Composition Workshop (340-0-3)
Topic
Xperimental Music
Instructors
Jay Alan Yim
847/467-2030
jaymar@northwestern.edu
Office Hours: By appointment
Jay Alan Yim has received Guggenheim and National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships, and many other awards for his music, which has been featured at international festivals (Darmstadt, Tanglewood, Ars Musica, Wien-Modern, Gaudeamus, Huddersfield, Aspen, ISCM, ICMC) and performed by the New York Philharmonic, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Orchestre National de Lyon, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Nederlands Radio Filharmonisch, Los Angeles Philharmonic New Music Group, London Sinfonietta, Ensemble SurPlus, Arditti, JACK, and Spektral Quartets, dal niente, ICE. He co-founded the intermedia collaborative 'localStyle' with Marlena Novak, and their work has been exhibited internationally (Amsterdam, Barcelona, Beijing, Berlin, Chicago, Eindhoven, London, Mexico City, New York, Sydney, Tel Aviv, Toronto, Warsaw) in festivals, museums, galleries, and public spaces.
Meeting Info
RCMA Lower Level 121: Tues 2:00PM - 4:50PM
Overview of class
The workshop explores writing for voice. The main focus will rest on practical investigations
into the subject of vocal music: composing and discussing small studies. In addition to these
exercises analytical and theoretical topics will enhance the understanding of possibilities in
writing for voice. From Schumann's songs to Ligeti's Aventures, from Nono's Fabbrica
Illuminata to Crumb's Sleeper a wide variety of historic and contemporary works for voice will
be discussed, while classes on the physical properties of the human voice, on singing
microtonal music, as well as on notation will investigate theoretical aspects of the topic.
Learning Objectives
Contemporary Vocal Music; techniques of writing for voice
Teaching Method
Analysis of repertoire; composition exercises
Evaluation Method
Homework, final presentation
Class Materials (Required)
PDF readings provided by instructor
Class Notes
A readiness to set aside preconceptions is beneficial to the point of being essential.