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Course Description

Summary

This 4-credit course is a collaborative music creation experience for composers and singers. Composers and singers will work together over the course of the semester to create new music for solo voice and small vocal ensemble using various collaborative practices to highlight and celebrate the individualistic nature of the voice. Singers will receive technical vocal instruction and coaching to optimize their interpretation of these new works, and explore a wide range of vocal color and extended techniques. Composers will learn about composing for–and working with–singers, about how to notate their vocal music effectively, about both historical and current approaches to vocal writing, and about effective text setting. Topics covered will include functionality and demystification of the singing voice, analysis of successful and innovative vocal works throughout history, and orchestration for the voice and vocal ensemble. The course will culminate in a performance and recording of the finished works.  This course will be taught in two sections (Section 1: Singers, Section 2: Composers) which will meet separately and as a combined group on a weekly basis. The Singers section will be taught by Virginia Kelsey, and the Composers section will be taught by Allen Shawn.