ï~~STUDIO REPORT:
MUSIC TECHNOLOGY AT PENN STATE UNIVERSITY
Mark Ballora
The Pennsylvania State University
College of Arts & Architecture
School of Music/Department of Integrative Arts
ballorag su edu
ABSTRACT
Music technology is a relatively new presence at Penn
State University, with a gradual introduction of courses
having begun in 2001. These courses led to the
establishment of a Music Technology Minor in 2006 [1],
which enjoys a robust interest among students from Music
and other majors. Some 5-15 students declare candidacy
for it each semester. This has caught the attention of higher
administration, which has committed significant one-time
capital upgrade funds to construct an acoustically-treated
recording studio. There are also ongoing explorations
about expanding curricular options, possibly in
collaboration with international universities. Our main
strength is in providing foundational principles for
undergraduate training. To be sure, Penn State does not lie
within the same echelon as schools that offer degree
programs and/or a strong research presence, but we expect
that to change. There are various challenges to growing a
program from scratch, which are no doubt relevant to the
circumstances of other schools that have established music
programs, but no history and possibly little awareness of
music technology as a no-longer-emerging field.
1. PEOPLE
The two authors of this paper are the administrators of
Penn State's Music Technology Minor. The complete set
of courses applicable to the minor, however, represent a
range of associations forged with faculty in other
programs, which include Composition, Visual Arts,
Acoustics, Electrical Engineering, and Information
Sciences and Technology. Two graduate assistants, one
half time and one quarter time, are funded on a consistent
basis, with the half-time position including lab
maintenance duties, and typically (though not always)
filled by a graduate student in Composition.
2. COURSES
Music technology at Penn State was not begun by a
high-level initiative with a stimulus of funding, staff, and a
Curtis Craig
The Pennsylvania State University
College of Arts & Architecture
School of Theatre
cjc18@psu.edu
degree program. Rather, it has taken root slowly through
the establishment of a series of courses that cover a core
curriculum
In the year 2000, the music technology curriculum
consisted of two classes created in the late 1980s: one class
in electronic music composition and an independent studio
project. At that time, an upcoming accreditation review by
the National Association of Schools of Music (NASM)
foretold a need for technology training in relevant
technologies for all, which led to the hire of a faculty
position in music technology. At about the same time, the
School of Theatre established a faculty line in sound
design.
It was not immediately clear exactly what type of
training should be provided for Music students.'
Complicating matters further was the fact that "music
technology" means different things to different groups of
people. To verify this, one need only compare Dodge and
Jerse's Computer Music [2] with Webster and Williams'
Experiencing Music Technology [3] to discover two
entirely different sets of goals and assumptions about
computers, audio technology, and music.2
The first step was to establish a course in digital audio
and MIDI [4], wherein students gained fluency with
sequencing and notation programs, and to require it for all
students majoring in Music. According to administrative
logic that is well beyond the scope of this document, this
course is not offered by the School of Music for its majors.
Rather, it is classified as a General Education Arts course,
and offered by the Department of Integrative Arts. This
makes it available to all Penn State undergraduate students,
1 The current NASM standards stipulate that "students must acquire
the ability to use technologies current to their area of
specialization" leaving it largely up to each institution to define
what these abilities should be.
2 Here's an anecdote I can't resist including: when my own
textbook's publisher was collecting editorial reviews of the book,
there was one reviewer who strongly objected to the amount of
coverage I gave to audio recording-this was a topic apparently
not within the purview of music technology, as shown by the fact
that it was not a topic covered in the then-current version of the
Webster/Williams book. [M.B.]
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