Listening in Context I

Curriculum Guideline

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Course
MUSC 1121
Discontinued
No
Course Code
MUSC 1121
Descriptive
Listening in Context I
Department
Music
Faculty
Language, Literature & Performing Arts
Credits
3.00
Start Date
End Term
202030
PLAR
Yes
Semester Length
15 weeks
Max Class Size
35
Contact Hours
4 hours per week
Method(s) Of Instruction
Lecture
Learning Activities

The lecture time will be spent in the analysis and discussion of and listening to the musical materials that form the content of this course. In addition, pertinent information with respect to the cultural, social, and political background will be introduced at appropriate times. As much time as possible will be devoted to listening during the lecture but all lectures will prescribe listening assignments of the music studied in class and other similar compositions.

Course Description
Introduction to skills for active listening to music with emphasis on the elements of music as they appear in Western art music from the Middle Ages to the Romantic period. Music will be discussed in relation to arts and culture, as well as to relevant aspects of history, geography, belief systems, politics, society, economics, and technology. Students will occasionally work with scores, but listening skills will be emphasized.
Course Content
  1. The elements of music
    • Basic sound characteristics
    • The dimensions of music: temporal (rhythm), horizontal (melody), vertical (harmony)
    • Musical texture: monophony, polyphony, homophony, heterophony
    • Pitch source and organization
    • Dynamics and timbre
    • Musical instruments: instrumentation; classifications including aerophones, chordophones, membranophones, idiophones, electrophones
    • Musical style: composition vs. improvisation; form, and genre
    • Vocal parts: the relation of music and text; vocal styles
    • Cultural contexts for music: the relation of music to the other arts, as well as history, geography, belief
    • systems, politics, society, economics, and technology.
  2. Pre-Tonal Music: 
    • Music in antiquity 
    • Western Christian Chant and early polyphony 
    • Medieval secular music 
    • Renaissance music (including mass, motet, madrigal)
  3. Tonal Music: 
    • Baroque music (including fugue, ground bass, opera, cantata, oratorio, concerto, and suite) with 
    • emphasis on the works of Bach and Handel
    • Classical music (including symphony, sonata, string quartet, piano concerto, and opera) with emphasis
    • on the works of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven 
    • Romantic music (including German lied, piano character piece, chamber music, program symphony, symphonic poem, German music drama, Italian opera) with representative composers such as Schubert, Schumann, Chopin, Berlioz, Liszt, Brahms, Wagner, and Verdi
Learning Outcomes

The successful student should be able to recognize aurally:
1) The basic elements of music.
2) The relationship of musical components to their cultural context.
3) Styles, genres and forms in Western art music. 
4) Specific compositions and their composers. 
5) The elements of music in selected compositions as they relate to their specific historical, geographical, 
and cultural contexts .

The successful student should be able to recognize aurally:

  1. The basic elements of music.
  2. The relationship of musical components to their cultural context.
  3. Styles, genres and forms in Western art music. 
  4. Specific compositions and their composers. 
  5. The elements of music in selected compositions as they relate to their specific historical, geographical, and cultural contexts .

Means of Assessment
Introductory class presentation 5%
Test on Elements of Music 10%
Listening and Written Test on Medieval and Renaissance Music 15%
Listening and Written Test on Baroque Music 15%
Listening and Written Test on Classical Music 20%
Listening and Written Test on Romantic Music 20%
Library assignment and Field Trip participation 5%
Short projects (minimum of two) 10%
Total 100%
Textbook Materials

Required texts such as the following:

  • Bonds, Mark Evan. Listen to This. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall, 2010.
  • With access to Pearson My Music Lab online e-book and full streaming audio, and/or 5-CD set.

Or

  • Willoughby, David. The World of Music. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2010.
  • With access to Online Learning Center and 3-CD set.

 

Which Prerequisite

MUSC 1221