Courses for incoming, first-semester students.
FYS (First-year Seminar) courses are offered in the fall of every academic year and required for every incoming student. These courses are writing intensive and serve the College’s Common Course of Study as the Introductory College-level writing course. Professors who teach them have a great deal of freedom with regard to the topics covered, and often choose topics of personal or professional interest. The courses presented below are examples of FYS courses taught recently by Music Department faculty.
Can we hear gender difference in music? Why are there no “great” women composers? What power does a performance wield? To examine these questions, we will explore issues of sexual aesthetics, power, class, cha(lle)nging the roles, and gender as/and performance. In an active classroom environment and discussion based course, you will challenge, lead, explore and develop your own point of view while you discover your own contribution to the arts through valid argument.
Instructor(s): Jennifer Kelly
As is often the case after cataclysmic world events, things change, as the war in Europe transformed into the Cold War between the US and the Soviets, humanity came under threat of nuclear annihilation. Music, art, and literature of this year provide great insight into these events; it will be our task to explore connections between the works of art created in response to the end of WWII and the beginning of the Cold War.
Instructor(s): Kirk O’Riordan
As is often the case after cataclysmic world events, things change: as the war in Vietnam came to a close, we began a revolutionary re-evaluation of what it was to be human. Every aspect of the human condition was questioned. Music, art, and literature of this year provide great insight into the process by which we questioned our humanity: it will be our task to explore connections between the works of art created in response to the end of the Vietnam War and this re-evaluation of what it means to be a human being.
Instructor(s): Kirk O’Riordan
Beginning in the early 20th century, Asian martial arts have attracted the attention of Western audiences. The fighting styles of Judo, Karate, Kung Fu, as well as the internal style of Tai Chi, have demonstrated a strong influence on fighting and self defense in Western culture. This First Year Seminar examines how Asian martial arts function within American culture by investigating topics such as self defense, military strategy, health and fitness, competitive fighting, and popular entertainment.
Instructor(s): Jorge Torres
The course does not assume knowledge of music on the students’ part; nor does it require that they master notation or become conversant with musical analysis. Rather, the course examines developments in European history that have left their traces in the music. It relates music to developments in European culture and explains the distinctive characteristics of the music of a period in relation to those larger developments that underlie its cultural productivity.
Instructor(s): Anthony Cummings
The year 1912-13 witnessed the creation or introduction of several remarkable works of art: Major musical compositions such as Mahler’s Ninth Symphony, Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring, and Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire; visual art by Picasso, Duchamp, Chagall, Matisse, and others; literature by Cather, Conrad, Wharton, Kafka, Lawrence, Proust, and others. Our tasks in this seminar will be to a) explore the connections between these and other works of art in the context of pre-WWI society; b) make meaningful stylistic and expressive comparisons between art of different disciplines; and c) explore the influence this art had on works created later.
Instructor(s): Kirk O’Riordan
Visit the Course Catalog for the official course description and listing