Department: Music
Dorothy Hindman
Assistant Professor of Music
Office:
Hill 118
Contact Information:
Birmingham-Southern College
900 Arkadelphia Rd
Birmingham, AL 35254
Office Phone: (205) 226-4948
Office Fax: (205) 226-3058
E-mail: dhindman@bsc.edu
Brief Career Background:
Critics have called Dr. Dorothy Hindman’s (b. 1966) music ‘intense, gripping, and frenetic’, ‘sonorous and affirmative’ and ‘music of terrific romantic gesture’. Each of her unique pieces explores her ongoing interest in issues of musical perception, beauty, timbre, contextual meaning, and profundity.
Her work has been performed extensively in the U.S., and also in the UK, France, Italy, Germany, Russia, Romania, and the Czech Republic. Recent commissions include Tapping the Furnace for Evelyn Glennie, Lost in Translation for saxophonist Carey Valente, Drift for the Lithium Saxophone Quartet, Taut for the Corona Guitar Kvartet, and Time Management for bassist Robert Black.
She was the recipient of an Alabama Music Teachers Association/MTNA Commission for their 2002 conference, and recently completed Louise: The Story of a Magdalen, a full length opera commissioned by Alabama Operaworks. Other awards and recognition include winner of the 2004 International Society of Bassists Solo Division Composition Competition, a 2005 Almquist Choral Composition winner, Special Commendation in the 2004 Nancy Van de Vate International Composition Prize for Opera, the Atlanta Prize in the 2001 Hultgren Biennial Solo Cello Works Competition, an Alabama State Council on the Arts Individual Artist Fellowship, the NACUSA Young Composers Competition, the Abraham Frost Composition Competition, the ASCA/National Symphony Orchestra Commission Competition, the G. Schirmer Young Americans Choral Competition, and the Percussive Arts Society’s International Solo Marimba Composition Competition. In 2005-06, she resided in Rome, Italy, and was a Visiting Artist in the Fall of 2005 at the American Academy in Rome.
She has participated in conferences, workshops and artistic residences including SCI National and Regional Conferences, Electronic Music Midwest, Florida State University Festival of New Music, Imagine, May in Miami, June in Buffalo, the Atlantic Center for the Arts, and the Hambidge Center, and she co-hosted the SEAMUS 1996 National Conference at Birmingham-Southern College.
She is a founding member of the Birmingham Art Music Alliance, and has served on the Board of Directors of the Society of Composers, Inc.
A native of Miami, Florida, Hindman has taught music theory and composition at Birmingham-Southern College since 1994. Her works are available on the Living Artist and ERMMedia CD series.
Educational Background:
Doctor of Musical Arts from the University of Miami
Master of Arts from Duke University
Bachelor of Music from the University of Miami
Principal composition teachers include Dennis Kam, Stephen Jaffe, Louis Andriessen, Thomas Oboe Lee, and John Van der Slice.
Areas of Academic Interest:
- Music composition with a focus on contemporary concert music
- Music theory
- Recent music history
- Electronic music
- Aesthetics with an emphasis on Husserlian phenomenology
Courses Taught:
MU 142 Electro-Acoustic Ensemble (¼)
The performance of music exclusively with electronic instruments. Prerequisite: consent. Fall, Spring.MU 150 Music Rules! Fundamentals of Music Theory Through Service Learning (1)
A course in the rudiments of music designed for the non-music major and for majors who need to develop basic skills. The course includes a service-learning component that culminates in the creation of a short song cycle or youth opera appropriate for elementary-school children, based on texts provided by children in area schools. To develop relationships with area schools, we will attend cultural events and daytime classes with local elementary students during the semester, and create musical works in collaborative partnerships with them. This course is typically offered as a first-year foundations course. Fall.MU 151 Elementary Theory I (½)
Notation, scales, and keys; cadence patterns, chord classification, and basic harmonic progressions; four-voiced writing using triads and the dominant seventh chord and their inversions. To be taken concurrently with MU 153 and 159. Prerequisite: MU 150 or consent. Fall.MU 152 Elementary Theory II (½)
A continuation of Elementary Theory I. To be taken concurrently with MU 154 and 160. Prerequisite: MU 151. Spring.MU 153 Ear Training I (¼)
A course in sight singing and music dictation skills of diatonic melodies, simple rhythms, triads, and intervals. This course is to be taken concurrently with MU 151. Prerequisite: consent.MU 154 Ear Training II (¼)
A course in sight singing and music dictation skills of diatonic melodies and compound rhythms in treble, bass, alto, and tenor clefs, and diatonic triads. To be taken concurrently with MU 152. Prerequisite: MU 153.MU 155 Ear Training III (¼)
A course in sight singing and music dictation skills of melodies involving secondary chords and modulation, complex rhythms, and all diatonic triads and seventh chords. To be taken concurrently with MU 251. Prerequisite: MU 154.MU 156 Ear Training IV (¼)
A course in sight singing and music dictation skills of melodies involving chromatic harmony, all triads and seventh chords, mixed meters, and soprano and bass dictation from four-part harmonic progressions. To be taken concurrently with MU 252. Prerequisite: MU 155.MU 352 Theory of Twentieth-Century Music (½)
An analytical survey of twentieth-century music. The course includes detailed study of the major works of the twentieth century. Prerequisite: MU 252. Spring.MU 355 Composition (½)
Elementary principles of composition with an emphasis on small forms and logical organization of musical ideas. Prerequisite: consent or concurrent enrollment in MU 151. Fall, Spring.MU 358 Advanced Electro-Acoustic Music (½)
The study of electro-acoustic music with emphasis given to composition involving computers and synthesizers. Prerequisite: MU 158. Spring.MU 450 Orchestration (½)
A study of orchestral instruments and the textural elements of orchestral music. Prerequisite: MU 252. Spring.MU 452/552 Form and Analysis (1)
An intensive, upper level music theory course exploring the relationships between (1) music theory and analysis; (2) analysis and musical experiences such as performance, listening, and composing; (3) musical experiences and other art of life experiences. Prerequisite: for MU 452: MU 252; for MU 552: graduate standing.MU 455 Advanced Composition (1)
Advanced study and practice of music composition. May be repeated for credit. Prerequisite: MU 355. Fall, Spring.MU 74 Music Notation with Finale (Interim)
MU 551A Theory Pedagogy (Graduate level)
MU 551B Special Topics in Theory and Composition (Graduate level