Undergraduate Program
Selected Course Offerings:
Performance
A number of electives in Performance are offered on a regular basis. They include:
Music 221: The Performance of Chamber Music.
Professor Wendy Sharp.
Coached chamber music emphasizing the development of ensemble skills, familiarization with the repertory, and musical analysis through performance.
Music 222: The Performance of Vocal Music.
Professor Richard Lalli.
A course for singers and pianists that emphasizes the analysis and musical preparation of classical solo song and operatic repertoire. Examination of structure (poetic, harmonic, motivic), discussion of style, exploration of vocal techniques, and introduction to the International Phonetic Alphabet. Staged performance of madrigals by Monteverdi in conjunction with the Yale Baroque Opera Project; performance of lieder by Schubert and Schumann. Students are strongly encouraged to supplement the course with individual voice instruction.
Music 223: The Performance of Early Music.
Professor Judith Malafronte.
A study of musical styles of the twelfth through early eighteenth centuries, including examination of manuscripts, musicological research, transcription and score preparation, and performance. Students in this class form the nucleus of the Yale Collegium Musicum.
Music 224: The Performance of Musical Theatre.
Professor Richard Lalli.
A course for singers and pianists that emphasizes both practical performance and structural analysis. Study of the structure and composition of traditional and contemporary musical theater material in order to improve the comprehension and performance of representative songs.
Music 225: Javanese Gamelan Performance.
Professor Sarah Weiss.
A study of Javanese musical genres from the eighteenth century to the twenty-first. Introduction to the playing techniques of multiple instruments. Survey of theoretical and aesthetic discourses on gamelan and other Indonesian performance. Members of the class form the nucleus of the Yale Javanese Gamelan Ensemble.
Music 226: Continuo Realization and Performance.
Professor Ilya Poletaev.
Acquisition of skills necessary for a competent and expressive performance from thorough-bass. Learning of figures, honing of voice-leading skills, and investigation of various historical and national styles of continuo playing. Regular class performances, either independently or with an instrumentalist or singer. Open to pianists, harpsichordists, organists, guitarists, and lutenists, although instruction is primarily at the keyboard.
Music 227: Rhetoric and Early Instrumental Performance.
Professor Robert Mealy.
A study of the techniques and styles of historical instrumental performance, concentrating on virtuosic chamber music of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Emphasis on fluency in various musical languages. Study of original musical sources and contemporary writing about performance.
Music 228: Performing and Directing Musical Theater.
Professor Annette Jolles.
A study of the structure and meaning of traditional and contemporary musical theater repertoire. Focus on ways to read a work, decipher compositional cues for character and action, facilitate internalization of material, and elicit lucid interpretations. For singers, pianists, and directors.
