Polansky, Spring '02
Dartmouth College

Music 104 will consist of a series of short assignments which explore different compositional forms. The
emphasis in this class will be on doing a lot of different work, and in talking about it. Composers in the
class will be required to complete their pieces under rather strict deadlines. In addition, we will establish a class
website where each piece will be documented.

The general requirements for all pieces in the class are as follows:

1) all pieces must be named

2) all pieces must be in on time

3) all (appropriate) pieces must be handed in on CD

4) all pieces must be "documented" on the web (class website). Documentation includes notes about the piece, any relevant graphics, screensnaps, scores, code, etc

5) you must be able to articulate the ideas and techniques of each piece, in class, and in writing.

Week 1

Tuesday, March 26: Introduction to class. Assignment #1 given ("5 pieces")
Thursday, March 28: LP

Tuesday, April 2: Guest composer, Kyle Gann (special class time, 3-5).
Thursday, April 4: Assignment #1 due (listen in class). Assignment #2 given, 3-5 minute
collaborative work.

Tuesday, April 9: Guest, Mary Wright (installation work). Collaborative assignment with Studio Art 66/68 given (due, week of May 16-21). Usual time, but joint class with Studio Art. Pizza to follow.
Wednesday, April 10, 10:00 a.m - 11:30 a.m, second Mary Wright lecture, especially for Grad. Program
Thursday, April 11: Assignment #2 (collaborations) due (listen in class).

Tuesday, April 16: Continue listening to assignment 2 in class.  Assignment #3 given, analysis/resynthesis. Due, April 25.
Thursday, April 18: More on analysis/resynthesis, etc.

Tuesday, April 23: Guest composer, George Lewis New Musics Concert. No class (dress rehearsal).
Thursday, April 25: Assignment #3 listen in class (analysis/resynthesis). Assignment #4 given, sonification. Read: Tufte, web articles:

• conversation with paul doornbusch about mapping
• ed childs piece on tufte (ignore the front title page)
• my response to ed childs
• (some other, optional links on sonification):
• icad
• computer and music book

Tuesday, April 30: Guest, Professor Julia Driver (Philosophy): Aesthetics. First half-hour of class will be a kind of short "precis" of a paper written by our own Christian Jaksjo, on a similar topic. This has been sent to all PDF.
Thursday, May 2: Assignment #4 (sonification) due (listen in class). Assignment #5 given, redo one of the previous pieces

Tuesday, May 7: Guest composer, David Mahler
Thursday, May 9: Assignment #5 (redos), listen in class.

Tuesday, May 14: LP out of town, no class.
Thursday, May 16: Guest, Nick Didkovsky.  Assignment 6 given (algorithmic piece with JMSL)
Studio art collaborative projects start being due.

Week 9

Monday, May 21: Individual meetings.
Thursday, May 23: Group viewings of installations (also at night)

Week 10

Tuesday, may 28: Assignment #6, listen in class (JMSL)