Notes on Listening, Presentations, and Contemporary Practice in Music

Course Logistics and Recitation Policies

• 5% of the semester grade comes from involvement in recitation work.
• TAs are treated as teachers and deserve the same respect; check in with your TAs when you come to lectures.
• The class is large; you may sit in the back row, but you’re encouraged to talk to the instructor if you have questions.
• Office hours can be scheduled by appointment to get help; this benefits both you and the instructor.
• The next quiz is due one week from today; you should sign up for a date to give your presentation in the recitation.
• More information about presentations will be provided; there is a description in the syllabus—review it.

Presentations: Process, Goals, and Evaluation

• Each student will select a piece of music they have a relationship with (for any reason): a piece loved, frequently listened to, or something you find interesting or significant—even if you dislike it.
• The selected music does not have to be a piece studied in class; the idea is to pair it with another piece studied in class for comparison.
• Presentations are brief; you’ll tell your classmates a little about each piece you’ve chosen and provide some context.
• For classical pieces on the syllabus, classmates will mostly rely on what’s studied in class; your job is not to teach the piece but to provide context.
• Include accurate context for the piece you discuss (e.g., historical date, composer if applicable): e.g., Beethoven’s piece might be mentioned with a note like: a piece was written in a specific year (the example in class incorrectly notes Beethoven’s involvement—clarify accuracy when you present).
• The core question of your pairing: why are you pairing these two pieces? What similarities or contrasts do you see?
  • Examples of connections you might discuss:
  • Similar melodies or contours between two works.
  • Emotional or expressive links (e.g., both pieces convey hope).
  • Similar sonic or instrumental relationships (e.g., a piano texture in one piece resembles a piano-like element in another).
  • A listener’s subjective interpretation that connects to a concept from class (e.g., listening for a particular structural or timbral idea).
• You may discuss how listening is an act of creation: listening is a personal construction of meaning.
• The instructor will talk about listening strategies and structures/forms as we study through the semester; you should consider how your own listening experiences differ.

Listening Strategies: Structures, Forms, and Personal Listening

• The course will cover strategies for listening to music throughout the semester.
• We will explore structures, forms, and recurring musical stories that appear across genres.
• There are recognized listening templates (e.g., listening for form, voice-leading, motifs, cadences) that can be useful, but personal interpretation remains important.
• Your listening is unique to your experiences and background; the textbook, AI, or others cannot hear your personal interpretation.
• The instructor encourages reflection on your own listening place, and there will be a space (a page) to reflect on your place among others’ listening.
• We will discuss Natalie's work as a case study of listening to and creating with unconventional materials.

Natalie Joachette and the Suite for a Haitian Town (from the interview)

• The instructor introduces Natalie Joachette and the Spectral Quartet performing live; the work discussed is from an album created in 2019 and is an evening-length work for flute, voice, string quartet, and electronics.
• The piece incorporates recordings of voices from Asian artists of previous generations and Natalie’s grandmother’s voice, as well as recordings of children from a Haitian town.
• The work is described as an intersection of Catholic mass with Haitian blues and roots music, blending traditional elements with contemporary electronic processing.
• Natalie uses the voices of women from Haiti—three iconic figures (e.g., Emiratu Kandi and Carol) plus her grandmother—to anchor the project.
• The genesis of the project: Natalie was commissioned in 2016 by Kate Nordstrom to bring a project to Saint Paul; inspired by conversations with her parents about female voices in Haiti, she traveled to Haiti and Miami, recorded extensively, and spent two years researching and collecting voices.
• The album splits roughly 50/50 between traditional/arranged pieces and original compositions; some melodies are traditional Haitian tunes (including hymns in a Creole church service), while others are new or reworked by Natalie.
• The voices are treated as a seed for the music; the project emphasizes listening to and incorporating living and historical female voices from Haiti, including connections to family and community.
• The grandmother’s song is credited to her, though Natalie’s arrangement and interpretation provide a modern lens.
• The project features a mix of traditional songs and original material that flow together so seamlessly that it can be hard to distinguish between them in performance.
• The suite includes pieces drawn from a town in Haiti; a “girls’ choir” component appears as part of the material, tied to a church service and a rural community.
• Natalie’s process: two years of travel and field recordings, gathering voices from church services and community settings, and shaping a composition that centers those voices within an electro-acoustic chamber-music context.
• The performance discussion highlights elements to listen for: rhythmic pulses from electronics that may conflict or layer with live instruments; multiple streams of pulse and rhythm layered together; the ability to shift focus between different rhythmic layers.
• The piece invites careful listening to sustain a sense of time, rhythm, and tempo, and how these sonic textures convey narrative or imagery.
• The performance segment: the Spectral Quartet (Sarah Lyon, Mae Feinberg, Doyle Armbrick, Colin Viola, Russell Rowland) join Natalie Joachette on flute and electronics; the live rendition explores how live instrumentation interacts with pre-recorded and electronically processed sounds.

Rhythm, Meter, and Time in Modern and Contemporary Music

• Pulse and meter: listen for a recurring underlying pulse; some pieces present a clear meter, others layer or obscure it.
• Layered rhythms: electronic sounds can create multiple independent rhythmic streams, which interact in ways that invite selective attention to one layer or another.
• Time in music: rhythm and tempo can shape the mood and narrative—different layers of time create images or tell stories.
• In modernist repertoire (e.g., a percussion-focused piece by Varèse), there is deliberate meter distortion: composers may change meters frequently and unpredictably to reflect modern experience.
• Example discussion: Varèse’s percussion-only works; the incorporation of a siren-like line that slides between discrete pitches to evoke modern urban soundscapes (e.g., a city siren).
• Key terms: pitch vs. unpitched sounds, timbre (tone color), dynamics (loud/soft), and rhythm/time as expressive elements.
• Concept of timbre: how rapidly a sound’s vibration occurs relates to pitch height; higher frequencies produce higher perceived pitch, but some sounds do not have a clear pitch.
• The relationship between pitch height and time is a metaphorical rather than a literal spatial property; different languages and cultures may describe pitch with different metaphors (e.g., not all traditions use “high/low”).

Pitch, Dynamics, Timbre, and Voice Types

• Pitch height: high vs. low; higher notes correspond to faster vibrations; lower notes to slower vibrations.
• Pitched vs. unpitched sounds: classical music often emphasizes pitched sounds but can include unpitched sounds as well.
• Timbre: the quality or color of a sound that differentiates instrument voices; affected by how an instrument vibrates and how that vibration is processed by listeners.
• Dynamics: loudness or softness in music; used to shape expression and structure.
• Voice types in classical music: soprano, alto, tenor, bass (with some additional categories such as mezzo-soprano and countertenor).
• Gender and voice ranges: historically linked to gender categories (e.g., sopranos and altos often associated with cis women; tenors and bass with cis men), but the reality is more complex (trans and non-binary voices may inhabit a wide range).
• Countertenor: a male voice singing in the alto or soprano range, often using falsetto or head voice.
• Example: Holden Dogney, a transgender opera singer who transitioned from being identified as female and a mezzo-soprano to a tenor, and who now performs as a tenor; discusses the personal and professional challenges of transitioning while pursuing operatic singing.
• The significance: this example highlights issues of identity, voice, and the compatibility (or perceived compatibility) of hormone treatment with classical singing, as well as broader questions about inclusion in the operatic world.
• Takeaway: the human voice and musical voice do not always align with strict gender categories; art can explore identity, authenticity, and resilience through performance.

Opera, Artifice, and Social Implications in Performance

• Artifice in opera and staged performances: dress, makeup, and stagecraft can be deliberately artificial to provoke thought and question appearances.
• The use of stark white makeup on performers of color invites reflection on visual conventions in staging and the politics of representation.
• The goal of such productions is not to provide easy answers but to raise questions and invite discussion about identity, performance, and culture.
• If you have questions about these topics, you’re encouraged to discuss them with your instructor or TA.

Key Takeaways for Exam Preparation

• Understand the recitation grading policy (5% of the semester grade) and the role of TAs in the course.
• Be able to explain the structure and purpose of the student presentations: choose a personal piece, connect it with a class piece, explain the pairing, and provide contextual details.
• Recognize the difference between listening strategies (template-based listening vs. individual interpretation) and why both are valuable.
• Know the Natalie Joachette project: the concept of mixing Haitian women’s voices, church music, and Haitian roots with electronics; the role of field recordings; the genesis and development process; the balance between traditional and original material; and how rhythm and time are manipulated in the piece.
• Be able to describe how modernist composers (e.g., Varèse) approached rhythm, meter, and timbre, including the use of layered pulses and meter changes to reflect modern experiences.
• Define and differentiate key musical concepts: pitch, timbre, dynamics, rhythm, meter, and voice types; understand how gender and identity intersect with voice in contemporary discussions.
• Reflect on the ethical and philosophical dimensions of performance choices: representation, cultural influence, and the impact of staging choices on audience interpretation.
• Connect class content to broader real-world relevance: listening as a creative act, the role of critics, and how music can reflect personal and cultural identities.