Course Syllabus
Music 151: Computer Music Composition
University of California, Irvine
Winter Quarter 2017
Tuesday and Thursday, 12:30-1:50 pm
Music Collaboration Laboratory (ColLab), AITR 190
Christopher Dobrian, Professor
Josh Simmons, Teaching Assistant
Studies in the composition of music uniquely possible by computer, including digital signal processing, computer control of synthesizers and processors, and algorithmic composition. Demonstrations and musical analyses in class; considerable studio work outside class.
Topics:
Week 1: Overview - Aesthetics and technologies of computer music
Week 2: Acquiring sound - Microphones, mixers, and recording
Week 3: Arranging sound - Editing and mixing in DAWs; musique concrète composition
Week 4: Synthesizing sound - Oscillators, modulation, envelopes, and filters
Week 5: Rhythm - Temporal grid, drum machines, and MIDI
Week 6: Looping - Warping and synchronizing audio clips
Week 7: Composition - Developing a concept, planning structure
Week 8: Audio effects - Delay-based effects, dynamic compression, vocoding
Week 9: Algorithmic composition - Formal systems and programming
Week 10: Review - Summary of topics, consultation on compositions
Week 11: Final concert - Presentation of completed student works
Grading:
An attendance record of 90% or better is required to pass the class. Please make every effort to arrive on time.
Grades will be based on attendance, informed participation in class (having done the assigned reading and listening), scores on periodic quizzes on the assigned materials, thorough completion of assigned composition exercises (adherence to the assignment, attention to quality and detail, and perceived effort), and the final composition project.
Disability
If you have a disability that inhibits you from performing any of the stated requirements of this course, as approved and documented by the UCI Disability Services Center, please ensure that the professor is thoroughly aware of the matter as early in the term as possible.
Collaboration between students in this course is strongly encouraged. Students are urged to exchange ideas, opinions, and information constantly, and to help each other with their technical and musical projects. However, each student is responsible for completion of his/her own assignments.
Plagiarism of any kind is in direct violation of the UCI policy on Academic Honesty, and penalties for plagiarism can be severe. In this class you will be expected to attribute due credit to the originator of any ideas, words, sounds, music, or other intellectual property that you incorporate into your own work. Any borrowed music must be cited in proper academic bibliographic fashion, giving credit to its original author. Any borrowed sounds or compositional ideas must be cited in commentary in the project file, or in any documentation written about the project, giving credit to its original author.
In music it’s common to borrow and expand upon previous ideas, and it has become common to incorporate recorded samples of music written or produced by others. Nevertheless, one must always give full attribution to the original author of all prior work upon which your own original work is based.
Course Summary:
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