SONGS AND SONGWRITING
MUSIC 450
Prof. Katherine Bergeron | bergeron@brown.ed
Prof. Joseph Butch Rovan | rovan@brown.edu
Office hours: Bergeron, Wed 3-5:00, 218 University Hall
Lecture: Tue & Thu 1-2:20pm, Grant Hall
Sections: Fri 1-1:50pm, Grant Hall
TA: Nate Sloan, Nathanial_Sloan@brown.edu
Office hours: Rovan, Thurs 3-5:00, 313 Orwig
This course is about song as a musical phenomenon. All cultures have songs, and in every culture songs
do a particular kind of work: they mark occasions; they express human emotions; they create
communities. Songs represent, in this respect, one of the most basic forms of human expression. Our
focus in this course will be on musical expression. What are the means by which songs produce their
effects? We will analyze the many qualities and moods created by melody and rhythm, by the voice and
lyrics, and by form itself, in order to develop a critical understanding—and a vocabulary—about song.
This understanding will be applied both to the critical essays that you will write and to the music that you
will compose over the course of the semester. The goal of the course is, then, twofold: to deepen your
powers of observation and interpretation through listening; and to develop your creative abilities through
direct, hands-on engagement with one of the most fundamental ways of making music.
I.
ANALYZING SONGS
Sep
4 (TH)
week 1
9 (TU)
11 (TH)
week 2
16 (TU)
18 (TH)
week 3
23 (TU)
25 (TH)
Sept
week 4
30 (TU)
Introduction: Speaking and singing
• no section Friday Sep 5
What is melody? “When the Lark Sings...”
Bernart de Ventadorn, “Can vei le lauzeta mover”
Melody and memory: Bernart, cont’d.
• section: Hildegard von Bingen, “O Lucidissima”
Getting words across: Declamation and expression
Songs by Guillaume de Machaut, Greg Brown, Ralph Stanley, Old Regular Baptists, Roy
Orbison, Regina Spektor, Amy Winehouse, examples of sacred chant, and more
Composition workshop I: Writing melodies
• section: writing melodies, cont’d. **313 Orwig
Anatomy of melancholy: John Dowland, “Flow, my teares”
Dowland, cont’d.
• section: class critique, your melodies
Shaping time: Meter, phrasing, tempo
Songs by the Beatles, Hank Williams, Suzanne Vega, Stan Rogers, The
Rolling Stones, Devo, Radiohead, Cake, Tracy Grammar, Stereolab, The Reverand
Horton Heat, Mission of Burma, Tom Ross, the Sex Pistols, Barkin’ Bill and the
Bluebirds, Cole Porter, and more.
Oct
2 (TH)
week 5
7 (TU)
9 (TH)
week 6
14 (TU)
16 (TH)
week 7
21 (TU)
23 (TH)
II.
Anatomy of the Blues
Jimmy Johnson, “Your Turn to Cry”
• section: Your blues
Chilling truths: The Romantic Lied and the ideal of folksong
Schubert, Die Winterreise
Schubert, “Der Leiermann” the final song from Winterreise
• section: more Schubert **313 Orwig
The folksong as counterculture: Bob Dylan, “Tambourine Man”
Assign mid-term paper
Dylan, cont’d.
• section: Songwriter Ben Miller, ’06 on writing lyrics
COMPOSING SONGS
week 8
28 (TU)
30 (TH)
Nov
Composition workshop II: Composing with rhythms
• section: composing with rhythms, cont’d.
week 9
4 (TU)
6 (TH)
week 10
11 (TU)
13 (TH)
week 11
18 (TU)
20 (TH)
Harmonic convergence: moods, modes and tonal inflection
Songs by the Beatles, Charles Ives, Tom Ross, Feist, and more
Composition Workshop III: Setting words to music
• section: music theory boot camp
Setting words to music, cont’d.: Repetition as structural device
Mid-term paper due
Ostinato as structural device: Death Cab for Cutie, “Transatlanticism”
• section: Class critique: Your lyrics
Setting words to music, cont’d: basslines and counterpoint
Setting words to music : voice and register
Songs by Tom Petty, Travis, U2, Zox, Glen Hansard, and more
• section: Songwriter Dan Edinberg,’04 of Zox
Speaking and Singing revisited: Apollinaire and the Pogues: “Le Pont Mirabeau”
Prose and Prosody: Songs by Tom Waits, Beck, Burt Bachrach, Billy
Strayhorn, Edith Piaf, Lou Reed, The Cocteau Twins
• section: more on prose and prosody
week 12
25 (TU)
27 (TH)
Dec
Dec
week 13
2 (TU)
4 (TH)
week 14
8 - 12
CLASS FINAL
Composition Workshop IV: Forming songs: Refrains, Bridges, Silence
No class — Thanksgiving
• no section November 28
The Critique of Pure Reason: Juxtaposition and contrast in song forms
“....and in the end....” : The End of Abbey Road
• section: LISTENING FINAL
song notebook due
Song Reading Week: Your songs performed with the Music 450 house band
Dates and times to be announced
Dec 13
4 pm sound check
8 pm concert, Grant Recital Hall
Required reading, writing, listening
This course involves writing songs and writing about songs, and so you will compose both essays and
music over the course of the semester. Accordingly, there are three kinds of work you are
expected to complete during the term. First, you will write a substantial critical essay on a song
of your choosing. You will also compose and revise an original song to be performed (by yourself
or someone you have chosen) on our final class concert. Finally, and just as importantly, you will
keep a song notebook in which you will collect ideas and sketches of songs and lyrics, along with
responses to reading or listening assignments, and other short essays or compositions you complete
during the term. Because these assignments will generally occur every (or every other) week, they
are not listed on the syllabus; you will receive them during class. We ask you to purchase a small
hard-bound notebook for this purpose. You will turn this notebook in at regular intervals for
feedback, and at the end of the term for a final grade.
A small packet of readings is available at Allegra Copy on Thayer. Other readings are available
online, on our course website [https://mycourses.brown.edu]
Most of the music to be discussed in class will also be available online at the Brown EARS audio
streaming site (accessible via the MyCourses website). While you will not be responsible for all the
music we have discussed in class, there will be a listening final, in which you will be expected to
demonstrate your ability to recognize and comment on aspects of songs that we have discussed.
N.B. Students who are interested in taking this class must complete an
application assignment and essay by Monday September 8, 12 noon. Application
assignment materials and audio can be found online at:
www.soundidea.org/rovan/mu450
Assignment materials must be turned in to the Music Department main office, room 101, Orwig
Music Building, located at the corner of Hope Street and Young Orchard Avenue. (Phone 863-3234)
A list of students admitted to the course will appear at the url listed above by Tuesday, September
9, 12 noon.