This course examines the production, transmission, preservation and qualities of folk music in the British Isles and North America from the 18th century to the folk revival of the 1960s and the present. There is a special emphasis on balladry, fiddle styles, and African-American influences. The class sings ballads and folk songs from the Child and Lomax collections as well as other sources as we examine them from literary, historical, and musical points of view. Readings supply critical and background materials from a number of sources. Visitors and films bring additional perspectives.

This course is a study of the history of theater art and practice from its origins to the modern period, including its roles in non-western cultures. Special attention is given to the relationship between the literary and performative dimensions of drama, and the relationship between drama and its cultural context.

Drama combines the literary arts of storytelling and poetry with the world of live performance. As a form of ritual as well as entertainment, drama has served to unite communities and challenge social norms, to vitalize and disturb its audiences. In order to understand this rich art form more fully, we will study and discuss a sampling of plays that exemplify different kinds of dramatic structure; class members will also participate in, attend, and review dramatic performances.

Syllabus with listening links for Introduction to Jazz History course that uses a library ebook as primary textbook: Ted Gioia, The History of Jazz, 2nd ed. (New York: Oxford, 2011). Covers the 90-year history of jazz, a truly American art form. Examines and analyzes eras, styles, and significant artists.

Upon successful completion students should be able to:

Understand that the study of jazz involves an analysis of what motivates humans to create and how their creations reflect their values and world views
Experience jazz music “dynamically,” that is, to appreciate simultaneously the uniqueness of a work, its origins and precedent, its potential as an inspiration and influence on later music and its relationship to a particular cultural moment
Critically examine the impact of jazz on social interaction so as to encourage sensitivity and empathy toward people with different values or beliefs.

Through a progressive series of composition projects, students investigate the sonic organization of musical works and performances, focusing on fundamental questions of unity and variety. Aesthetic issues are considered in the pragmatic context of the instructions that composers provide to achieve a desired musical result, whether these instructions are notated in prose, as graphic images, or in symbolic notation. No formal training is required. Weekly listening, reading, and composition assignments draw on a broad range of musical styles and intellectual traditions, from various cultures and historical periods.

This series is one part of UC Irvine's Musicianship 15 ABC sequence for music majors. An understanding of music notation and basic musical terms is helpful but not required for these presentations. The math involved is basic.

Offered in the spring and fall terms, Introduction to Stagecraft is a hands-on course that gets students working with the tools and techniques of theatrical production in a practical way. It is not a design course but one devoted to artisanship. Among the many remarkable final projects that have been proposed and presented at the end of the course have been a Renaissance hourglass blown in the MIT glass shop and set into a frame turned on our set shop lathe; a four harness loom built by a student who then wove cloth on it; a number of chain mail tunics and coifs; a wide variety of costume and furniture pieces and electrified period lighting fixtures.

An Introduction to Technical Theatre draws on the author’s experience in both the theatre and the classroom over the last 30 years. Intended as a resource for both secondary and post-secondary theatre courses, this text provides a comprehensive overview of technical theatre, including terminology and general practices. Introduction to Technical Theatre’s accessible format is ideal for students at all levels, including those studying technical theatre as an elective part of their education.

This course gives a broad overview of Western music from the Middle Ages to the 20th century, with emphasis on late baroque, classical, romantic, and modernist styles (1700-1910). It is also meant to enhance students' musical experience by developing listening skills and an understanding of diverse forms and genres. Major composers and their works will be placed in social and cultural contexts. Weekly lectures feature demonstrations by professional performers, and introduce topics to be discussed in sections. The focus of the course is on the weekly listening and reading assignments.

This course is an introduction to diverse musical traditions of the world. Music from a wide range of geographical areas is studied in terms of structure, performance practice, social use, aesthetics, and cross-cultural contact. Course work includes hands-on music making, live demonstrations by guest artists, and ethnographic research projects.

This course explores the ways that music is both shaped by and gives shape to the cultural settings in which it is performed, through studying selected musical traditions from around the world. Specific case studies will be examined closely through listening, analysis, and hands-on instruction. The syllabus centers around weekly listening assignments and readings from a textbook with CDs, supplemented by hands-on workshops, lecture/demonstrations and concerts by master musicians from around the world.

This course is an introduction to Islam from the perspective of media and sound studies, intended for advanced undergraduates and graduate students. From the time of the Prophet Muhammad, Islam in its various manifestations has had a complex relationship with media. While much contemporary writing focuses on Islam in the media, this course explores how many aspects of Islamic practice and thinking might be understood as media technologies that facilitate the inscription, storage and transmission of knowledge. Central questions include: How do Islam and media technologies relate? What kinds of practices of inscription and transmission characterize Islam in all its varieties across time and place? How might Islamic thought and practice be understood in light of databases, networks, and audiovisual sensation? Given the rich diversity in Islam historically and geographically, emphasis will be placed on these interconnected but divergent practices from the earliest revelations of the Qur'an to contemporary Islamist political movements, with geographies spanning from Indonesia to the Middle East and North Africa, as well as in Europe and North America. In addition to exploring these themes through reading and writing, students will be encouraged to complete course assignments and projects in media, using audiovisual documentary or composition as a means of responding to the course themes.

Short Description:
This is a dramaturgical casebook on La France Sauvée, an unfinished play by Olympe de Gouges, translated by Clarissa Palmer, with contextual information on the French Revolution.

Long Description:
This digital humanities project is a digital dramaturgical casebook for the play, La France Sauvée, ou le Tyran détrôné (France Preserved, or the Tyrant Dethroned, 1792). The dramaturgical casebook includes a master copy of the script as well as historical research pertaining to the playwright, cast members, timeline, places, costume and set design, and bibliography.

Word Count: 23888

(Note: This resource's metadata has been created automatically by reformatting and/or combining the information that the author initially provided as part of a bulk import process.)

Word Count: 108308

(Note: This resource's metadata has been created automatically by reformatting and/or combining the information that the author initially provided as part of a bulk import process.)

This class explores the artistry of Lighting Design. Students gain an overall technical working knowledge of the tools of the trade, and learn how, and where to apply them to a final design. However essential technical expertise is, the class stresses the artistic, conceptual, collaborative side of the craft. The class format is a "hands on" approach, with a good portion of class time spent in a theatre.

This is a textbook meant for use within The Living Arts (FINE 101) -- Chapters include introductions to Painting, Sculpture, Architecture, Theatre, Music, and Dance.

Course Description: An interdisciplinary survey of human creative efforts as they relate to each other. The visual and performing arts are compared with similarities stressed.

Looking at Light is an introductory text for theatre lighting designers. It is an appropriate resource for students at the college or university level who are interested in learning about lighting design at a fundamental level.

While the resource is designed as an introductory lighting design program for University students, it may also be useful to high school students who are interested in technical theatre, adults who are involved in community theatres, high school teachers who find themselves being responsible for lighting (even though they have little training in the area), or professionals and amateur theatre and dance practitioners from non-lighting areas.

This is a design-based course, and while there is some effort to explain the technology involved with theatrical lighting, it is not meant to be a resource to learn how to be an electrician or programmer.

This course explores the ways in which humans experience the realm of sound and how perceptions and technologies of sound emerge from cultural, economic, and historical worlds. It examines how environmental, linguistic, and musical sounds are construed cross-culturally. It describes the rise of telephony, architectural acoustics, sound recording, and the globalized travel of these technologies. Students address questions of ownership, property, authorship, and copyright in the age of digital file sharing. There is a particular focus on how the sound/noise boundary is imagined, created and modeled across diverse sociocultural and scientific contexts. Auditory examples will be provided. Instruction and practice in written and oral communication provided. At MIT, this course is limited to 20 students.

With Blues, Jazz, and Soul Music as a foundational backdrop, Memphis has made many other significant contributions to music.  Artists such as Maurice White, (leader/founder of the 70s/80s supergroup Earth, Wind, and Fire), Big Star, and even the most recent Band Camino all call Memphis Home.  These artists along with others continue to push the creative envelope and discover new avenues of expression for Memphis Music.