Teaching

Here you can find syl­labi, course mate­ri­als, assign­ments, and oth­er infor­ma­tion about any of the class­es that Matt is cur­rent­ly teach­ing or has taught.

Current Courses

Fall 2019

Histories of Western Music

Tuesdays and Fridays, 12:00 – 1:50pm

In this course, stu­dents will acquire a broad foun­da­tion of the­o­ret­i­cal knowl­edge, musi­cian­ship skills, and prac­ti­cal expe­ri­ence in order to cre­ate and under­stand music in a con­tem­po­rary con­text. We will explore sound as a phys­i­cal phe­nom­e­non and will cov­er the basics of music the­o­ry and lit­er­a­cy in a way that can be applic­a­ble to a wide vari­ety of musi­cal tra­di­tions and prac­tices. In addi­tion to con­tin­u­ing work on the­o­ret­i­cal con­cepts and musi­cian­ship skills, we will pur­sue cre­ative projects, learn how to approach the music around us crit­i­cal­ly, and exam­ine the ways in which music can acquire extra­mu­si­cal mean­ings and res­o­nances. No for­mal musi­cal back­ground is required. This course is a pre­req­ui­site for Music and Sound I and II.

Fall 2019

Rensselaer Orchestra
(available soon)

Mondays and Thursdays, 4:00 – 6:30pm

The Rens­se­laer Orches­tra is an ensem­ble of under­grad­u­ate and grad­u­ate stu­dents at Rens­se­laer Poly­tech­nic Insti­tute in Troy, NY. Rein­vig­o­rat­ed in 2012 by the School of Human­i­ties, Arts, and Social Sci­ences, the Rens­se­laer Orches­tra per­forms clas­sics of the orches­tral reper­toire and reg­u­lar­ly pre­mieres new and exper­i­men­tal works.

Fall 2019

Chamber Music Ensemble
(available soon)

Tuesdays, 6:00 – 9:00pm

An instru­men­tal class that will be coached and rehearsed and will per­form reg­u­lar­ly. The larg­er ensem­ble will break up into small­er ensem­bles such as string quar­tets, wood­wind quin­tets, trios, etc., depend­ing on the make-up of the group, as well as into more unusu­al com­bi­na­tions that might be required to pre­pare 20th cen­tu­ry reper­toire. For inter­me­di­ate and advanced play­ers, entrance into the course is by autho­riza­tion form/​permission of instructor.