BFA

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Learning Goals

The BFA Music Technology program aims to build strong musical skills while promoting the mastery of a variety of music-related technologies in the context of pursuing creative work. Specifically, Music Technology students will have opportunities to:

• Become trained artists able to work in any orchestral, ensemble or global music production, including knowing how to produce a concert, manage a stage, understand a sound board and run stage monitor and main audience sound
• Attain strong music theory, ear training and rhythmic training, with a focus on 21st century technology
• Learn how to run a music studio for recording production, with full knowledge of microphone techniques, software editors, audio effects, mixing and mastering
• Acquire strong contextualization abilities for the history of electro-acoustic music
• Learn how algorithms for traditional synthesis and audio affect production
• Become proficient software engineers, with the ability to code for websites and utilize advanced object-oriented languages for artistic expression
• Understand basic digital signal processing and its relationship to audio, including time and frequency domains and how these can be manipulated for artistic purposes
• Also be able to use basic electronics and know how to design human computer interfaces for artistic practices
• Develop project implementation and production capabilities, including planning, execution, time management and documentation skills

Program Requirements

The following subset of the CORE CURRICULUM:

• MTHY101 & MTHY102 Tonal Skills A&B (2 classes)
• MTHY104 Musicianship Skills: Rhythm A (1 class)
• MTHY111 Tonal Theory A (1 class)
• MTHY210 Post-Tonal Theory (1 class)
• MAIC100 Survey of 20th & 21st C. Music History & Literature (1 class)
• MAIC101 World Music Survey
• Any ONE of the following FIVE History and Cultures Options:
  • MHST205 Western Music History I
  • MHST206 Western Music History II
  • MAIC240 Jazz History
  • MHST302 Popular Music: A Social and Analytical History
  • MHST300-309 Music Cultures
  • MHST350 Stylists & Innovators 1961-Now
• MLSN003 (1 class) Class Piano (or alternative keyboard course as approved by instructor: see complete CORE CURRICULUM listing for options)
• Vocal Elective (1 class) – see complete CORE CURRICULUM listing for options
• World Music Ensemble elective (1 class) – see complete CORE CURRICULUM listing for options
• Two electives taken in the Schools of Art, Dance, Film/Video, and/or Theater. These may be courses also taken to fulfill Critical Studies Arts in Context requirements.

Plus the following MAJOR AREA courses:

• MFOR106 Creative Technology Forum (each semester offered)
• MTEC101 & MTEC102 Concert Production I & II Tech (2 classes, consecutively beginning Fall of BFA-1)
• MTEC150 Sound Synthesis (1 class)
• MTEC155 Advanced Sound Synthesis (1 class)
• MTEC270 Composing with Technology (1 class)
• MTEC308 Advanced Production Techniques (1 class)
• MTEC330 & MTEC331 Interface Design I & II (2 classes)
• MTHY310 Acoustics for Musicians (1 class)
• MTEC415 Visual Programming
• As Part of Critical Studies:
  • ICOM202 Introduction to Programming II
• Music Technology electives, chosen from (2 classes):
  • MTEC210 Laptop Audio Production
  • MTEC312 Mobile Music Computing
  • MTEC340 Programming for Raspberry Pi
  • MTEC360 Audio Signal Processing
  • MTEC380 Advanced Web Development
  • MTEC480 MIR & Machine Learning for Art
  • MTEC450 Robotic Design for Music
  • MTEC199 Undergraduate Independent Project: Music Technology
• Digital Performance Ensemble electives, chosen from (2 classes):
  • IIMC350 SoundGameSpace
  • MBLE415 Networked Music Ensemble
  • MBLE310/426 Improvisation Ensemble
  • MBLE450 Sonic Boom
  • MCMP415 Choreographers & Composers
  • MTEC440 Machine Orchestra
  • MBLE325 Creative Electronic Ensemble
  • MTEC418 Data Driven Art & Visuals
  • MTEC419 Experience Design & Technology
  • MTEC420 Grids, Beats, and Groups
  • MTEC430 21st-Century Raga & Tala
  • MTEC431 Digitizing World Music
  • MTEC441 Composition for Robots
• MTEC490 Music Technology BFA Project (2 classes)

Plus the following SUPPORT courses:

• MAIC425 Survey of Sound Art
• Composition elective, chosen from (1 class):
• MCMP110 Introduction to Composition
• MCMP320 Electroacoustic Composition
• MCMP321 Live Electronic Music-Making
• MCMP417 Media Strategies Rules and Space
• MCMP418 Media Theory The Interactee
• MPRF330 Trigger: Electronic Percussion
• Electives (to fulfill 120-unit degree requirement)

Admission Requirements

For the latest requirements, please click here