The music history faculty at Manhattan School of Music includes eminent musicologists, distinguished composers, and active performers.
Courses by the Music History Department at MSM are offered to students in all degree programs in all majors. Please note that the School does not offer degrees in music history.
Courses at introductory and advanced level include:
- Survey courses by period: Music in the Middle Ages & Renaissance, Music in the Baroque, Classic & Romantic Music, Music in the 20th Century
- Genre courses: History of Jazz, Non-Western Music, History of Opera, History of Chamber Music, History of the Symphony
- Composer courses: Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Wagner, Verdi, Mahler, Duke Ellington
- Literature courses: Organ Literature, Piano Literature, English & American Vocal Literature, German Vocal Literature, French Vocal Literature
- Special topics courses: Music in America, Russian Music, The 1920s, Performance Practice, Operas of Strauss and Berg and Britten
Unique to MSM: The undergraduate Unified Core Curriculum
The undergraduate Unified Core Curriculum was initiated by the music history department in 1994. During the freshman and sophomore years, students in the classical division immerse themselves in the Unified Core Curriculum, a sequence of courses especially designed to unify, coordinate, and integrate basic studies in music theory, music history, and the humanities.
The core sequence includes seminars in which students actively participate through discussion and writing and lecture classes in which concepts of theory, music history, and the progression of Western civilization are described. The Unified Core Curriculum prepares the undergraduate student to take specialized elective courses in the junior and senior years.
Specific courses and degree sequence plans can be found in the Course Catalog.
Other Academics
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Chamber Music
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Music History
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MSM’s Outreach Program
Center for Music Entrepreneurship Coursework
Music Education & Performance Dual Degree
Special Academics
Pinchas Zuckerman Performance Program
Robert Mann Institute
Barnard MSM Cross-Registration Program
Foreign Exchange & Study Abroad
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