Music
The goal of the Music Department is to enable a broad range of students to explore a wide variety of musical experiences and practices. Supported by their development of musicianship and technical skills, concentrators will acquire a more sophisticated understanding of music in historical and cultural contexts, theory and composition, and performance, while pursuing one of these areas in greater depth.
About the Major
Hamilton’s music concentration is very flexible and the music community vibrant, with abundant opportunities for students to create and perform. In addition to courses in music theory and history, private lessons, and various ensembles, the curriculum includes courses in world music, music and film, folk and country music, opera, the history of jazz, jazz arranging, composition, conducting, and music technology. Students can explore the state-of-the-art digital music studio, play in our Javanese gamelan, or hear legendary musicians share their experiences in our Fillius Jazz Archive.
Students Will Learn To:
- Demonstrate active listening skills from among a wide variety of musical experiences and practices
- Make links between various musical styles and their historical and cultural contexts
- Demonstrate proficiency in various theories of music
- Display skills in making music through performance, composition, recording, or production
A Sampling of Courses
Conducting
The elements of conducting, including baton technique, aural perception, rehearsal techniques and score study (both instrumental and choral).
Explore these select courses:
This course explores the nature of silence in literature and music as a way to understand how sound, or lack thereof, came to shape modern Europe. We will discuss the history of silence as a philosophical concept, as a response to crisis, alienation and negation, gendered muteness, as well as the aesthetics of dissonance. Literary and musical selections include Boethius, Dante, Petrarch, Gaspara Stampa, Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Robert Musil, Arnold Schoenberg, Theodor Adorno, Eugenio Montale, Anna Banti, Alda Merini, Luigi Nono, Ingeborg Bachmann, George Steiner. Taught in English.
Meet Our Faculty
Heather Buchman
Chair, the Carolyn C. and David M.’38 Ellis Distinguished Teaching Professor of Music
orchestral repertoire and conducting; ballet and opera conducting; trombone and low brass; solo performance; 20th- and 21st-century music
computer music composition; studio recording; interactive sound and video; algorithmic music composition; spectral and transcription-based music; multimedia collaboration
Choral repertoire and conducting; phonetic transcription of Afrikaans choral music; group vocal technique; choregie and interdisciplinary ensemble performance; text-painting in a cappella music; children’s choir composition; equity, diversity and inclusion in the choral literature canon
acoustic and electro-acoustic composition; post-tonal analysis; audio programming; algorithmic composition; mobile platform development of audio applications
Dolly Parton; American folk and traditional musics; banjo, music and film; medieval and renaissance music; music and gender
women composers; Modernism; American music of the 19th and 20th centuries; reception history; race, gender, social class, and music; opera and the Enlightenment
Monk Rowe
Joe Williams Director of the Fillius Jazz Archive and Lecturer in Music (Saxophone)
jazz history, music composition
jazz, composition, inspiring student growth, and revealing music's secrets
jazz guitar
violoncello
keyboard and organ; keyboard harmony
flute
percussion
folk guitar
bass
Bassoon
clarinet
harp
oboe
keyboard
jazz piano
voice
piano
trumpet
violin
piano
piano
violin and viola
voice
voice
harp
closure in music; codas and their function in sonata-form movements; musical parameters and the perception of musical form; critical and structural analysis of the music of Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms and Mahler; barbershop quartet music and style
G. Roberts Kolb
Marjorie and Robert W. McEwen Professor of Music Emeritus and Senior Lecturer in Music
conducting techniques, choral literature, French Baroque music, Guillaume Bouzignac, and Brahms vocal ensemble music
Explore Hamilton Stories
Hamessley’s Unlikely Angel Focuses on Dolly Parton’s Songs
Most people, when asked to define Dolly Parton, will probably answer “singer” or “celebrity.” Few might be aware that she defines herself first as a composer, having written more than 3,000 songs, almost 500 of which have been recorded.
A Musical Tour Through Root Glen
Meandering through Hamilton’s Root Glen with nothing but a pair of headphones and a phone, you find yourself on a journey through the intertwining of music and nature.
Inspiration often comes from unexpected places. For Andrew Little ’22, it arrived at the hands of a $4,500 electronic instrument called a Lumatone, which produces notes based on a color microtonal scale.
Careers After Hamilton
Hamilton graduates who concentrated in music are pursuing careers in a variety of fields, including:
- Sound Design, WHYY-FM, Philadelphia
- Director of Finance, American Composers Forum
- Professor of Music and Music Technology, California State University San Marcos
- Conductor/Artistic Director, Indianapolis Opera
- Pediatric Dentist
- Violinist, American Ballet Theatre
- Senior Manager Digital Products, Los Angeles Times
- Executive Director, New Hampshire Humanities Council
- Assistant Professor of Music-Voice, Crane School of Music
- Senior Vice President, Bank of America
Contact
Department Name
Music Department
Clinton, NY 13323
