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Term
Time & Day Offered
Level
Credits
Course Duration

Songwriting — MCO4002.01

Spring 2025
Instructor: Jen Allen
Credits: 2
This class will focus on the art of songwriting. What makes a strong melody? What makes an effective chord progression? How do lyrics bring a simple song to life? What are the other elements of a song that can make it a compelling piece of music? We will study the music of great songwriters and compose pieces in the style of these great musicians. We will also work on bringing
Music

Songwriting Crimes and Recording Atrocities — MSR4369.01

Spring 2025
Instructor: Carly Rudzinski
Credits: 2
In this class, students will be given creative prompts that will expand their vocabulary, mixing, and orchestration in a studio context. Emphasis will be placed on genre-hopping, unconventional instrument pairings, studio trickery and delightfully awkward experimentation. Experience in songwriting and recording is a must, though we will work together to figure out ways to
Music

Songwriting I: From your Room to the World (REMOTE) — MCO2113.01

Spring 2022
Instructor: Kitty Brazelton
Credits: 4
Have you always wanted to write songs? Maybe you’ve already written a few, and you are wondering if you should show them to anyone. In this class, we will talk about the basics of songwriting. You will need to be able to show us your ideas (sing them, play them on guitar or keyboard as you sing, record them, show us however you can)—but they don’t have to be finished. Because
Music

Songwriting I: Melody, Rhythm Harmony LAB — MCO2114.01

Spring 2022
Instructor: Kitty Brazelton
Credits: 2
This online LAB is to help those with little or no musical training, learn the basics of harmony, rhythm and melody in order to write better songs. This strengthened understanding of the details will allow you to look at how your song’s melody fits over the chords you have chosen and why. And you’ll understand better how beats affect your song, so your rhythmic choices are
Music

Songwriting I: Melody, Rhythm Harmony LAB — MCO2114.02

Spring 2022
Instructor: Carly Rudzinski
Credits: 2
This online LAB is to help those with little or no musical training, learn the basics of harmony, rhythm and melody in order to write better songs. This strengthened understanding of the details will allow you to look at how your song’s melody fits over the chords you have chosen and why. And you’ll understand better how beats affect your song, so your rhythmic choices are
Music

Songwriting II: Defining and Deepening Your “Brand”(REMOTE) — MCO4169.01

Spring 2022
Instructor: Kitty Brazelton
Credits: 4
This is a course for advanced songwriter/composers, music makers who are ready to create bands, albums, shows, that transcend the single song into a larger listening experience. Knowing which songs/compositions represent your “voice” with resonance predictive of what you will write in the future, but combine, with integrity, strong material you’ve already written—is difficult
Music

Sonic Ethnography — MSR2213.01) (cancelled 10/6/2023

Spring 2024
Instructor: Senem Pirler Joseph Alpar
Credits: 4
Sonic ethnography is an emerging field that sits at the intersection of studies of sound and ethnographic methodologies. In this course, we will focus on investigating the “sonic” in relation to social and environmental structures. We will focus on how putting our attention to sound-making, recording, and listening practices can bring innovative contributions to the field of
Music Society Culture and Thought

Sonic, Mnemonic, Identity, and Memory — MSR2209.01

Fall 2015
Instructor: David Baron
Days & Time: TBA
Credits: 2
The best soundtracks create their own universe that is instantly identifiable. This course is a hands-on guide to creating sonic identity. We will explore soundtracks, sonic logos, environments, compositions, and other audio-visual media in an effort to distill what makes something stand apart with a strong identity. Why do we remember the NBC logo? Is it simply repetition or
Music

Sonorous and Silent: Transatlantic Poetry in Spanish — SPA4404.01

Spring 2024
Instructor: Lena Retamoso Urbano
Credits: 4
What is a poem? Let’s start to explore this question with a verse from the Peruvian poet Luis Hernández Camarero: “Las mil fases de lo eterno” (“The thousand phases of the eternal.”) In this course, we will explore the different ways in which a poem has expressed the human search for meaning, and has been a verbal, visual, sonorous, and/or silent, continent of dreams, desire,
Cultural Studies and Languages

Sound and Cadence for the Contemporary Ear/Era — LIT2200.01

Spring 2022
Instructor: Carly Rudzinski
Credits: 4
Sounds make us feel things. Sometimes, sound even unites us in feeling things. We might hear the words of Bob Marley swooning, “Let’s get together and feel alright.” Yet the effects (and affects) of music can also be detrimental. In Sonic Warfare, musician Steve Goodman (aka Kode9) argues that sound can be—and has been—used to express social threat and to create widespread
Literature

Sound Art — MCO4136.01

Spring 2018
Instructor: Sergei Tcherepnin
Credits: 2
This class takes an interdisciplinary approach to sound, examining sound as a relatively new medium within contemporary art. We will look at how sound has entered the discourse of contemporary art practices since the mid-20th century through now, focusing on conceptual and performance art practices, and how they set the stage for sound art. Students will be asked to create new
Music Visual Arts

Sound Bites — FRE4403.01

Spring 2023
Instructor: Noëlle Rouxel-Cubberly
Credits: 4
In this course, students will examine various elements of French “oraliture” (or oral literature and culture transmitted by word of mouth) that will also allow for a focus on the language itself. Through the exploration of a wide variety of “sound bites” – songs, poems, podcasts, riddles, and tales – students will hone their linguistic skills and enrich their understanding of
Cultural Studies and Languages

Sound Design for Moving Images — MSR4120.01

Spring 2022
Instructor: Senem Pirler
Credits: 4
This class is an introduction to the creative approaches and applications of sound design and audio production for moving images. In this course, we will explore the techniques used in audio post-production for moving images and focus on the role of the sound designer. We will focus on designing sounds using Foley, sound effects editing, and post-processing. Students will learn
Music Visual Arts

Sound Design for Moving Images — MSR4120.02

Fall 2020
Instructor: senempirler@bennington.edu
Credits: 2
This class is an introduction to the creative approaches and applications of sound design and audio production for moving images. In this course, we will explore the techniques used in the audio post-production for moving images and focus on the role of the sound designer. We will focus on designing sounds using Foley recordings, sound effects editing, and post-processing.
Visual Arts Music

Sound Design for Moving Images — MSR4120.01

Fall 2019
Instructor: Senem Pirler
Credits: 2
This class is an introduction to the creative approaches and applications of sound design and audio production for moving images. In this course, we will explore the techniques used in the audio post-production for moving images and focus on the role of the sound designer. We will focus on designing sounds using Foley, sound effects editing, and post-processing. Students will
Music

Sound Design for Moving Images — MSR4120.01

Spring 2024
Instructor: Senem Pirler
Credits: 2
This class is an introduction to the creative approaches and applications of sound design and audio production for moving images. In this course, we will explore the techniques used in the audio post-production for moving images and focus on the role of the sound designer. We will focus on designing sounds using Foley recordings, sound effects editing, and post-processing.
Visual Arts Music

Sound Design for Theater, Dance, Performance — MSR2239.01

Spring 2018
Instructor: Eli Crews
Credits: 2
This course will cover the creative process of designing sound for theatrical performance. We will explore various approaches to design for live theater and dance through close examination of scripts and movement scores, and develop compositional and/or sound-based material appropriate to the context. Hardware and software tools used to express sound designs will be
Dance Music

Sound in Site: Performance and Installation — MCO4702.01

Spring 2016
Instructor: Nicholas Brooke
Credits: 4
This course is for students who want to create site-based performances and installations with an electronic or performative sound component. Throughout the semester, students will investigate relationships between sound and site, informed by their exploration of sonic materials, listening, site-visits and readings that address contemporary critical and conceptual issues related
Music Visual Arts

Sound in Site: Performance and Installation —

Spring 2015
Instructor: Andrea Parkins
Credits: 4
This course is for students who want to create site-based performances and installations with an electronic or performative sound component. Throughout the semester, students will investigate relationships between sound and site, informed by their exploration of sonic materials, listening, site-visits and readings that address contemporary critical and conceptual issues related

Sound Installation — Canceled

Spring 2015
Instructor: TBA
Credits: 2
In this course we'll examine and create sound pieces that differ from traditional musical performances in that they are longer, larger, and/or (more directly) interactive. Topics will include: process music and algorithmic composition; mechanized and computerized sound making; strategies for remote power, processing, and amplification; and sensors. Students will critique
Music

Sound Manifestos — MHI2106.01

Spring 2016
Instructor: Nicholas Brooke
Credits: 2
This course will examine the peculiar literary and musical interactions that happen when sound artists trumpet their innovations in short prose form. Starting with Russolo’s Futurist Manifesto, we will listen to the manifestos of sound-related movements, from Dada to Fluxus to minimalism, using a broad, multidisciplinary approach. Readings will include Marinetti, Cage, Satie,
Music