Courses Offered in Fall 2024 (113AY 1S)

Course Overview and Objectives

This course centers on two main themes—performance practice and compositional exercises—and serves as a platform for collaboration and communication between composers and performers.

The course primarily explores the possibilities of instrumental sound production through the interpretation of both traditional and contemporary performance techniques, while also examining how these sounds can be applied in actual composition and performance. Course content includes:

1. Understanding the principles of instrumental sound production and deriving advanced extended techniques for instruments.
2. Discussing scores and inviting performers to sight-read short excerpts from contemporary works, supplemented by related videos or demonstrations by invited performance instructors.
3. For composition students: practicing the integration of sound materials by classifying, blending, organizing, and applying them in actual compositional exercises.
4. For performance students: practicing contemporary techniques, raising questions during score reading, and engaging in discussion and review after performance.

Course Overview and Objectives

Throughout music history, advances in music technology have continually influenced the content and presentation of musical works. This course focuses on advanced programming in Max/MSP/Jitter for audio and visual applications, guiding students to understand various theories of digital synthesis and to develop the ability to program their own digital effects, synthesizers, and related tools.

The course aims to enable students to further apply these technologies in the creation of sound works and music, or in real-time interactive music. By integrating traditional instruments with digital technology, students will explore new artistic possibilities that combine tradition and technology.

Course Overview and Objectives

This course is a digital literacy course designed specifically for students in the Institute of Music and for students with some basic musical background. It aims to guide learners in building the necessary digital literacy by understanding the impact of digital technology on human culture.

Using the field of music as an example, the course enables students to experience the dramatic transformation from the analog to the digital age, and to understand the profound influence of technology on various aspects of music, including recording, learning, creation, dissemination, academic research, and performance. It also addresses the new concepts and opportunities that accompany these developments, explores connections between contemporary technological knowledge and traditional music performance or composition, and discusses the rise of artificial intelligence.

The course combines theoretical lectures with experimental practice. Students will not only acquire foundational knowledge and literacy in digital technology, but also further develop practical command of relevant digital tools and skills through hands-on work.

Course Overview and Objectives

This course studies orchestration techniques in Western orchestral works from the Baroque period to the twentieth century, with attention to different styles and instrumental forces. Students will become familiar with the roles, functions, and technical applications of various instruments, including strings, winds, and percussion, in ensemble music.

The course aims to strengthen students’ experience in writing orchestral music and to develop their ability to compose orchestral works.