Undergraduate Course Descriptions

This course, first in a three-quarter sequence, is primarily intended for students without previous musical experience. It introduces music notation and basic music theory topics such as intervals, scales, keys, and chords, as well as basic rhythm skills. Prerequisites: none. Offered: Fall, Winter

This course, second in a three-quarter sequence, focuses on understanding music theory and in developing musical ability through rhythm, ear training, and sight singing exercises. Topics include major and minor scales, seventh-chords, transposition, compound meter and rudiments of musical form. Prerequisites: MUS 1A

This course, third in a three-quarter sequence, offers solid foundation in musical literacy through exercises such as harmonic and melodic dictation, sight singing exercises and rhythm in various meters. Topics include complex rhythm, harmony, and basic keyboard skills. Offered: Spring

Primarily intended for music majors. Development of basic skills: perception and notation of pitch and temporal relationships. Introduction of functional harmony. Studies in melodic writing. Drills in sight singing, rhythmic reading, and dictation. Prerequisites: Must be taken in sequence. Music Majors must be concurrently enrolled in Music 2AK. Offered: Fall
Additional Description: Instructors: Erik Carlson

Scales, chords, harmonic progressions, transposition, and simple pieces. Prerequisites: Majors must be concurrently enrolled in Music 2A. Majors only. Offered: Fall
Additional Description:

Instructor: Takae Ohnishi

This course, third in a three-quarter sequence, offers solid foundation in musical literacy through exercises such as harmonic and melodic dictation, sight singing exercises and rhythm in various meters. Topics include complex rhythm, harmony, and basic keyboard skills.
Prerequisite: MUS 1B

Scales, chords, harmonic progressions, transposition, and simple pieces. Prerequisites: Music 2BK or a passing score on placement exam. Music Majors must be concurrently enrolled in Music 2C. Offered: Spring
Additional Description:

Instructor: Takae Ohnishi

A brief survey of the history of Western Music from the Middle Ages to the present. Much attention will be paid to the direct experience of listening music and attendance of concerts. Class consists of lectures, listening labs, and live performances.
Prerequisite: none. Offered: Winter, Spring

An examination and exploration of the art and science of music making. Topics include acoustics, improvisation, composition, electronic and popular forms. There will be required listening, reading, and creative assignments. No previous musical background required.
Prerequisite: none. Offered SU26: SS1, SS2

Lectures and listening sessions devoted to the most significant works of music realized through the use of computers and other electronic devices from the middle of this century through the present.
Prerequisite: none. Offered: Fall, Spring

Focusing on the past 150 years, this course explore inflection points when technological innovations led to profound changes in the way music was made and consumed. Areas of focus include the evolution of musical instruments, the invention and development of recording and broadcasting, and the rise of digital technologies. The course will conclude with a discussion of current developments and speculation as to what lies ahead. Offered: Winter

Jazz is one of the primary foundations for American music in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. This course highlights the multi-cultural and international scope of jazz by taking a thematic rather than a chronological approach to the subject, and by highlighting the music and lives of a diverse array of jazz practitioners from around the country and around the world. Offered: Fall, Winter

The symphonic masterworks course will consist of lectures and listening sessions devoted to a detailed discussion of a small number of recognized masterworks (e.g., Mozart, Beethoven, Berlioz, Stravinsky, Ligeti, etc.).
Prerequisite: none. (Offered in selected years.) Offered: Winter

A course on folk musics of the world, covered through lectures, films, and listening sessions devoted to detailed discussion of music indigenous to varying countries/areas of the world. Topics vary from year to year. May be repeated once for credit.
Prerequisite: none. Offered: Spring

A study of works from the history of opera, to coincide when possible with operas presented in the San Diego Opera season. Class consists of lectures, listening labs, live performances, and opera on video.
Prerequisite: none. Offered: Fall, Winter

This course offers opportunities to prepare oneself for experiences with new music through preview lectures, to hear quality performances by visiting or faculty artists, to discuss each event informally with a faculty panel: an effort to foster informed listening to the new in music.
Prerequisite: none. Offered:Fall, Winter
Additional Description: This course offers opportunities to prepare oneself for experiences with contemporary and experimental music in lecture and live performance settings. Rather than taking a historiographic or chronological trajectory, this class plots a free-wheeling course through the 20th and 21st centuries, guided by aesthetic emergences in sound and relational lines of thought, in effort to foster informed listening to the new in music.

A course on popular music from different time periods, covered through lectures, films, and listening sessions. Topics vary from year to year. May be taken for credit twice. Prerequisites: none. Offered: Fall, Winter, Spring

This class presents a broad chronological overview of the development of hip hop as a musical form from the late 1970s through today. It examines the development of the style in relation to direct context and to earlier African American musical and cultural forms, and considers the technological and legal issues that have impacted its development. The class is listening-intensive and students will be expected to know and recognize essential structures and production techniques. Prerequisites: none Offered: Fall, Winter, Spring

Blacktronika: Afrofuturism in Electronic Music, honors the people of color, who pioneered groundbreaking genres within electronic music. Using the intersection of technology, science fiction and music's foundation within the African Diaspora, as a lens in shaping new futures. Researching the sonic responses to socio-political events that affected, under represented communities, giving birth to jazz fusion, Chicago House, Detroit Techno, drum & bass, the LA Beat scene and the rest of the global sound history. From Sun Ra to Flying Lotus to Moor Mother, we shine the light on the musicians that are pivotal in the modern advancement of electronic music. Offered: Fall, Spring
Additional Description:

Instructor: King Britt

Individual instruction on intermediate level in instrumental technique and repertory. For declared Music majors and minors (upon availability) only. Students must be simultaneously enrolled in a performance ensemble or non-performance music course. May be taken for credit six times. Prerequisites: audition and department approval.

Individual instruction on intermediate level in vocal technique and repertory. For declared Music majors and minors only. Students must be simultaneously enrolled in a performance ensemble or non-performance music course and in Music 32VM. May be taken for credit six times.
Prerequisite: audition and department approval.

All students enrolled in voice lessons (32V or 132V) perform for one another and their instructors. Students critique in-class performances, with emphasis on presentation, diction, dramatic effect, vocal quality, and musicality in a critically supportive manner.
Prerequisite: Concurrent enrollment in Music 32V or 132V. Offered: Fall, Winter, Spring

This course is intended to provide the prerequisite knowledge necessary to pursue an emphasis in composition. Topics covered will include notation, calligraphy, instrumentation, orchestration, and twentieth-century music literature.
Prerequisite: Music 33B. Offered: Spring

The department seminar serves both as a general department meeting and as a forum for the presentation of research and performances by visitors, faculty and students. Required of all undergraduate music and music humanities major every quarter a student is a declared music major. Four units or four quarters of enrollment are required of all undergraduate ICAM music majors who choose the MUS 43 Department Seminar option for their Visitor Series requirement. P/NP grades only. May be taken for credit twelve times. Offered: Fall, Winter, Spring

This experiential course teaches the art of practicing psychological well-being, based on Eastern and Western approaches (e.g., mindfulness, positive psychology, cognitive therapy, neuroscience, theatre and art), from the perspective of a musician. Each week there is a short lecture on a given topic, combined with workshop-style exercises. Offered: Winter

Performance in an ensemble appropriate to student abilities and interests. Grading is based on participation level, individual testing, and comparative papers on repertoire covered. Prerequisities: consent of instructor through audition and department stamp required for each ensemble except 95C, 95G and 95W. Note: A $15 lab/production fee, except for 95G and 95W for which the fee is $10, will be assessed for all students enrolled in a Music 95 ensemble. Non-majors may take Music 95 courses for a total of 6 units (3 quarters) for a letter grade, after which they may be taken for a P/NP (Pass/No Pass) only. Music majors may take Music 95 courses for a total of 12 units (6 quarters) for a letter grade, after which they may be taken for P/NP only. There is one exception to the above grading policy: Music 95G, Gospel Choir, may be taken P/NP only. Ensembles are offered Fall, Winter and Spring unless specified otherwise.

Open to all university students, the Concert Choir meets twice a week to prepare one program of choral literature each quarter. Repertoire chosen from a wide variety of musical styles. Attendance at all rehearsals and performances is mandatory. Offered: Fall, Winter, Spring

Formed in the 1950s, The Chorus of the La Jolla Symphony & Chorus is known for electrifying performances of works spanning the last 300 years of choral and choral/orchestral repertoire. The Chorus performs one to two full length choral or choral/orchestral works per quarter in Mandeville Auditorium, and special venues around the city of San Diego and has toured internationally. They perform standard, classical, and contemporary works and often perform commissioned works and world premieres. May be repeated six times for credit. Prerequisites: audition required and department stamp required. Contact chorus@ljsc.org. Offered: Fall, Winter, Spring

In this course, students will be members of a medium-sized orchestra which performs symphonic repertoire. Weekly meetings will be rehearsals of the quarter's program. In the final week, students will perform a concert in one of UCSD's large performance spaces. Repertoire changes quarterly, with past programs including works by composers such as Tchaikovsky, Beethoven, Schubert, and Mozart. Offered: Fall, Winter, Spring

This course is an undergraduate percussion ensemble designed to teach basic to intermediate chamber music and percussion skills to undergraduate percussionists. Repertoire will include music from the American Experimentalist tradition and other contemporary music by composers from around the world. Special emphasis will be placed on performing newly commissioned pieces by the UC San Diego community of composers. By audition only; department approval required. Offered: Fall, Winter, Spring

The goal of this course is to lead students in experiencing the singing and understanding of Gospel music and its various styles, as well as other forms of sacred music of the 20th century of the African American experience. The course may be taken for either two units or three units. Extra sections and concerts are required for three units; the instructor will announce these requirements at the first class session. Offered: Fall, Winter, Spring

Small jazz ensembles will be arranged by audition and organized according to instrumentation and student interest, and ability. Each ensemble will meet on a weekly basis under faculty guidance and will have the opportunity for both on- and off-campus performances. Prerequisites: By audition only; Department stamp required. Offered: Fall, Winter, Spring

An intermediate to advanced level ensemble performing traditional to contemporary band literature. Offered: Fall, Winter, Spring

A Persian classical music ensemble open to students using the instruments of their choice. Students will be introduced to the concepts of the Radif and Dastgah system in Persian music along with instruction on specific instruments. Students will study the music on Persian instruments such as kamancheh, santur, setar, and tombak, or an instrument on which they are proficient (e.g. violin, viola, cello, bass, clarinet, or piano). No previous background in music necessary. Offered: Fall, Winter, Spring

An Indian Classical Music Ensemble with a focus on the Sitar and Tabla. No previous background necessary. Offered: Fall, Winter, Spring
Additional Description: An Indian classical music ensemble with a focus on the Sitar and Tabla or an instrument of your choice. Voice students are encouraged to join. Students will be introduced to the concepts of Raga and Tabla through fixed compositions and ear training. While no previous background is necessary, all students MUST attend the first meeting of class. Failure to do so will require students to drop the course. This first meeting is to assign students to proper groups and offer a broad survey of the history and theory of the tradition.

Study of modal counterpoint in the style of 16th century. Two-voice species counterpoint studies. Analysis of music of the period. Musicianship studies:sight singing, dictation and keyboard skills. Prerequisites: Music 2C and 2CK. Offered: Fall

Study of tonal harmony and counterpoint. Analysis of Bach chorales and other music from the Baroque period. Musicianship studies: sight singing, dictation, and keyboarding skills. Prerequisites: Music 2C Offered: Winter

Tonal harmony and counterpoint. Analysis of larger classical forms: Sonata, Variation, Minuet and Trio, Rondo. Musicianship studies: sight singing, dictation, and keyboarding skills. Prerequisites: Music 101B Offered: Spring

Individual projects in composition will be critically reviewed in seminar with fellow student and faculty composers. Prerequisites: 33ABC. (Course must be taken in sequence - Music 103 A-B-C) Offered: Fall

Individual projects in composition will be critically reviewed in seminar with fellow student and faculty composers. Prerequisites: Mus 103A Offered: Winter

Individual projects in composition will be critically reviewed in seminar with fellow student and faculty composers. Prerequisites: Music 103B Offered: Spring

Advanced individual projects for senior music majors pursuing honors in composition. Projects will be critically reviewed in seminar with fellow students and faculty composers. Prerequisites: Music 103A-B-C and admission into the Department of Music Honors Program in composition. Department approval required.

This seminar will address a wide variety of musical cultures and expressions happening along the two-thousand-mile-long US-Mexico border in the 21st century. We will discuss how transnational musical communities and identities have emerged in the region and how they have navigated through important issues such as class, gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, migration, and others, to develop all sorts of hybrid musical practices in one of the most complex border regions in the world. We will also more broadly discuss the omnipresent importance of music in human cultures, its functions in human societies, and its role as an agent of transformation, as a shaper of identities, and a builder of communities. This seminar will emphasize listening and discussion, both in- and off-class. We will listen to many audio recordings and watch numerous videos of musical performances. Several readings and films will also be suggested. All participants are expected to write two short assignments and a final paper, related to class topics. Formal musical training and knowledge of the Spanish language are not required for this seminar, but they can definitely help, even if you only have a little bit of either. Prerequisites: upper-division standing. Restricted to music majors or consent of instructor; department approval required. Offered: Fall, Winter, Spring
Additional Description: Music 120ABC series highly recommended to be successful in this course.

This seminar explores the history of music in relation to critical issues, such as race, gender, sexuality, the environment, and politics. Readings include recent literature in cultural studies, musicology, and sociology. Topics vary. May be taken for credit twice. Prerequisites: upper-division standing. Restricted to music majors or consent of instructor; department approval required.

A study of particular regional musics in their repertory, cultural context, and interaction with other traditions. Topics vary. May be taken for credit three times.
Prerequisite: upper-division standing or consent of instructor. Offered: Fall, Winter, Spring
Additional Description: This version of MUS-111 focuses on the music of Iran and takes a holistic approach to the study of its music, culture, history, and politics from the perspectives of musicians, poets, and artists. Classes will consist of a combination of lectures and listening sessions. Although some technical aspects of music may be discussed, students are not expected to have any prior musical training or proficiency. Quizzes and the final exam will assess students�' ability to recognize musical works, instruments, performers, and composers, as well as their understanding of the cultural and historical contexts of Iran and the various musical forms discussed in class.

A study of particular regional musics in their repertory, cultural context, and interaction with other traditions. Topics vary. May be taken for credit three times.
Prerequisite: upper-division standing or consent of instructor. Offered: Fall, Winter, Spring
Additional Description: Sound offers powerful connections to our sense of home and who we are. Using Asia and the Arctic as examples, we experience these places through sounds, and explore our relationship with the communities we can become part of. In addition to introducing a broad spectrum of musics from East Asia and Mongolia, we will also discover places unknown to us until sound unites us together. The class emphasizes personal discoveries of sound Ð its meaning to one�'s own history, as well as relationships we can foster through sounds. No matter where we came from, sound connects us all, and the depth of these connections are waiting for to be discovered!

This course will focus on Western music between 1750 and the early 20th century; topics will vary from year to year. May be taken five times for credit. Prerequisites: upper-division standing or consent of instructor. Department approval required. MUS 4, 8Ð10, or 120 recommended. Offered: Fall Winter
Additional Description: UNSUNG - A Closer Look at Female Composers of the 20th/21st Centuries: Our ability to search online databases and examine digitized research material in libraries worldwide has created an opportunity to uncover and apprehend the works of female and female-identifying classical composers as never before. Yet many significant works written by female and female-identifying composers of the 20th/21st century remain relatively unknown, seldom performed or recorded. Over the course of the class, students will learn about the lives and works of a number of key female and female-identifying figures from 20th/ 21st century music, with an eye toward evaluating their artistic contributions and significant collaborations and understanding the cultural milieu in which they were or are situated. We will pay particular attention to musical compositions written for the combination of voice and piano. Students will examine historic documents and historiographic issues pertaining to development and intersection of cultural trends in the performing arts in Europe and the United States. Students will also be asked to speculate as to the question of why these individuals and their works have not become visible in the canon of classical art music.

Instructor: Susan Naruki

A critical examination of music from the early twentieth century to the present, focusing on the generation and embodiment of cultural ideas through and in music. Prerequisites: upper-division standing or consent of instructor.

This sequence introduces key concepts, histories, and practices in contemporary music studies. Students will explore methodological approaches and learn about current research through focused historical and ethnographic case studies. Prerequisites: MUS 1C or 2C or passing grade on proficiency exam. Music majors are recommended to take MUS 101A concurrently. Department approval required for nonmajors. Offered: Fall

This sequence introduces key concepts, histories, and practices in contemporary music studies. In this course, students will develop original applications for research skills discussed in MUS 120A. Prerequisites: MUS 120A. Music majors are recommended to take MUS 101B concurrently. Department approval required for nonmajors. Offered: Winter

This sequence introduces key concepts, histories, and practices in contemporary music studies. In this course, students carry out projects developed in MUS 120A-B with peer feedback and faculty advising. Prerequisites: MUS 120B. Music majors are recommended to take MUS 101C concurrently. Department approval required for nonmajors. Offered: Spring

Offers an introduction to jazz, including important performers and their associated styles and techniques. Explores the often provocative role jazz has played in American and global society, the diverse perceptions and arguments that have surrounded its production and reception, and how these have been inflected by issues of race, class, gender, and sexuality. Specific topics vary from year to year. (Cross listed with ETHN 179.) Prerequisites: upper-division standing or consent of instructor. Offered: Fall

Instruction in the preparation of small group performances of representative instrumental and vocal chamber music literature. May be taken for credit six times, after which students must enroll for zero units. Prerequisites: consent of instructor through audition. Department approval required. Offered: Fall, Winter, Spring
Additional Description: This course is designed to develop the skills necessary for performing small chamber music works in ensembles of 3 to 5 members. Emphasis will be placed on musical interpretation, historical and stylistic understanding of the repertoire, score study, and effective communication within the ensemble. Students will engage in collaborative discussions and rehearsals to shape a unified artistic performance. This course welcomes students who play the following instruments: violin, viola, cello, double bass, flute, clarinet, piano, and voice (as needed, based on repertoire requirements). The repertoire will focus on works from the Western European classical tradition, spanning the Baroque, Classical, Romantic, French Impressionist, and early 20th-century periods. Composers studied may include J.S. Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Debussy, and Shostakovich. Each ensemble will receive one 30-minute coaching session per week and is expected to rehearse independently for at least one hour per week outside of class. The final performance will take place on Friday of Week 10 at 7:00 PM, and attendance is mandatory as this serves as the final evaluation for the course.

Master-level class instruction in advanced improvisation performance. May be taken for credit six times. Prerequisites: consent of instructor through audition. Department approval required. Offered: Fall, Winter, Spring
Additional Description: This course focuses on exploring improvisation from the vantage point of viewing, listening, and discussing sound work of artists from around the world deeply inspired by African-American radical and avant-garde sound traditions and who are living and currently practicing in their chosen sonic form. We will look at key themes in their work and engage in what is called 'deep listening', slowly unpacking recorded and documented sound through generative discussion that will then lead to a collaborative sound practice that we will build as a collective, working with the specific sonic medium of instruction and graphic scores to corral our ideas together. Class attendance and generative discussions are to be the biggest part of grading as well as a final collective project TBA. This class will mostly meet in person, but there will be a few possible zoom meets.

Individual or master class instruction in advanced instrumental performance. For declared music majors and minors only. Students must be simultaneously enrolled in a performance ensemble or non-performance music course. May be taken for credit six times. Prerequisites: audition and department approval.

Advanced instrumental/vocal preparation for senior music majors pursuing honors in performance. Repertoire for a solo recital will be developed under the direction of the appropriate instrumental/vocal faculty member. Prerequisites: by audition only, Music 132. Department approval required.
Additional Description: Advanced instrumental/vocal preparation for senior music majors pursuing honors in performance. Repertoire for a solo recital will be developed under the direction of the appropriate instrumental/vocal faculty member. Special audition required.

Individual instruction in advanced vocal performance. For declared Music majors and minors. Students must be simultaneously enrolled in a performance ensemble or non-performance music course, and in the Voice Masterclass, Music 32VM. May be taken for credit six times. Prerequisites: audition and department approval.

Performance of new music of the twentieth century, with readings relevant to the selected repertory. Normally offered in Winter Quarter only. Required minimum of one time for all Music majors. May be taken two times for credit.
Prerequisite: Consent of instructor through audition. Department approval required. Offered: Spring

Repertoire is drawn from the classic symphonic literature of the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries with a strong emphasis on recently composed and new music. Distinguished soloists, as well as The La Jolla Symphony Chorus, frequently appear with the orchestra. The La Jolla Symphony Orchestra performs two full-length programs each quarter, each program being performed twice. May be taken for credit six times. Prerequisites: audition and department stamp required. Contact orchestra@ljsc.org. Offered: Fall, Winter, Spring

Study of Jazz theory and improvisation, focused on fundamental rhythmic, harmonic, melodic, and formal aspects of modern jazz style. Application of theoretical knowledge to instruments and concepts will be reinforced through listening, transcription work, and composition and improvisation exercises. Prerequisites: Music 2A-B-C, proficiency exam, or consent of instructor. Offered: Fall

Advanced individual projects for senior music majors pursuing honors in jazz and music of the African diaspora. Projects will be critically reviewed in seminar with fellow students and jazz faculty. First course of a yearlong sequence. Prerequisites: MUS 137A-B-C and admission into the Music Department Honors Program in jazz. Department approval required.

The department seminar serves both as a general department meeting and as a forum for the presentation of research and performances by visitors, faculty, and students. Required of all undergraduate music majors every quarter who entered UCSD prior to Fall 2016. Offered: Fall, Winter, Spring

An in-depth writing and listening intensive investigation into a jazz or diaspora-related music history topic. Topics vary from year to year. May be taken for credit twice. Prerequisites: MUS 126/ETHN 178, or MUS 127/ETHN 179, or consent of instructor. Offered: Spring

Aggrieved groups generate distinctive cultural expressions by turning negative ascription into positive affirmation and be transforming segregation into congregation. This course examines the role of cultural expressions in struggles for social change by these communities inside and outside the U.S. (Crosslisted with Ethnic Studies 108). Prerequisites: upper-division standing or consent of instructor.

Students pursue projects of their own design over two quarters with support from faculty in a seminar environment. Project proposals are developed, informed by project development guidelines from real world examples. Collaborations are possible. Two production-course limitation. Renumber from ICAM 160A. Students may receive credit for only one of the following: MUS 160A, VIS 160A, ICAM 160A. Prerequisites: VIS 141B or VIS 145B or VIS 147B or MUS 172. Open to music and ICAM majors only. Department approval required. Offered: Winter

Continuation of MUS 160A or VIS 160A. Completion and presentation of independent projects along with documentation. Two production-course limitation. Renumbered from ICAM 160B. Students may receive credit for only one of the following: MUS 160B, VIS 160B, ICAM 160B. Prerequisites: MUS 160A or VIS 160A. Open to music and ICAM majors only. Department approval required. Offered: Spring

Survey of applications of audio technology to music and related art forms. Physical and perceptual properties of sound, and its artistic uses. Prerequisites: MUS 1A, MUS 2A, MUS 5, MUS 6, or MUS 7 or consent of instructor. Offered: Fall

This course provides a practical introduction to computer techniques for audio synthesis, processing, and analysis. Prerequisites: upper-division standing; MUS 170 recommended. Offered: Winter

Computer synthesis techniques including wavetable and additive synthesis, waveshaping, and sampling. Transformation of musical sounds using filters, modulation, and delay effects. Fourier analysis of sounds. Prerequisites: MUS 171. Depending on the instructor, this course may include the following tools: Max/MSP, pd. Offered: Spring

Creative music production using digital audio workstations (DAWs), emphasizing hands-on composition projects including tempo warping, beat and tonality matching, virtual drum kits, chord progressions, sound processing and effects, arrangement, and remixing in the context of both popular and experimental genres. Existing works are analyzed and dissected for aesthetic value and production technique. Prerequisites: upper-division standing; restricted to music, ICAM-music, and ICAM-visual arts majors, or consent of instructor. Offered: Winter
Additional Description:

Instructor: King Britt

Advanced creative music production using digital audio workstations (DAWs), emphasizing hands-on composition projects including sound processing, sound design, synthesis, effects, arrangement, non linear composition and remixing in the context of both popular and experimental genres. Existing works are analyzed and dissected for aesthetic value and production technique. Prerequisites: Music 173B (grade B or above), upper-division standing; restricted to music, ICAM-music, and ICAM-visual arts majors, or consent of instructor. Offered: Spring

First class in a year-long sequence. Surveys hardware and software resources in an advanced analog/digital and media studio. Required [course] for use of the Studio. Topics include: electronic and computer music, digital and analogue audio signal mixing and manipulation, studio devices, interfacing, compositional applications, MIDI synchronization, performance and student projects. 174A focuses on signals, mics, device based recording, mixing, monitoring. Prerequisites: Music 170; Music majors, ICAM-Music and ICAM-Visual Arts majors and minors; or consent of instructor. Offered: Fall
Additional Description:

Instructor: Tom Erbe

Second class in a year-long sequence. Surveys hardware and software resources in an advanced analog/digital and media studio. Required [course] for use of the ICAM Studio. Topics include: electronic and computer music, digital and analog signal mixing and manipulation, studio devices, interfacing, compositional applications, MIDI synchronization, performance and studio techniques, and student projects. 174B focuses on computer-based mixing and editing, digital audio workstations, sound file transformation. Prerequisites: Music 170; Music 174A; Music majors, ICAM-Music and ICAM-Visual Arts majors and minors, or consent of instructor. Offered: Winter
Additional Description:

Instructor: King Britt

Survey of psychoacoustical phenomena, theories of hearing, and their relation to musical perception and cognition. Techniques of psychoacoustical experimentation. Prerequisites: MUS 170 recommended; restricted to music, ICAM-music, and ICAM-visual arts majors and minors, or consent of instructor. Depending on the instructor, this course may include the following tools: MATLAB. Offered: Fall
Additional Description:

Instructor: Tamara Smyth

Selected topics in music technology and its application to composition and/or performance. Offerings vary according to faculty availability and interest. May be repeated for credit. Prerequisites: Music 172 or consent of instructor.
Additional Description: This course is a hands-on class on the development of theoretical, technical, and/or musical skills in spatialization. It is assumed that participants have specific research interests (musical, technical, or scientific) and are familiar with some form of audio recording, editing, and production, as well as programming for audio in an environment such as Pure Data, Max/MSP, Ableton Live, SuperCollider, MATLAB, Python, C, C++, etc. The MUS171 prerequisite can be waived for those who can demonstrate proficiency in real-time programming in one of the above environments.

Instructor: Shahrokh Yadegari

Selected topics in music technology and its application to composition and/or performance. Offerings vary according to faculty availability and interest. May be repeated for credit. Prerequisites: Music 172 or consent of instructor.
Additional Description: In this class, you will learn about the art of DJing using both analog and digital gear. The course will cover the fundamental concepts involved in spinning records, from the equipment and media to music structure and beatmatching by ear. The course culminates with a final performance, where the students showcase their newly acquired skills.

Instructor: Marcelo Caetano

Fundamentals of programming music software in C and C++. DSP implementation of oscillators, filters, delay, reverb and spectral processing; programming techniques specific to audio and MIDI and simple GUI design for parameter control and signal display. Implementation using a plug-in or external programming interface such as for VST, Audio Unit, PD, or Max/MSP. May be taken for credit twice. Prerequisites: MUS 172; restricted to music, ICAM-music, and ICAM-visual arts majors and minors, or consent of instructor. Offered: Spring

How do we transform complex sounds into comprehensible and meaningful music? What physiological, neurological, cognitive, and cultural systems are involved? Why do we make music in such diverse ways around the globe? Does music have evolutionary or ecological significance? What is the relationship between music, motion, and emotions? This course explores contemporary understandings of how we hear and how we become musical and invites students to listen to new music in new ways. Offered: Fall, Winter

Students will collaborate with faculty and guest artists in the preparation and performance of a fully-staged contemporary chamber opera. The opera will be presented in multiple public performances.
Additional Description: Professor Susan Narucki. Students will collaborate with faculty and guest artists in the preparation and performance of a fully-staged contemporary chamber opera. The opera will be presented in multiple public performances.

Performance of contemporary music. Different sections represent active performance ensembles. A core requirement for graduate degree students as outlined in the curriculum. The number of units is based on work performed by agreement with instructor. See instructors for additional information.

Additional Description:

Instructor: Mark Dresser

Performance of contemporary music. Different sections represent active performance ensembles. A core requirement for graduate degree students as outlined in the curriculum. The number of units is based on work performed by agreement with instructor. See instructors for additional information.

Performance of contemporary music. Different sections represent active performance ensembles. A core requirement for graduate degree students as outlined in the curriculum. The number of units is based on work performed by agreement with instructor. See instructors for additional information.
Additional Description: Percussion Ensemble red fish blue fish.

Instructor: Steven Schick

Performance of contemporary music. Different sections represent active performance ensembles. A core requirement for graduate degree students as outlined in the curriculum. The number of units is based on work performed by agreement with instructor. See instructors for additional information.
Additional Description: First year Collaborative Projects for Performers and Composers. Only first year performance students can enroll in this course.

Instructor: Steven Schick

The purpose of this seminar is to bring in the entire population of the graduate composition program (all students and faculty) for in-depth discussion of critical issues in music theory and composition. Each meeting will feature a formal presentation by either a student, faculty member, or visitor, followed by lively and challenging debate on relevant issues.
Additional Description: Seminar meets throughout the year on a biweekly basis in the evening. Participation is required of all enrolled graduate composition students every quarter in residence. Other students are welcome to participate. Each session begins with a one-hour talk (including recordings) by the featured composer, followed by at least one hour of discussion. Lively and challenging debate on relevant issues is encouraged.

Seminars growing out of current faculty interests. The approach tends to be speculative and includes individual projects or papers as well as assigned readings. In the past, such areas as new instrumental and vocal resources, mixed media, and compositional linguistics have been offered. Prerequisites: graduate standing in music; others by written consent of instructor and department approval.

Seminars growing out of current faculty interests. The approach tends to be speculative and includes individual projects or papers as well as assigned readings. In the past, such areas as new instrumental and vocal resources, mixed media, and compositional linguistics have been offered. Prerequisites: graduate standing in music; others by written consent of instructor and department approval. Offered: Fall, Winter, Spring
Additional Description: Co-taught by Susan Narucki and Jarek Kapucinski of Stanford University, the 206 seminar will focus on frameworks and innovations of music-theater/opera from a wide array of historical and cultural contexts and will include students from both institutions. The seminar is part of a year long collaborative project, in which students from UC San Diego and Stanford will create/perform short works to be performed at UCSD and Stanford in Spring Quarter of 2027. Composers, performers (and composer/performers), theater design students who are interested in collaborating and creating original work are welcome; please sign up early as space is limited. Please note: in order to include students from both institutions, MUS 206 will meet at an unusual time: Fridays 1:30- 4:20.

Instructor: Susan Narucki Offered: FA26

Additional Description: We have been listening to the extremes of soundÑstudying infrasonic and ultrasonic recordings gathered by oceanographersÑand began to wonder what might emerge if we turned that same sensitivity toward ourselves. Using similarly high sampling rates, we started recording human-made sounds, including the voice. What we found was unexpected: we are constantly producing a rich field of soundÑespecially in consonantsÑthat extends far beyond the limits of human hearing, with energetic activity reaching well past 96 kHz. This discovery opened a new line of inquiry: the presence of biologically meaningful, yet largely unnoticed, high-frequency structures embedded within human sound production. Some primates are known to communicate ultrasonically. Could it be that humans, too, once inhabited a broader acoustic worldÑthat we produced and perceived sounds now lost to us, gradually slipping beyond our reach as our environments changed, as noise accumulated, as the world grew louder? Even if there is no clear mapping between signal production and perception, the infrasonic world is astonishing. Working with software developed by our long-time collaborator Zachary Seldess, we began transposing these ultrasonic traces into the audible range. What emerges is a hidden layer of our own sonic existence: an Òultrasonic musicÓ we are always making, but never consciously hear. And when brought into our perceptual field, it reveals itself as something unexpectedly delicate, intricate, and profoundly beautiful. It is otherworldly but of this world! Here is a short documentary about a similar experiment for your reference: https://qi.ucsd.edu/instruments-from-the-lab-to-the-concert-hall-in-lei-liangs-six-seasons-with-video/ All are invited to participate - composers, performers, music thinkers, creative practitioners, programmers. Returning students from my previous 206 seminars are welcome! At the end of the term, loadbang ensemble (baritone singer, bass clarinet, trumpet and trombone) will be in residence to perform the pieces on February 25, 2027 (Thursday), as part of the IDEAS concert series at Qualcomm Institute.

Instructor: Lei Liang Offered: FA26

Additional Description: The Arditti Quartet will be in residence at UCSD from April 24th through 27th, 2027. The string quartet pieces composed by the students in this seminar will be on their program on Monday, April 26th, at the Conrad Prebys Concert Hall. The compositions will need to be submitted to them by the last week of winter quarter. We will discuss in-progress works throughout the quarter and will also take a deep dive into contemporary string / string quartet writing, including analysis of various compositions for string quartet from the past 20 years. The seminar is open to non-composers interested in string quartet history and analysis. Please get in touch with Prof. Obermueller to discuss options.

Instructor: Karola Obermueller Offered: WI27

Additional Description: ÒPercussion for Non=Percussionists,Ó is a course for any non-percussionist who wishes to learn basic percussion performance skills and to contextualize those skills by studying important works from the contemporary percussion canon. Every week the class will feature a practical lesson in basic percussion skills, held in the percussion studios, and will be followed by a careful look at repertoire that uses those skills.

Instructor: Steve Schick Offered: Fall

Additional Description: This course, unofficially considered by the instructor as MUS 210b, orbits, is in conversation with, and obliterates MUS 210a (Analysis of Contemporary Music). Though one is not a prerequisite for the other, they complete and complicate each other; they continue and anticipate each other. While 210a approaches analysis as a ground-up procedure, prioritizing material and its agency to articulate and generate both discourse and form, this course, titled Analysis and, of, and with Form, inverses the flow of that hierarchy. Here, we will begin at the top and excavate into the ground: how does Form itself delineate and determine material and behavior? We will consider music which (and consider music through a frame which) renders material through the necessity of formal regimes; works in which Form impresses upon or requires something of material, through organization, discourse, or behavior. As distinct from its ancestor/descendant, Analysis and, of, and with Form will draw heavily upon readings from philosophy and critical theory so as to slowly articulate, build, and complicate our understanding of Form. Students enrolling in the course should be prepared to read and discuss, at a weekly rate, texts, pieces of music, and the speculative worlds generated by their reciprocation. Eugenie Brinkema will be our primary guide through Form and its slippery and pluripotent agencies, with significant additional assistance from Giorgio Agamben, Leo Bersani, Gilles Deleuze, Ulysse Dutoit, Henri Focillon, Anna Kornbluh, Jean-Luc Nancy, and Bernard Tschumi. Throughout the quarter, our readings and conversations will be applied and sluiced through the music of Evan Johnson, Helmut Lachenmann, Cassandra Miller, Eliane Radigue, Salvatore Sciarrino, Steven Kazuo Takasugi, and Jakob Ullmann, with a mid-quarter breather in which I�'ll share my own experience in reckoning with a particularly charged confrontation between form and material. The class promises to be an unwieldy latticed assemblage of text, listening, and shared discourse, and by the end Analysis and, of, and with Form might enact what it professes to relate. Together, we will seek to define and deform Form, to isolate and explode it, so as to ultimately transcend into whatever lies beyond (or before) it. If Form impresses upon material, what impresses upon Form?

Instructor: Timothy McCormack Offered: Winter

Seminar discussions and individual meetings devoted to the interdisciplinary study of music, sound, and society. Students are introduced to key ideas, important thinkers, and influential practitioners in an array of related fields, and are invited to explore the intersecting roles of culture, cognition and creativity, and how musical behaviors and phenomena relate to matters of ideology, nationality, ethnicity, social class, race, and gender.
Additional Description: This course is part of a year-long core sequence required of all entering graduate students in the Integrative Studies program. It is taught on a rotating basis by faculty in the Integrative Studies area. Students are evaluated through regular writing assignments, and, on completion of the entire core sequence (MUS 215 A-B-C), students take a preliminary examination designed to evaluate one's command of the course materials and of scholarly research and writing conventions more broadly.

Instructor: David Borgo

Individual or master class instruction in advanced instrumental/vocal performance.
Prerequisite: consent of instructor through audition.
Additional Description: Taken every quarter by students with an emphasis in Performance. Instructors: Performance faculty

Repertoire is drawn from the classic symphonic literature of the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries with a strong emphasis on recently composed and new music. Distinguished soloists, as well as The La Jolla Symphony Chorus, frequently appear with the orchestra. The La Jolla Symphony Orchestra performs two full-length programs each quarter, each program being performed twice. May be repeated six times for credit. Prerequisites: audition and department stamp required. Contact orchestra@ljsc.org.

The purpose of this seminar is to bring together performance students, faculty, and guests for discussion, presentation of student and faculty projects, performances by guest artists, and master classes with different members of the performance faculty. (S/U grade option only)
Additional Description:

Meetings on group basis with computer music faculty in support of individual student research projects. Prerequisites: consent of instructor and completion of Music 270A-B-C.
Additional Description:

Instructor: Tamara Smyth

Projects to create new pieces of electronic music involving research in electronic music and/or instrumental techniques. May be repeated for credit.
Additional Description: Given the necessity to adapt our creative and research practices to the current pandemic conditions, and uncertainty of access to facilities and equipment, we plan to team teach a new version of Music 272 in Fall and Winter Quarter. This project-oriented course will incubate projects developed by small teams of students around common interests that take creative approaches to socially distanced collaboration. We encourage participation from students in all areas of the graduate program including but not limited to performers, improvisors, composers, and computer musicians. Instructors: Professor Rand Steiger and Professor Miller Puckette

Individual research. (S/U grades permitted.) May be repeated for credit. Enrollment by consent of instructor only.
Additional Description: Research with selected faculty on individual basis, with units per agreement between student and faculty. Six unit minimum required specifically for preparation of PhD/DMA qualifying exams, normally taken with each of the Music committee members for S/U grade.

Individual research projects relevant to the student's selected area of graduate interest conducted in continuing relationship with a faculty adviser in preparation for the master's thesis or doctoral dissertation.(S/Ugrades permitted.)
Additional Description: Six unit minimum required in preparation of MA thesis. Twelve units quarterly required after PhD/DMA qualifying exams, to prepare for doctoral dissertation; normally taken with music committee chair and/or members for S/U grade.

Participation in the undergraduate teaching program is required of all graduate students at the equivalentof 25 percent time for three quarters (six units is required for all graduate students).
Additional Description: All TAs must simultaneously enroll in Music 500 with the course instructor each quarter in which they are a TA. Participation in the undergraduate teaching program is required of all graduate students at the equivalent of 25% time for three quarters, or 33% for two quarters (6 units of Music 500). Units correspond to hours of work per week. Enroll as follows: 2 units = 10 hours (equivalent to 25% TA), 3 units = 13.5 hours (equivalent to 33% TA), and 4 units = 20 hours (equivalent to 50% TA.). It is the student's responsibility to seek out teaching experiences to acquire 6 units of Music 500 if no TA is assigned. NOTE: New TAs also enroll in FALL quarter for 1 unit of MUS 501 with the department Faculty TA Advisor for New TA Training.