Mus 81: Introduction to Music: Sound & Meaning
Syllabus
Scripps PF 119, Tuesdays/Thursdays 1:15-2:30
Office: Parsons 1278 - Phone: x74170
This document includes class description, goals, and policies.
Click here for the course schedule.
Click here for the contents of the supplemental CDs.
Click here to go to my list of courses.
Class Goals and Background
"Introduction to Music" is perhaps an ambitious name for a course, given the extreme variety of music now available to us
every day, each with its own history, culture, and theory. Perhaps a more descriptive title would be "Introduction to
Listening," because, while a selection of certain kinds of music and their background will be introduced, the emphasis
will be on learning to listen.
In today's world we hear music every day: in our homes, in our cars, the dentist's office, on television, in elevators,
and so on. We hear so much music that we often do not listen, or, at best, we listen passively. In fact, just by
the ubiquitous atmosphere of such music, our society teaches us that music is a passive experience. Learning to listen
actively to music and learning more about the music we do listen to can make the experience of music a profound one.
While listening can be practiced with virtually any kind of music, in this course we will look specifically at music of
fine arts traditions, that is to say "classical" music, mostly from Europe, but also from a selection of the other
classical traditions around the world. This selection was made not to imply that these musics are better or more worthy
of study than folk, popular, or other traditions. However, they do have a depth of sophistication, a long, written
tradition, and are often unfamiliar to non-music majors.
For this course, I have the following goals:
- A familiarity with a few of the most important terms, forms, instruments, and composers from the fine arts music that
we will cover;
- A basic vocabulary that can be used to describe music of all kinds;
- To give you enough familiarity with the styles that we cover that you will be able to place an unknown piece in a
particular tradition and period;
- A basic understanding of the cultural and historical background to the styles of music we will cover;
- Most of all, the enthusiasm to listen, enjoy, and discover new music of all kinds.
There are no prerequisites for this course. I will NOT expect that you have had any practical experience with music
nor that you are able to read music.
Required Materials for this Course
- Kerman, Joseph. Listen. Fifth brief edition. New York:
Worth Publishers, 2003. Available at the Huntley Bookstore.
- Listen. Set of 6 CDs. Available at the Huntley Bookstore.
- A supplemental packet to be sold in class and at the Humanities and Social Sciences department office (Parsons 1267).
- 2 supplemental CDs on reserve in Sprague Library.
Office hours
I encourage you to come by my office with any questions you have. However, my office hours are not set yet. I encourage
you to check the schedule posted on my office door or email me for an appointment (
alves @hmc.edu)
Internet Resources
There are web pages on music fundamentals for this class, as
well as quizzes for self-evaluation. The details of
how these pages will be used for the music fundamentals assignment will be discussed in class. Note that these pages
are not available from clients off the Claremont Colleges campuses.
There are many other resources available on the internet, and I encourage you to explore on your own.
Discussions, questions, and updates on assignments between classes will be made through the class electronic
mailing list: mus-81-l. If you are preregistered, you should be already subscribed. Otherwise, you will need to
send email to listkeeper@hmc.edu with the following message:
subscribe mus-81-l
(The subject line should be blank.) You can get more information about the mailing list by sending the message "help"
(without quotes) to the same address or by going to the mailing
list web gateway. To distribute your message to this list, send mail to mus-81-l@hmc.edu. Keep in mind that your message will be distributed to the entire
class, not just me.
The schedule and contents of the supplemental CDs for
this course are available on the web, and these documents have extensive links to other internet resources that I
encourage you to exploit. I hope you will also explore the web on your own, but not to the exclusion of the print
resources available in the Glanville Music Library and other Claremont libraries.
Course Assignments
Evaluation
| Three exams | 45% |
| Fundamentals assignment | 10% |
| Four concert reports | 16% |
| Presentation | 10% |
| Final | 15% |
| Class participation | 4% |
Exams
There will be three exams plus a final exam. The final exam will have some comprehensive components, but it will not
be any longer than the other three exams. Each exam will cover several periods or regions and will include 1) short
answers and term identifications, 2) listening, 3) a short essay. I will discuss the format and expectations in more
detail before the first exam.
Fundamentals assignment
As I noted above, there is a set of on-line quizzes
of music fundamentals. Before the first exam, you will complete each of these quizzes. You can take each quiz as many
times as you like, but only the last one will count. There is also an
on-line version of the fundamentals section of your xerox text with musical examples to help you with this assignment.
Concert reports
You will attend at least four concerts during the course of this semester. You turn in a two page report about the
concert along with the concert's program, two due by spring break (March 15) and two due by the time of the final
exam (May 11 for seniors, May 13 for all others). This report will mention each of the pieces on the concert and
will offer some interpretive analysis of the pieces according to the parameters we will have discussed in the fundamentals
section of this class. Concerts which are NOT acceptable include:
- Concerts not heard this semester;
- Concerts in which you perform;
- Jazz, rock, country, or other popular forms that we will not be covering as much in this class;
- Concerts that last less than 45 minutes, such as noon concerts, though in some cases I will allow two such
concerts to count as one report;
- Musicals, though opera or other forms in which the music is more integral and constant may be OK;
- Dance recitals in which the music is recorded (unless it was written to be performed that way);
- Informal concerts that do not have a program, such as club gigs.
There are plenty of gray areas in the above list. If you are at all in doubt as to whether a concert is appropriate
for this assignment, come see me BEFORE you attend the concert. Non-Western concerts are acceptable as long as they
meet the above criteria.
Presentations
Towards the beginning of the semester you will be assigned to a group to do a presentation on the works of a classical
music composer. The assignment will be random, though if there is a particular composer you want to do, please let me
know. Each person in the group will do an individual presentation of a "listening guide" of a particular piece by the
composer not on the class CDs. The presentations of a group should be coordinated so that they complement one another
with a minimum of overlap. Presenters will be evaluated by both myself and the rest of the class.
Class Participation
Because the success of this class and what you get out of it depends very much on you and your classmates' conscientious
participation, you will be graded on class participation. This includes: regular attendance, keeping up with assigned
readings and listening, contributing to class discussion, and fairly evaluating your peers' class presentations.
Late Assignments
Late assignments will normally be penalized one letter grade per class meeting late. Because they are a group project,
presentations cannot be presented late. I normally do not allow late exams because of the difficulty of arranging the
listening component, but if a student has a valid, documented excuse (such as illness with a note from a doctor), then
something can usually be worked out.
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Updated on January 11, 2005 by Bill Alves (alves @hmc.edu).