SYLLABUS MUS 202 Music Appreciation FALL 2009 Cañada College
Professor: David Meckler, Ph.D.
office hrs: Mon & Tues, 12-2, room
3-242 Email: (start subject header with
“MUS 202” to get my attention) Voice-mail: (650) 306-3439
Course description:
The
course will present a variety of music of different styles and purposes, and
provide a vocabulary to talk about this music. Objectives: (1) listen to music
and (2) think and write about music analytically. Assessment may include through worksheets,
presentations, a paper, a concert review, listening exams, and brief
essays. Rather than taking a historical
approach, the course will focus on several great works.
Warning: This
is not an easy course! Many people think
that listening to music is easy, so a music appreciation course should be easy,
too. This is wrong on both counts. Listening to music only seems easy because
you have been doing it all your life.
Your brain knows more about music than you do. And that is the second challenge of this
course. We have to translate your
music-ways-of-knowing into language-based kinds of knowledge that can be evaluated
in an academic way. Ideally, this
translation-into-language effort results in heightened perceptions and greater
emotional response to all kinds of music.
What is Music Appreciation?
We’ve all heard of great performers and great
composers – what about great listeners?
If you say someone has given a great performance, haven’t you also given
a great listen?
For thousands of years of human musical culture,
there was no need for any such thing as a music appreciation course. In the 20th century, this strange institution
arose. Why? My guess: before, a person would generally
only encounter a narrow range of music and very likely would have first hand
experience of making that music. In the
20th-century, recording technology came along and changed music from something
to do to some thing that can be bought and sold. The positive aspect of this is that now we
have access to a range of music that extends across the globe and far back into
history. A music appreciation course
cannot possibly cover all of that, but the idea is to present some ways of
thinking about music that is trying to be a shortcut for having the experience
of listening to countless hours of particular genres of music. Is that possible? I have my doubts, but I also have a deep
faith that music teaches us how to listen to itself, and so if we can just
clear our minds of our own local cultural noise, we can begin to learn to
listen in the way that each individual piece and each individual performance
asks us to.
No
required text. Required music examples will be on reserve in the
library and learning center. A standard
music appreciation textbook will be on reserve in the library for you. Class notes (a journal), handouts and other material
will be posted on the course website http://www.smccd.net/accounts/mecklerd/MUS202/MUS202.htm. CHECK YOUR STUDENT EMAIL ACCOUNT
REGULARLY. Class materials may also be
posted on the WebAccess site
(http://smccd.mrooms.net/) for this class: log in using your G number and
6-digit birth date, MMDDYY, no spaces or hyphens.
Attendance is absolutely vital. Please no late arrival, early departure,
sleeping in class, doing non-course related computer work or reading non-course
related materials in class. Miss a class
for a good reason? You are the judge, but only WRITTEN excuses are
recorded. It is your responsibility to
drop the class if you miss more than 5 class meetings. Late work will be accepted only one week
after the due date, with a 10% penalty.
Last day for late work to be accepted is the withdrawal with “W” date for
the course, Nov 18.
The final grade will be based on the percentage
earned of total assigned possible points.
Standard grading percentages apply (A = 90%). 7 reaction papers, 30 points each, 210 total
points; concert review, 60 points; lyrics
group project, 60 points; final paper and presentation, 120 points. Other assessments may include discussion
points, and in-class writing (5-10 pts).
The scheduled final exam time will be used for
student presentations. Thursday, Dec 17. 8:10 a.m. NOTE DIFFERENT FROM CLASS START TIME.
Extra Credit
Recognizing that life events interfere with perfect
class attendance, extra credit may be earned by attending performances,
lectures, concerts, etc. The extra
credit activity must be approved by me in advance IN WRITING – use e-mail.
You must do you own work unless specified. Severe
penalties, outlined in the Student Handbook, will be used in case of cheating
or copied work without proper attribution. Plagiarism will result in zero
points awarded for the assignment.
Schedule
PART I – Classical music (8
weeks)
Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4, Beethoven's Symphony No. 3, Stravinsky's Rite of Spring, and Copland's Appalachian
Spring will be the major works
studied, but many different examples and types of music will be used. Critical thinking about the presentation of
these works will be a focus. Attendance
of a classical music concert is an assignment.
PART II -- issues of musical
meaning (5 weeks)
This section of the course will use examples of music from around the world and
different eras; song lyrics will receive special attention. Theories about why humans do music will be
discussed.
PART III – ultimates, extremes and favorites (four weeks)
exploring extremes at the boundaries of music, concluding with student
presentations. Presentations and papers
may be on a wide range of possible topics; an analysis of a favorite song is
highly recommended.
Other
Dates
1 Sep - Last day to ADD a semester length course
11 Sep - Last day to drop a semester length course
without a “W”
Student Learning Objectives for MUS 202 Music
Appreciation
SLO 1 – Students will demonstrate conceptual
and analytic thought about musical form
SLO 2 – students will listen to music and
report on their subjective reactions
SLO 3 – Students will analyze the expressive
content and means of a music example
Aug 2009
DC Meckler