What is music analysis? What does it aim to describe or explain? Which questions does it address? What tools could be used to address these questions? How can it assist musicians, music researchers, and listeners aiming to understand how a piece of music “works”?

 This introductory course explores these issues through analyses of selected pieces of a wide stylistic range (including pieces proposed or composed by the students). Though the course will deal with the analysis of musical from, harmony and style, it is not a systematic course in Formenlehre or in tonal harmony (topics taught in other classes at the School of Music). Rather, the course is a workshop aimed at deliberating issues central to the practice of music analysis by examining specific musical pieces.