MUSC 141: SURVEY OF WESTERN MUSIC HISTORYSYLLABUS

Course IntroductionRequired Text and MaterialsAbout Your InstructorCourse ComponentsAssignmentsExams and GradingAcademic PoliciesCourse Bibliography

Course Introduction

This course offers a broad overview of Western music history from the Middle Ages until today. We will look atimportant composers, genres, and styles in order to understand the changing uses of music in society. This course isintended to provide you with a basic vocabulary to engage with both historical and contemporary music. Additionally,you will build the interpretive means to understand music’s place in culture and your own lives.

Listening is an important component of this class, and one of our main goals is to develop an informed anddiscerning ear. No prior knowledge of music is required. Reading assignments will provide context and technicalvocabulary to help you listen through the various examples. The structure of the class proceeds in a more or lesschronological fashion from the early Middle Ages up until the late 1980s. Within that basic chronological framework,lessons are organized around genres, composers, or concepts in order to provide a more in-depth look at therelationship between music and its historical context. Assignments are designed to encourage you to apply thetechnical vocabulary and critical thinking skills we learn in the course to music in your own lives.

The course aims to help you develop technical vocabulary to describe the elements of music, develop a broadknowledge of Western music history, discuss how music interacts with its historical context, and critically engage withand write about Western art music and music in your own lives.

Required Text and Materials

Textbook and MyMusicLab

Please see the Course Description for an up-to-date list of materials.

You can find information on how to purchase textbooks and required materials on the Textbooks page of the Friday Center website.

MyMusicLab Support: For help, click the “Support” button in the upper right corner of MyMusicLab. When you dothis, another window opens up, and you should select 247pearsoned.custhelp.com at the top to talk to PearsonCustomer Technical Support. This will direct you to another window, where you should scroll to the bottom and clickeither “Chat” or “Ask a Question.”

The Writing Center

The UNC-Chapel Hill Writing Center is a free service for UNC students. Their writing coaches are friendly graduateand undergraduate students from a variety of academic disciplines who are specially trained in teaching writing. Ouronline resources are available to everyone; they offer helpful advice for writers and instructors on a variety of topics.

Course Components

Music is something we all appreciate, and I hope your experience taking the course is enjoyable. You should beprepared to work hard in this online course. This is especially true during the short summer session, when you willhave to get through multiple chapters and lessons within a single week.

WHAT YOU CAN EXPECT

You should expect to spend at least five to ten hours of work on each lesson. As you can tell from the schedule,this will add up very quickly, especially when you factor in quizzes and your longer writing assignments.

1. My main goal as your instructor is to answer your questions so that you understand the course material.1. If you have questions about the course content, schedule, or assignments, you can expect a response

to your emails within twenty-four hours during the week (Monday–Friday).2. On the weekends, I can't guarantee a response to emails, but I will respond to weekend emails by the

end of the day on Monday at the latest.3. Please email me ahead of time if you have potentially time-sensitive questions! If you have a question

about an assignment and email me within twenty-four hours of the assignment due date, I will do mybest to get back to you. However, I cannot guarantee that I will respond by the assignment deadline.

2. For the discussion forum posts, you can expect a grade and comments within three to four days after theresponse post due date for a given lesson.

1. See the rubric posted in Sakai “Resources” folder forum evaluation criteria.2. Late posts will not be accepted.3. I will frequently pop into the forums to ask questions, comment on posts, or summarize interesting

approaches to assignments.3. Quizzes are graded immediately upon submission, so you should have access to your quiz grades on the

same day or the day after.4. See the Research Paper and Concert Report descriptions in “Assignments” for expectations and deadlines for

those projects.

WHAT I EXPECT FROM YOU

1. Follow the Honor Code and refrain from engaging in any academic dishonesty (see below).2. Review the course syllabus and schedule carefully. Note when your assignments are due. I will send

reminder emails, but please check the schedule and syllabus if you have questions about dates beforesending an email.

3. Music is a subject that can inspire strong reactions and opinions, so please respect different points of view,whether personal or music-related. Offering our views on music can put us in a vulnerable position, especiallyif we’re personally invested in the music we’re presenting to others, so treat other students like you would wantto be treated.

4. Above all, I expect you to be respectful when interacting with your fellow students in the discussionforums.

5. I expect that you are a responsible, self-motivated adult and will complete textbook readings, lesson reading,listening assignments, and written assignments as outlined in the schedule and descriptions.

6. In general, you should do the textbook reading before the lesson reading.7. You should begin your reading assignments prior to the lesson dates on the Schedule, since discussion forum

posts are generally due at the beginning of a lesson.8. If you are having problems meeting deadlines or understanding course content, email me before it starts

affecting your grade.

Late work will not be accepted.

Rescheduling Requests

I am willing to reschedule a quiz if you have an unavoidable commitment that would render you unable to access theinternet for 24 hours. However, you must email me at least 48 hours in advance of any scheduling conflict, andprovide me with written documentation that justifies why you have to reschedule.

Assignments

DISCUSSION FORUM

It may not seem this way at first glance, but this is a writing-intensive class. The largest portion of your grade is theDiscussion Forum posts. The discussion forum is the main way you will engage with the content in the textbook andlessons. Your forum posts will help you synthesize the skills and technical knowledge you are learning in a way thathelps you talk clearly about music.

At the end of each lesson, you will find two to three discussion prompts for the forum that give you some options forwhat to write about. The prompts generally will be drawn from music and concepts in your textbook or, occasionally,from the lesson itself. You will be required to write a short blog-style post (300–500 words) after each lesson and alsorespond to one of your classmates’ posts (50-word minimum). Of course, you are welcome to respond to more thanone post if the topic is particularly interesting to you. Any additional, thoughtful posts will improve your grade. Feelfree to include musical and visual aids where appropriate!

The discussion forum is the primary way I get to know your writing and the main way you will interact with yourclassmates. Therefore, the discussion forum is a significant part of the course. More than that, the discussion postsare a low-stakes method to develop ways of thinking about music. Think of these assignments as short papers; theywill require reflection and thinking beyond simply summarizing readings. Please refer to the Discussion ForumRubric for the criteria that I will use to grade your Discussion Forum posts.

WRITING ASSIGNMENTS

In addition to the discussion form posts, you will have two longer writing assignments:

a concert reporta research paper

Concert Report

The concert report can be about any kind of concert or music performance you can attend, so long as music is its

primary focus. Classical concerts, rock shows, musicals, and anything in between are all suitable. However, youmust clear the performance with me at least five days in advance by posting your selection in the Concert IdeasDiscussion Forum. Take a look at venues in your area, and once you find something you like, let me know, and we

can discuss its suitability. Your report should discuss the venue, the audience, your experience, and, of course, the

music. Report length should be 600–1000 words. For more information, take a look at the Concert ReportGuidelines, and you will submit your report in the Assignments tab.

Research Paper

The research paper will focus on a piece of music you select, whether it’s a song or a symphony. It can be your

favorite piece of music or whatever else, but it cannot be a piece covered anywhere in the textbook, whether we read

about it or not. The goal of this paper is to introduce your audience to the song or piece and to explain its connection

to larger social issues or ideas, much as the lessons do with textbook material.

Cite all your sources.

The length of your paper should be between 1200–1800 words.

For more detailed instructions, see the Research Paper Guidelines, and you will submit each draft of your research

paper in Assignments.

QUIZZES

In addition to writing assignments, quizzes will form a significant portion of your grade. There will be four quizzes

total, every two or three lessons, and they will be drawn exclusively from textbook material. Quizzes will test your

knowledge of music history and technical terminology, as well as your listening ability. They will be multiple choice

and you will take them on the MyMusicLab website. Quizzes are closed book, and you will be expected to abide by

the UNC Honor Code when you sign in to MyMusicLab to take each quiz.

Quiz 1 Lesson 2 (The Middle Ages) and Lesson 3 (The Renaissance)

Quiz 2Lesson 4 (Instrumental Music in the Baroque Period) and Lesson 5 (Vocal Music in

the Baroque Period)

Quiz 3Lesson 6 (The Classical Period: Franz Joseph Haydn) and Lesson 7 (The

Classical Period: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart)

Quiz 4 Lesson 8 (Nineteenth Century Instrumental and Chamber Music) and Lesson 9

(Vocal Music in the Nineteenth Century)

The Syllabus Quiz will be administered through Sakai. As long as you complete it, you will get five free bonus points

toward your final grade (the equivalent of one discussion forum post).

Exams and Grading

Final Exam

The final exam is drawn from textbook material. As with the quizzes, the final will test your knowledge of music

history, command of technical vocabulary, and listening skills. The final exam will cover the last three lessons: Lesson

10 (European Modernism in the Early Twentieth Century), Lesson 11 (Jazz and its Beginnings), and Lesson 12

(American Classical Music at Mid-century and Twentieth-century Popular Music), and you will take it on the

MyMusicLab site. The Final Exam is closed book, and you will be expected to abide by the UNC Honor Code when

you sign in to MyMusicLab to take it.

Grading

Discussion Forum 35 percent

Quizzes (4) 20 percent @ 5 percent each

Concert Report 10 percent

Research Paper 15 percent

Final Exam 20 percent

Letter grades will be assigned based on your numerical scores on each assignment.

A = 94–100 percent A­ = 90–93 percent B+ = 87–89 percent

B = 84–86 percent B­ = 80–83 percent C+ = 77–79 percent

C = 74–76 percent C­ = 70–73 percent D+ = 67–69 percent

D = 60–66 percent D­ = 60–63 percent F = 0–59 percent

Academic Policies

Honor Code

All students in this course are expected to abide by the terms of the UNC Honor Code, which covers issues of plagiarism, unauthorized collaboration, cheating, and other acts of academic dishonesty. By engaging in academic dishonesty, you do a disservice to yourself and to your intellectual development. The University’s website states that “Carolina students pledge to maintain ideals of academic honesty, personal integrity, and responsible citizenship. These ideals are embodied in the Honor Code set forth in the Instrument, with the support of students, faculty, and staff. When a student applies to Carolina, he undertakes a commitment to the principles embodied in the Honor Code.”

Plagiarism is something to be particularly aware of. It is the practice of quoting or paraphrasing a work without giving proper credit to whoever created it. Because you will spend a good deal of time researching and writing about music for this class, it is important to understand how to cite sources and paraphrase correctly. Familiarize yourself with information on plagiarism.

Accessibility Resources & Service (ARS)

Accessibility Resources & Service provides reasonable accommodations, resources, and services to undergraduate and graduate/professional students with disabilities to provide equal access to the services, programs, and activities of the University so that they may, as independently as possible, take full advantage of opportunities at UNC-Chapel Hill.