School of Music and Performing Arts

(Affiliated to the Faculty of Arts and Sciences)

Bachelor of Arts in Music (Open for Admission)

Hybrid
126 credits
For students entering the program at the Freshman level
(Please click here for more info on the Freshman program)
96 credits
For students entering the program at the Sophomore level
(holders of a recognized Baccalaureate or Freshman diploma - equivalent to 30 credits)

Courses

General Education Common Core
MUSC355Analysis of the 18th Century Music
2 credits
Analysis of corresponding parts in the history course of the 18th century.
MUSC455Analysis of the 19th Century Music
2 credits
Analysis of corresponding parts in the history course of the 19th century.
MUSC255Applied Musical Computing
1 credits
The course is intended for students interested in the world of sound (training, recording, publishing and editing), as well as the musical production. This is a theoretical course illustrated by examples multimedia and completed by practical application sessions.
This course offers the students the M.I.D.I. Norms and the technique of the DIGITAL AUDIO, presenting to the manipulator of huge facilities such as the creation of libraries containing thousands of sounds "samples" and ready to be used, registration of an infinity of tracks in M.I.D.I and more than 64 tracks in audio, the correction of wrong notes and tempo notation and printing of the music sheet and a lot of other very mundane tasks of our time, but which were considered impossible, in the audio field, twenty years ago. Man is the only creator and innovative element and the computer is that his tool towards the accomplishment of his work in a faster and more advanced ways.
MUSC246Arab Music I
3 credits
This course will provide a deep analysis (form, genre, structure, themes, rhythm, orchestration and harmonic and polyphonic writing, language, general nature of the work) of musical styles and composition, in examples mostly selected from Greek, Medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque Music.
MUSC420Choir Conducting I
1 credits
This course aims to train musicians on vocals, choirs and choir conducting. It includes concepts about the human voice and its education, the choir and its training, the conductor of the choir (values, posture, technique, behavior, etc.), choral conducting (departure gesture, the fermata, the stop gestures, the syncopation and offbeat, repeat, etc). This course includes exercises on the evolution of the musical ear, on conductor gestures, on the conducting of simple meters (2/4, 3/4, 4/4).
MUSC425Choir Conducting II
1 credits
This course deepens the knowledge learned in choral I. Continuing to work on the technique of direction, on the didactics of voices, on polyphonic conducting, on meters and more complicated rhythmic formulas, the student will also learn how to prepare a piece for choir, how to deal with technical difficulties, how to practice with the choir and how to direct before an audience. By watching movies about great choir masters and orchestra rehearsals, we observe their actions and their methods of work.
MUSC210Choral singing I
1 credits
Choral singing closely follows the course of history. Each year the students learn to interpret, in the context of Western choral singing of the Faculty, the corresponding repertory according to the current history course.
MUSC215Choral Singing II
1 credits
Choral singing closely following the course of history. Each year the students learn to interpret, in the context of Western choral singing of the Faculty, the corresponding repertory according to the current history course.
MUSC310Choral Singing III
1 credits
Choral singing closely follows the course of history. Each year the students learn to interpret, in the context of Western choral singing of the Faculty, the corresponding repertory according to the current history course.
MUSC315Choral Singing IV
1 credits
HRG215Harmony I A
1 credits
Figured Bass and given Song: A. ­ Realization of a given bass with 3 sound chords (root position, 1st and 2nd inversions). ­ Harmonization of a song given with 3 chord sounds (all positions). B. Modulations to the adjacent and distant tones, uni­tonal and modulating harmonic movements, figured bass and given song. C. Chords of the dominant 7th, with and without fundamental, regular and exceptional resolution: given bass and given song.
HRG225Harmony I B
1 credits
HRG315Harmony II A
1 credits
Figured Bass.
A. ­ Chords of the Dominant 9th major and minor, with and without fundamental ­ Chords of the 7th in various species.
B. ­ Changes, delays and pedals.
C. ­ The foreign notes: changes, delays, pedals, notes of passage, anticipation, appoggiatura, etc.
HRG325Harmony II B
1 credits
MUSC350History of the 18th Century Music
2 credits
This course opens on the years that mark the death of Jean­Sébastien Bach, the decline of the baroque era, with the dawn of the classical musical style. It deals with the following subjects: French (from 1661 to 1764) music, music of the Germanic countries around Bach and Handel, English music in the 18th century, the birth and diffusion of classicism in Polish music, music in Spain, the music in Italy from the death of Carissimi to the end of the eighteenth century, classicism in Austria and the German­speaking countries, from the death of Telemann to the death of Beethoven, the formation of the classical style in Europe and the classical masters: Haydn and Mozart.
MUSC450History of the 19th Century Music
2 credits
This course explores the music of the Romantic era. 1 ­ Characteristics of Romantic music: themes of Romanticism, individuality of style, expressive subjects, nationalism and exoticism, the use of timbers to obtain a variety of sensations and atmospheres, the use of chromatic harmony, contrasts in nuances etc. 2. Vocal music, program music, the Romantic Symphony, the brief forms and developed forms. 3. Romantic composers: Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, Chopin, Liszt, Mendelssohn, Berlioz, Tchaikovsky, Smetana, Dvorak, Brahms, Verdi, Puccini, Wagner, Mahler.
MUSPIV1Instrument/Vocal
2 credits
MUSC220Music Critique and Aesthetic Judgement I
1 credits
MUSC225Music Critique and Aesthetic Judgement II
1 credits
MUSC320Music Critique and Aesthetic Judgement III
1 credits
This course includes a guided reading and musical critique, taking in readings in the literature and the science of music. Each student will have to read a book (or chapters in a book) per semester and present the content to others. The criticism is about:
- Various reports and interviews, mainly in the field of contemporary musical creation.
- Conception, realization and animation of a series of programs devoted to classical, modern and contemporary music.
- A roundtable around musical works by various composers.
- A report on a festival and concerts presented as part of this festival.
- Leaflet of a compact disc, published flyers or texts in concert programs.
- Symposia concerning music and conferences contained therein.
MUSC250Musical Computing
2 credits
The course is intended for students interested in the world of sound (training, recording, publishing and editing), as well as musical production. This is a theoretical course illustrated by multimedia examples and completed by practical application sessions.
MUSC340Musical Forms
2 credits
The examination of the form is a fundamental element of any analysis, because the form depends on the various components of a work, namely melody, rhythm, instrumentation, dynamics, tonal course, elements of unity and contrast ratio, relationship between text and music if it is a voice composition and other components. To understand musical forms, is to discern the sound architecture.
MUSC400Organology and Instrumentation
3 credits
This course studies different musical instruments from antiquity to the present day, including the history, classifications, mechanics, acoustics, development, manufacturing, the different families of instruments, and helps deepen the concept of instrumentation and know the specificity of each instrument, in terms of timbres, register, transposition, combination of timbers, transcription, etc.
SDG201Solfeggio/Dictation I
2 credits
1st course
a­ Solfeggio parlati : Pozzoli: Primo corso du n°1 au n°31
b­ Solfeggio cantati: ­ Pozzoli: Primo corso du n°1 au n°31.
c­ Dictation : ­ Noël Gallon du n°1 au n°20. ­ melodic intervals : 5th, 4th, octave, 3rd Maj and min, 2nd Maj and min.
SDG202Solfeggio/Dictation II
2 credits    |    Pre-requisite: SDG201
2nd course
a­ Solfeggio parlati : ­ Pozzoli: Primo corso du n°32 au n°60.
b­ Solfeggio cantati: Pozzoli: Primo corso du n°32 au n°60.
c­ Dictation : ­ Noël Gallon du n°21 au n°40. ­ melodic intervals : Triton, 6th Maj and min, 7th Maj and min.
SDG303Solfeggio/Dictation III
2 credits    |    Pre-requisite: SDG202
3rd course
a­ Solfeggio parlati : ­ Pozzoli: appendice al primo corso du n°1 au n°31.
b­ Solfeggio cantati: ­ Pozzoli: appendiceal prima corso du no1 au no27.
c- Dictation:-Noel Gallon du no41 au no60. - melodic intervals: all intervals, and major and minor chords.
Electives
MSS430Armenian Chant
1 credits
This course Covers the Armenian chant, composed in one of eight modes, written in khaz, a form of indigenous musical notation. As well as many the ancient origin of these chants, extending to pre-Christian times, while others are relatively modern, including several composed by Saint Mesrop Mashtots, who re-introduced the Armenian alphabet. Some of the best performers of these chants or sharakans, are at the Holy Cathedral of Etchmiadzin, and include the late soprano Lusine Zakaryan. And the Armenian religious music that remained liturgical until Komitas Vardapet introduced polyphony in the end of the 19th century. Apart from his contribution to religious music, Komitas may be considered the founder of modern classical Armenian music. From 1899 to 1910, he travelled through the Armenian highlands and collected more than 3,000 folk tunes many of which he harmonized and transformed into Lieder.
MSS420Byzantine Chant
1 credits
The Aim of this course is to go through the foundations of Byzantine chant and its three ‘genera’: the diatonic, the chromatic, and the enharmonic; its eight ‘modes’ or ‘tones’; its roots: Greek (as proven by historians who suggest that as Christianity “took over the language of the Greeks… so also it took over the religious music of the Greeks and adapted it to its own needs”) Non-Greek ( as proven by historians who tend to assert, “the basis of the Christian music during the early centuries was not simply Greek, but Graeco-Roman” and Hebrew); and its key characteristics: as being Entirely vocal, no use of instruments, Monophonic, using only melodies in one part, Antiphonic, executed by two alternately chanting choirs, ison, the holding-note, and leading the chant. As well as the difference between Orthodox Byzantine chants and Catholic Byzantine Chants.
MSS405Gregorian Chant
1 credits
Gregorian chant is the central tradition of Western plainchant, a form of monophonic, unaccompanied sacred song of the western Roman Catholic Church. Gregorian chant developed mainly in western and central Europe during the 9th and 10th centuries, with later additions and redactions. Although popular legend credits Pope St. Gregory the Great with inventing Gregorian chant, scholars believe that it arose from a later Carolingian synthesis of Roman chant and Gallican chant.
Gregorian chants were organized initially into four, then eight, and finally 12 modes. Gregorian melodies are traditionally written using neumes, an early form of musical notation from which the modern four-line and five-line staff developed. Multi-voice elaborations of Gregorian chant, known as organum, were an early stage in the development of Western polyphony.
Gregorian chant was traditionally sung by choirs of men and boys in churches, or by men and women of religious orders in their chapels. It is the music of the Roman Rite, performed in the Mass and the monastic Office. Although Gregorian chant supplanted or marginalized the other indigenous plainchant traditions of the Christian West to become the official music of the Christian liturgy, Ambrosian chant still continues in use in Milan, and there are musicologists exploring both that and the Mozarabic chant of Christian Spain. Although Gregorian chant is no longer obligatory, the Roman Catholic Church still officially considers it the music most suitable for worship. During the 20th century, Gregorian chant underwent a musicological and popular resurgence.
MUG305Music and Dance
2 credits
Attendance and participation are of primary importance for this class. Stdents will be introduced to a wide variety of techniques and styles in order to learn correct body alignment in basic positions, build a kinesthetic awareness of their own physical abilities, and develop a sense of musicality and rhythm. Students will learn the following dances: waltz, tango, cha-cha, salsa, cumbia, merengue, foxtrot, country line dance, rumba, swing, samba, etc.
MSS310Sacred Music
3 credits
This course is an introduction to music in its relation to religion. It includes general concepts on religion, philosophy, the sacred and their rapport with music. Subjects to study: the function of sacred music, the relationship of religion with music, tradition and renewal in sacred music; sacred music categories, forms and genres of sacred music, classification of sacred songs in the Maronite Church, and the characteristics of sacred music etc.
MUG435Sociology of Music
3 credits
This course explores the influence of music on the individual and on society and the influence of society on the musician and composer - and thereby on the music industry. It concentrates on the socialization processes and the factors affecting musical behavior. It also deals with the formation of self­musical image in accordance with the musical image of society, expectations, competition and cooperation, leadership and self­confidence, creativity and the aesthetic values of creativity etc.
MSS415Syriac Chant
1 credits
The Christian churches of the East are the guardians of a tradition dating back to the early days of Christianity. The Syriac Church is part of a community of independent Christian churches that were born in the East as a result of the separation from the Church of the West. The Syriac church music is vocal, and its liturgical language is Syriac. Ancient language, it is a late dialect of Aramaic (the language spoken by Christ). Syriac is still spoken today, both within the Church and outside. The Syriac scholars who exerted a lasting influence on the Christian world, include St-Ephrem (306-373), Jacob of Serugh (451-521), St. Severus, Patriarch of Antioch (died 538), Jacob of Edessa (died 708) and Bar Hebraeus (died in 1286). Saint Ephraim has composed a very large number of hymns and liturgies.
As is the case in all the churches of the East, the Sunday mass dominates the spiritual and religious life of the faithful. It is celebrated by the priest who stands at the altar while the deacons, placed in two groups or more exactly in two choirs on each side of the altar, sing alternately (antiphonal) all by assisting the priest in the celebration of the mass. Syriac chant places its melodic styles (qinto) within an overall unit (oktōēchos, or set of eight modes). The texts of the sacred songs were compiled in more than twenty liturgical books that include a comprehensive collection of hymns. The texts of the prayers are contained in fifteen liturgical books, including the shkhimo or book of offices for the days of the week, the book of the Holy Mass, the fanqith, or book of prayers for the year (Sundays, holy days...) and the book betkaz (treasure of melodies), complete collection of Church songs.
MUG420World Music
2 credits
This course deals with music from a variety of world traditions, including Brazilian, Irish, South Indian, Chinese, Japanese, American Jazz, Mexican, Spanish, and European music. It includes both a learning repertoire and discovering how music is taught in different cultural settings.
Specialization - Emphasis: Musicology
MUG425Arab Music II
3 credits
This course offers an analytical study of the older forms of music and Arabic Song: longa, Samai, Dulab, Tahmila, Bachraf, Taqsím, Mawwals, Qasîda, Taqtouqa, Mouwashah, Dawr etc.
MUG410Contemporary Music
3 credits
This course is open to current and transdisciplinary musical concerns. The concept for transdisciplinarity does not define a degree of specialization, but rather refers to a type of approach that allows the addressing of contemporary issues based on various disciplines and different fields of knowledge, placing the reflection beyond the mere juxtaposition of the subjects studied. The first set gives rise to learning activities that allow the student identify major issues of contemporary concern, to demonstrate the contribution of various disciplines in the understanding of a problem, through theories, concepts and methods of analysis. The second set invites the students to confront the real world and deal with a contemporary problem in a research piece where, after they have identified and analyzed the problem, they will have to justify the relevance of their proposed solutions.
MUG340Introduction to Musicology and Ethnomusicology
3 credits
This course provides an introduction to concepts and approaches to music research as encountered in the co-disciplines of historical musicology and ethnomusicology. It aims to develop students’ critical thinking in areas of historiography, fieldwork, musical meaning, and aesthetics. It introduces students to some of the methodologies and research techniques employed musicology and ethnomusicology.
MUG330Music Languages
2 credits
The goal of this course is to give to the students a general idea about the evolution of musical language from its beginning to the twentieth century: the scale of harmonics; the cycle of fifths, consonance and attraction, tolerance, habituation, equalization, the formation of the scales, relative pitch and absolute pitch, the organization of the sounds in space and in time, the melodic order and the harmonic order, the chromatic scale; the irregular and altered scales; from ditonic scale to heptatonic scale; accuracy and the acoustic systems; the equal temperament.
MUG335Musical Acoustics
3 credits
This course concentrates on: vibratory motion of typical musical sound sources, propagation of sound, wavelength, period and frequency, pressure and acoustic intensity, the acoustic impedance speed, etc; perceived pitch, loudness and timbre of a sound; the objectively measurable properties of a sound wave; explaining how sound is generated - transformed by the musical instruments and the human voice; defining the reverberation time of a hall, using a formula relating reverberation time to the volume of the hall and the absorption of its surfaces, and discussing the acoustical properties desirable in concert halls and opera houses; microphones, amplifiers, speakers and sound captation acoustic treatment and correction.
MUG205Musicological Research
1 credits
This course is an introduction to musicological research. It includes four parts: objects and methods, sources, musicological research and presentation standards. It is essentially practical and aims to help future musicologists and researchers become apprentices in their undergraduate studies.
THT465Performing Arts Production
3 credits
Students will demonstrate knowledge of the performing arts industry, including live performance genres, production processes, careers, and work environments. They will work creatively as part of a team to prepare and execute a live performance.
Specialization - Emphasis: Music Education
EMU405Music and Psychology
3 credits
Music psychology is the empirical study of how humans perceive and experience music, and the resulting impact on individual, group and cultural behavior. This course will encompass an introductory exploration of music psychology across a lifespan. It explains the different stages of the musical development of the baby, child and adolescent at the sensory­motor, social/emotional, psychomotor and intellectual/communicative levels.
EMU330Music Education Methods
3 credits
This course provides an introduction to the best known Western music education methods: Carl Orff, Zoltan Kodály, Edgar Willems, Emile Jaques­Dalcroze, Marcel Corneloup, Maurice Chevais, Maurice Martenot, suzuki etc.
EMU345Music Education Orff Ensemble
1 credits
Students learn several pieces of music to be played on Orff instruments. These pieces are organized around arrangements of authentic folk music, pieces from the Orff/Keetman publications, and student compositions. Students develop polyphonic awareness (singing a song while playing an instrument) and the basic technical skills for pitched percussion.
EMU355Musical Awakening: Rhythmic and Psychomotricity
3 credits
Introduction: The rhythm in our everyday life. The course will consist of a theoretical part: rhythm and development: A child’s timeline - rhythm and education: incidents that accompany rhythm concerning schooling. Also a practical part: Perception of rhythm through body: Discovering the pulse: The construction of rhythm according to the normal developmental stages: Rhythm and coordination: How to follow rhythm with the body (individually or in groups) Coordinate body movement with rhythm: Reproduction and creation of rhythm: Reproduction of the rhythmic structure: Creating and elaborating on rhythm through the body: Rhythm and instruments of percussion - Introduction of instruments of percussion in infants: Creation of rhythm.
EMU410Psycho-pedagogical Approach of Musical Learning
2 credits
The objective of this course is to identify methodological psychoeducational training paths for the music teachers regarding in particular the musical class learning management as it might contribute to the development of basic skills defined for music education and, more generally, social and individual student development.
THT415Puppet and Theater for Children
3 credits
Students will be introduced to the basics of creative development and theater production for children, and explore the different techniques used in this field.
EMU415Scholar Musical Teaching I
3 credits
Musical training, in a perspective of evolution continues throughout the cycle 1, 2 and 3, developing the listening sense of students, their creative potential with regard to the sound world - and skills to express themselves and to communicate through music. The topics of this course are: how to teach music to children in cycle 1, 2 and 3; the role and purpose of music education in both primary and elementary classes; and the effects of music education on the personality of the child. It will examine in particular the following points: ­ Communicating to the child the pleasure that music gives. ­ Appropriating the musical content of a musical play and exploiting its inherent expressive elements. ­ Applying elements of technique and rules for ensemble music. ­ Sharing experience of interpretation and appreciation. ­ Examining an excerpt of musical work or a musical performance with regards to content items. ­ Examining an excerpt from a musical work with regards to socio­cultural aspects (2nd and 3rd cycles).
EMU420Scholar Musical Teaching II
3 credits
This course in musical education focuses on education in complementary and secondary classes. The music program in these classes revolves around three complementary and interdependent skills: ­ Creating musical works, interpreting musical works and appreciating music. In the music program, the word work is used in its broadest sense; it refers to both the achievement of the student and the composer.
EMU425School Observation Internship
3 credits
The students, in groups or individually, attend classes of music in different schools. They must submit a report on each period that will be later assessed in class with the teacher in charge of internships.
EMU320Specialized Musical Teaching
2 credits
The objectives of the course are: ­ discovering how music can be an additional means of communication for the disabled child; ­ exploring musical situations developed with children with disabilities; ­ promoting the relationship of special needs students with their environment (other children, professionals, parents etc.) by music. It deals with the issues and the values of integration today and the importance of the artistic practice of people with disabilities: access to culture, to museums etc. It also studies cases of students with different disabilities and their musical practices. A visit to institutions dealing with children with disabilities, in order to have direct observation practice, would be an integral part of this course.

Emphasis

- Musicology (Open for Admission)
- Music Education (Open for Admission)

Mission

The Faculty of Music is committed to developing confident, creative, and skilled musicians, researchers, historians of music and ethnomusicologists.
The Faculty of Music provides opportunities for students of all majors to enhance their musical knowledge and skill, through participation in a wide variety of academic courses, performance studies, and field experiences.
As a vital part of the University, the Faculty of Music promotes the musical arts of regional, national and international communities within the University.

Program Educational Objectives

1. Graduates will be engaged in active music making and a good selection of presentations.
2. Graduates will demonstrate desire and ability to generate innovative ideas and use effective means of communicating them.
3. Graduates will show a mature, confident, analytical and critical approach to current activities in music and the media, which is based on an awareness and understanding of broader cultural issues.

Student Learning Outcomes

a. Student will develop knowledge and skills on a major instrument or voice and the ability to sight read.
b. Develop skills and understanding of music language and composition in a variety of styles, periods, and genres, in both Western European tradition and non­Western cultures.
c. Develop skills of criticism and defend musical judgment, with reference to contextual meaning and aesthetic value in own work, and the work of others.
d. Develop a comprehensive knowledge and understanding of Western musical history and its analysis, and for Arab and Lebanese music traditions.
e. Develop technical skills and musical awareness for performance and leadership of both small and large choirs.
f. Develop knowledge and skills in the use of technology as it applies to notating, arranging, recording, and composing music.
g. Develop a comprehensive knowledge and understanding of musical instruments; their classification systems, and the technical aspects related to their constructions and sound qualities and their use and importance in a composition.
h. Develop a working knowledge of music as it relates to and enhances the theater and religious experience.
i. Develop and demonstrate understanding and appreciation of diverse non­Western and Ethnic music traditions. Specific for the Musicology Emphasis
j. Develop research skills and the foundational background necessary to explore the social and cultural development of music from around the globe and demonstrate understanding of musical traditions and their influences.
k. Develop an understanding of the history of sacred music and the ability to interpret various genre and styles of occidental and oriental sacred chants.
l. Develop an understanding of child growth and development and the principles of learning, related to music.
m. Develop the ability to teach music to a variety of age groups in a range of classroom and ensemble settings (K­12 and special learners) in an effective management of classes based on methods and materials currently utilized in music education settings.
Holy Spirit University of Kaslik
Tel.: (+961) 9 600 000
Fax : (+961) 9 600 100
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