MUS 344 - Junior Seminar: Ideologies of Improvisation

This junior seminar will examine improvisation as a musical practice, analytical object, and subject of critical discourse in a variety of historical and cultural contexts, attending to the musical techniques and artistic ideologies of improvisational performance in equal measure. Case studies will engage a diverse selection of historically significant improvisational practices in world musical culture and reflect the scope and range of critical music scholarship on these issues. Students will also conduct and workshop significant research projects on an improvisatory practice of their choice, together developing the methods and skills needed to undertake substantial independent projects.

Unit(s): 1
Group Distribution Requirement(s): Distribution Group I
Prerequisite(s): MUS 150, MUS 221, MUS 222, and junior standing
Instructional Method: Conference
Grading Mode: Letter grading (A-F)
Not offered: 2024-25