MUSI UN3322

Nontraditional approaches to music theory.

I learned a lot about modern music and the applications of technical theory skills more broadly and abstractly

I learned more tools (concepts and techniques) for analyzing tonal music and post-tonal music. More importantly, we learned how to apply those tools in a critical way, understanding not only the different tools, but what effect they had in the music. We read and discussed research papers that were very elucidating and interesting.

Music theory with an emphasis on poly-rhythms and metal theory.

Grade-wise, you'll get full credit if you do the assignments/activities in good faith. Load was probably no more than with previous theory classes, though significantly less stressful. This was the rough breakdown for our semester, but it may very well change: 25% - Final exam. Review of topics and repertoire, through listening IDs, exercises, and analyses (some unseen, some seen), all very guided. It's not supposed to be super stressful, but just to encourage you to review the semester, and he provides plenty of study material. It ended up being very reasonable. 39% - 1% to attend each class 24% - 2% for completing each of the ~12 assignments (pretty consistent in workload; a mix of analysis, short composition, and exercises) 12% - 1% for each listening session contribution (for us, it was finding a piece that matched some weekly theme and introducing it in class)

-Theoretical concepts to help me analyze tonal and atonal music -Composing

I learnt about 13th and 9th chords, how we define genres, movie and video game music, set theory neoreimannian transformations and more.

Professor DeGraf is a very talented and special teacher. He is extremely intelligent, very knowledgeable, organized, and talented for translating difficult concepts for student, which is a rare combination. Apart from that, he is fair, kind and funny and a joy to have a teacher. The course in itself is very interesting and it really changes how one analyses and approaches music.

Intermediate analysis and composition in a variety of tonal and extended tonal idioms. Particularly focused on metal, progressive metal, math rock, and the like. Units on Jazz, neo-riemannian theory, complex rhythms/sequences/hemiolas, etc...

Absolutely fantastic! He really knows his stuff. He's also quite a bit more meticulous than previous professors I've had, but I don't think that hurts the class in any way. It's small things like keeping really careful track of time, but also putting a ridiculous amount of work into providing resources for everything: from class repertoire, to his own study/homework guides/analyses, to assignment structure, to generous submission feedback. He planned the class to align two of the central pieces we analysed with a New York Philharmonic performance that he organized a trip to. On the last day of class, he even got a living, breathing composer to come in to talk about their work! The syllabus is a little intimidating, what with the amount of content and the preface on his approach to the class (which is a little more formal than what I'm used to), but nonetheless he lectures and leads discussion with incredible humility, openness, and respect. This semester, he experimented a bit with daily exercises in ear training and basic theory/notation, which was a bit of a grind but definitely helpful for making the most out of class work. He's also extremely receptive to feedback about class or his teaching, to the point where many of our comments he incorporated into the structure of the final exam. Generally, he's more than happy to discuss or help with anything music/theory/class/pedag…