ID 103.16 Strangely Familiar Music Group

"Which is more musical: a truck passing by a factory or a truck passing by a music school?" -John Cage

"I want to find the music, not to compose it." -Tom Johnson

"Listening is noticing and directing attention and interpreting what is heard.  Deep Listening is exploring the relationship among any and all sounds." -Pauline Oliveros

No prior music experience required! (You are also welcome if you have played music before!) We will study, create, and perform music that grows out of surprising sources: places and situations, strange and everyday objects, nature, emotions, processes, patterns … exploring rhythm, motif, counterpoint, shape, and other compositional elements. Working with found objects and sounds in the environment, you will maintain a composer/performer’s binder of ideas, reflections, and experiments, invent your own system of music notation, and perform in a low-tech, experimental music ensemble. This is not your high school band.

Class meets: Thursdays 2:30 - 4:00, Taylor 323
 

We may walk over to other campus locations, or occasionally begin a class session by meeting at another location on campus, so stay informed, please!

Additionally, your first-year learning community is associated with this course, which means that we will be planning events and field trips outside of our assigned course meeting time and perhaps requiring extra time for travel; every effort will be made to accommodate other obligations you may have that could potentially conflict with these activities; however, it would be very helpful if you could plan in advance and also problem solve ways to avoid such potential conflicts.

Freshmen Seminar requires that each student attend at least four additional cultural and/or other community events on or off campus, independent of what we do as a learning community, so you will need to plan for this time commitment as well.

Requirements:

This is a pass/fail course. To pass, you must satisfy the following minimum requirements:

- Attend each class session. More than two absences automatically leads to failing this course, as per the campus first-year seminar policy.

- Actively participate in class activities, exercises, discussions, and events, and complete all homework assignments.

- Practice your parts and the rhythm exercises in-between meetings.

- Maintain your own Strangely Familiar Music Group Binder (details below). Bring your binder and a pencil to each class meeting.

- Either compose a composition that is publicly performed, or perform on an instrument of your own invention that is featured extensively in a composition by another member of our course.

- Attend class field trips or share with the class what you learned from your own pre-approved individual field trips.

- Attend at least four on/off campus cultural/community events, submitting a soundtrack with liners notes for each event.

- Attend at least one community/class trip/event or the equivalent. (We won't differentiate between learning community trips and events and course trips and events; at least one is required for passing this course. Obviously, attending them all will enhance your experience at Arcadia, support the ensemble, and is otherwise incredibly valuable.)

Tentative Schedule (subject to change):

8/30    Welcome!

9/7

9/14    Soundtrack #1/Counseling Center

9/21   

9/28

9/29    Soundtrack #2

10/5   /EEC
10/12  Soundtrack #3

10/19  Peter away at Bergamo Conference - meet on your own to rehearse and develop pieces

10/26

11/2    Proposed Public Performance Date for Individual/Group Pieces

11/9    Soundtrack #4

Strangely Familiar Music Group Binder:

In this course you will maintain a binder that will enable you to pursue particular compositional and performance investigations. These investigations will help us develop an understanding of what it means to be a composer and performer, as well as provide the platform for actually doing the work of our course.

The ideal notebook is a three-ring binder that is not too thick (if needed, one can always start a second, back-up binder) with a number of plastic sleeves that can hold 8.5x11" 'scores'. It should be possible to prop the binder on a table, chair or music stand so that you can see the scores while performing. Your binder should have three sections. In the front place the plastic sleeves containing scores. The second section is for notes from class discussions, your own notes on developing compositional, notational and instrument ideas, and drafts of your work. The third section is for your composer's reaction papers.

Soundtracks 1-4:

Soundtracks can set the mood, convey information independent of the action, emphasize character or plot development, underscore an aspect of the scene by underscoring it musically, provide commentary on the action, or describe location. For each cultural/community event, burn a CD of the soundtrack for that event. Include along with your CD liner notes using the musical vocabulary of our course to explain why the tracks were selected. Identify an idea that you think of thanks to attending the event for your work with invented instruments or composed pieces.

Dates above are to help you accomplish this according to a reasonable schedule. Feel free to complete these earlier than indicated.

Music Vocabulary:
Our course will use the following ideas throughout, with a weekly focus on one or two at a time to start. Using these terms in your composer's reaction papers will also help you to become fluent in this specialized language.

What differentiates a composition from random or ambient sound? This question guides most of our work this semester. A starting point is to say that something is a musical composition if it has been arranged to be heard. Does this work for you now? See how your ideas change over the semester.

What makes a composition 'good?' Another fine question. As composers and performers we need to use a different working definition than we might use as a listener who has a specific purpose associated with entertainment. Here's a working definition to start: a good composition 'needs to provide something.' Here's another: Would you want to hear it again? If so, then it's good. This doesn't mean that not wanting to hear it again makes it bad; you must examine your reactions and motivations before closing yourself off to a piece that specifically offers a 'challenge" to your expectations.