SYLLABUS MUS
202 Music Appreciation Spring 2010 Cañada College
Professor: David Meckler, Ph.D.
office hrs: Mon
& Tues, 1-2pm, room 3-242 Email: mecklerd@smccd.edu
(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 (Listen (title) by Kerman & Tomlinson, Brief 5th ed.) is on
reserve in the library for you. Use it
as a resource for terms, instruments, and information about composers. 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 3 class meetings.
The final grade will be based on
the percentage earned of total assigned possible points. Standard grading percentages apply (A =
90%). 8 reaction papers/projects, 50
points each; concert review, 100
points; final essay questions, 100 points.
Other assessments may include discussion points, and in-class writing
(5-10 pts). Late papers will be accepted
with penalty until graded papers of that assignment are returned to the rest of
the class. The scheduled final exam time
date is 24 May.
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
1. Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 4
2. Nuts & bolts – scales, modes, chords, culture
3. Beethoven Symphony No. 3
4. Sonata form
5. Recording v. performance (Alex Ross, Glenn Gould) &
the performer’s role
6. Shostakovich Symphony No. 5
7. Stravinsky Rite
of Spring
8. Lyrics in popular music
9. Blues & jazz
10. Beatles
11. presentations
12. Mozart
13. complexity (Bach & Schoenberg) & Cage
14. minimalism
15. world traditions: Japan & India
Concert Dates (attend one)
Redwood Symphony, Saturday,
February 20, 2010
Beethoven Symphony No. 3, the “Eroica,” & other works
8 P.M. Optional pre-concert
lecture at 7 P.M.
Cañada College
Main Theater, FREE to Cañada College students
Berkeley Symphony Orchestra,
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Beethoven Symphony No. 3, the “Eroica,” & other works
8 PM, UC Berkeley Zellerbach Hall, tickets range from $20 to $60.
San Francisco Symphony, February
18, 19 & 20, 2010
Beethoven Symphony No. 3, the “Eroica,” & other works
various times,
Davies Symphony Hall, SF; tix range from $15 to $145
San Francisco Ballet, March 2-7,
2010
Petrouchka (music by
Stravinsky) & other works
various times, tix range from $20 to $260
***most highly recommended for
this class***
Redwood Symphony, Saturday, April
24, 2010
Shostakovich Symphony No. 10 & other works
8 P.M. Optional pre-concert
lecture at 7 P.M.
Cañada College
Main Theater, FREE to Cañada College students
Concert reviews due May 3,
2010. Instructions for concert reviews
are on the class
website.
Holidays/no class meetings: 15
Feb and Spring Break, 5-9 April.
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
Jan 2010
DC Meckler