Writing in Tonal Forms II
This MIT OpenCourseWare course continues the composition sequence begun in Writing in Tonal Forms I, focusing on advanced tonal music writing and analysis. Students complete a sonata-form movement for string quartet and write short pieces that experiment with the expanded tonal techniques of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. A required musicianship laboratory reinforces the written work with ear training and performance practice tied to the compositional exercises. Materials follow MIT's OCW format: syllabus, assignments, and course structure drawn from an actual undergraduate music curriculum in the Music and Theater Arts program. The course assumes prior study of tonal harmony and counterpoint from the first course in the sequence, and builds toward fluency in late-Romantic and early modernist compositional language through hands-on writing rather than lecture alone.