Syllabus

Course Meeting Times

Lectures: 4 sessions / week, 1.5 hours / session, for four weeks

Three weekend evening concerts with 90 minute pre-concert forums

Three open rehearsals on the day before each concert

Course Overview

Themes

This course is an interdisciplinary exploration of three broad themes concerning music in relation to time.

1. Music as Architecture - the creation of musical shapes in time;
2. Music as Memory - how musical understanding depends upon memory and reminiscence, with attention to analysis of musical structures; and
3. Time as the Substance of Music - how different disciplines such as philosophy and neuroscience view the temporal dimension of musical processes and/or performances.

Concerts and Forums

The concerts by the Boston Chamber Music Society (BCMS) commingle works by great composers of the past (e.g., Beethoven and Dvorak) and contemporary composers (e.g., Libby Larsen and MIT professor Peter Child).

The three pre-concert forums bring together experts from various disciplines within MIT and elsewhere, to talk about the concerts in relation to the three themes. The exploration is both multi-media and interdisciplinary across the arts and sciences, using projections of film, painting, sculpture, and poetry. Panelists on each forum will discuss on their own work and the music of the evening. BCMS musicians will be on hand to demonstrate and discuss aspects of the music.

Classroom Meetings

The daily class meetings will be devoted to discussion of these events (before and after), and presentations by various MIT guest speakers about a particular topic of their choosing. The presentations may be related to an artwork (e.g., a novel, a painting, a film, or another piece of music), a cultural object (e.g., a building, a musical instrument, or a specific type of media technology), or to some relevant scientific research project (e.g., in the field of music cognition). Students are also expected to give an informal classroom presentation, which might also include musical performances, to be arranged in consultation with the instructors. For those taking the class for credit, attendance at all three concerts and forums is required, as are short written responses to these events.

Calendar

Session Key
C = Classroom session
R = Open rehearsal
E = Forum/concert event