Graduate Courses 2026-2027
The following Graduate Courses are being offered in 2026-2027. For further information on course content, please consult the instructor directly.
MUSIC 403 – PIANO LITERATURE I
Fall 2026: Tuesday-Thursday 11:00 a.m. - 12:20 p.m.
Instructor: Dr. Viktoria Reiswich-Dapp
Course Prerequisite: ability to read music, basic keyboard skills
Course Description:
This course will survey the repertoire of music written for the piano and its predecessors, spanning from the Renaissance to the end of the Classical era. We will examine important works from the repertoire, study general stylistic characteristics of each composer as well as their overall output for piano, and also discuss historical and cultural context surrounding the pieces. This includes aspects of performance practice and interpretation, an introduction to important concert pianists, an examination of music recordings, and a reflection of the multisensory aspect of making and communicating through music.
Course Objectives and Expected Learning Outcomes:
- Apply what you have learnt in practice and make you better musicians
- You will be able to identify composers and their compositions by recognizing their style
- Will help you to choose repertoire for your students
- You will be able to use the right terminology to talk to other musicians or non-musicians
Note: This course may be taken for credit by graduate students.
MUSIC 505: BIBLIOGRAPHY & METHODS OF RESEARCH
Fall 2026: Friday 1:00 - 3:50 p.m.
Instructor: Dr. Rachel Colwell
This course is an exploration of a range of qualitative music research methods with the practical concerns of defining and expressing a research project plan in the form of a grant proposal. The first six weeks of the course focuses on the process of designing a research project, from topics to research questions, literature review and bibliography, and compelling research project narrative. The remaining seven weeks are committed exclusively to reading, discussion, and experimentation focused on discipline-specific research methods, their critiques, paradigm shifts, and associated ethical issues. Meetings focus on assigned readings, workshopping and critique of writing assignments, discussion, and collaborative learning.
MUSIC 507: WRITING ABOUT MUSIC
Fall 2026: Wednesday 1:00 - 3:50 p.m.
Instructor: Dr. Patrick Nickleson
As scholars in music studies, writing is a key part of our discipline – though we often forget to address it as its own point of attention, craft, and practice. This course will support each student in developing a clear, personal, and professional voice for writing about music and sound through short, weekly assignments. We will discuss tactics ranging from reverse outlining and peer editing through to working in different citation styles, details of the peer review process, professional formatting, submitting to journals and presses, and mapping out a productive writing practice. Weekly reading and writing assignments will span a variety of genres including academic writing (ethnography, history, analysis, book reviews), program notes, music journalism, text scores, fiction, poetry and song lyrics, with much of our attention placed on engaging with authors’ writing styles. The class will involve lots of peer editing with the emphasis on giving constructive and supportive feedback, as well as visits from guests who will speak on their own writing style and practice.
MUSIC 545: INTERACTIVE SOUNDS AND SYSTEMS
Fall 2026: Tuesday/Thursday 11 a.m. - 12:20 p.m.
Instructor: Dr. Mark Hannesson
Prerequisites: Music 445 or equivalent or consent of Department. Contact mark.hannesson@ualberta.ca if you do not have the prerequisite, but do have experience with electronic music creation and are interested in the course.
This course is an introduction to coding interactive programs for sound artists and musicians. The language used is Cycling 74’s Max patching language (https://cycling74.com/products/max ), which is one of the most widely used interactive media languages in the digital arts. Max is beginner friendly, clear, and intuitive. No prior programming experience is required for the course. Additionally, the course will survey a number of sound and music-based artworks that make use of this technology. Sound works, video art, installation art, and performance art will all be explored while we learn first-hand by using Max to make our own digital art.
MUSIC 555: TOPICS & ANALYSIS – ANALYSIS AND EXPERIENCE
Fall 2026: Monday 1:00 - 3:50 p.m.
Instructor: Dr. Maryam Moshaver
What do we do when we analyze? What is the experiential content of analysis? What does analysis allow us to articulate and what are its languages? And finally, what is the connection between this form of articulation of knowledge and performance practice? This course focuses on developing approaches to music analysis based on contextual and interactive modes of questioning. Drawing on the musical interests of the seminar members, but with primary focus on the relation between music and text from different periods and genres from the western tonal and non-tonal repertoires, we will consider music from the standpoint of the analytical and descriptive vocabularies which permit us to bring to words, with some precision, insights and observations about the interaction between different temporalities at play in musical works, whether harmonic, rhythmic, thematic, formal, narrative, or performative. We will supplement in-class collective analysis with relevant readings on a range of topics from music-analytical writings to historical, aesthetic, and literary texts.
MUSIC 670: PROSEMINAR IN POPULAR MUSIC & MEDIA STUDIES
Fall 2026: Wednesday 9:00 - 11:50 a.m.
Instructor: Dr. Brian Fauteux
Music 670 is a proseminar that provides an overview of the history, issues, and methodologies in Popular Music Studies and its related fields, and explores music in its variety of popular and mediated forms. It will critically evaluate the production, reception, performance, and circulation of popular music and explore the various ways in which popular music communicates ideologies, meanings, aesthetics, forms of resistance, and cultural and technological shifts. We focus on the processes and methods that popularize music and facilitate its ability to reach audiences, both historically and in a contemporary context.
A key component of this proseminar is the use of a media studies approach to the study of popular music, paying special attention to issues of power, industries, identity, sound technology, visual media, cultural policy, and cultural geography. This course is open to all graduate students in the Department of Music and students in related disciplines are welcome to join through obtaining permission from the Instructor.
Please email Brian Fauteux at fauteux@ualberta.ca if you have any questions about the course.
MUSIC 404 – PIANO LITERATURE II
Winter 2027: Tuesday-Thursday 11:00 a.m. - 12:20 p.m.
Instructor: Dr. Viktoria Reiswich-Dapp
Course Prerequisite: ability to read music, basic keyboard skills
Course Description:
This course surveys the repertoire of music written for the piano from the Romantic era to the present, with a focus on the development of significant genres, techniques, and stylistic trends. Emphasis will not only be placed on recognizing and understanding the significance of the so-called “standard repertoire,” but also on historical and cultural context surrounding these pieces and composers. This includes aspects of performance practice and interpretation, an introduction to important concert pianists, an examination of music recordings, and a reflection of the multisensory aspect of making and communicating through music.
Course Objectives and Expected Learning Outcomes:
- Apply what you have learnt in practice and make you better musicians
- You will be able to identify composers and their compositions by recognizing their style
- Will help you to choose repertoire for your students
- You will be able to use the right terminology to talk to other musicians or non-musicians
Note: This course may be taken for credit by graduate students.
MUSIC 566: TOPICS IN ETHNOMUSICOLOGY
Winter 2027: Tuesday/Thursday 2:00 - 3:20 p.m.
Instructor: Dr. Rachel Colwell
Drawing upon a number of approaches – ethnomusicology, acoustics, sound studies, linguistic anthropology, psychology, and more – we will work in this class to historicize and contextualize listening as a culturally-informed human activity. We will study listening not only as a communicatory interface, but as a practice laden with social, political, and ethical import. We will address the topic in terms of multisensory experience; sensory difference; learning to listening; health, wellness, and sonic violence; legacies of colonialism and post-colonial studies; everyday soundscapes and noise; forms of technological mediation; and the significance of place in listening practice. While centered on musical listening, we will also investigate intersections with non-musical sound and language.
MUSIC 580: SURVEY OF CONTEMPORARY MUSIC AND SONIC ARTS / ADVANCED CONTEMPORARY REPERTOIRE
Winter 2027: Tuesday/Thursday 9:30 - 10:50 a.m.
Instructor: Dr. Andriy Talpash
Survey of Contemporary Music and Advanced Contemporary Repertoire intensively examine the music of the Avant-garde from the Second World War until the present. Composers, aesthetics, trends, techniques, and compositional schools will be explored through bio-critical lectures, presentations on assigned readings, descriptions of specific pieces, and consideration of the creative and political contexts in which they were written. Topics include Modernism, Serialism, the American Avant-garde, Minimalism, New Complexity, Spectral music, Micropolyphony, and Postmodernism.
MUSIC 650: ProSeminar in Music Theory
Winter 2027: Wednesday 1:00 - 3:50 p.m.
Instructor: Dr. Maryam Moshaver
This course focuses on the intersections between Music Theory and the principal academic sub-disciplines of Musicology and Ethnomusicology. We will examine the modalities of theoretical exploration in a broad range of scientific and humanistic discourses, as exemplified in recent music-theoretical writings. Topics include the intersections of theory with analysis, aesthetics, postmodernist and structuralist discourse, psychology, phenomenology, history, and literature, among others. Depending on the interests of the participants, we will devote class time to discussing problems of performance analysis, transcription, symbolic systems, and the development of descriptive and analytical languages suitable for coming to terms with musical works and practices from a variety of historical periods and geographical areas.
MUSIC 666: FIELD METHODS IN ETHNOMUSICOLOGY
Winter 2027: Monday 9:30 a.m. - 12:20 p.m.
Instructor: Dr. Michael Frishkopf
This course centers on ethnographic fieldwork, as applied to the study of society and culture, with a focus on sound and music. While the course is geared especially for ethnomusicologists, its broad coverage of theoretical and ethical issues, fieldwork techniques, inclusion of multimedia technology, and a pedagogy of learning-by-doing (from proposal writing, to fieldnotes, to shooting video) will prove useful to students in a wide variety of social science disciplines, including anthropology, sociology, education, and political science. This graduate level course is also open to qualified undergraduates.