Faculty of Arts
School of Creative and Performing Arts
Dance
Dance Theory and Composition
Available through MIT OpenCourseware, this course introduces students to the art and formal ideologies of contemporary dance. We explore the aesthetic and technical underpinnings of contemporary dance composition. Basic compositional techniques are discussed and practiced, with an emphasis on principles such as weight, space, time, effort, and shape. Principles of musicality are considered and developed by each student. Working with each other as the raw material of the dance, students develop short compositions that reveal their understanding of basic techniques. Hopefully, students come to understand a range of compositional possibilities available to artists who work with the medium of the human body.
Licence: CC BY-NC-SA
Meet the Dance Makers: Profiles of Creativity, Innovation, & Tradition [New]
Dance makers around the world offer many unique perspectives comprising a diverse range of social and cultural identities, histories, and practices. The purposes of choreography may also vary greatly based on where a choreographer is making dance and how that place and its people define and value dance. For example, in many western cultures such as in the United States, dance is perceived as an art form, as entertainment, as sports/health activity, and as social and cultural tradition. Whereas, in some cultures, dance is a purely social, traditional, or ritual-based phenomena in which gestural elements, performance environments, costuming, and training may be related to rites of passage, familial or community roles, or religion. This book features interviews with dozens of choreographers, producers, and performers from around the world to give readers a sense of the vast array of the purposes, meanings, and impacts of dance [Description from resource].
Includes: Text-based interview with each choreographer
Licence: CC BY-NC-ND (Note: this is an open access resource that does not allow for remixing and adaptation)
Traditions in American Concert Dance: Gender and Autobiography
This course explores the forms, contents, and context of world traditions in dance that played a crucial role in shaping American concert dance. For example, we will identify dances from an African American vernacular tradition that were transferred from the social space to the concert stage. We will explore the artistic lives of such American dance artists as Katherine Dunham, Pearl Primus, and Alvin Ailey along with Isadora Duncan, Martha Graham, George Balanchine, and Merce Cunningham as American dance innovators. Of particular importance to our investigation will be the construction of gender and autobiography that lie at the heart of concert dance practice, and the ways in which these qualities have been choreographed by American artists.
Licence: CC BY-NC-SA
Drama
An Introduction to Technical Theatre
This textbook’s accessible format is designed for students at all levels, including those studying technical theatre as an elective part of their education. The text’s modular format is also intended to assist teachers approach the subject at their own pace and structure, a necessity for those who may regularly rearrange their syllabi around productions and space scheduling.
Licence: CC BY-NC 4.0
Reviews: Available through the Open Textbook Library
Theatrical Worlds
This introductory text for theatre and theoretical production seeks to give insight into the people and processes that create theatre.
Includes: Interviews
Licence: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 (Note: This is an open access text which restricts remixing and adapting).
Reviews: Available through the Open Textbook Library
Music (General)
Classical Music: Contemporary Perspectives and Challenges
This collection reflects on classical music as it advances through the twenty-first century. With insights drawn from leading composers, performers, academics, journalists, and arts administrators, special focus is placed on classical music’s defining traditions, challenges and contemporary scope. Although this book is free to read and reuse, it is not licensed for editing or remixing.
Licence: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 (Note: This is an open access text which restricts remixing and adapting).
Free Music Archive
This collection includes public domain and Creative Commons licensed sound recordings.
Licence: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0, unless otherwise noted.
Fundamentals, Function, and Form: Theory and Analysis of Tonal Western Art Music
This textbook by Andre Mount provides its readers with a comprehensive study of the theory and analysis of tonal Western art music.
Includes: Activities, summaries
Licence: CC BY-NC 4.0
Make It New: Reshaping Jazz in the 21st Century
This work profiles a number of modern jazz performers.
Includes: Interviews
Licence: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 (Note: This is an open access text which restricts remixing and adapting).
Music: Its Language, History and Culture
The chapters in this book contain definitions and explanations of musical terms and concepts, short essays on subjects related to music as a creative performing art, biographical sketches of major figures in music, and background information on music from different periods and locations.
Includes: Instructor and student resources
Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0
Reviews: Available through the Open Textbook Library
Music Appreciation I (Lumen) (LibreTexts)
Based on the Lumen Learning course, Music Appreciation now hosted on Course Hero, this online LibreTexts book is designed to give the student an appreciation of music by exposing them to many musical styles, composers, historical trends, as well as increasing their aural, verbal, and writing skills in describing music.
Includes: Question banks
Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0
Music Appreciation II (Lumen) (LibreTexts)
Based on the Lumen Learning course, Music Appreciation now hosted on Course Hero, this online LibreTexts book is designed to give the student an appreciation of music by exposing them to many musical styles, composers, historical trends, as well as increasing their aural, verbal, and writing skills in describing music.
Includes: Question banks
Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0
Music Theory for the 21st-Century Classroom
Music Theory for the 21st–Century Classroom is an openly–licensed online four-semester college music theory textbook. This text differs from other music theory textbooks by focusing less on four–part (SATB) voiceleading and more on relating harmony to the phrase.
Includes: Video with embedded start and stop times, homework assignments, practice tests
Licence: GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation. Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this license document, but changing it is not allowed.
Open Music Theory
This book is an interactive, online “text” book for college-level music theory courses.
Includes: Interactive music-notation modules
Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0
Original Études for the Developing Conductor [New]
Original Études for the Developing Conductor is a collection of supplemental études designed to enhance contemporary conducting pedagogy by amplifying the voices of composers from historically excluded groups. Each étude was commissioned from and composed by a living composer, the majority of whom are woman-identifying composers and/or composers of color. Each étude also addresses multiple specific pedagogical goals common to all conducting classrooms. [Description from resource].
Includes: MP4 zip file and link to YouTube playlist, score and parts files.
Licence: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
Reviews: Available through Open Textbook Library.
Principles of Orchestration, with Musical Examples Drawn from His Own Works
This work by Rimsky-Korsakov illustrates composition for orchestra.
Licence: Public Domain
The Public Domain Song Anthology
This is a collection of 348 popular songs with modern and traditional harmonization. This resource was curated by two leading jazz repertory experts and consists of songs in the US public domain.
Includes: Lead sheets
Licence: CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain
Understanding Basic Music Theory
A concise introduction to the fundamentals of music theory.
Licence: CC BY 2.0
Reviews: Available through the Open Textbook Library
Understanding Music: Past and Present
This is a peer-reviewed open Music Appreciation textbook co-authored by music faculty across Georgia. The text covers the fundamentals of music and the physics of sound, an exploration of music from the Middle Ages to the present day, and a final chapter on popular music in the US.
Includes: Audio/video clips, glossary
Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0
Reviews: Available through the Open Textbook Library
Music Education
Brass Techniques and Pedagogy
Textbook for undergraduate brass methods course focusing on brass instrument techniques and pedagogy.
Includes: Guided practice lessons, fingering charts, practice materials, terminology, additional resources
Licence: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
Reviews: Available through the Open Textbook Library
Engaging Students: Essays in Music Pedagogy
Engaging Students: Essays in Music Pedagogy presents short essays on the subject of student-centered learning, and serves as an open-access, web-based resource for those teaching college-level classes in music.
Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0
Music and the Child
This book explores a holistic, artistic, and integrated approach to understanding the developmental connections between music and children. This book guides professionals to work through music, harnessing the processes that underlie music learning, and outlining developmentally appropriate methods to understand the role of music in children’s lives through play, games, creativity, and movement. Additionally, the book explores ways of applying music-making to benefit the whole child, i.e., socially, emotionally, physically, cognitively, and linguistically.
Includes: Activities, case studies, recommended resources, vocabulary
Licence: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
Reviews: Available through the Open Textbook Library
The Politics of Diversity in Music Education
The open access book Politics of Diversity in Music Education attends to the political structures and processes that frame and produce understandings of diversity in and through music education practice, policy, and research.
Licence: CC BY 4.0
Teaching Low Brass
This textbook focuses on two areas: basic information including pedagogical material for teaching low brass students and low brass etudes. The information is divided into several categories including brass history, the overtone series, general intonation tendencies, embouchure, instruments and equipment, literature, maintenance, vibrato, and low brass in the marching band. Etudes are incorporated in the appendix of the textbook. Instrument fingerings, slide positions, and simple warm-up material is also available in the appendix.
Includes: Etudes, fingerings, slide positions, warm ups, major scales
Licence: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
Reviews: Available through the Open Textbook Library
Visions for Intercultural Music Teacher Education
This edited open access volume highlights the importance of visions for intercultural music-teacher education in a time of increasing social complexity.
Licence: CC BY 4.0
Vocal Techniques for the Instrumentalist, 2nd Edition
The purpose of this text is to teach instrumental music education students about vocal production as it applies to solo singing. Beginning with a foundational understanding of breathing, singers will learn about the vocal instrument (anatomy), how to create clear, pleasant, tone (phonation and resonance), pronounce words clearly (articulation and diction) and how singing is similar, and different, from playing an external instrument.
Includes: Assignments, exercises, practice log, glossary
Licence: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
Reviews: Available through the Open Textbook Library
Music History
Essays on Music and History in Africa
This classic ethnomusicological survey provides as a valuable guide to African music. The essays review a broad swath of genres and topics, including court songs and music history, musical instruments in different traditions, and the connection between Islam and African music.
Licence: CC BY-NC-ND (Please note that the more restrictive license does not allow for editing or remixing of the work.)
Historical Anthology of Music by Women
This collection of 51 works by 37 composers spans eleven centuries of Western art music.
Licence: CC BY-NC-ND (Please note that the more restrictive license does not allow for editing or remixing of the work.)
Music of the Twentieth Century: A Study of Its Elements and Structure
This work discusses changes in musical approaches, including in rhythm, melody, timbre, and others, during the 20th century.
Licence: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 (Note: This is an open access text which restricts remixing and adapting).
Musical Composition in the Context of Globalization: New Perspectives on Music History in the 20th and 21st Century
This open access book discusses the effects of cultural globalization on processes of composition and distribution of art music in the 20th and 21st century.
Licence: CC BY 4.0
Open Access Musicology: Volume One
This open access essay collection provides an exploration of musicological analysis, with topic spanning from ancient Mesopotamian music to Jenny Lind.
Licence: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 (Note: This is an open access text which restricts remixing and adapting).
A Survey of Wind Literature from 1551-2022 [New]
As an educator I am constantly reminded that in order to understand how we view music for winds today it is important to study and learn where our craft came from, and how it developed over time. This text book is meant to help with just that, by being an affordable resource that could be used in conjunction with a collegiate course on wind literature. The twelve chapters here explore music written for winds from as early as 1551 through 2022, when the bulk of this document was written. [Description from resource].
Includes: music and performance recordings
Licence: CC BY-NC-ND (Note: this is an open access resource that does not allow for remixing and adaptation)
Understanding Music: Past and Present
This textbook is co-authored by music faculty across Georgia. The text covers the fundamentals of music and the physics of sound, an exploration of music from the Middle Ages to the present day, and a final chapter on popular music in the United States.
Includes: Audio clips, video, listening guides, chapter summaries, glossary
Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0
Reviews: Available through the Open Textbook Library
Music Performance
The End of a Golden Era of British Music? (Chapter 31)
This is an open access chapter in the Innovation in Music: Performance, Production, Technology and Business essay collection. The creative industries, and particularly our UK Music industry, are perceived as healthy, resilient and strong. However, with the ongoing policy changes in secondary and higher education, as well as the continued cuts to council budgets and the ongoing lack of commitment to wealth distribution and even investment in the whole nation, this golden era of the creative industries in the UK may not last. In my latest articles, I explore critical themes relevant for the UK Music industry and the UK creative sector as a whole. Current national policy expressions often omit to address these themes, which are necessary to safeguard our future creative resilience. In writing this article, much relevance will be drawn from making connections to recent public debates on what universities are for and what their role is within the creative economy. Attention is given to considering current governmental industry strategies critically and their relevance for the music industry, together with their sector responses.
Licence: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 (Note: This is an open access text which restricts remixing and adapting).
Knowing in Performing: Artistic Research in Music and the Performing Arts
This open access book describes dynamic processes of artistic knowledge production in music and the performing arts. Please check the table of contents as some chapters are available in English and some in German.
Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0
A Musicology of Performance: Theory and Method Based on Bach’s Solos for Violin
This open access book presents a musicological framework for studying musical performance, focused on violin performance.
Licence: CC BY 4.0
Playing to the Crowd: Musicians, Audiences, and the Intimate Work of Connection
Playing to the Crowd explores and explains how the rise of digital communication platforms has transformed artist-fan relationships.
Licence: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
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