Towards a Syllabus for Fall 07

Slavin, Music 1005 KM24 Fall 2007p. 1

Music 1005 KM24 – Principles of Music

Fall 2007

Some big questions:

How does music communicate emotions?

Is music a universal language?

What do we mean by “authenticity” in music?

Why do we love the music we love?

Goals of the Course

By the end of the semester students will be able to:

1. identify and describe the elements of music that appear in a given piece of music;
2. indicate how these elements help to shape an emotional understanding of the piece;
3. explain how musical styles are related to how the elements of music are used;
4. list how the elements of music are generally used in music from the four main style periods of Western concert music since ca. 1700;
5. identify in which style period the music they hear was composed and express why they’ve reached that conclusion;
6. elucidate ways in which music from these style periods is related to ideas and aesthetic ideals current at that time;
7. articulate and justify judgments based on the foregoing abilities; and
8. listen to music more attentively.

Prof. Dennis Slavin

135 E. 22nd St., Room 712

646 660-6504 (office) 646 660-6501 (fax)

Principles of Music

Music 1005 KM24

Fall 2007

What is this course about?

From my point of view, the most important goals for the course are that you learn to listen to music more attentively, understand better what you feel when you hear music (and why), and learn to communicate about those things more effectively. The eight goals listed on the previous page represent my attempt to express that in more precise language and to set results that are somewhat easier to measure. Most of what you’ll need to do to achieve all of these goals is to listen carefully to lots of music, think about it, and write about it. The six recurring tasks summarized below will help. They are described in greater detail in the pages that follow, and pp. 8-10 provide schedules that show the due dates.

1. Weekly blogging assignments: According to the schedule on p. 10, most of you will be responsible for posts to our course blog ( ) by 11:10am on the day of the first class each week. These posts are described on p. 4. Each involves listening, thinking, and writing. You will receive credit for doing them thoughtfully and on time; late submissions will be read but will receive less credit.

1. Listening assignments: These will involve listening to specific pieces on a website and answering questions in writing (on paper or by email) by 11:10am on the day they are due. Due dates are included on p. 8; others might be assigned as we go along. The first five assignments are described on p. 9. Same credit policy: thoughtful and on time = full credit.

1. Class project: Why do we love the music we love? As described on p. 5, this project will involve an oral presentation and a written essay. You will present twice: towards the end of October, and, after revisions based on feedback, in December. You’ll have three opportunities to hand in the essay (p. 5).

1. Reading assignments: There won’t be many reading assignments per se, but there will be a fair number of handouts that will summarize much of what I would like you to learn. You can read about many of the topics we’re discussing in class—and sometimes hear recorded examples—at the websites mentioned on pp. 5-6. Some sitesinclude glossaries that might help you understand the terms we are using better. Feel free to explore the internet to find sites that are even more useful—I’d love to know about them.

1. Attending concerts: Hearing music live is a different experience, so, as a class, we will take advantage of three opportunities, only one of them during class. The others are Monday evening, November 12 and Thursday evening, November 15. Attendance is required, so please clear away any conflicts (work or otherwise) long in advance.

1. Participating in class: Developing better communication skills is an important goal of this course. Your speaking up in class helps you to build those skills and provides me with information important to the feedback I give you on your progress.

Academic Honesty Policy and Assignment

In the belief that honesty and learning go hand in hand, I fully support Baruch College’s policy on Academic Honesty, which states, in part:

“Academic dishonesty is unacceptable and will not be tolerated. Cheating, forgery, plagiarism and collusion in dishonest acts undermine the college’s educational mission and the students’ personal and intellectual growth. Baruch students are expected to bear individual responsibility for their work, to learn the rules and definitions that underlie the practice of academic integrity, and to uphold its ideals. Ignorance of the rules is not an acceptable excuse for disobeying them. Any student who attempts to compromise or devalue the academic process will be sanctioned.”

In this class, any plagiarism, however minute, will earn an F grade on the work in question and will result in your being reported to the Office of the Dean of Students. If the infraction of academic honesty is severe, you will be dropped from this class. For discussion of plagiarism and clarification of its parameters, see Chapter 45 (pp. 629-38) of The Little, Brown Handbook by Fowler and Aaron,or see the college’s plagiarism tutorial, available at .If there are any dimensions of plagiarism that you don’t understand, ask me about them. Here’s a basic definition: “presenting anyone else’s work as your own.”

MANDATORY ASSIGNMENT DUE BY 9:00AM ON TUESDAY, SEPTMEBER 4: Send me an email ( ) truthfully stating that you have read the paragraph on academic dishonesty quoted above, that you have understood it, and that you agree to act according to the principles it expresses. You may not attend class on September 4 (or thereafter) if I have not received this statement.

Our Learning Community

Our class is“linked” to your English class this semester, English 2100 JM13E. Prof. Hentzi and I have discussed what we’ll be teaching and you’ll find that at least some of what we talk about sounds familiar from the other class. He and I will occasionally visit each other’s class and we will all take part in several activities outside our classes, including attending the concerts.

Describing the elements of music as specifically and objectively as possible

In the early weeks of the semester we’ll focus on the “elements of music.” This part of the course will be similar to a beginning language course because we’ll spend most of our time learning the meanings of words—the terminologies musicians use and exactly what they mean. For example, words like “rhythm” or “harmony” have general meanings, but they also have specific ones in music. Knowledge of how to use these terms correctly allows us to talk or write about music with greater specificity and objectivity. How music affects us emotionally is incredibly important, but saying that a piece is “beautiful” or “sad” tells us more about your reaction to the piece than about the piece itself. To make sure you understand this terminology, most of our quizzes will ask you to write definitions of these terms. Definitions will be given in class, will appear on many handouts, and may be found in online glossaries, such as the ones at: or

Style Periods of “Classical Music”

Some of the goals on the cover page (goals 4, 5, and 6) relate to the music usually referred to as “Classical Music.” (We’ll call it “Western Concert Music.”) Most of what I’ll be talking about fits into this category. It’s music that I particularly love and know much more about than popular or rock or jazz or other styles. Moreover, whatever music you listen to (and I think we’ll find that there are many different tastes in the class), most of you probably don’t listen to or know all that much about “Classical Music.” Given that this music is “classical” in the sense that people have continued to listen to it for a very long time, getting to know something about it and how to listen to it more closely and with greater pleasure is a good thing. Although it’s been around for at least 800 years, we’ll be focusing on the four “style periods” of the past 400 years—the music generally performed in concert halls today. Don’t forget, throughout the semester you’ll also be listening to and writing about whatever music you and your classmates like best.

ASSIGNMENTS

Here are more detailed descriptions of the six tasks/assignments outlined on p. 2. Each is associated with one or more of the goals of learning to listen to music more attentively, understanding better what you feel when you hear music (and why), and learning to communicate better about those things.

1.Weekly blogging assignments

Each week you will be responsible for either of two things: writing a short essay about a piece of music; or responding in writing to at least two essays by other students. The schedule of assignments appears on p. 10 of this syllabus. The essays and the responses must be posted to the class blog by the beginning of the first class that week. Here’s how you gain access to the blog and post to it:

Go to:

Your “User” ID is msc1005 and your “Password” is msc1005blog

That just gets you in. When you click on “Write a Post” The User ID will be asked for your own, unique User ID. The ID will be the first letter of your first name, followed by your last name – a single word, with the first two letters in CAPS. For example, John Smith’s ID would be JSmith.

The password remains msc1005blog.

We’ll all receive training in blogging, especially uploading music to the blog, from Luke Waltzer,and if you have questions you can always email him for help:

If it’s your turn to write the essay (see p. 10 for the schedule), here’s what you do:

Listen carefully (the more times the better) to whatever piece music you like(shorter pieces might be easier).

Write a brief essay about why you do or don’t like the piece and why – trying to convey in words what the piece sounds like.

Post a sound file of the piece to the blog.

Note: There is no minimum or maximum number of words, but to learn a lot from this you’ll need to spend time listening and thinking about what you’ll write.

If it’s your turn to respond to others’ essays (see p. 10 for the schedule), here’s what you do:

Without reading what the students has written about his/her piece, listen to the piece posted by the person whose essay you’ve been assigned and one other (if it’s your free response week, you choose both).

Write down your own thoughts about the pieces. Don’t post this yet; first…

read the essays and think about them, comparing them to your impressions.

Write a response addressing questions like: Does the essay describe the piece well? Why or why not? Are your impressions similar or different? What do you think of the piece?

Note: Be honest but empathetic and constructive in your responses – few of us enjoy criticism of our work! Again, no minimum or maximum word count, but if you don’t spend significant time listening and thinking about the piece and about what your classmate wrote, you’re not likely to learn much.

The blogging schedule on p. 10 represents a minimum: everyone is welcome and encouraged to read everyone else’s short essays and to post additional comments on the blog. Please note that posting late means that those assigned to respond will have less time to do so.

2. Listening assignments

Often during the semester you will have assignments in addition to the weekly blogging assignments. Most will ask you listen to specific pieces of music online and answer questions about them.

The online website for listening to music is

Go to the site and click on “Playlist” at the top of the page. The menu of playlists that I’ve put together is on the left.

Some of these assignments appear on the schedule on p. 10. Others will be announced through the blog and by email.

You can do these assignments on paper or send them by email to me at

Assignments are due by the beginning of the class (11:10 am) on the day they are due.

Late assignments are gratefully accepted and read but will lose credit.

3. Class Project: Why do we love the music we love?

During our classes on October 23 and 25, each of you will speak for five minutes about a piece of music you love. (The five minutes includes playing an excerpt of no more than two minutes from the piece.) Your presentations will be videotaped and made available to you online. You will also hand in a written version of your presentation—a one- or two-page essay.The presentation should notinvolve reading the essay, though you may use notes. You may not use PowerPoint. The topic is why you love a particular piece of music. Your presentation and essay will focus on that—and not on the performer/composer or the historical context of the piece, although these may be mentioned.

I will provide feedback in writing about the October presentation and the essay. During our classes on December 4 and 6 you will present again about the same piece and hand in a revise essay. The reason for two opportunities is simply to improve, to learn from the feedback you’ve received and from your own viewing of the tape, to be able to convey why you love the music you are talking/writing about more clearly and more forcefully. This presentation also will be videotaped so that you can compare the two.

The order of presentations on October 23 and 25is up for grabs (I’ll provide a sign-up sheet) but it will be reversed for December 4 and 6.

I will again provide feedback on the essay. The final version will be due Wednesday, December 20. If the essays are really good we’ll compile them on a website and perhaps print and bind them.

4. Reading assignments

There is no textbook. I’ll often provide handouts and sometimes ask you read something on the internet, either by directing you to a specific site, such as the ones below, or asking you to find something yourself. We might discuss readings from your ENG 2100 class as well.

Created by the publishers W.W. Norton and Sony Classical, this site contains information on style periods (with brief audio examples), composer biographies (with musical examples), and a decent glossary (with some audio examples).

Hosted by Virginia Tech, this dictionary includes a pronunciation of most terms. Unfortunately, the links to audio examples do not work.

This is the best online guide to musical instruments that I’ve seen. The photos are okay, but the quality of the sound (there is an example for each instrument) is poor.

5. Attending concerts

Live music offers a different experience from hearing it on an iPod, computer, or radio. We will have at least three opportunities to hear live music together, once in class, twice outside. Given the importance of these experiences, everyone is required to attend. That means that if you work or usually have other commitments outside of class at the times we have concerts scheduled, you should make arrangements (start as soon as possible) to attend the concerts.

Monday, November 12 at 7:00pm, Baruch Performing Arts Center – the Alexander String Quartet

Tuesday, November 13, in class – the Alexander String Quartet (follow-up to concert)

Thursday, November 15 (PROVISIONAL DATE!) at 8:00pm at the Metropolitan Opera House

Le Nozze di Figaro(The Marriage of Figaro) by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

By all means, attend other live concerts! The more music you hear this semester, the better!

6. Participating in class

In general, I prefer not to lecture. Although lecturing is a good way to present summaries, to focus on key concepts, and to help orient and provide context, it isn’t the best way to foster other kinds of learning. Therefore, much of what we do will involve your active participation in discussion. At the very least, I’ll need to know how much of what I hoped you’ve learned has been learned—so I can figure out how to proceed. Please ask and try to answer questions in class even if you’re not sure of yourself. What you don’t know, many others won’t know either.

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Attendance and Lateness

As mentioned above, one of the ways I know what you’re learning comes from your active participation in class. You can’t participate if you’re not there. It’s always good manners to let me know in advance if you will be absent, but even if you do you are allowed only four absences. After that I will drop you from the class with a grade of WU (which is the equivalent of an F). If you must drop the course, please note that Tuesday, November 6 is the latest you can drop and receive a grade of W (i.e. a simple withdrawal without affecting your GPA). Chronic lateness also will be reflected in the participation portion of your grade. If you are late, please enter silently and sit as near the entrance as possible. You may bring food to class so long as you consume it quietly and dispose of it correctly. Your deportment in class should be characterized by respect for your colleagues, for the college, and for those who work here, including the custodial staff.