The music program at Simon’s Rock combines a thorough grounding in essential musical skills with explorations of diverse musical languages, including the gamut of Western classical periods and styles, jazz, electronic music, and many “non-Western” forms of music. Students explore music’s connections to other dimensions of human experience, expression, and inquiry.
The program offers historical, theoretical, comparative, and applied course sequences as well as performing opportunities. The historical sequence acquaints students with the trends and literature of Western music and with the stylistic development of jazz. The comparative musicology sequence (ethnomusicology) starts with Music in World Cultures and continues with various special courses (i.e., Music of India) that may tie in with subjects such as anthropology. The goal of this sequence is an understanding of music as a universal human activity.
The theory sequence moves through harmonic, contrapuntal, and analytic units. The composition courses may be seen as components of the theory sequence, which is equally relevant to all advanced-level courses and practical musical activities.
The applied sequence offers many opportunities for developing performing skills. Private instruction in piano, voice, string, brass, woodwinds, and percussion is available through the Applied Music Program at an additional fee. Students may earn one credit for private instruction. Advanced students may earn one or two additional credits by preparing and performing the major portion of a solo recital. Advanced students planning to take three combined applied performance credits in a semester are also required to file an Independent Music Project Contract at the beginning of the semester, outlining their goals and strategies.
Other courses encourage students to pursue additional directions in the world of music, including electronic music using a state-of-the-art MIDI (Music Instrument Digital Interface) laboratory, jazz improvisation, and composition in which students creatively explore many forms, styles, and methods.
Simon’s Rock is the home of South Berkshire Concerts, a series that brings distinguished professional artists to campus several times each semester.
Music 100/400 | Applied Music Faculty | 1 credit
Simon’s Rock offers private lessons to its students and to residents of Berkshire County through the Applied Music Program. The music faculty also provides supplementary enrichment such as group classes and frequent performing opportunities. Qualified music students may work toward one academic credit per term by registering for Music 100/400. Music lessons are graded Pass/Fail. Advanced students who have taken lessons for at least one semester at Simon’s Rock may take lessons on a graded basis by submitting a form to the Office of Academic Affairs. Students can earn additional credit for solo performances and advanced study. Instruction is regularly available in voice, guitar, oboe, violin, and piano; lessons on other wind, string, and percussion instruments may also be available.
No prerequisites. Lessons are arranged through contracts for 13 or 26 lessons, and are offered at an additional fee. To complete registration, a Music Lesson Contract must be submitted. Lesson schedules are arranged through the Office of Academic Affairs.
Music 103 | Hutton-DeWys | 1 p/f credit
Have you ever wanted to learn to read music or be able to write down what you hear? This class is your first step whether you want to sing, learn an instrument, compose, or improve your ear for melodies. This course covers music notation, ear training, sight singing, and the composition of simple pieces. By the end of the semester, you will have improved your skills in all aspects of music reading and will be familiar with the basics of scales and chords. Students without previous experience in music reading or those wishing to renew their acquaintance with musical fundamentals should register for this course. This course is recommended for all students planning to take music lessons and participate in ensembles as well as those planning to take music theory or composition courses.
No prerequisites.
Music 117 | J. Brown | 1 p/f credit
The rehearsal and reading of works from part-song and choral literature from the Middle Ages to present.
Chorus is open to all students and community members by audition. Previous singing experience and some music reading ability are desirable preparation. This course is generally offered every semester.
Music 201/401 | Staff | 2/4 credits
Intensive private study is available through a limited number of independent music projects. These expanded lessons include an additional component, such as public performance, applied theoretical study, or repertory expansion.
Prerequisite: High intermediate level of performing ability (minimum six years of lessons) and permission of the instructor.
Music 202m | Wallach | 2 credits
The music of the church (ca. 600–1400) in chants and early forms of harmony, the rich variety of secular forms that address the broad range of the medieval experience, the evolution of musical notation, the role of music in society: these topics are explored not only through recordings, readings, and discussions, but through performances by the members of the class.
No prior experience is necessary, but those who do read musical notation can assist those who do not. This course is generally offered once every three or four years.
Music 203m | Wallach | 2 credits
“Nothing worth listening to was written until forty years ago,” wrote Tinctoris, ca. 1500. At the apex of the aristocracy, unhindered by a fragmented church, individual creativity was released in a continuous celebration of human capacity and human experience by means of a new-found technical sophistication in the arts. Music underwent a profound transformation as musicians discovered the power of sensuously appealing tones to convey the intimacy and intensity of their private experiences. The course covers the period from 1450 to 1600.
This course is generally offered once every three or four years.
Music 204m | Wallach | 2 credits
The modern musical era was born in a concentrated period of revolutionary activity focusing on the creation of opera and of free-standing instrumental forms. This module explores music written between the beginning of the 17th century and the birth of Bach (1685). In addition to opera and monody, it focuses on the creation of sonatas, fugues, concerti, and music built around the Lutheran chorale. Composers include Monteverdi, Gabrieli, and Schütz.
No prerequisites, but some music-reading ability is useful. This course is generally offered once every three or four years.
Music 205m | Wallach | 2 credits
This course focuses on the music of the later baroque period (ca. 1680–1750), which was dominated by the two contrasting German masters Johann Sebastian Bach and George Frederick Handel. We will become familiar with the musical languages, styles, genres, forms, and social functions of the music of this era; develop listening skills; and learn about the artistic standards and expectations of the times. This will be set against the background of the biographies of the two composers as well as of the other arts (literature, painting), philosophy, religion, science, technology, politics, and social life in contemporary Europe.
No prerequisites, but some music-reading ability is useful. This course is generally offered once every three or four years.
Music 206-207 | Hutton-DeWys, J. Myers, Wallach | 3 credits
Theory I introduces the tonal system through the composition and analysis of simple melodies. The course gradually builds the picture of harmonized melody by developing bass-lines and inner voices utilizing triads in all inversions. It also builds basic musical skills, emphasizing interval identification and minimal keyboard familiarity. Theory II introduces the use of dissonance in the form of suspension and seventh chords, and chromaticism in the form of secondary harmonies and modulatory progressions. Chromatic harmonies (Neapolitan and augmented sixth chords) and enharmonic relations complete the tonal picture. Short whole pieces from the Baroque period are used as first examples of whole-piece analysis.
Prerequisites: Intermediate music-reading ability and permission of the instructor. This course is generally offered once a year.
Music 210/310 | Wallach | 3/4 credits
Students present original compositions for examination, discussion, and performance by the class. Course work includes writing for combinations of instruments or voices, with the possibility of public performance available. Exercises in counterpoint and arranging are included. Where relevant, contemporary compositions are studied through scores and recorded performances.
Prerequisites: Completion of one semester of music theory, or equivalent. This course is generally offered once a year.
Music 211 | Staff | 3 credits
An introduction to the processes of sound synthesis and sound assembly through the structure of a computer workstation with sequencing, audio editing, and notational software. The course covers digital and sampling synthesis, compositional structures that can be programmatically manipulated through editing and real-time intervention, and many other facets of creating music with the studio-as-instrument.
Prerequisites: Musical background comparable to one semester of Theory and permission of the instructor. Enrollment is limited due to constraints on studio access. This course is generally offered once a year.
Music 213/313 CP | J. Myers | 3/4 credits
his course focuses on contemporary performance practice of Hindustani (North Indian) classical music and on the theoretical, historical, and philosophical background of this vital tradition. The class learns several ragas through representative compositions and develops improvisation techniques in alap and tan. Although each class member is required to develop a strong comprehension of musical material, semester projects may center on other aspects of the culture and history of the Indian subcontinent (including Pakistan and Bangladesh). By the end of the semester, musically advanced students do extensive systematic improvisation in at least one raga.
Prerequisite: No previous musical experience is required for Music 213 CP. Music 313, which requires a previous CP Seminar in music or permission of the instructor, meets concurrently, and includes a substantial written, semester-long research project, and class presentation. This course is generally offered once every three or four years.
Music 214m | Wallach | 2 credits
A continuation of Music 215m that can also be taken separately, this course explores the outcome of 18th-century developments in the early 19th century through the works of two contrasting figures, Beethoven (1770–1827), a composer of concert music who worked in the public eye, and Schubert (1797–1828), whose most successful works were meant for homes and salons, and whose fame arrived several generations after his death. Both composers’ innovations were built on the solid foundations of the classical forms and classical tonality, but each created a highly personal style. Individual works are examined in depth but with attention to the larger historical context. Student work includes response journals and one paper/project on a self-selected topic.
Either an acquaintance with musical notation or some historical or literary background are suggested but not required. This course is generally offered once every three or four years.
Music 215m | Wallach | 2 credits
Emphasizing listening and the development of individual responses, this course explores the work of two pivotal figures in late 18th-century music, one of whom changed the direction of European music decisively toward instrumental forms (sonata, quartet, symphony), while the other mastered these forms with astonishing speed and also brought the older form of opera to its historical pinnacle. Individual works are examined in depth but with attention to the larger historical context. Student work includes response journals and one paper/project on a self-selected topic.
Either an acquaintance with musical notation or some historical or literary background are suggested but not required. This course is generally offered once every three or four years.
Music 216 | Wallach | 3 credits
Music developing in post-revolutionary Europe was influenced by both Napoleonic artistic politics and the rising middle class; it reflected a new flexibility of social class and social roles. It courted and sometimes won the mass public with a style that alternated erratically between the intimate, privileged space of the visionary and the inflated rhetoric of the virtuoso. Good taste and good marketing jockeyed for position; the outcome can be seen in the overwhelming influence of Wagner, affecting those who reacted against him even more than those who set out to follow him. All students are encouraged to love or hate any of the music we study as long as they have fun doing so and saying so.
Prerequisite: Some music reading ability. This course is generally offered once every three or four years.
Music 217/317 | Wallach | 3/4 credits
This course invites students to treat music written in the 20th century as an open text and to write their own histories of it based on their perceptual and aesthetic interactions with a wide variety of musical gestures while considering the views of such writers as Adorno, Benjamin, McLeary, Nattiez, and Attali. The class focuses especially on the “loose canon” of early 20th-century masters, particularly exploring the values influencing the continual reassessment of the works of Schoenberg. The issue of the relationship of music to audience is investigated. The class views videos of modern operas and attends a concert in New York or Boston. Students do listening/reading assignments and three self-generated investigations (paper/projects).
Some music reading ability is recommended. This course is generally offered once every two years.
Music 218/318 CP | J. Myers | 3/4 credits
This course explores the historical development, artistic traditions, and cultural meanings of jazz. Jazz is studied both as a musical phenomenon and as a vehicle for an ongoing cultural dialogue that continues to have a profound impact upon many dimensions of American life. The course is organized around the emergence and continuation of dynamic styles such as ragtime, New Orleans, swing, be-bop, polymodal, fusion, and free-form. Individual musicians are studied in the context of historical trends in music and culture. Course work includes listening assignments, readings, and research projects.
Prerequisite: No previous musical experience is required for Music 218 CP. Music 318, which requires a previous CP Seminar in music or permission of the instructor, meets concurrently, and includes a substantial written, semester-long research project, and class presentation. This course is generally offered once every three years.
Music 219/319 | J. Myers | 3/4 credits
This course develops essential skills in jazz, with particular focus on improvisation. Activities include application of melodic and harmonic concepts to a broad range of standard professional repertoire, harmonic analysis, and possible public performances.
Prerequisite: Performing experience, music theory at the level of Musicianship (Music 103) or higher, or permission of the instructor. This course is generally offered once every two years.
Music 222 | J. Myers | 1 p/f credit
This course features the reading and rehearsal of jazz literature in a wide range of styles. It is open to all students and community members by audition.
Some ability to read music is required. This course is generally offered every semester.
Music 234/334 | Hutton-DeWys | 3/4 credits
Most talented and influential women in music reside in the shadows of history behind their better-known male contemporaries. Who performed Mozart's piano concertos? Who really wrote that piece by Mendelssohn? Who was Schumann's and Brahms' object of obsession? Who taught Aaron Copland? This survey of classical music written since 1750 will emphasize figures dramatically underrepresented in music scholarship: Women composers, performers, and patrons of classical music. We explore the lives, music, and socio-political milieux of these important women. Coursework includes discussions and written responses to reading and listening assignments. Additionally, students research women composers and musicians for an oral presentation and term paper. Students acquire vocabulary for writing about music, and learn to generate clear, concise writing in an academic voice.
No knowledge of music reading or prerequisite is required for 200-level. For 300-level: 2 modules of Western music history OR one CP music class OR moderation into music.
Music 236/336 | Wallach | 3/4 credits
The work of this class consists of rehearsing and performing repertory from varied periods of classical music from 1600 to the present. In-class rehearsals will be coached by the instructor or self-directed by the members of the ensemble. Attention will focus on appropriate performance styles, development of a cohesive sense of ensemble, gaining contextual information relevant to each score, and understanding the particular characteristics of each instrument within the ensemble. Particular emphasis is placed on the development within each group of a productive and efficient rehearsal process. Groups will be structured so that the members are of approximately equal levels of ability. Members will maintain journals describing rehearsals and detailing the challenges and solutions encountered in each score.
This course is generally offered once every year.
Music 237/337 | Hutton-DeWys | 3/4 credits
This course offers a two-part approach to examining the craft of performing and interpretation: the practical aspects of performing for an audience and honing an interpretation, and a consideration of the curious and often-neglected space performers inhabit in between the composition and reception of a piece of music. During class sessions, students receive coaching on interpretation and explore techniques for practicing for a performance, focusing onstage, managing nerves, and effectively transmitting musical expression. Discussions and written assignments respond to readings in performance theory, music memoirs, performance practice, sports psychology, and rudimentary musical analysis. The class culminates in a final recital by all members of the class.
Music Performance Workshop is open to musicians of all levels of experience who have the ability to read music and a small repertoire of pieces to play. Any student wishing to become more comfortable playing in front of an audience will benefit from this class.
Music 238 | Wallach | 3 credits
Song, a hybrid art form, plays a crucial role at the intersection of music and literature. This survey will focus on eight exemplary moments of song-writing spanning the past thousand years, including: medieval troubadours; early Renaissance Franco-Flemish composers; Elizabethan lute-song poet composers; Romantic song (Schubert, Fauré); modern American art and popular songs (Charles Ives, George Gershwin); the Beatles; and the works of contemporary singer/songwriters. For each we will ask a critical question: what are the relative roles of music and poetry (including voice and performance) in conveying an expressively powerful experience? Activities include listening, background reading, analysis and in-class performance. Singers and players will have opportunities to perform; performing and non-performing students will bring their own experiences to their understandings of these repertories, drawing on relevant backgrounds in history, literature, creative writing, and from their own experiences as music-listeners.
Prerequisites: either 1. Music reading ability, or 2. Background in literature, poetry, creative writing, or 3. Background in European history, or 4. performing ability as singer or instrumentalist (piano, guitar).
Music 278 | Bardo | 1 p/f credit
The Collegium (early music ensemble) explores early music through singing and playing period instruments such as recorders and viols. Guitarists, violinists, and cellists may also be accepted. Each semester will focus on music of a particular country or genre. Simon’s Rock owns a tenor and bass recorder as well as treble, tenor, and bass viols, which are free to the users. Students wishing to play recorder should expect to bring their own soprano and/or alto recorders. Plastic recorders, which work very well, can be purchased very inexpensively. Rental instruments may be available for a modest fee. Music will usually be provided, with the caveat that during some semesters students may be required to buy a particular collection of music as part of specific studies. Participation in a final concert as well as regular class attendance is required for receiving credit and a Pass/Fail grade. Students will be expected to practice outside of classes. There is a class fee.
This course is offered when there is sufficient interest.
Music 280 | J. Brown | 1 p/f credit
This chamber choir of six to ten voices rehearses and performs a cappella vocal music concentrating on the vast repertoire of Renaissance madrigals and motets. It may also perform vocal music from the Middle Ages and contemporary a cappella madrigals. It is open to all students by audition. Previous choral experience and basic music reading skills are required.
Prerequisite: Music 117, which may be taken concurrently. T his course is generally offered every semester.
Music 289 | Legêne | 1 p/f credit
The chamber ensemble is engaged in the reading, rehearsal, and performance of classical and modern literature for larger chamber and smaller orchestral ensembles. It is open to students of intermediate to advanced skill on orchestral instruments (strings, woodwind, brass). Individual students may be selected to perform solo concertos with the ensemble.
This course is generally offered every semester.
Music 308 | J. Myers, Wallach | 4 credits
This course offers an accelerated survey of species counterpoint, up to three parts in fifth species. The tonal segment of this course includes analysis based on Schenker’s concepts of tonal layers, as studied in Theory II, integrated with the more rigorous description of dissonance treatment that emerges from the contrapuntal approach. The work of the second half of the semester culminates in the composition of an extended polyphonic work utilizing contrapuntal techniques.
Prerequisites: Music 207 or equivalent. This course is generally offered once a year.
Music 309 | J. Myers, Wallach | 4 credits
This course is a continuation of both Theory II and Theory III. It includes the analysis of 18th- and 19th-century works of increasing complexity (Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, Brahms, Debussy) following the study of form and chromaticism in Theory II, and it extends the contrapuntal exercises of Theory III to further work in tonal counterpoint through short student compositions in the baroque style.
Prerequisite: Music 308. This course is generally offered once a year.
Music 311 | Wallach | 4 credits
A rough chronological study of the posttonal languages of “art” music in the 20th century. The class considers theoretical writings by composers and theorists such as Schoenberg, Schenker (as adapted by Salzer), Forte, Perle, Yeston, Hindemith, Boulez, Cage, and Tenney. Attention is paid to the realignment of musical parameters (timbre, texture, rhythm) as architectural elements. Students do short analytic assignments, developing familiar graphic techniques and exploring alternative methods of visual presentation. Each student selects a composer or theorist for in-depth investigation and presentation of findings to the class.
Prerequisite: Music 207 (minimum); Music 308 and Music 309 (recommended). This course is generally offered once every three or four years.
Music 312 | J. Myers | 4 credits
An introduction to the processes of sound synthesis and sound assembly through the structure of a computer-controlled MIDI studio with backup sequencing and notational software. The course covers digital and sampling synthesis, compositional structures that can be programmatically manipulated through editing and real-time intervention, and many other facets of creating music with the studio-as-instrument.
Prerequisites: Musical background comparable to one semester of theory and permission of the instructor. Enrollment is limited due to constraints on studio access. This course is generally offered once every year.
Music 300/400 | Staff | 4 credits
Under these course numbers, juniors and seniors design tutorials to meet their particular interests and programmatic needs. A student should see the prospective tutor to define an area of mutual interest to pursue either individually or in a small group. A student may register for no more than one tutorial in any semester.