About Time

MCO4109.01
Course System Home Terms Fall 2025 About Time

Course Description

Summary

In this course, students will work on an extended piece (10+ minutes), as well as a suite of miniatures (< 30 seconds). By playing with scale and continuity, students will be challenged to find their own way to extend their ideas while enriching their own musical language. Students can propose a piece in any style or forces, and we will work together to recruit instrumentalists or resources towards an end-of-term performance or installation. Weekly listening and readings will focus on analysis of long-form pieces, as well as how duration interacts with installational, improvisational, and multi-disciplinary contexts. Listenings and readings will be gathered from a broad range of long-form repertoires, with some focus on classical forms from East and South Asia such as khyal, sanjo, and gagaku. Class discussion will involve feedback on projects and compositional process, and we鈥檒l discuss form, aesthetic, orchestration, and idiomatic writing in related works.

Learning Outcomes

  • 1. To create sonic work of extended duration with an ear to context, flow, and sonic architecture.
  • 2. To compose more fluently and with an ability to complete long-term projects
  • 3. To recruit and collaborate to create realizations and performances of large-scale works.

Prerequisites

Significant previous compositional work. Permission of the instructor. Submit recordings or other documentation of work by May 9 to nbrooke@bennington.edu.

Instructor

  • Nicholas Brooke

Day and Time

MO,TH 3:40pm-5:30pm

Delivery Method

Fully in-person

Length of Course

Full Term

Academic Term

Fall 2025

Area of Study

Credits

4

Course Level

4000

Maximum Enrollment

16

Course Frequency

Every 2-3 years