See the bulletins of the School of Music and the Divinity School for full course listings and degree requirements. Courses listed here may be cross-listed in other schools or departments. Information is current as of July 1, 2021. An updated list is available online at http://ism.yale.edu.
The letter “a” following the course number denotes the fall term; the letter “b” denotes the spring term.
Courses fulfilling the distribution requirements for Institute students pursuing the M.Div. are indicated with a letter representing the subject area: W (Worship), M (Music), and/or A (Visual Arts or Literature). In the School of Music, courses designated NP are nonperformance courses. Courses designated P/F will be graded on a Pass/Fail basis. See the Schools’ respective bulletins for full explanation.
Music Courses
MUS 506a–b, 606a–b, 706a–b, Lyric Diction for Singers 2 credits per term. A language course designed specifically for the needs of singers. Intensive work on pronunciation, grammar, and literature throughout the term. French, German, English, Italian, Russian, and Latin are offered in alternating terms. Required. Faculty
MUS 509a–b, 609a–b, 709a–b, Art Song Coaching for Singers 1 credit per term. Individual private coaching in the art song repertoire, in preparation for required recitals. Students are coached on such elements of musical style as phrasing, rubato, and articulation, and in English, French, Italian, German, and Spanish diction. Students are expected to bring their recital accompaniments to coaching sessions as their recital times approach. Tomoko Nakayama
MUS 511b, Music before 1750 4 credits. NP. Group B. An analytic and cultural survey of European music before 1750. Alongside detailed examination of notated repertoire representing the major styles, genres, and composers of the period, the course explores the roles of listeners and performers, the social contexts of music making, and the relationships among notated and vernacular music. Topics include the development of the modern notational system, the transmission of music as a result of social and power structures, vernacular traditions of music making, the place of music in relationship to changing world views and cosmologies, the relationship between music and language, the emergence of independent instrumental music, and the development of musical form. The course explores both music that was incorporated in the canon of Western music but also composers and musical traditions that were marginalized. Enrollment by placement exam. May be taken as an elective, space permitting. Markus Rathey
MUS 515a,b, Improvisation at the Organ I 2 credits. This course in beginning organ improvisation explores a variety of harmonization techniques, with a strong focus on formal structure (binary and ternary forms, rondo, song form). Classes typically are made up of two students for a one-hour lesson on Mondays. The term culminates with an improvised recital, open to the public. In this recital, each student improvises for up to seven minutes on a submitted theme. Jeffrey Brillhart
MUS 519a–b, 619a–b, 719a–b, ISM Colloquium 1 credit per term. NP. P/F. Participation in seminars led by faculty and guest lecturers on topics concerning theology, music, worship, and related arts. Required of all Institute of Sacred Music students each term. Martin Jean
MUS 522a–b, 622a–b, 722a–b, Acting for Singers 1 credit per term. Designed to address the specialized needs of the singing actor. Studies include technique in character analysis, together with studies in poetry as it applies to art song literature. Class work is extended in regular private coaching. ISM students are required to take two terms in their second year. Faculty
MUS 531a–b, 631a–b, Repertory Chorus—Voice 2 credits per term. A reading chorus open by audition and conducted by graduate choral conducting students. The chorus reads, studies, and sings a wide sampling of choral literature. Jeffrey Douma
MUS 532a–b, 632a–b, Repertory Chorus—Conducting 2 credits per term. Students in the graduate choral conducting program work with the Repertory Chorus, preparing and conducting a portion of a public concert each term. Open only to choral conducting majors. Jeffrey Douma
MUS 535a–b, 635a–b, Recital Chorus—Voice 2 credits per term. A chorus open by audition and conducted by graduate choral conducting students. It serves as the choral ensemble for four or five degree recitals per year. Jeffrey Douma
MUS 536a–b, 636a–b, Recital Chorus—Conducting 2 credits per term. Second- and third-year students in the graduate choral conducting program work with the Recital Chorus, preparing and conducting their degree recitals. Open to choral conducting majors only. Jeffrey Douma
MUS 540a,b, 640a,b, 740a,b, Individual Instruction in the Major 4 credits per term. Individual instruction of one hour per week throughout the academic year, for majors in performance, conducting, and composition. Faculty
MUS 544a–b, 644a–b, 744a–b, Seminar in the Major 2 credits per term. An examination of a wide range of problems relating to the area of the major. Specific requirements may differ by department. At the discretion of each department, seminar requirements can be met partially through off-campus field trips and/or off-campus fieldwork, e.g., performance or teaching. Required of all School of Music students except pianists who take 533, 633, 733. Faculty
MUS 546a–b, 646a–b, 746a–b, Yale Camerata 2 credits per term. Open to all members of the University community by audition, the Yale Camerata presents several performances throughout the year that explore choral literature from all musical periods. Members of the ensemble should have previous choral experience and be willing to devote time to the preparation of music commensurate with the Camerata’s vigorous rehearsal and concert schedule. Felicia Barber
MUS 571a–b, 671a–b, 771a–b, Yale Schola Cantorum 1 credit per term. Specialist chamber choir for the development of advanced ensemble skills and expertise in demanding solo roles (in music before 1750 and from the last one hundred years). Enrollment required for voice majors enrolled through the Institute of Sacred Music. David Hill
MUS 594a,b, Vocal Chamber Music 1 credit. This performance-based class requires a high level of individual participation each week. Grades are based on participation in and preparation for class, and two performances of the repertoire learned. Attendance is mandatory. Occasional weekend sessions and extra rehearsals during production weeks can be expected. Students are expected to learn quickly and must be prepared to tackle a sizeable amount of repertoire. James Taylor
MUS 595a–b, 695a–b, Performance Practice for Singers 2 credits per term. A four-term course cycle exploring the major issues and repertoire of Western European historically informed performance, including notation, use of modern and manuscript editions, and national performance styles. Includes a survey of solo and chamber vocal repertoire (song, madrigal, cantata, opera, oratorio, motet) from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, with a focus on ornamentation, practical performance issues, and recital planning. The sequence is designed to provide the foundation to a practical career in historical performance. Open to conductors and instrumentalists with permission of the instructor. Jeffrey Grossman
MUS 615a,b, Improvisation at the Organ II 2 credits. This course explores modal improvisation, focusing on the composition techniques of Charles Tournemire and Olivier Messiaen. Students learn to improvise five-movement, chant-based suites (Introit-Offertoire-Elevation-Communion-Pièce Terminale), versets, and a variety of free works using late-twentieth-century language. Classes typically are made up of two students for a one-hour lesson on Mondays. The term culminates with an improvised recital, open to the public. In this recital, each student improvises for up to seven minutes on a submitted theme. Prerequisite: MUS 515. Jeffrey Brillhart
MUS 618b, Intimacy, Love, and Devotion in Seventeenth-Century Music The musical developments in the early seventeenth century, the freer use of the dissonance in Monteverdi’s “seconda prattica,” the liberation of the solo voice through the introduction of the basso continuo, and finally the “invention” of opera as one of the leading genres for musical innovation provided the composer with a vast array of new possibilities to express human emotions in music. These developments in music went along with a paradigm shift in theology and piety in the seventeenth century; contemporary theologians emphasized the individual and their relationship with the divine. We can see a revival of medieval mysticism and metaphors of love and emotion are frequently used in religious poetry and devotional prose. Especially the image of bridegroom (=Christ) and bride (=believer) was popular and led numerous composers to setting sacred dialogues between the two “lovers” to music. This also implied a specific understanding of gender roles, which are directly reflected in both the poetry and in the music. In the realm of philosophy, René Descartes outlined in his Les passions de l’âme a modern concept of emotion and showed how artists could stir these emotions in their works of art. The course will examine the theological, philosophical, and musical developments in the seventeenth century and analyze the relationship between the musical, literary, philosophical and theological discourses during the Baroque. Markus Rathey
MUS 623a,b, Early Music Coaching for Singers 1 credit. Individual private coaching in early repertoire, focusing on historically informed performance practice, in preparation for required recitals and concerts. Students are coached on such elements of musical style as ornamentation, phrasing, rubato, articulation, and rhetoric, and in English, French, Italian, German, Latin, and Spanish diction. Students are expected to bring recital and concert repertoire to coaching sessions as performance times approach. Jeffrey Grossman
MUS 656a, Liturgical Keyboard Skills I 2 credits. In this course, students gain a deeper understanding of and appreciation for musical genres, both those familiar to them and those different from their own, and learn basic techniques for their application in church service playing. Students learn to play hymns, congregational songs, service music, and anthems from a variety of sources, including music from the liturgical and free church traditions, including the Black Church experience. Hymn playing, with an emphasis on methods of encouraging congregational singing, is the principal focus of the organ instruction, but there is also instruction in chant and anthem accompaniment, including adapting a piano reduction to the organ. In the gospel style, beginning with the piano, students are encouraged to play by ear, using their aural skills in learning gospel music. This training extends to the organ, in the form of improvised introductions and varied accompaniments to hymns of all types. We seek to accomplish these goals by active participation and discussion in class. When not actually playing in class, students are encouraged to sing to the accompaniment of the person at the keyboard, to further their experience of singing with accompaniment, and to give practical encouragement to the person playing. Prerequisite: graduate-level organ and piano proficiency. Walden Moore
MUS 657a, Liturgical Keyboard Skills II 2 credits. The subject matter is the same as for MUS 656, but some variety is offered in the syllabus on a two-year cycle to allow second-year students to take the course without duplicating all of the means by which the playing techniques are taught. Walden Moore
MUS 675a, Sacred to Socially Committed: A Survey of the Mass 4 credits. NP. Group B. As a musical fountain of devotion and worship, the mass has been an abiding source of inspiration for composers over many centuries. The innumerable settings within the Western Christian world attest to rich and varied practices, while offering glimpses into the composer and the context in which sung masses were created. The course surveys the mass from the sixteenth through the twentieth century, as set in Europe, the United States, and Latin America. Canonical works are explored in addition to those from theatrical, folkloric, and jazz traditions. Both Latin and vernacular masses allow us to examine musical style, genre, composers, liturgical texts, historical and cultural contexts, and performance practices. Bernard Gordillo
MUS 715a,b, Improvisation at the Organ III 2 credits. This course explores the improvisation of a full organ symphony in four movements, Tryptique (Rondo-Aria-Theme/variations), improvisation on visual images, text-based improvisation, and silent film. Classes typically are made up of two students for a one-hour lesson on Mondays. The term culminates with an improvised recital, open to the public. In this recital, each student improvises for up to ten minutes on a submitted theme. Prerequisite: MUS 615. Jeffrey Brillhart.
Divinity Courses
Courses are 3 credits unless otherwise indicated.
REL 606a, The Eucharistic Prayer and Eucharistic Theology This course looks at the broad structural development of the Eucharistic liturgy at certain key epochs in the history of the Christian Church. However, its main focus is on the central prayer of the rite, the Eucharistic Prayer or Great Thanksgiving. It examines the theories put forward regarding its possible origins, its historical development, its treatment by the various sixteenth- and seventeenth-century reformers, and subsequent epochs to the present. It reflects on the theologies expressed in this prayer genre and considers the corresponding sacramental theology in doctrinal writings on the Eucharist, East and West, as well as contemporary discussion. Prerequisite: Completion of REL 682 would be useful background. (W) Bryan Spinks
REL 655b, Liturgy and Life Vatican II denounced the “split between the faith which many profess and their daily lives,” characterizing it as “among the more serious errors of our age” (Gaudium et Spes, no. 43). How does our experience in the Sunday liturgy relate to the way we live our lives in the “real world”? Is such a distinction between sacred and secular valid? What about the problematic fact that worship is often used to reinforce political and ethical status quos? This course investigates how several contemporary thinkers have addressed these concerns through their liturgical and sacramental theologies. (W) Melanie Ross
REL 675b, Baptism and Eucharist in Ecumenical Dialogue This course engages students in recent conversations around the theology and practice of baptism and eucharist. Beginning with the 1982 World Council of Churches document Baptism, Eucharist, and Ministry, we read texts that have emerged from ecumenical sacramental dialogues in the past three decades and discuss major issues such as mutual recognition of baptism, patterns of Christian initiation, who may administer the sacraments, and open communion. (W) Melanie Ross
REL 677b, Natural Disasters in the Christian Tradition: Ritual and Theological Responses Natural disasters are uniquely productive sites of ritual action and theological reflection, cutting to the core of a group’s identity and threatening the stability of theological systems. In the Christian tradition, natural disasters have been critical moments in which the relationship among humans, God, and the world are negotiated, both in ritual action and theological reflection. This seminar explores natural disasters in the Christian tradition by examining ritual and theological responses to environmental catastrophe from early Christianity to the present. The questions raised are: How does environmental instability affect the practice and theory of Christianity? What continuities and discontinuities can be seen in Christian responses to natural disasters across time and space? What resources can the history of disaster responses provide for contemporary religious practice? Students are expected to participate actively in class discussions and write a 10–12-page research paper related to the themes of the course. Students present their work to the class, conference style, in the final two weeks of class. (W) Mark Roosien
REL 682a, Foundations of Christian Worship This is a core course in Liturgical Studies. The course focuses on theological and historical approaches to the study of Christian worship, with appropriate attention to cultural context and contemporary issues. The first part of the course seeks to familiarize students with the foundations of communal, public prayer in the Christian tradition (such as its roots in Hebrew Scripture and the New Testament; its Trinitarian source and direction; its ways of figuring time, space, and human embodiment; its use of language, music, the visual arts, etc.). The second part offers a sketch of historical developments, from earliest Christian communities to present times. In addition, select class sessions focus on questions of overall importance for liturgical life, such as the relationship between gender differences and worship life, and the contemporary migration of liturgical practices into cyberspace. (W) Theresa Berger
REL 688b, Catholic Liturgy This course offers an introduction to Roman Catholic liturgical traditions and practices. Given the breadth of the subject matter (2,000 years of history; complex dogmatic developments; numerous rites, rituals, and rhythms; contemporary tensions), the course seeks to range broadly, yet has to do so quite selectively. One focus is on key liturgical documents of the past hundred years or so. And throughout the course, attention is paid to the broader cultural realities that always influence practices of worship, e.g., ethnic identities, and, more recently, media developments (for example, the migration of Catholic liturgical practices into digital social space). Prerequisites: REL 682, concurrent or completed, will be an asset, as will a course in liturgical studies and/or Catholic theology. (W) Teresa Berger
REL 745a, Byzantine Art and Architecture This lecture course explores the art, architecture, and material culture of the Byzantine Empire from the foundation of its capital, Constantinople, in the fourth century to the fifteenth century. Centered around the Eastern Mediterranean, Byzantium was a dominant political power in Europe for several centuries and fostered a highly sophisticated artistic culture. This course aims to familiarize students with key objects and monuments from various media—mosaic, frescoes, wooden panels, metalwork, ivory carvings—and from a variety of contexts—public and private, lay and monastic, imperial and political. We give special attention to issues of patronage, propaganda, reception, and theological milieux, as well as the interaction of architecture and ritual. More generally, students become acquainted with the methodological tools and vocabulary that art historians employ to describe, understand, and interpret works of art. (A) Vasileios Marinis
REL 756a, The Cult of Mary: Early Christian and Byzantine Art This lecture course explores the art, architecture, and material culture of the Byzantine Empire from the foundation of its capital, Constantinople, in the fourth century to the fifteenth century. Centered around the Eastern Mediterranean, Byzantium was a dominant political power in Europe for several centuries and fostered a highly sophisticated artistic culture. This course aims to familiarize students with key objects and monuments from various media—mosaic, frescoes, wooden panels, metalwork, ivory carvings—and from a variety of contexts—public and private, lay and monastic, imperial and political. We give special attention to issues of patronage, propaganda, reception, and theological milieux, as well as the interaction of architecture and ritual. More generally, students become acquainted with the methodological tools and vocabulary that art historians employ to describe, understand, and interpret works of art. (A) Vasileios Marinis, Felicity Harley
REL 801a or b, Marquand Chapel Choir 1 credit per term. Nathaniel Gumbs
REL 802a or b, Marquand Gospel and Inspirational Choir ½ credit per term. Mark Miller
REL 902b, Literary Appropriations: Writers and Philosophers in Conversation This course examines the relationship between literary authors and the philosophers (and theologians) who influenced them, or whom they influenced. In addition to exploring philosophical influences in the literary work as a way of illuminating our understanding of it, the course considers how the literary work helps us understand the points the philosophers and theologians are making. In terms of how literature and philosophy relate to each other more broadly, we ask several guiding questions, including: How do we understand ways the imagination functions in both undertakings? How might literature be regarded as one way of “doing” philosophy or theology? How do the respective critical methods of these different disciplines collide or collaborate in the effort to hold forth meaning? We proceed with five pairs of conversations, each of which forms two seminar sessions. These paired conversations include Plato and Iris Murdoch, Duns Scotus and Gerard Manley Hopkins, Søren Kierkegaard and Walker Percy, John Calvin and Marilynne Robinson, and a Womanist theologian and African American woman writer, both yet to be determined. For our literary authors there is select poetry or one of their novels, as well as short critical work that exemplifies the philosophical influence under consideration. Previous experience in the study of literature and/or philosophy or theology would be helpful background. (A) David Mahan, John Hare
REL 943a, Gospel, Rap, and Social Justice: Prison and the Arts Students in this course collaborate with formerly incarcerated musicians and other survivors of prison to create performances inspired by their collective reading of Dante’s Divine Comedy, Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow, and a variety of texts documenting the impact of the carceral state on communities of color. Students learn how to apply the arts to community service and activism as they learn about the American criminal justice system and its relevance to Dante’s poem from a social justice perspective. (A) Ronald S. Jenkins
REL 948b, Women of the Gospel: Jackson, Clark, Caesar, Franklin This course studies the black gospel tradition, focusing on the genre’s distinctive combination of sound and belief while paying special attention to the contributions of women musicians to black gospel. Music, movement, and conviction—the three expressions gospel holds together—are explored through three interpretive lenses: exemplary performers, pivotal periods, and formal processes. As it tarries with the music of Mahalia Jackson, Mattie Moss Clark, Aretha Franklin, and Shirley Caesar, the class brings material and approaches from the fields of musicology, music theory, ethnomusicology, black studies, homiletics, and theology to bear on two questions: (1) What work—musical, cultural, and spiritual—does gospel do for its various audiences? and (2) How does the function of the gospel song shape its form? Through a combination of weekly reading, listening, and writing assignments, students immerse themselves in “the gospel imagination,” the network of belief, performance, and reception that sustains many expressions of black Christian faith. Alongside these assignments, students undertake composition in the gospel style, culminating in a performance of their musical creation. (M) Braxton Shelley
REL 956b, Faith, Doubt, and Redemption in Twentieth- and Twenty-First-Century Fiction The pressures of secularization and other challenges in late-modern society have provoked widespread reconsideration of traditional expressions of faith. Notions of God, salvation, redemption, even of faith itself, are subject to scrutiny by religious and nonreligious people alike. The course examines this phenomenon through the literary vision expressed in the fiction of several modern writers—including Flannery O’Connor, James Baldwin, Leslie Marmon Silko, Ron Hansen, Cormac McCarthy, Fanny Howe, and Don DeLillo—considering the theological and literary implications of their work to modern quests for redemption. (A) David Mahan
REL 957a, Russian Religious Thought This seminar explores the primary thinkers and themes of modern Russian religious thought from the nineteenth-century encounter of Russian Orthodox Christianity with modern philosophy to the newly emerging, quasi-religious ideology of Putinism. The course considers the religious ideas of classic authors Tolstoy and Dostoevsky, theologians Solovyov, Bulgakov, and Berdyaev, lesser-known figures such as the revolutionary saint Mother Maria Skobtsova, and the anti-modernist stream of religious Eurasianism. The course focuses especially on the hallmark themes of Russian religious thought: What is freedom? Dare we hope for the salvation of all? What is the relationship between faith and politics? (A) Mark Roosien
REL 961b, Eco-Theology, Environmental Ethics, and Fiction The rapid growth of the environmental humanities in recent years stems from the recognition that the environmental crisis is not simply a problem of policy or technology. It is also—and perhaps more deeply—a problem of our fundamental orientation toward the non-human world. The challenge requires us not only to rethink basic values but also to learn to see ourselves and the world differently. Stories have always been central to how human beings understand themselves and their world. This course begins with the hypothesis that one way to reimagine ourselves and our world is through fiction. It covers most of the issues commonly addressed in courses on environmental ethics and eco-theology. We discuss ethical topics such as anthropocentrism and its alternatives, animal rights, climate change, environmental justice, and theological topics regarding the place of the non-human world in creation, fall, incarnation, and salvation. We do so, however, in an unusual way. Most of our shared texts are fictional. The fiction is accompanied by some short non-fiction texts and mini-lectures in order to introduce analytic categories. The emphasis remains, however, on wrestling with the relevant theological and ethical issues in and through engagement with narratives. (A) Ryan Darr
REL 963a, Literature of Trauma How can literary art respond to extreme suffering, particularly when it involves the trauma of large-scale violence and oppression, which seems to defy aesthetic response? How can literary artists fulfill a summons to bear witness and remember without vitiating the apparent senselessness of human atrocity? How do theological responses to trauma interact with those made by creative writers? This course examines these and other questions through the works of poets and novelists responding to the traumas of war (WWI poetry), genocide (Holocaust poetry and fiction), and historic violence and oppression (African American, Latin American/Latinx, and Native American/Indigenous Peoples poetry and fiction). This is not a course in clinical psychology or pastoral theology, though our themes relate to these disciplines. The class focuses on the literary-critical and theological issues that arise through close reading of these texts. (A) David Mahan
REL 966a, Sensational Materialities: Sensory Cultures in History, Theory, and Method This interdisciplinary seminar explores the sensory and material histories of (often religious) images, objects, buildings, and performances as well as the potential for the senses to spark contention in material practice. With a focus on American things and religions, the course also considers broader geographical and categorical parameters so as to invite intellectual engagement with the most challenging and decisive developments in relevant fields, including recent literatures on material agencies. The goal is to investigate possibilities for scholarly examination of a robust human sensorium of sound, taste, touch, scent, and sight—and even “sixth senses”—the points where the senses meet material things (and vice versa) in life and practice. Topics include the cultural construction of the senses and sensory hierarchies; investigation of the sensory capacities of things; and specific episodes of sensory contention in and among various religious traditions. In addition, the course invites thinking beyond the “Western” five senses to other locations and historical possibilities for identifying the dynamics of sensing human bodies in religious practices, experience, and ideas. (A) Sally Promey
REL 971a, Creative Faith: Poetry An assumption of the course is that the act of creating and the act of believing are intimately related. Indeed, for many artists they are inseparable. Students work on poems throughout the course, some with prompts, some not. This course is part seminar and part workshop. Half of the time is devoted to the reading and analysis of modern poems and half to discussing work done by students in the class. Students should have some background with poetry, both reading it and writing it. Previous workshop experience is not required. Instructor may be contacted directly to address questions/hesitations about enrolling in the course. Enrollment limited to twelve. Admission is at the discretion of the instructor. (A) Christian Wiman
REL 3910a–b, ISM Colloquium ½ credit per term. P/F. Participation in seminars led by faculty and guest lecturers on topics concerning theology, music, worship, and related arts. Required of all Institute of Sacred Music students each term. Martin Jean
ISM Courses Hosted in Other Departments
AMST 692/HSAR 730/JDST 799/RLST 788b, Religion and the Performance of Space This interdisciplinary seminar explores categories, interpretations, and strategic articulations of space in a range of religious traditions. In conversation with the work of major theorists of space, this seminar examines spatial practices of religion in the United States during the modern era, including the conception, construction, and enactment of religious spaces. It is structured around theoretical issues, including historical deployments of secularity as a framing mechanism, ideas about space and place, geography and gender, and relations between property and spirituality. Examples of case studies treated in class include the enactment of rituals within museums, the marking of religious boundaries such as the Jewish “eruv,” and the assignment of “spiritual” ownership in Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park. Permission of the instructor required; qualified undergraduates are welcome. (A) Sally Promey, Margaret Olin