Music 295a

Introduction to Electronic Music

Fall 2008

Faculty: Juraj Kojs
Teaching Assistants: Mr. Christopher Cerrone, Ms. Hillary Charnas, Mr. Matthew Barnson
E-mails: juraj.kojs@yale.edu, christopher.cerrone@yale.edu, hillary.charnas@yale.edu, matthew.barnson@yale.edu
Class Times: Monday and Wednesday. 1:00–2:15 PM
Class Locations: Phelps Electronic Classroom, Room 207, Phelps Hall
Lab Sections: Wednesdays OR Thursdays, Hours to be announced
Lab Locations: YalMusT, Room B1, Music Department, 143 Elm St.

Music 295a site: http://www.yale.edu/yalemus/295a
Music 295a Weekly Syllabus: http://www.yale.edu/yalemus/295a/syllabus.htm
YalMusT site: http://www.yale.edu/yalemus/yalmust
YalMusT department site: http://www.yale.edu/yalemus/yalmustlab
ViCH site: http://www.yale.edu/yalemus/vich
Yale Classesv2 site: http://classesv2.yale.edu/
Digital Media Center for the Arts: http://www.yale.edu/dmca/

Course Description     
This course is intended to provide you with a basic understanding of electronic music.  
Specifically, the course will introduce you to: 1) basic electronic music terminology and 
2) fundamental techniques and technologies of electronic music. We will focus on popular 
genres including trance, hip-hop, ambient, house, techno, and trip-hop. Students will 
acquire both theoretical and practical, “hands on” knowledge related to electronic music.  
The lectures will cover theory and history of digitizing music, archiving to media, sample 
editing, digital signal processing, synthesis, sampling, MIDI sequencing and mixing. The labs 
will provide  “hands on” experience with music composition projects. Students will also 
create and develop an on-line blog which will provide a virtual board for sharing ideas, 
images and music. 

The objectives of this course are five-fold:

1)	To become familiar with the basic technical principles of electronic music
2)	To gain knowledge regarding the mechanics of digital music technology
3)	To attain awareness regarding the history and theoretical viewpoints of electronic music 
4)	To form an ability to create music of various popular genres
5)	To develop the capacity to distinguish between different genres of popular music
    

Required material
Blank CD-R or CD-RW and headphones

Optional material
External Firewire/USB drive

Readings:
Sound Unbound. Paul D. Miller editor. (The MIT Press, 2008; ISBN: 978-0-262-63363-5, paperback book)
Rick Snoman. The Dance Music Manual. (Focal Press, 2008 repr.; ISBN:978-0-240-51915-9, paperback book)

The books can be purchased in The Foundry Music Company store located at 102 Audubon St. # 1 (New Haven)

Additional texts will be posted on line.

Optional Readings:
M. Pendergast. The Ambient Century
Thom Holmes. Electronic and Experimental Music 
C. Cox. Audio Culture 
P. D. Miller. Rhythm Science 
A. Pejrolo. Creative Sequencing Techniques 
C. Dodge. Computer Music 
C. Roads. Computer Music Tutorial

Software installed on the studio computers: Wave Editor, Frequency, Logic Pro 8, Reason 4.0,
ReCycle 2.1 and RadiaL 1.5 

Free Download  Frequency:  http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/19112

Prerequisites: No previous knowledge of music and music software required. 

Course Structure:
This course will meet three times a week for a period of seventy-five minutes. Mondays and Wednesdays    
are dedicated to lectures. Labs, the third period, will consist of class discussions regarding the assigned 
readings as well as    listening to music, practicing technology exercises, working on projects and 
presenting projects.  

All listening will be posted on-line in ViCH: Virtual Concert Hall. 

Grading:
Attendance, Participation and Blog          15%
Smaller Assignments                              40%
Midterm and Final                                   30% 
Final Compositional Project                      15%

Attendance, Participation and Blog (15%): 
Learning new technology and related concepts is similar to learning a new language.  It is a mental 
and physical skill that requires practice both on paper and in practice.  Therefore, class attendance 
and active participation in discussions is crucial to mastering this course. Attendance will be taken 
at each class meeting and participation will be factored into the final grade. 

Smaller Assignments (40%):  
The purpose of these smaller assignments is to build a compositional portfolio showing a variety of 
techniques acquired in the class. The assignments amplify the theoretical knowledge gained from the l
ectures. Four short compositions not exceeding 2 minutes will be required. These assignments will be 
graded on timely completion and familiarity gained with the specific electronic music software. 
These compositions will be presented in the class as well as submitted in an audio file format.