Courses

Music theory is often considered to be irrelevant to our experience of music. This course will demonstrate that the opposite is true—understanding the laws governing the art of sound enhances our ability to appreciate, enjoy, and even remember music. Reversing the traditional academic practice of moving from concepts to real music, we will start with concrete musical examples and seek to extract their theoretical premises. The opening of Richard Strauss’s “Thus Spoke Zarathustra” will serve as a roadmap introducing such concepts as the overtones series, music intervals, major and minor modes, and chord progression. We will then use a repertory of well-known themes, songs, and large-scale compositions, from “Greensleeves” to Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, and from “Flight of the Bumblebee” to “Star Wars,” to expand our understanding of the theoretical foundations of Western music. Finally, we will learn how to use chords to harmonize a melody, and we’ll explore basic ways of composing music.