazz Ensemble, during the week prior to the beginning of the spring semester. Prerequisites & Notes Permission of director required.

Subject

MUS

Type

course

Edition

2026-2027

Catalog

2026-2027 Catalog

Source

catalog.davidson.edu

Instructor Berlin Davidson College Chorale is the premier choral ensemble at Davidson. A highly select, auditioned choir comprised of students from various academic disciplines, they perform the standard choral repertoire as well as newly composed and commissioned choral literature. The Chorale tours annually and represents Davidson College on the campus, regionally, and nationally. Auditions take place the first week of Fall semester, followed by registration on the music webpage. Prerequisites & Notes Permission of director required.

Subject

MUS

Type

course

Edition

2026-2027

Catalog

2026-2027 Catalog

Source

catalog.davidson.edu

Instructor Culpepper Auditions take place the first week of Fall or Spring semester. A course designed to acquaint students with the performance practice of a variety of opera genres through the experiences of study, rehearsal, and performance. The culmination of the course is a performance of opera scenes as well as fully staged productions accompanied by piano. Ability to sing in a foreign language may be necessary. Prerequisites & Notes Permission of director required.

Subject

MUS

Type

course

Edition

2026-2027

Catalog

2026-2027 Catalog

Source

catalog.davidson.edu

Instructor Keith This ensemble serves as the pit for the biennial musical (produced collaboratively by the Theatre and Music Departments) and for other fully staged music productions sponsored by the Music Department. The ensemble instrumentation will vary from production to production depending on the requirements of the score. The ensemble will rehearse once weekly up to production week and will participate fully in the multiple rehearsals during production week and through the run of the show. Satisfies Music major and minor requirement, upon completion of 2 semesters. Prerequisites & Notes Requires 2 semesters of participation for to earn credit.

Subject

MUS

Type

course

Edition

2026-2027

Catalog

2026-2027 Catalog

Source

catalog.davidson.edu

Instructor Brown Auditions take place the first week of Fall semester. After auditioning, students register on the music webpage. Spring registration takes place during course preferences registration or regular drop/add. A small group ensemble for saxophonists interested in performing chamber music ranging from Bach transcriptions to modern day saxophone compositions. The ensemble rehearses weekly and performs throughout the year. Prerequisites & Notes Permission of instructor required.

Subject

MUS

Type

course

Edition

2026-2027

Catalog

2026-2027 Catalog

Source

catalog.davidson.edu

Instructor Brown Auditions take place the first week of Fall semester. After auditioning, students register on the music webpage. Spring registration takes place during course preferences registration or regular drop/add. This intimate ensemble is for instrumentalists interested in performing small group jazz literature while placing a strong emphasis on jazz improvisation. The ensemble rehearses weekly and performs throughout the year including on-campus functions and recitals. Prerequisites & Notes Permission of instructor required.

Subject

MUS

Type

course

Edition

2026-2027

Catalog

2026-2027 Catalog

Source

catalog.davidson.edu

Instructor Ronnevik (various instrumentation), Fierova (horn), Hartman (brass) Selection of applied students takes place the first three weeks of each semester Prerequisites & Notes Permission of instructor required.

Subject

MUS

Type

course

Edition

2026-2027

Catalog

2026-2027 Catalog

Source

catalog.davidson.edu

Instructor Brown Auditions take place the first week of Fall semester. After auditioning, students register on the music webpage. Spring registration takes place during course preferences registration or regular drop/add. Learning to develop a jazz style through listening, transcribing, and soloing in a group context. Prerequisites & Notes Permission of instructor required.

Subject

MUS

Type

course

Edition

2026-2027

Catalog

2026-2027 Catalog

Source

catalog.davidson.edu

Instructor Singleton *Registration takes place during course preferences registration or regular drop/add.* Appalachian Ensemble involves learning the repertoire and techniques of the traditional music of the Appalachian region. Old Time and bluegrass styles will be studied, with emphasis on fiddle, banjo, guitar, mandolin, and bass. Prerequisites & Notes Permission of instructor required.

Subject

MUS

Type

course

Edition

2026-2027

Catalog

2026-2027 Catalog

Source

catalog.davidson.edu

Instructor Sergel African Drumming involves learning techniques for the Djembe and Dundun drums of Guinea, Mali, Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast, and the Senegambia region of West Africa. Weekly sessions incorporate an oral tradition teaching style that includes drumming and cultural background information. No previous drumming experience is required. For more information, please contact director Al Sergel, at alsergel@davidson.edu .

Subject

MUS

Type

course

Edition

2026-2027

Catalog

2026-2027 Catalog

Source

catalog.davidson.edu

Instructor Culpepper, Berlin Registration takes place on the music web page during course preferences registration or regular drop/add. Students in this introductory class will receive a semester of biweekly instruction, each meeting for a 50 minute class. One class will cover sight singing, ear training, and the aural skills necessary to translate notation into sound. The second class will be an introduction to the basic principles of singing such as posture, breathing, tone production, expressiveness, and vocal health. Through song, both solo and with classmates, students will combine ear training and vocal skills to establish a foundation for healthy singing. This course offers Pass/Fail Prerequisites & Notes Fee: $270

Subject

MUS

Type

course

Edition

2026-2027

Catalog

2026-2027 Catalog

Source

catalog.davidson.edu

Instructor Staff Registration takes place on the music web page during course preferences registration or regular drop/add. Applied instruction designed for students with or without previous vocal or instrumental training. Prerequisites & Notes Pass/Fail. Additional Fee Info .

Subject

MUS

Credits (min)

0.5

Credits (max)

0.5

Type

course

Edition

2026-2027

Catalog

2026-2027 Catalog

Source

catalog.davidson.edu

Instructor Staff Registration takes place on the music web page during course preferences registration or regular drop/add. Applied instruction designed for students with or without previous vocal or instrumental training. Prerequisites & Notes Pass/Fail. Additional Fee Info .

Subject

MUS

Credits (min)

1

Credits (max)

1

Type

course

Edition

2026-2027

Catalog

2026-2027 Catalog

Source

catalog.davidson.edu

Instructor Botelho Introduction to music theory and analysis, with emphasis on intervals, modes, scales, rhythm, meter, and form. Satisfies the Visual and Performing Arts requirement. Prerequisites & Notes No music training required. (Fall, Spring)

Subject

MUS

Type

course

Edition

2026-2027

Catalog

2026-2027 Catalog

Source

catalog.davidson.edu

Instructor Stasack Introduction to music theory and analysis through contemporary mainstream musical genres such as pop, rock, R & B, country, etc. Emphasis on intervals, scales, triads, basic tonal harmonic progressions, rhythm, meter, and form. Required course in music theory for the Music major or minor. Satisfies the Visual & Performing Arts requirement.

Subject

MUS

Type

course

Edition

2026-2027

Catalog

2026-2027 Catalog

Source

catalog.davidson.edu

Instructor VanderBeek This course offers an overview on the history, theory, and practice of Hindustani Raga, also known as north Indian classical music, and Javanese Gamelan from Indonesia. Students will encounter hands-on learning in these styles of music on both Indian instruments and instruments. Instruction will be comprised of a mixture of lecture, listening to repertoire, learning musical instruments, and playing and improvising. Satisfies Music major and minor requirement. Satisfies South Asian Studies minor requirement. Satisfies Visual and Performing Arts requirement. Satisfies Cultural Diversity requirement.

Subject

MUS

Type

course

Edition

2026-2027

Catalog

2026-2027 Catalog

Source

catalog.davidson.edu

Instructor Boye Scientific principles applied to musical sound production, propagation, storage, detection, and perception . Students will work individually and in teams to analyze and appreciate diverse world music styles, create and play instruments, and examine current practices in live performance. Class meets for 1 hour 3 times/week in a combined discussion/presentation setting and 3 hours of laboratory activity per week. Satisfies a requirement in the Experimental Physics minor. Satisfies a requirement in the Music major and minor. Satisfies the Natural Science requirement. Does not count for credit in the Physics major. Prerequisites & Notes Who Should Take This Class? This class welcomes all Davidson students, especially first- and second-year students that have not yet chosen a major, non-science major students, and anyone who loves music. There are no math or science prerequisites, and no prior experience in physics is expected. Of course, we will need to use math - at the level of high school algebra and trigonometry - in this course. The creative and open-ended nature of the labs and final project will give all students the opportunity to work at an appropriate and rewarding level consistent with relevant STEM preparation. Students of all cultures, backgrounds, and abilities are welcome, valued, and appreciated in this class.

Subject

MUS

Type

course

Edition

2026-2027

Catalog

2026-2027 Catalog

Source

catalog.davidson.edu

Instructor Keith Designed for students who have had but slight contact with the art. Works of important masters from all periods. Develops wider understanding of music through intelligent listening. Satisfies the Visual and Performing Arts requirement. Prerequisites & Notes No music training required.

Subject

MUS

Type

course

Edition

2026-2027

Catalog

2026-2027 Catalog

Source

catalog.davidson.edu

Instructor Lerner The cultivated and vernacular traditions of U.S. music from the Colonial period to the present. Focus on close listening and cultural trends. Topics include: parlor song, minstrelsy, Tin Pan Alley, ragtime, blues, jazz, modernism, country, rock, postmodernism. Satisfies the Visual and Performing Arts requirement. Prerequisites & Notes No music training required. (Spring)

Subject

MUS

Type

course

Edition

2026-2027

Catalog

2026-2027 Catalog

Source

catalog.davidson.edu

Instructor VanderBeek Exploration of selected musical systems of the world, approached through study of their basic stylistic elements. Discussion centers on the music and instruments indigenous to each system and includes extra-musical cultural associations such as religion and theatre. Listening drawn from field and studio recordings of indigenous performers. Satisfies the Visual and Performing Arts requirement. Satisfies the cultural diversity requirement. Prerequisites & Notes No music training required. (Fall, Spring)

Subject

MUS

Type

course

Edition

2026-2027

Catalog

2026-2027 Catalog

Source

catalog.davidson.edu

Instructor Pyle Charts the development of the distinctly American styles produced by the combination of African and European characteristics. The music is approached from a historical standpoint, beginning with the musical forms, styles and instruments in African and ending with current trends in the music of both cultures, and also from the standpoint of appreciation through educated listening. Music to be studied include slave songs, gospel, blues, jazz, and rap. Satisfies Africana Studies major requirement Satisfies Visual and Performing Arts requirement

Subject

MUS

Type

course

Edition

2026-2027

Catalog

2026-2027 Catalog

Source

catalog.davidson.edu

Instructor Keith Auditions take place the first week of Fall semester. After auditioning, students register on the music webpage. Applied instruction designed for students with previous vocal or instrumental training. Ability to read music is required. Must successfully complete jury at end of each semester of study. See instructor for competency levels and literature requirements. Prerequisites & Notes Permission of instructor required. One credit for two consecutive semesters. Can be repeated for credit. Additional Fee Info

Subject

MUS

Type

course

Repeatable

Can be repeated for credit.

Edition

2026-2027

Catalog

2026-2027 Catalog

Source

catalog.davidson.edu

Instructor Staff Independent study in music under the direction of a faculty member who reviews and approves the topic, and determines the means of evaluation. Prerequisites & Notes Open to qualified students with permission of the chair.

Subject

MUS

Type

course

Edition

2026-2027

Catalog

2026-2027 Catalog

Source

catalog.davidson.edu

Instructor Botelho Introduction to the grammar of tonal music through part-writing and analysis. Includes scales, intervals, triads, seventh chords, and their inversions. Ear training in intervals, chords, melody, and rhythm. Satisfies the Visual and Performing Arts requirement. Prerequisites & Notes No music training required.

Subject

MUS

Type

course

Edition

2026-2027

Catalog

2026-2027 Catalog

Source

catalog.davidson.edu

Instructor Vanderbeek This course offers a hands-on and project-based introduction to methods in music studies, including approaches to ethnography, fieldwork, archival research, documentation, and portfolio building. Students will attend, observe, and write about rehearsals and performances in and around Davidson as part of a broader process of developing a field site through research, interviews, and audio/visual recordings. Course readings will engage scholarship ranging from ethnographic accounts, to theorizations of field sites, to practical guides on conducting fieldwork research. Student projects will include interviews, photo essays, concert reviews, autoethnographies, and a semester-long fieldwork project. Prerequisites & Notes Repeatable for credit. Certain topics count for the Gender and Sexuality Studies major.

Subject

MUS

Type

course

Edition

2026-2027

Catalog

2026-2027 Catalog

Source

catalog.davidson.edu

Courses concentrating upon specific varying topics in music history. Fall 2026

Subject

MUS

Type

course

Edition

2026-2027

Catalog

2026-2027 Catalog

Source

catalog.davidson.edu

Music & TikTok Instructor Staff This course will explore the social contexts of music and musicians on the social media app TikTok. Students will use TikToks and other short-form videos to study concepts like taste, fandom, person, and social relationship. Further, students will consider the impacts of Virality on both the popular music industry and US popular culture “broadly defined.” Satisfies the Visual and Performing Arts requirement.

Subject

MUS

Type

course

Edition

2026-2027

Catalog

2026-2027 Catalog

Source

catalog.davidson.edu

Instructor B. Lawing History of the symphony and its literature from pre-classical examples to the present. Prerequisites & Notes No music training required. (Normally offered in alternate years)

Subject

MUS

Type

course

Edition

2026-2027

Catalog

2026-2027 Catalog

Source

catalog.davidson.edu

Instructor Pyle A study of prominent operas with a focus on production, reception, structures, historical context and significance. Prerequisites & Notes No music training required. (Normally offered in alternate years.)

Subject

MUS

Type

course

Edition

2026-2027

Catalog

2026-2027 Catalog

Source

catalog.davidson.edu

Instructor Keith The social and institutional history of the orchestra in Western civilization from the Baroque to the present. Satisfies the Visual and Performing Arts requirement. Prerequisites & Notes No music training required. (Normally offered in alternate years)

Subject

MUS

Type

course

Edition

2026-2027

Catalog

2026-2027 Catalog

Source

catalog.davidson.edu

Instructor Lerner A cultural analysis and history of America from the 1950s, informed by an interdisciplinary blend of texts and methodologies borrowed from musicology, literary analysis, film studies, art history, and cultural studies. While the primary emphasis will be on music (e.g., bebop, cool, rock & roll, modernism), close attention will also be given to visual art (e.g., Abstract Expressionism), literature (e.g., the Beats), and film. Prerequisites & Notes Music 122 or permission of instructor. (Normally offered in alternate years)

Subject

MUS

Type

course

Edition

2026-2027

Catalog

2026-2027 Catalog

Source

catalog.davidson.edu

Instructor Henke and Lerner An interdisciplinary exploration of the music, myth, and cultural legacy of Ludwig van Beethoven. Commemorating the bicentennial of his death, this course traces Beethoven’s genius from its 18th-century European roots to its global impact today. Students will examine his revolutionary compositions alongside the literary and political movements that shaped them, discovering how a deaf composer from Bonn, Germany, became a global icon. This course offers specialized credit pathways for advanced students. Music Majors/Minors: Students who read music can earn major or minor credit for MUS 330 by attending a weekly supplemental meeting. German Studies Majors/Minors: Students with intermediate German proficiency can earn major or minor credit by participating in an additional weekly meeting. All enrolled students are eligible for a fully funded spring break study trip to Bonn and Vienna (pending final funding approval).

Subject

MUS

Type

course

Edition

2026-2027

Catalog

2026-2027 Catalog

Source

catalog.davidson.edu

Instructor B. Lawing A general introduction to jazz. The class will explore the roots of jazz, will critically examine jazz improvisation, and will present a history of jazz from its beginnings to the present. Satisfies a requirement in the Africana Studies major (Geographic Region: North America). Satisfies the Visual and Performing Arts requirement. Prerequisites & Notes No music training required. (Normally offered in fall of alternate years.)

Subject

MUS

Type

course

Edition

2026-2027

Catalog

2026-2027 Catalog

Source

catalog.davidson.edu

Instructor B. Lawing An introduction to the history and literature of the Broadway musical. Greatest emphasis is placed on the period beginning with Oklahoma! and continuing to the present. Satisfies the Visual and Performing Arts requirement. Satisfies Dance minor requirement. Prerequisites & Notes No music training required. (Normally offered in alternate years)

Subject

MUS

Type

course

Edition

2026-2027

Catalog

2026-2027 Catalog

Source

catalog.davidson.edu

Instructor Lawing An exploration of the vocal and instrumental traditions of the Southern Appalachians, with emphasis upon traditions of Madison County, Wilkes County, and Surry County, NC. Focus will be upon unaccompanied ballads and tunes for fiddle and banjo. Activities will include performance, field recording, historical research and festival attendance. Satisfies the Visual and Performing Arts requirement. Prerequisites & Notes No music training required. (Spring)

Subject

MUS

Type

course

Edition

2026-2027

Catalog

2026-2027 Catalog

Source

catalog.davidson.edu

Instructor Pyle What does your voice do? Why is it that you can recognize someone almost instantly from the sound of their voice? Is there such a thing as “black voice”? If so, what is it? How do different cultures and people use voice to navigate social, political, and cultural issues, particular issues of community and identity? These questions will propel our uncanny foray into investigating voice as both a medium and metaphor, used for belonging to and critiquing systems of oppression. This course will be a broad overview of the ways in which voice intersects with race, gender, and sexuality. We will address the role of the voice in a broad range of genres and musical styles including queer lip-synching, “sonic blackness,” gospel worship, beat boxing, auto-tune, throat singing, and eunuchs. As we navigate these domains, we will address topics of authenticity, appropriation, voices of technology, and identity. Satisfies the Visual and Performing Arts requirement. Prerequisites & Notes No music training required.

Subject

MUS

Type

course

Edition

2026-2027

Catalog

2026-2027 Catalog

Source

catalog.davidson.edu

Instructor Pyle What can music offer a group of people who have been symbolically annihilated in practically every facet of life? In the Cold War era, dominated and framed by the Space Race, framed by utopic images of a post-human world (think of the Jetsons), the absence of black representation was profound. It underlined a white utopia that eradicated the physical bodies of black humans. Scientific and creative outlets were imagining futures seemingly unthinkable in their advancement-living side-by-side with robots, partaking in time travel, flying cars-yet the racial imagination was still strained. We will discuss the conditions of possibility or the conditions of necessity for the emergence of Afrofuturism, decode some of its far out and psychedelic word play and symbology, and we will discuss the influences Afrofuturism has had on the present. Our discussion of Afrofuturism will largely focus on the music, the “sonic fiction[s]” created by artists such as: Sun Ra and his Arkestra, George Clinton’s band Parliament-Funkadelic, LaBelle, Janelle Monáe and her android alter-ego Cindi Mayweather, and Drexciya and their underwater nation, among others. Satisfies the Visual and Performing Arts requirement

Subject

MUS

Type

course

Edition

2026-2027

Catalog

2026-2027 Catalog

Source

catalog.davidson.edu

Instructor Lerner The aesthetic known as “minimalism” has been characterized in a number of ways, among them “repetitive,” “hypnotic,” “passionless,” “trance,” “stuck-record,” and “process.” A leading scholar of the style known as “minimalism,” musicologist Robert Fink has listed negative reactions to this music that include being “a kind of social pathology, as an aural sign that American audiences are primitive and uneducated…that kids nowadays just want to get stoned…that traditional Western cultural values have eroded in the liberal wake of the 1960s…that minimalist repetition is dangerously seductive propaganda, akin to Hitler’s speeches and advertising…and even that the commodity-fetishism of modern capitalism has fatally trapped the autonomous self in minimalist narcissism” ( Repeating Ourselves: American Minimal Music as Cultural Practice , 2005). Emerging in the late 1960s and early 1970s, this style both borrowed from as well as influenced various popular musics (like disco and punk, among others) with its emphasis on steady pulses and repeating harmonic structures. In this course we will examine the various historical and cultural forces that led to minimalism’s appearance in the work of composers like Terry Riley, Steve Reich, and Philip Glass, but we will also give attention to figures who have previously been left out of minimalism’s historiography like Julius Eastman and Laurie Anderson. We will also get to later generations of minimalist and postminimalist composers like John Adams-whose 2005 opera Doctor Atomic told the story of Oppenheimer and the atomic bomb in a live theatrical setting as opposed to Christopher Nolan’s cinematic imagining of the same things-as well as to ways minimal style has existed in possibly unexpected places such as pinball, video games, and electronic dance music. We will read and listen and discuss and write about this music and its cultural significance. The course has no prerequisite but students registering for MUS 337 will be expected to have some experience with musical notation and theory.

Subject

MUS

Type

course

Edition

2026-2027

Catalog

2026-2027 Catalog

Source

catalog.davidson.edu

Instructor Botelho (Cross-listed with MUS 341.) An introduction to the music of Hispanic and Luso American countries and cultures from colonial times to the present. Topics include: sacred and secular colonial music, son , marimba music, vieja guardia music, tonada , milonga , tango, Latin jazz, samba , and bossa nova . Satisfies a requirement in the Africana Studies major (Geographic Region: Latin America/Caribbean). Satisfies a requirement in the Latin American Studies major and interdiscipilnary minor. Satisfies the Visual and Performing Arts requirement. Satisfies the cultural diversity requirement. Prerequisites & Notes No music training required. Music majors must register for MUS 341. (normally offered in alternate years.)

Subject

MUS

Type

course

Edition

2026-2027

Catalog

2026-2027 Catalog

Source

catalog.davidson.edu

Instructor Vanderbeek Cross-cultural study of musical styles, roles, and performance practices in religious belief systems and sacred rituals around the world. Thematic issues include: explicit and implicit relationships between musical substance and ideology; music as a tool for expressing, preserving, and empowering sacred texts; music as a means of structuring ritual; and the power of music to transform experience. Satisfies a South Asian Studies minor requirement. Satisfies the Visual and Performing Arts requirement. Satisfies the cultural diversity requirement. Prerequisites & Notes No music training required. Normally offered in alternate years.

Subject

MUS

Type

course

Edition

2026-2027

Catalog

2026-2027 Catalog

Source

catalog.davidson.edu

Instructor Botelho (Cross-listed with MUS 346.) A survey of cultivated and vernacular traditions of Brazilian music from colonial times to the present. Topics include: sacred and secular colonial music, the barroco mineiro , nationalism, the avant-garde, samba, bossa nova, MPB, candomblé , jazz, tropical rock, and rap. Satisfies a requirement in the Africana Studies major (Geographic Region: Latin America/Caribbean). Satisfies a requirement in the Latin American Studies major and minor. Satisfies the Visual and Performing Arts requirement. Satisfies the cultural diversity requirement. Prerequisites & Notes No music training required. Music majors must register for MUS 346 (Fall; normally offered in alternate years.)

Subject

MUS

Type

course

Edition

2026-2027

Catalog

2026-2027 Catalog

Source

catalog.davidson.edu

Instructor Keith Registration takes place on the music web page during course preferences registration or regular drop/add for Fall semester. Applied instruction designed for students with previous vocal or instrumental training. Must successfully complete jury at the end of each semester of study. See instructor for competency levels and literature requirements. Prerequisites & Notes Music 155 or permission of instructor. One credit for two consecutive semesters. Can be repeated for credit. Additional Fee Info

Subject

MUS

Type

course

Repeatable

Can be repeated for credit.

Edition

2026-2027

Catalog

2026-2027 Catalog

Source

catalog.davidson.edu

Instructor Stasack A course exploring the sounds and architectures of contemporary musical styles, while cultivating individual projects in composition, with opportunities for performance of works in recital. Satisfies the Visual and Performing Arts requirement. Prerequisites & Notes Music 101 or permission of instructor. (Normally offered in alternate years)

Subject

MUS

Type

course

Edition

2026-2027

Catalog

2026-2027 Catalog

Source

catalog.davidson.edu

Instructor Stasack Composition in popular song form and transcription techniques using current lead sheet format. Emphasis on developing aural perception and notational skills. Satisfies the Visual and Performing Arts requirement. Prerequisites & Notes MUS 101 or permission of instructor required. (Fall; normally offered in alternate years.)

Subject

MUS

Type

course

Edition

2026-2027

Catalog

2026-2027 Catalog

Source

catalog.davidson.edu

Instructor Lee, Jia Yi An approach to music composition using the platform of digital technology. Students will learn to implement contemporary compositional processes through the use of digital tools. Of particular emphasis is exploring the world of sound and its organization into meaningful and aesthetically coherent forms without the technical limitations of acoustic execution. Each student will create a final piece that will be realized in a group concert at the end of the semester. Satisfies the Visual and Performing Arts requirement. Prerequisites & Notes MUS 101or MUS 102 or MUS 201. (Spring)

Subject

MUS

Type

course

Edition

2026-2027

Catalog

2026-2027 Catalog

Source

catalog.davidson.edu

Instructor Lerner A study of modern and postmodern music, combining close listening (e.g. Schoenberg, Cage, Reich) with critical responses to its aesthetic and ideological contexts (e.g. Adorno, Jameson, McClary). Representative genres include: symphony, string quartet, opera, film score, performance art. Prerequisites & Notes First-year students require permission of the instructor.

Subject

MUS

Type

course

Edition

2026-2027

Catalog

2026-2027 Catalog

Source

catalog.davidson.edu

Instructor Staff Independent study in music under the direction of a faculty member who reviews and approves the topic, and determines the means of evaluation. Prerequisites & Notes Open to qualified students with permission of the chair.

Subject

MUS

Type

course

Edition

2026-2027

Catalog

2026-2027 Catalog

Source

catalog.davidson.edu

Instructor Botelho Contrapuntal techniques within a diatonic framework, including sequences, melodic and rhythmic figuration; modal mixture, applied chords, modulation, and the Neapolitan- and augmented-sixth chords. Ear training includes one- and two-part exercises. Satisfies the Visual and Performing Arts requirement. Prerequisites & Notes MUS 201. (Normally offered in alternate years)

Subject

MUS

Type

course

Edition

2026-2027

Catalog

2026-2027 Catalog

Source

catalog.davidson.edu

Instructor Botelho Analytical techniques and formal processes of tonal music, including expressive styles and topics, binary and ternary forms, variation, fugue, and sonata form. Prerequisites & Notes Music 201. (Normally offered in alternate years.)

Subject

MUS

Type

course

Edition

2026-2027

Catalog

2026-2027 Catalog

Source

catalog.davidson.edu

Instructor Lerner An introduction to digital sound and music production. Topics will include the nature of sound and its properties, history of music technologies, audio recording techniques, sound synthesis, effects processing, and digital audio workstations. Does NOT satisfy a requirement. Prerequisites & Notes MUS 101, 102, or 265 (Fall)

Subject

MUS

Type

course

Edition

2026-2027

Catalog

2026-2027 Catalog

Source

catalog.davidson.edu

Instructor Keith Designed for students who plan to pursue both choral and instrumental conducting. Emphasis on technique, rehearsal procedure, literature, and stylistic practices. Satisfies the Visual and Performing Arts requirement. Prerequisites & Notes Permission of instructor. (Spring; normally offered in alternate years.)

Subject

MUS

Type

course

Edition

2026-2027

Catalog

2026-2027 Catalog

Source

catalog.davidson.edu

Instructor Keith A survey of Impressionist music at the turn of the twentieth century, with focus on French composers and those they influenced. Satisfies the Visual and Performing Arts requirement. Prerequisites & Notes MUS 101 or permission of instructor. (Normally offered in alternate years.)

Subject

MUS

Type

course

Edition

2026-2027

Catalog

2026-2027 Catalog

Source

catalog.davidson.edu

Instructor Lerner The history of music in medieval and early modern Europe in its cultural and social context, emphasizing musical style, notation, and performance practice. Periods include Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, and Classical through Beethoven’s first stylistic period. Satisfies the Historical Thought requirement.

Subject

MUS

Type

course

Edition

2026-2027

Catalog

2026-2027 Catalog

Source

catalog.davidson.edu

Instructor Lerner The history of music in modern Europe and the United States in its cultural and social context, emphasizing musical style, notation, and performance practice. Periods include Romantic, Post-Romantic, Modern, and Postmodern. Satisfies the Historical Thought requirement.

Subject

MUS

Type

course

Edition

2026-2027

Catalog

2026-2027 Catalog

Source

catalog.davidson.edu

Instructor Henke and Lerner An interdisciplinary exploration of the music, myth, and cultural legacy of Ludwig van Beethoven. Commemorating the bicentennial of his death, this course traces Beethoven’s genius from its 18th-century European roots to its global impact today. Students will examine his revolutionary compositions alongside the literary and political movements that shaped them, discovering how a deaf composer from Bonn, Germany, became a global icon. This course offers specialized credit pathways for advanced students. Music Majors/Minors: Students who read music can earn major or minor credit for MUS 330 by attending a weekly supplemental meeting. German Studies Majors/Minors: Students with intermediate German proficiency can earn major or minor credit by participating in an additional weekly meeting. All enrolled students are eligible for a fully funded spring break study trip to Bonn and Vienna (pending final funding approval).

Subject

MUS

Type

course

Edition

2026-2027

Catalog

2026-2027 Catalog

Source

catalog.davidson.edu

Instructor Lerner The aesthetic known as “minimalism” has been characterized in a number of ways, among them “repetitive,” “hypnotic,” “passionless,” “trance,” “stuck-record,” and “process.” A leading scholar of the style known as “minimalism,” musicologist Robert Fink has listed negative reactions to this music that include being “a kind of social pathology, as an aural sign that American audiences are primitive and uneducated…that kids nowadays just want to get stoned…that traditional Western cultural values have eroded in the liberal wake of the 1960s…that minimalist repetition is dangerously seductive propaganda, akin to Hitler’s speeches and advertising…and even that the commodity-fetishism of modern capitalism has fatally trapped the autonomous self in minimalist narcissism” ( Repeating Ourselves: American Minimal Music as Cultural Practice , 2005). Emerging in the late 1960s and early 1970s, this style both borrowed from as well as influenced various popular musics (like disco and punk, among others) with its emphasis on steady pulses and repeating harmonic structures. In this course we will examine the various historical and cultural forces that led to minimalism’s appearance in the work of composers like Terry Riley, Steve Reich, and Philip Glass, but we will also give attention to figures who have previously been left out of minimalism’s historiography like Julius Eastman and Laurie Anderson. We will also get to later generations of minimalist and postminimalist composers like John Adams-whose 2005 opera Doctor Atomic told the story of Oppenheimer and the atomic bomb in a live theatrical setting as opposed to Christopher Nolan’s cinematic imagining of the same things-as well as to ways minimal style has existed in possibly unexpected places such as pinball, video games, and electronic dance music. We will read and listen and discuss and write about this music and its cultural significance. The course has no prerequisite but students registering for MUS 337 will be expected to have some experience with musical notation and theory.

Subject

MUS

Type

course

Edition

2026-2027

Catalog

2026-2027 Catalog

Source

catalog.davidson.edu

Instructor Botelho (Cross-listed with MUS 241.) An introduction to the music of Hispanic and Luso American countries and cultures from colonial times to the present. Topics include: sacred and secular colonial music, son, marimba music, vieja guardia music, tonada, milonga, tango, Latin jazz, samba, and bossa nova. Satisfies a requirement in the Africana Studies major (Geographic Region: Latin America/Caribbean). Satisfies a requirement in the Latin American Studies major and minor. Satisfies the Visual and Performing Arts requirement. Satisfies the cultural diversity requirement. Prerequisites & Notes For Music Majors only. All other students must register for MUS 241. (normally offered in alternate years.)

Subject

MUS

Type

course

Edition

2026-2027

Catalog

2026-2027 Catalog

Source

catalog.davidson.edu

Instructor Botelho (Cross-listed with MUS 246.) A survey of cultivated and vernacular traditions of Brazilian music from colonial times to the present. Topics include: sacred and secular colonial music, the barroco mineiro, nationalism, the avant-garde, samba, bossa nova, MPB, candomblé, jazz, tropical rock, and rap. Satisfies a requirement in the Latin American Studies major and minor. Satisfies the Visual and Performing Arts requirement. Satisfies the Cultural Diversity requirement. Prerequisites & Notes For Music Majors only. All other students must register as MUS 246. (Fall; normally offered in alternate years.)

Subject

MUS

Type

course

Edition

2026-2027

Catalog

2026-2027 Catalog

Source

catalog.davidson.edu

Instructor Keith Registration takes place on the music web page during course preferences registration or drop/add for Fall semester. Applied instruction designed for students with previous vocal or instrumental training. Must successfully complete jury at end of each semester of study. See instructor for competency levels and literature requirements. Prerequisites & Notes Music 255 or permission of instructor. 1 credit for 2 consecutive semesters. Can be repeated for credit. Additional Fee Info

Subject

MUS

Type

course

Repeatable

Can be repeated for credit.

Edition

2026-2027

Catalog

2026-2027 Catalog

Source

catalog.davidson.edu

Instructor Keith Registration takes place on the music web page during course preferences registration or drop/add for Fall semester. Applied instruction designed for students with previous vocal or instrumental training. Must successfully complete jury at end of each semester of study. See instructor for competency levels and literature requirements. Prerequisites & Notes MUS 356 or permission of instructor. 1 credit for 2 consecutive semesters. Can be repeated for credit. Additional Fee Info

Subject

MUS

Type

course

Repeatable

Can be repeated for credit.

Edition

2026-2027

Catalog

2026-2027 Catalog

Source

catalog.davidson.edu

Instructor Lee, Jia Yi Continued development of creative and technical skills in music composition. Emphasis on exploring the unique sensibilities of the individual. Prerequisites & Notes MUS 261, 262, 263, or 265. (Fall; normally offered in alternate years.)

Subject

MUS

Type

course

Edition

2026-2027

Catalog

2026-2027 Catalog

Source

catalog.davidson.edu

Fall 2026- Music and the Colonial Encounter Instructor VanderBeek In the Western imagination, what does the Other sound like? What basis does that sound have in reality? This course considers the sonic, aesthetic, and social changes that occur to musical practices through the colonial encounter , or processes of interaction, conflict, subjugation, and settlement that have occurred between colonizing powers and the cultures they exploit. Beginning with an overview of canonical Western classical works that are built on orientalist tropes, we interrogate both the colonial histories that underpin these works and their musical outcomes in and beyond the West. Subsequent case studies - including exchanges between French impressionist composers and Javanese gamelan, and British rock, American jazz, and Indian classical music - engage how encounters with colonial powers subvert, reshape, and restructure native musical systems. This course consists of lectures, in-class guided viewings and listenings of media that are paired with take-home assigned media, and writing assignments that focus on how colonial encounters manifest in musical systems and in sound as realized. Prerequisites & Notes

Subject

MUS

Type

course

Edition

2026-2027

Catalog

2026-2027 Catalog

Source

catalog.davidson.edu

Prerequisite

MUS 121, MUS 122, MUS 141, or MUS 142

Instructor Lerner Specialized study of a composer, period, or genre, utilizing a variety of specialized notational, analytical, and theoretical methodologies. Prerequisites & Notes Permission of the instructor required.

Subject

MUS

Type

course

Edition

2026-2027

Catalog

2026-2027 Catalog

Source

catalog.davidson.edu

Instructor Lerner Specialized study of a composer, period, or genre, utilizing a variety of specialized notational, analytical, and theoretical methodologies. Prerequisites & Notes Permission of the instructor required.

Subject

MUS

Type

course

Edition

2026-2027

Catalog

2026-2027 Catalog

Source

catalog.davidson.edu

Instructor Lerner A seminar concentrating on the nine film scores stemming from the remarkable collaboration of composer Bernard Herrmann and filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock. After an introductory section on each, the seminar will then proceed chronologically through their nine films. Particular emphasis will be placed on the ways that Herrmann’s music blended together with Hitchcock’s aesthetic vision to impact and complicate notions of gender identities. Satisfies the Visual and Performing Arts requirement. Prerequisites & Notes Permission of the instructor required. Normally students will have had at least one prior semester of college-level music or related study.

Subject

MUS

Type

course

Edition

2026-2027

Catalog

2026-2027 Catalog

Source

catalog.davidson.edu

Instructor Lerner Historical, stylistic, and analytic study of video game music from its origins in the arcade games of the 1970s to the present. Emphases on close readings of music in relation to gameplay, and vice versa. Includes training in digital audio manipulation to create sound design and musical sequences. Satisfies the Liberal Studies requirement. Prerequisites & Notes Normally offered in alternate years

Subject

MUS

Type

course

Edition

2026-2027

Catalog

2026-2027 Catalog

Source

catalog.davidson.edu

Instructor Staff Independent study in music under the direction of a faculty member who reviews and approves the topic, and determines the means of evaluation. Prerequisites & Notes Open to qualified students with permission of the chair.

Subject

MUS

Type

course

Edition

2026-2027

Catalog

2026-2027 Catalog

Source

catalog.davidson.edu

Instructor Staff Independent study in music under the direction of a faculty member who reviews and approves the topic, and determines the means of evaluation. Prerequisites & Notes Open to qualified students with permission of the chair.

Subject

MUS

Type

course

Edition

2026-2027

Catalog

2026-2027 Catalog

Source

catalog.davidson.edu

Instructor Pyle A capstone seminar synthesizing historical inquiry, analytical methods, and performance practice along with techniques of music research, writing, and close listening. Topics chosen by the course instructor. Prerequisites & Notes Limited to senior music majors; open to other qualified students by permission of the instructor. (Fall)

Subject

MUS

Type

course

Edition

2026-2027

Catalog

2026-2027 Catalog

Source

catalog.davidson.edu