Faculty Biography
Steve Prosser
Title: Professor
Department: Ear Training
"Ear training is learning to hear, understand, and apply melodic, rhythmic, and harmonic musical forms. It assists instrumentalists and vocalists in mastering the technical and stylistic aspects of their instrument, writers in notating music they have created or arranged, and listeners in understanding what they are hearing.
"The department is unique in terms of the depth and breadth of course offerings. We have an amazing array of course choices for students who want to move beyond basic hearing skills, from pop and jazz transcription to performance ear training for all instruments, as well as harmonic, rhythmic, and atonal interval courses, and world music ear training.
"The Ear Training Department recently completed a rewrite of our core courses, to make them more responsive to the needs and interests of our current students. We also created a dictation web site to reinforce and supplement our class offerings. And we will soon unveil a massive Real Music web site that will focus on the study and transcription of diverse music from around the world.
"My teaching style is consciously Socratic rather than didactic. I musically demonstrate the materials and techniques myself, in order to demonstrate mastery, and then ask the students pointedly related questions. Together, we come to an understanding of the methods of study, the meaning of the material, and the desired musical results. I choose this style because students need to understand the 'why' of the music—not just the 'what.' I also discover something new about music from every class of students.
"I have learned an important truth during my 30 years at Berklee: No thing or person can alter the passionate musical bond between our diverse student body and our tremendously talented faculty. I love teaching because of our great students and my wonderfully talented teaching colleagues."
- B.M., Berklee College of Music
- M.Ed., Suffolk University
- Ph.D., Boston College
- J.D., Suffolk University Law School
- Experienced jazz pianist, studio vocalist, composer, arranger, producer, author, and clinician
- Attorney and member of the Massachusetts Bar Association
Steve's Top Five 20th Century Composers
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Charles Ives
America's most creative and perhaps greatest composer. Start your listening with some songs; then "The Unanswered Question," "The Concord Sonata," Violin and Piano Sonata #3, The "Holidays" Symphony, and the four symphonies.
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Dimitri Shostakovich
The musical conscience of the 20th century. Start with some string quartets: #8, #4, #10, #13, #15; then dig into the symphonies: #1, #5, #4, #10, #13, #14, #15; check out some of the sonatas: violin/piano, cello/piano, viola/piano (his last piece); then listen to the 6 concertos for violin (2), cello (2), and piano (2).
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Bela Bartok
Perhaps the greatest composer of the 20th century. Start off with a bang and listen to The Concerto for Orchestra (and imagine the notes being first played right down the street at Symphony Hall); then check out the six string quartets in order (they exemplify the three so-called "periods" of his compositional life); listen to his "Music for Children" for solo piano; the "Music for Strings, Percussion and Celeste;" lastly, check out Concertos #1 and #2 for piano. These will give you a good basic survey.
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The Viennese School
OK, so I'm cheating here. Check out Alban Berg (Violin Concerto and the opera "Wozzeck"); Arnold Schoenberg (Verklarte Nacht, String Quartet, Pierrot Lunaire, Gurreleider); Anton Webern (everything--it only takes a couple of hours).
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Alfred Schnitkke
Representing the musical apotheosis of the Century (and the musical heir to Shostakovich). Just recently passed away. Check out the Trio Sonata, Stille Nacht, In Memorium, the Symphonies and the String Quartets; also listen to the Viola and Violin Concertos! Not easy going, but well worth repeated listenings to "get it"!
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