MUS101: Introduction to Music « Saylor.org – Free Online Courses Built by Professors

Introduction to Music

Purpose of Course show close

This course provides an introductory survey of the Western classical tradition, exploring music both as a phenomenon of sound and culture. The focus of this course is the development of aural skills that lead to an understanding and appreciation of music. Making use of live performances and streaming audio available on the Internet, we will listen to and explore some of the most important and influential repertoires and genres of music that emerged in the last four centuries: High Renaissance vocal music, the cantatas and oratorios of Bach and Handel, Mozart’s comic operas, the monumental orchestral works of the Romantic movement, and the major musical movements of twentieth-century Europe and America, revealing significant connections with contemporary pop and jazz styles. These styles have become an enduring part of the world of music in the twenty-first century, traveling out of the concert hall and conservatory into the larger world via movies, television, and the Internet. This course will begin by studying the fundamentals of music, developing a working definition of music. You will then learn listening skills and musical elements that will be useful as you survey samples of famous compositions throughout this course. Lastly, you will be grounded in the historical contexts for Western classical music. You will learn to make connections between the distinctive styles and the cultural, historical, and social factors that influenced them. By the end of this course, you will have a greater knowledge and appreciation of the history, aesthetics, techniques, forms, and genres of Western classical music.

Course Information show close

Welcome to MUS101. Below, please find some general information on the course and its requirements.

Course Designer: Marion Jacobson

Primary Resources: MUS101 makes use of a variety of free, online musical materials, learning tools, and videos. However, this course makes primary use of the following:

Open Yale Courses: Professor Craig Wright’s “Listening to Music”

Connexions: Anthony Brandt’s “Sound Reasoning”

National Public Radio’s Milestones of the Millennium Series

The San Francisco Symphony’s “Keeping Score”

It is suggested that students bookmark this site, an online reference work containing all the musical terminology used in this course:

Virginia Tech Multimedia Music Dictionary

Requirements for Completion: In order to complete this course, you will need to work through each unit and all of its assigned materials. Please give focused attention to Units 1 and 2, which lay the groundwork for understanding the building blocks of music. You will also be expected to complete Vocabulary Worksheets and Learning Journals for all four units of the course. The Vocabulary Worksheets should help you recall musical vocabulary. The Learning Journals invite you to record your responses to the listening assignments in the course and give you the opportunity to apply your musical vocabulary and knowledge. Taken together, these assignments will become a unique record of your thinking and learning about music in this course.

In addition, you will need to complete additional written assignments for this course:

You will need to complete The Saylor Foundation’s four Guided Listening Assignments. Each of these entail short written responses to focused listening of selected major works from the course:

Guided Listening 1: Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition
Guided Listening 2: Handel’s Messiah Libretto and Study Guide
Guided Listening 3: The Art of the Symphony in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 in C Minor
Guided Listening 4: John Cage and Postmodern Musical Aesthetics

There will be additional written assignments that will challenge you to think more broadly about the changing role of music in society:

Assignment 1.3 The Saylor Foundation’s “What Is Classical Music?”
Assignment 4.1.1 The Saylor Foundation’s “The Gregorian Chant”
Assignment 4.1.3 The Saylor Foundation’s “Secular Music in the Middle Ages”
Assignment 4.1.5 The Saylor Foundation’s “The Renaissance Madrigal”
Assignments 4.3.2 The Saylor Foundation’s “Study Guide for Milos Forman’s Amadeus” and “Music and Society in Eighteenth Century Europe
Assignment 4.5.1: The Saylor Foundation’s “Music and Modernism in the 20^th Century: Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring
Assignment 4.6: The Saylor Foundation’s “Final Course Reflections Essay”

Note that you will only receive an official grade on your final exam. However, in order to adequately prepare for this exam, you will need to work through all the assignments listed above.

In order to “pass” this course, you will need to earn a 70% or higher on the Final Exam. Your score on the exam will be tabulated as soon as you complete it. If you do not pass, you may take it again.

Time Commitment: This course should take you approximately a total of 109 hours to complete. That includes the time needed to listen to each musical example once through, though it is recommended that you listen to a music sample at least two or three times.

Each unit includes a “time advisory” that lists the amount of time you are expected to spend on each subunit. These should help you plan your time accordingly. It may be useful to take a look at these time advisories and to determine how much time you have over the next few weeks to complete each unit, and then to set goals for yourself. For example, Unit 1 should take you 10 hours to complete. Perhaps you can sit down with your calendar and decide to complete subunits 1.1 and 1.2 (a total of 4 hours) on Monday night; subunit 1.3 (a total of 2 hours) on Tuesday; etc.

Perhaps you can set aside several hours a week for listening to material related to the course, and keep a record of your listening experiences (you can use the four unit-based Learning Journals for this purpose).

Tips/Suggestions: It would be helpful to print out your Vocabulary Worksheets and Learning Journals and have them on hand in a three-ring binder for this course. If you do not have access to a printer, cut and paste all of the material into a single word document and save it in an accessible place on your computer. As you listen and read, take notes on a separate sheet of paper or on your computer. Note any important terms and concepts that stand out. Use your notes—and the Learning Journals—to review for the Final Exam.

The Saylor Foundation recommends that you listen to each music sample at least two or three times and that you set aside a quiet place and time for focused listening. It may also be helpful to use headphones when listening to each of the musical selections for this course. Many students find that the use of headphones offers a more focused listening experience.

It is recommended that you listen to some of the music from the course every day during the time period you have set aside to study for MUS101. To enhance your knowledge of the material, we also encourage you to listen to other representative works from the Western classical music tradition. Quite a number of these can be found on YouTube, and MusOpen, which offers free classical music in the public domain. We also recommend that you tune into your local classical radio station.

Learning Outcomes show close

Upon successful completion of this course, the student will be able to:

Identify aesthetic qualities and compositional processes by studying and listening to significant works of music in both live performances and recorded media.

Explain the historical and/or cultural contexts of musical works studied in this course.

Demonstrate an aural ability by identifying specific forms, genres, musical techniques, and historical styles of Western classical music.

Describe subjective reactions to musical examples and analyze specific expressive qualities that evoke responses.

Write about music analytically and effectively, using vocabulary, language and a style appropriate to the discipline and expressing ideas clearly.

Course Requirements show close

In order to take this course, you must:

√ Have access to a computer.

√ Have continuous broadband internet access.

√ Have the ability/permission to install plug-ins or software (e.g. Adobe Reader or Flash).

√ Have the ability to download and save files and documents to a computer.

√ Have the ability to open Microsoft files and documents (.doc, .ppt, .xls, etc.).

√ Have competency in the English language.

√ Have read the Saylor Student Handbook.

2 Learning to Listen
2.1 The Language of Music
2.2 Rhythm
2.3 Melody
2.4 Harmony
2.5 Instruments and Genres

3 Musical Structure
3.1 Bass Patterns
3.2 Introducing Form in Music
3.3 Sonata Allegro Form
3.4 Theme and Variations
3.5 Rondo Form
3.6 Fugue
3.7 Ostinato Form

5 Final Exam

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Unit 1: What is Music?

This unit investigates some fundamental questions about the nature of music. How do we define music? What, if anything, makes music different from noise? How has music been used to create beauty and represent nature? How does it act on our emotions? What notions of “talent” and “genius” exist in classical music? What have scientists discovered about music’s effects on the brain?

In this unit, we will explore some different perspectives on how music tells stories and expresses and creates meaning in our lives. Also, we will explore some different definitions, notions, and characteristics of classical, popular, and folk music in the West.

Unit 1 Time Advisory show close

Unit 1 Learning Outcomes show close

Assignment: The Saylor Foundation’s “MUS101 Unit 1 Vocabulary Worksheet” and “MUS101 Learning Journal”
Links: The Saylor Foundation’s “MUS101 Unit 1 Vocabulary Worksheet” (PDF) and “MUS101 Learning Journal” (PDF)

Instructions: Before you read this unit, refer to the MUS101 Unit 1 Vocabulary Worksheet and the MUS101 Learning Journal. Please fill out both sheets as you complete the unit.
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1.1 Music: Preliminary Ideas

Reading: San Diego State University: Danlee Mitchell’s “Elements of Music, Part 1: Preliminary Ideas”
Link: San Diego State University: Danlee Mitchell’s “Elements of Music, Part 1: Preliminary Ideas” (HTML and Adobe Flash)

Instructions: When you click on the above link, scroll down through the various subheadings, paying particular attention to Terminology, Transmission of Sound, and the Harmonic Series. It is optional to view the videos included with the text.

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Lecture: YouTube: University of California Television’s “Music and the Mind”
Link: YouTube: University of California Television’s “Music and the Mind” (YouTube)

Instructions: In this video lecture, Aniruddh Patel of the Neurosciences Institute discusses what music can teach us about the brain and what brain science, in turn, can reveal about music. This video clip is part of a science series called “Grey Matters.” Watch this video in its entirety (51:47 minutes) and then answer the following questions:
1. In 2-3 sentences, summarize what scientists have found about music’s effect on the brain. How does music alter the way we feel? Does this compare to a chemical substance?
2. Can you think of some examples in your own life, or from the film “Music and the Mind,” in which music acts as a “powerful agent of memory”?
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Reading: The New York Times: Oliver Sacks’s Musicophilia: “Chapter 1: A Bolt from the Blue: Sudden Musicophilia”
Link: The New York Times: Oliver Sacks’s Musicophilia: “Chapter 1: A Bolt from the Blue: Sudden Musicophilia” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read the first chapter “A Bolt from the Blue: Sudden Musicophilia” of Sacks’ book Musicophilia for insights into the current, popular topic of musical neurology.

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1.2 Towards a Definition of Music

Reading: Philip Tagg’s “Towards a Definition of Music”
Link: Philip Tagg’s “Towards a Definition of Music” (PDF)

Instructions: Scroll up on the webpage until you reach the year 2002, and then click on the hyperlink titled “Towards a Definition of Music” to download the PDF file. Please read the whole article in order to understand the various ways that music is defined and its various functions in human culture. Please note that certain cultures do not have a concept of music as an activity set apart from culture and that definitions of music vary widely across cultures.

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1.3 What Kind of Music?

Reading: WordIQ’s “Classical Music”
Link: WordIQ’s “Classical Music” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read “Definition,” “The Nature of Classical Music” and “Classical and Popular Music” to understand some of the key features of classical music as understood in Western culture. Designating both music from the classical period in eighteenth-century Vienna and any work of music regarded as great and long-lasting, the term “classical” can be quite confusing. Remember to bear in mind that the distinctions between classical and “popular” or “folk” are extremely fluid.

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Assignment: The Saylor Foundation’s “What Is Classical Music?”
Link: The Saylor Foundation’s “What Is Classical Music?” (PDF)

Instructions: Please work through the linked listening assignment above, which will help you identify some common features of classical music.
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Unit 2: Learning to Listen

Music communicates emotions and ideas, telling stories through sound. Composers and musicians work with the building blocks of sound: pitch, rhythm, dynamics, texture, and tone color, which is the quality of a musical sound. Organizing these elements to create a whole, or the art of large-scale design, allows artists to create what we call musical form. The choices that composers make in their music are not only highly personal and intuitive but contingent on cultural traditions and norms. Musical instruments were created to extend the capacity of the human voice and body.

In this unit, we will explore the elements of music and principles of formal design, and we will become familiar with the vocabulary used to describe and analyze music. Learning the language of music will enable you to sharpen your listening skills as well as your appreciation of music.

Unit 2 Time Advisory show close

Unit 2 Learning Outcomes show close

Assignment: The Saylor Foundation’s “MUS101 Unit 2 Vocabulary Worksheet” and “MUS101 Unit 2 Learning Journal”
Links: The Saylor Foundation’s “MUS101 Unit 2 Vocabulary Worksheet” (PDF) and “MUS101 Unit 2 Learning Journal” (PDF)

Instructions: Before you read this unit, refer to the MUS101 Unit 2 Vocabulary Worksheet and the MUS1010 Unit 2 Learning Journal. Please fill out both as you complete the unit.
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2.1 The Language of Music

Web Media: The San Francisco Symphony’s Michael Tilson Thomas’s “A Symphonic Revolution: Ludwig van Beethoven: Eroica”
Link: The San Francisco Symphony: Michael Tilson Thomas’s “A Symphonic Revolution: Ludwig van Beethoven: Eroica” (Adobe Flash)

Instructions: Visit this webpage to explore some of the musical tools that Beethoven (and other composers) uses to tell stories with drama and emotional impact. After listening to the introduction by San Francisco Symphony conductor Michael Tilson Thomas, click on “Explore the Score” (lower right of screen), and then click on “Play the Score” to hear examples from each of the four movements of the symphony. This exercise will introduce you to some of the themes and vocabulary to be explored more in-depth later in this course. Please note that this source also covers material explored in Subunit 4.4.1 on the development of the symphony.

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2.2 Rhythm

Reading: Connexions: Catherine Schmidt-Jones’s “Rhythm”
Link: Connexions: Catherine Schmidt-Jones’s “Rhythm” (HTML or PDF)

Instructions: As you read through this webpage, please focus particularly on the concepts of rhythm, meter, tempo, and syncopation. To access the PDF version, click “Download” on the top right corner of the page.

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Web Media: BBC: GSCE Bitesize’s “Rhythm and Meter”
Link: BBC: GSCE Bitesize’s “Rhythm and Meter” (Adobe Flash)

Instructions: Read the first webpage linked here, and then use the “next” hyperlink to view content of subsequent webpages. Please view webpages one through five, which cover the topics of rhythm, meter, tempo, and syncopation, as well as include playable musical examples, in their entirety. Please note on the second webpage, rhythm notation is explained in British terminology. In this course, we use American terminology (i.e., quarter note, not crotchet). If clarification is needed, please see the Saylor Foundation’s Unit 2 Vocabulary Sheet. Also, click on the “Play” icons for the audio clips of music examples on the webpages where these appear. Finally, take the “Test Bites Quiz” to assess what you have learned from this reading; to access the quiz, click on the hyperlink in “Now Try a Test Bite.”

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Lecture: Yale University: Professor Craig Wright’s “Lecture 3: Rhythm: Fundamentals” and “Lecture 4: Rhythm: Jazz, Pop, and Classical”
Links: Yale University: Professor Craig Wright’s “Lecture 3: Rhythm: Fundamentals” (Adobe Flash, Quicktime, or Audio mp3) and “Lecture 4: Rhythm: Jazz, Pop, and Classical” (Adobe Flash, Quicktime, or Audio mp3)

Instructions: Listen to both lectures (mp3) or view the videos via Flash or QuickTime (approximately 50 minutes for Lecture 3 and 45 minutes for Lecture 4) to deepen your knowledge of how rhythm works in music. Try to get a sense of how meter, syncopation, tempo, etc. contribute to the mood and feel of a musical work, as well as the different ways in which jazz, pop, and classical composers have used rhythm. In Lecture 3, students are taught to conduct basic patterns in these meters through musical examples drawn from Chuck Mangione, Cole Porter, REM, Chopin, and Ravel. In Lecture 4, Professor Wright begins this lecture with a brief introduction to musical acoustics, discussing the way multiple partials combine to make up every tone. He reviews fundamental rhythmic terms, such as "beat," "tempo," and "meter," and then demonstrates in more depth some of the more complex concepts, such as "syncopation" and the "triplet." Professor Wright then moves on to discuss the basics of musical texture, giving detailed examples of three primary types: monophonic, homophonic, and polyphonic. At the conclusion of the lecture, Mozart's Requiem is shown to weave different rhythms, textures, and pitches together to depict the text effectively.

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Web Media: G Major Music Theory’s “Identifying Meters”
Link: G Major Music Theory’s “Identifying Meters” (mp3)

Instructions: Listen to the audio clips on this website to practice your ability of recognizing simple meters. If you are having difficulty after the first try: take these steps: 1. Listen for the “one,” the strongest group in a group of 2, 3, or 4 beats; 2. 1-2, 1-2-3 to get in sync with the music; and 3. Try conducting, using the conducting pattern demonstrated in Professor Wright’s lecture, also linked in this subunit.

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2.3 Melody

Web Media: BBC: GCSE Bitesize’s “Melody”
Link: BBC: GCSE Bitesize’s “Melody” (Adobe Flash)

Instructions: Follow the links to pages 1-6, which explain basic concepts of melody and pay particular attention to scales (major and minor), phrases, and the concept of ornament. Click on the “Play” icons to access the music samples. Also, assess what you have learned by clicking on “Now Try a Test Bite” on the last webpage (page 6). Note: the concept of Ostinato introduced on Page 4 will be explored further in Unit 3 of this course, as an element of music structure.

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Web Media: Connexions: Catherine Schmidt-Jones’s “Melody”
Link: Connexions: Catherine Schmidt-Jones’s “Melody” (HTML or PDF)

Instructions: Please read the text and click on the hyperlinks to listen to the musical examples. You may want to print out the article so that you can follow the musical excerpts while listening to the music. If you are unfamiliar with how to read music, you should try to follow the arc of the melody as it goes up and down. To access the PDF version, click “Download” on the top right corner of the page.

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Lecture: Yale University: Professor Craig Wright’s “Lecture 5: Melody: Notes, Scales, Nuts and Bolts”
Link: Yale University: Professor Craig Wright’s “Lecture 5: Melody: Notes, Scales, Nuts and Bolts” (Adobe Flash, QuickTime, or Audio mp3)

Instructions: Listen to the entire lecture (mp3) or view the video via Flash or QuickTime (approximately 46 minutes) to explore the basic nature of melody. Touching on historical periods ranging from ancient Greece to the present day, Professor Wright draws examples from musical worlds as disparate as nineteenth-century Europe and twentieth-century India, China, and America. Professor Wright puts forth a historical, technical, and holistic approach to understanding the way pitches and scales work in music. He concludes his lecture by bringing pitch and rhythm together in a discussion of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony.

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2.4 Harmony

Web Media: Connexions: Catherine Schmidt-Jones’s “Major Keys and Scales”
Link: Connexions: Catherine Schmidt-Jones’s “Major Keys and Scales” (HTML or PDF)

Instructions: Please read the entire text and explore the hyperlinks embedded in it. You may want to also test your recognition of major and minor scales by playing the musical examples and completing the “Exercise.” To access the PDF version, click “Download” on the top right corner of the page.

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Web Media: Connexions: Anthony Brandt’s “Harmony in Western Music”
Link: Connexions: Anthony Brandt’s “Harmony in Western Music” (HTML and mp3)

Instructions: Read this whole text and click on the hyperlinks at the left to deepen your knowledge of key features of Western harmony and hear musical examples: The Tonic, Major-Minor Contrast, Modulation, and Return to the Tonic. More advanced students or those with an interest in music theory may explore additional topics found in the same menu of hyperlinks, such as Circular Progressions, Modes and Scales, and Cadences. To access the PDF version of this article, click “Download” on the top right corner of the page.

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Reading: Wikipedia’s “Chord Progression”
Link: Wikipedia’s “Chord Progression” (PDF)

Instructions: Please read this webpage in its entirety to learn about chord progression, which is a series of chords played one after another. In many types of Western music, from Baroque to the blues, there are specific chord progressions that are used over and over again and are easy to recognize in certain types of music that have repetitive phrase structures. To hear some of these, play the musical examples in the Wikipedia article.

Terms of Use: The article above is released under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0 (HTML). You can find the original Wikipedia version of this article here (HTML).
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Web Media: YouTube: rasc1944: Gene Chandler’s “Duke of Earl”
Link: YouTube: rasc1944: Gene Chandler’s “Duke of Earl” (YouTube)

Instructions: Please view this brief video in its entirety (approximately 3 minutes). We can easily hear chord changes in a specific type of 1950s and 1960s popular music called doo-wop. The harmony for doo-wop melodies consisted of short chord progressions repeated over and over again. In Gene Chandler’s 1962 hit “Duke of Earl,” there are four chords in the progression, which change every four beats. In other words, every fourth beat coincides with a new chord (an easy way to hear this is to listen for the word “Earl”). Listen to hear the chord changes and try to sing along.

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Lecture: Yale University: Professor Craig Wright’s “Lecture 7: Harmony: Chords and How to Build Them”
Link: Yale University: Professor Craig Wright’s “Lecture 7: Harmony: Chords and How to Build Them” (Adobe Flash, QuickTime or Audio mp3)

Instructions: Listen to the lecture (mp3) or view the video via Flash or QuickTime (approximately 50 minutes) for a discussion of the fundamental workings of harmony in music. Professor Wright discusses the ways in which triads are formed out of scales, the ways that some of the most common harmonic progressions work, and the nature of modulation. Professor Wright focuses particularly on the listening skills involved in hearing whether harmonies are changing at regular or irregular rates in a given musical phrase. His musical examples in this lecture are wide-ranging, including such diverse styles as grand opera, bluegrass, and 1960s American popular music.

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2.5 Instruments and Genres

Web Media: The Dallas Symphony Orchestra: DSO Kids: “Listen by Instrument”
Link: The Dallas Symphony Orchestra: DSO Kids: “Listen by Instrument” (HTML and Adobe Flash)

Instructions: Please click on the hyperlinks on the webpage to get an overview of instrument groups and instruments, hear the sounds of all the instruments in the Western orchestra, and understand how they produce sound. Click on the arrow buttons to hear clips of each instrument playing solo and with the orchestra. DSO Kids is a project of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and will provide an introduction to types of orchestra instruments.

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Reading: Connexions: Catherine Schmidt-Jones’ “Orchestral Instruments”
Link: Connexions: Catherine Schmidt-Jones’ “Orchestral Instruments” (HTML or PDF)

Instructions: Please review information on this webpage in its entirety. This site provides more detailed information on the historical development of instruments in the orchestra, their function in the orchestra, and their tonal ranges. After reviewing the information on Sections of the Orchestra, click on the hyperlinks at right for discussions of specific instruments.

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Web Media: BBC: GCSE Bitesize’s “Instrumentation”
Link: BBC: GCSE Bitesize’s “Instrumentation” (HTML and Adobe Flash)

Instructions: Please read about instrumentation, the craft of writing music for instruments of the orchestra, by reviewing both webpages. You may use the “next” button to navigate from the first page to the second. Then, try to assess your knowledge by clicking on the “Now Try a Test Bite” on the second webpage.

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Reading: Oracle ThinkQuest: Benjamin Britten’s The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra: Transcript of Narration
Link: Oracle ThinkQuest: Benjamin Britten’s The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra: Transcript of Narration (HTML)

Instructions: To find the narration for this piece, please scroll down to the heading Notes. Print out the narration and follow it as you listen to the work. Please note that no performance of the work appears on this page. Please view these through the YouTube link under Web Media for this subunit.

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Web Media: YouTube: Simon Rattle conducts Benjamin Britten’s The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra, Part 1 and Part 2
Link: YouTube: Simon Rattle conducts Benjamin Britten’s The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra, Part 1 and Part 2 (YouTube)

Instructions: As you watch the videos (approximately 3 & 8 minutes respectively), try to hear the different versions of the theme varied in melody, rhythm, texture and tempo—in short, all elements of music. These versions are called variations. Listening to Benjamin Britten’s The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra can serve two valuable purposes: to learn the tone colors of the Western orchestra and to introduce important concepts of covered in our next unit: theme and variation, fugue, and formal design in music. In this piece, Britten introduces a short tune by an earlier British composer, Henry Purcell. At the end, Britten writes an energetic fugue, based on yet another version of the Purcell tune. Astute listeners will also note that the tune wraps in a variety of A B A form, a symmetrical, three-part form introduced in the next unit.

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Reading: BBC: Discovering Music: Listening Notes of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition

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Web Media: Wikipedia: Skidmore College Orchestra’s performance of the “Promenade” from Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition
Link: Wikipedia: Skidmore College Orchestra’s performance of the “Promenade” from Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition (MP3)

Instructions: Please scroll down the Wikipedia page to “Promenade” under the “Movements” section and listen to the promenade performed by the Skidmore College Orchestra. This audio will be useful in completing the assignment for this unit.

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Web Media: Wikipedia: Skidmore College Orchestra’s performance of “Gnomus” from Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition
Link: Wikipedia: Skidmore College Orchestra’s performance of “Gnomus” from Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition (MP3)

Instructions: Please scroll down the Wikipedia page to “No.1 ‘Gnomus’” under the “Movements” section and listen to this audio track in its entirety. This audio will be useful in completing the assignment for this unit.

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Web Media: Wikipedia: Skidmore College Orchestra’s performance of “The Old Castle” from Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition
Link: Wikipedia: Skidmore College Orchestra’s performance of “The Old Castle” from Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition (MP3)

Instructions: Please scroll down the Wikipedia page to “No. 2 ’Il vecchio castello’” under the “Movements” section and listen to the audio of “The Old Castle” section of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition in its entirety. This audio will be useful in completing the assignment for this unit.

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Web Media: Wikipedia: Skidmore College Orchestra’s performances of “Interlude, Tuileries, Cattle (Bydlo), Ballet of the Unhatched Chicks (????? ?????????????? ??????? ????? ?????????????? ???????), and Two Polish Jews (Samuel Goldenberg and Schmuÿle)” from Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition
Link: Wikipedia: Skidmore College Orchestra’s performances of “Interlude, Tuileries, Cattle (Bydlo), Ballet of the Unhatched Chicks (????? ?????????????? ??????? ????? ?????????????? ???????), and Two Polish Jews (Samuel Goldenberg and Schmuÿle)” from Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition (MP3)

Instructions: Please scroll down the Wikipedia page to the “Movements” section to locate and listen to the entire audio track of the “Interlude, Tuileries, Cattle, Ballet of the Unhatched Chicks, and Two Polish Jews” section of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition. This audio will be useful in completing the assignment for this unit.

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Web Media: Wikipedia: Skidmore College Orchestra’s s performance of “Catacombs/The Hut on Fowl’s Legs (Baba Yaga)” from Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition
Link: Wikipedia: Skidmore College Orchestra’s performance of “Catacombs/The Hut on Fowl's Legs (Baba Yaga)” from Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition (MP3)

Instructions: Please scroll down the Wikipedia page to the “Movements” section to locate and listen to the entire audio track of the “Catacombs” and “The Hut on Fowl’s Legs (Baba Yaga)” section of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition. This audio will be useful in completing the assignment for this unit.

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Web Media: Wikipedia: Skidmore College Orchestra’s performance of “Great Gate of Kiev (La grande porte de kiev)” from Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition
Link: Wkipedia: Skidmore College Orchestra’s performance of “Great Gate of Kiev (La grande porte de kiev)” from Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition (MP3)

Instructions: Please scroll down the Wikipedia page to the “Movements” section to locate and listen to the entire audio track of the “La grande porte de kiev” from Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition. This audio will be useful in completing the assignment for this unit.

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Assignment: The Saylor Foundation’s “Guided Listening 1: Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition”
Link: The Saylor Foundation’s “Guided Listening 1: Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition” (PDF)

Instructions: Click on the link to download the assignment page and apply what you have learned in this course so far to complete the assignment.
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Unit 3: Musical Structure

This unit deals with formal elements of design—the shape, arrangement, relationship, or organization of the various elements of music. Building on the basics of melody, harmony, and rhythm from Unit 1, we begin with a common variety of harmonic progressions—bass patterns consisting of simple chord progressions. As we will see in musical examples taken from Mozart, Beethoven, the Beach Boys, the Dave Matthews Band, and Justin Timberlake, composers from both the classical and popular music worlds draw on the same bass patterns. By analyzing longer works, we examine the large-scale forms used in popular and classical music: verse-chorus, sonata-allegro, fugue, and theme and variations form. We will briefly explore the manifestations of some of these forms in literature, painting, and other disciplines. This unit will end with a review of all the forms discussed in the lectures and readings.

Unit 3 Time Advisory show close

Unit 3 Learning Outcomes show close

Assignment: The Saylor Foundation’s “MUS101 Unit 3: Vocabulary Worksheet” and “MUS101 Unit 3 Learning Journal”
Links: The Saylor Foundation’s “MUS101 Unit 3: Vocabulary Worksheet” (PDF) and “MUS101 Unit 3 Learning Journal” (PDF)

Instructions: Before you read this unit, refer to the MUS101 Unit 3 Vocabulary Worksheet and the MUS101 Unit 3 Learning Journal. Please fill out both as you complete the unit.
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3.1 Bass Patterns

Lecture: Yale University: Professor Craig Wright’s “Bass Patterns: Blues and Rock”
Link: Yale University: Professor Craig Wright’s “Bass Patterns: Blues and Rock” (Adobe Flash, QuickTime or Audio mp3)

Instructions: Listen to the lecture (mp3) or view the video via Flash or QuickTime (approximately 48 minutes) to learn how to listen for bass patterns in order to understand harmonic progressions. Professor Wright presents numerous musical examples from both popular music and classical music, showing the way that composers from both realms draw on the same chord progressions. The musical examples are taken from Mozart, Beethoven, Rossini, Wagner, Gene Chandler, the Beach Boys, Badly Drawn Boy, the Dave Matthews Band, and Justin Timberlake.

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3.2 Introducing Form in Music

Reading: Connexions: Anthony Brandt’s “Musical Form”
Link: Connexions: Anthony Brandt’s “Musical Form” (HTML and Adobe Flash)

Instructions: Please read both sections on music form: “Grasping the Whole Composition” and “Labeling the Parts,” as well as the conclusion. Click on the links to hear the musical examples in Flash, and try to solve the problems by clicking choice A or B. Listening for musical form is hearing the “big picture” of a piece of music. Students learn to experience a musical composition as divided into sections, which Brandt compares to the layout of a city divided into neighborhoods. In an A-type form, the focus is on continuity; in an A/B-type, the focus is on contrast. To access the PDF version of this article, click “Download” on the top right corner of the page.

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Web Media: Connexions: Anthony Brandt’s “Listening Gallery: Musical Form”
Link: Connexions: Anthony Brandt’s “Listening Gallery: Musical Form” (Flash Audio)

Instructions: In these five problems testing what you have learned about musical form, you will have the opportunity to label each section in a given musical form within compositions by Chopin, Schumann, and other composers, as well as to check your answers. Note that you must have Flash player on your computer in order to complete these exercises.

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Web Media: Teoria.com: J. Rodríguez Alvira’s “Musical Forms: Binary Form and Ternary Form”
Link: Teoria.com: J. Rodríguez Alvira’s “Musical Forms: Binary Form and Ternary Form” (Adobe Flash)

Instructions: Click on the tabs at left to view the analyses of binary, ternary, and compound ternary forms (minuet), and listen to each of the musical examples illustrating these forms.

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3.3 Sonata Allegro Form

Web Media: Teoria.com: J. Rodríguez Alvira’s “Musical Forms: Sonata Form”
Link: Teoria.com: J. Rodríguez Alvira’s “Musical Forms: Sonata Form” (Adobe Flash)

Instructions: Read the text and then click on the red right-facing arrow to move on to the next page. On this next page, you will see an animated diagram of classical sonata form. Press the play button to hear a sample of Daniel Veesey’s performance of Beethoven’s Sonata op. 49, number 2 in G major.

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Lecture: Yale University: Professor Craig Wright’s “Lecture 9: Sonata-Allegro Form in Mozart and Beethoven”
Link: Yale University: Professor Craig Wright’s “Lecture 9: Sonata-Allegro Form in Mozart and Beethoven” (Adobe Flash, QuickTime or Audio mp3)

Instructions: Please listen to the lecture (mp3) or view the video via Flash or QuickTime (approximately 50 minutes) for a foray into the formal characteristics of contemporary popular music. After a discussion of the "verse-chorus" form often used in popular music, Professor Wright proceeds to take students into the realm of classical music, focusing particularly on ternary form and sonata-allegro form. Throughout his detailed explanation of sonata-allegro form, he also elaborates upon some harmonic concepts describing, for example, the relationship between relative major and minor keys. This lecture draws its musical examples from 'N Sync, Mozart, and Beethoven.

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3.4 Theme and Variations

Lecture: Yale University: Professor Craig Wright’s “Lecture 10: Sonata-Allegro and Theme and Variations”
Link: Yale University: Professor Craig Wright’s “Lecture 10: Sonata-Allegro and Theme and Variations” (Adobe Flash, QuickTime or Audio mp3)

Instructions: Please listen to the lecture (mp3) or watch the video in QuickTime or Flash in its entirety (approximately 50 minutes). Professor Wright delves into sonata-allegro form in some depth in this lecture. He focuses especially on characterizing four types of music found within a sonata: thematic, transitional, developmental, and cadential. He then moves on to discuss a different form, theme and variations, which is accomplished through the use of examples from Beethoven's and Mozart's compositions. Professor Wright and guest artist Kensho Watanabe then conclude the lecture by demonstrating a set of theme and variations through a live performance of Arcangelo Corelli's La Folia.

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Assignment: Duke University’s “Theme and Variation Assignment”
Link: Duke University’s “Theme and Variation Assignment” (mp3)

Instructions: Please note this assignment is optional and is designed to challenge advanced students. Four sample files of variations on the French folksong "Ah, vous dirai-je, Maman" are provided here, with an assignment for students to compose themes to a similarly structured piece. Please follow the assignment instructions on the webpage.

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3.5 Rondo Form

Reading: Teoria.com: J. Rodríguez Alvira’s “Musical Forms: Rondo Form”
Link: Teoria.com: J. Rodríguez Alvira’s “Musical Forms: Rondo Form” (Adobe Flash)

Instructions: Read the text to see an animated diagram of classical rondo form and then use the red right-facing arrow to move on to the next webpage. Then, click on the play button in the box to hear an example of rondo form—Jean-Philippe Rameau’s keyboard piece La Joyeuse.

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3.6 Fugue

Lecture: Yale University: Professor Craig Wright’s “Lecture 13: Fugue: Bach, Bizet, and Bernstein.”
Link: Yale University: Professor Craig Wright’s “Lecture 13: Fugue: Bach, Bizet, and Bernstein” (Adobe Flash, QuickTime or Audio mp3)

Instructions: Please listen to the lecture (mp3) or watch the video in Quick Time or Flash in its entirety (approximately 47 minutes). In this lecture, Professor Wright briefly explores the manifestations of the fugue form in poetry, painting, and other disciplines, and then gives a detailed explanation of how fugues are put together in music. Though he uses excerpts by composers as disparate as Georges Bizet and Leonard Bernstein to illustrate his points, he draws his main musical examples from J.S. Bach.

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3.7 Ostinato Form

Lecture: Yale University: Professor Craig Wright’s Lecture 14: “Ostinato Form in the Music of Purcell, Pachelbel, Elton John, and Vitamin C.”
Link: Yale University: Professor Craig Wright’s Lecture 14: “Ostinato Form in the Music of Purcell, Pachelbel, Elton John, and Vitamin C” (Adobe Flash, QuickTime or Audio mp3)

Instructions: Please listen to the lecture (mp3) or watch the video in Quick Time or Flash in its entirety (approximately 48 minutes). This lecture begins with a review of all the musical forms previously discussed in class: sonata-allegro, rondo, theme and variations, and fugue. Professor Wright then moves on to discuss the final form that will be taught in this course: the ostinato or persistently repeating pattern in music. With the aid of music by Pachelbel, Purcell, and a few popular artists, Professor Wright shows the multitude of ways in which the ostinato bass has been used throughout the past several centuries.

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Unit 4: Musical Styles

Style in music is generally the distinctive sound created by an artist, composer, or performing group. This unit explores the continuum of Western musical creativity from the medieval period to the twentieth century, with attention to the social and cultural context for the development of musical styles. Subunit 4.1 explores the role of chant in medieval monasteries and cathedrals and the development of multipart music (polyphony) in the Renaissance. Subunit 4.2 focuses on the Baroque era (1600-1750), with a detailed look at the vocal music of Bach and Handel. The Classical style (1750-1820) is taught in Subunit 4.3. The next subunit focuses on the development of the Romantic style in the early nineteenth century, from the piano music of Beethoven to songs by Mahler. You will observe how the genre of symphonic music changed from the eighteenth to the nineteenth century, as well as the nature of the orchestra itself, listening to excerpts from Tchaikovsky, Dvorak, Wagner, and Mahler. In this unit, you will also learn about the key musical developments of the twentieth century: musical impressionism, modernism, and postmodernism, focusing on the music of Debussy, Ravel, Stravinsky, Copland, and Cage. This course concludes with a review of the various styles and time periods of Western music history.

Unit 4 Time Advisory show close

Unit 4 Learning Outcomes show close

Assignment: The Saylor Foundation’s “MUS101 Unit 4 Vocabulary Worksheet” and “MUS101 Unit 4 Learning Journal”
Links: The Saylor Foundation’s “MUS101 Unit 4 Vocabulary Worksheet” (PDF) and “MUS101 Unit 4 Learning Journal” (PDF)

Instructions: Before you read this unit, refer to the MUS101 Unit 4 Vocabulary Worksheet and the MUS101 Unit 4 Learning Journal. Please fill out both sheets as you complete this unit.
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4.1 Medieval and Renaissance Music

Lecture: Yale University: Professor Craig Wright’s “Lecture 15: Benedictine Chant and Music in the Sistine Chapel”
Link: Yale University: Professor Craig Wright’s “Lecture 15: Benedictine Chant and Music in the Sistine Chapel” (Adobe Flash, QuickTime or Audio mp3)

Instructions: Please listen to the lecture (mp3) or watch the video in Quick Time or flash in its entirety (approximately 46 minutes). Here, Professor Wright discusses chant and its role in the lives of monks and nuns in medieval monasteries, convents, and cathedrals. He then moves on to briefly discuss polyphony, or music with multiple voices. The lecture is supplemented by images of cathedrals, monasteries, and medieval illuminations, as well as recordings of monophonic chant by the twelfth-century polymath Hildegard of Bingen, anonymous polyphony, polyphony by the Renaissance composer Giovanni Pierluigi Palestrina, and a recording of the last papal castrato, Alessandro Moreschi.

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4.1.1 The Chant Phenomenon

Web Media: National Public Radio’s Milestones of the Millennium Series: Martin Goldsmith’s and Father J.F. Weber’s “Chant”
Link: National Public Radio’s Milestones of the Millennium Series: Martin Goldsmith’s and Father J.F. Weber’s “Chant” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read through the following document in its entirety. Please make sure to click on and listen to the audio pieces throughout the reading.

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Assignment: The Saylor Foundation’s “The Gregorian Chant”
Link: The Saylor Foundation’s “The Gregorian Chant” (PDF)

Instructions: Please click on the link above to download the assignment and work through the listening exercises.
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4.1.2 The Gothic Revolution

Web Media: The BBC’s Sacred Music: “The Gothic Revolution”

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4.1.3 Music in the Middle Ages

Assignment: The Saylor Foundation’s “Secular Music in the Middle Ages”
Link: The Saylor Foundation’s “Secular Music in the Middle Ages” (PDF)

Instructions: Please click on the link to download this three-part assignment. Part 1 provides a detailed look at the popular fourteenth-century round, “Sumer Is Icumen In,” based on texts by Geoffrey Chaucer, in medieval and contemporary manuscript sources. You are encouraged to try to sing the round, or just the melody by itself. Part 2 provides an overview of medieval music instruments, complete with audio clips and a listening quiz. Part 3 asks you to write your reactions to music on NPR’s program on Palestrina, using terminology you have learned about in this course.
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4.1.4 The Renaissance

Web Media: Ipl.org: Robert Sherrane’s Music History 102: “The Renaissance”
Link: Ipl.org: Robert Sherrane’s Music History 102: “The Renaissance” (HTML)

Instructions: Click on the link and scroll down the webpage to the section on “The Renaissance.” Please read this section for an overview of sacred and secular musical styles that developed in the Renaissance and to hear musical examples.

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Reading: The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History: Rebecca Arkenberg’s “Music in the Renaissance”
Link: The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History: Rebecca Arkenberg’s “Music in the Renaissance” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read this entire text and click on the thumbnails to view images that demonstrate the development of musical instruments of the Renaissance. You may also click on the Multimedia buttons at left to play musical examples.

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4.1.5 Sacred Music in the Renaissance

Lecture: National Public Radio’s Milestones of the Millennium: Peter Phillips’s and Tom Kelly’s “Giovanni Pierliugi da Palestrina”
Link: National Public Radio’s Milestones of the Millennium: Peter Phillips’s and Tom Kelly’s “Giovanni Pierliugi da Palestrina” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read the document in its entirety, and please click on and listen to the audio available.

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Web Media: Vatican.va’s “Virtual Tour of the Sistine Chapel”
Link: Vatican.va’s “Virtual Tour of the Sistine Chapel” (Adobe Flash)

Instructions: Please take this virtual tour to view the setting for Palestrina’s choral music and consider some of the parallels between High Renaissance music, architecture, and design.

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Web Media: The BBC’s Sacred Music: Tallis, Byrd, and the Tudors

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Reading: Washington State University: Paul Brians’ “Renaissance Love Songs”
Link: Washington State University: Paul Brians’ “Renaissance Love Songs” (HTML)

Please skim the texts to these poems and songs by Renaissance composers and writers, in order to gain insight into some of the important themes in secular music of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries and the important role that music played in the intellectual and cultural movement known as humanism.

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Assignment: The Saylor Foundation’s “The Renaissance Madrigal”
Link: The Saylor Foundation’s “The Renaissance Madrigal” (PDF)

Instructions: Please click on the link to download the assignment, and work through the background information and listening exercise for Thomas Weelkes’ madrigal, “As Vesta Was Descending.”
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4.2 The Baroque: Definitions and Background

Reading: Baroquemusic.org: Michael Sartorius’s “Baroque Music Defined” and “Baroque Musicians and Composers”
Readings: Baroquemusic.org: Michael Sartorius’s “Baroque Music Defined” (HTML) and “Baroque Musicians and Composers” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read both of these articles for a definition of Baroque and to get a sense of the historical, geographical, and cultural influences that created the colossal Baroque musical style in Europe during the seventeenth century.

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Web Media: San Diego State University: Elaine Thornburgh’s “Baroque Music, Part 1”
Links: San Diego State University: Elaine Thornburgh’s “Baroque Music, Part 1” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read the text for discussions of Baroque musical instruments, genres, and Baroque musical aesthetics. Click on the links to hear the musical examples featuring the key instruments of the Baroque orchestra and chamber ensemble, and quintessentially Baroque genres, such as the concerto grosso, oratorio, and the cantata.

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4.2.1 The Music of J.S. Bach

Web Media: Baroquemusic.org: Michael Sartorius’s “Bach’s Life in Pictures and Music”
Link: Baroquemusic.org: Michael Sartorius’s “Bach’s Life in Pictures and Music” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read this multimedia biography of Bach, and view the contemporary illustrations of Bach’s surroundings, in order to deepen your knowledge of the context for German Baroque music and Bach’s music in particular. Click on the red musical notes to play samples of Bach’s music.

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4.2.2 Bach’s Sacred Music

Web Media: The BBC’s Sacred Music: J.S. Bach and the Lutheran Legacy

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Lecture: Yale University: Professor Craig Wright’s “Lecture 16: Baroque Music: The Vocal Music of Johann Sebastian Bach”
Link: Yale University: Professor Craig Wright’s “Lecture 16: Baroque Music: The Vocal Music of Johann Sebastian Bach” (Adobe Flash, QuickTime, or Audio mp3)

Instructions: Please listen to the lecture (mp3) or watch the video in Flash or QuickTime in its entirety (approximately 50 minutes). In this lecture, Professor Wright discusses the Baroque period through a detailed look at the life and music of Johann Sebastian Bach. He first takes the students through the basics of Bach's life, showing slides of the towns and buildings in which Bach and his family lived. Professor Wright then discusses Bach's music, and techniques of Baroque music in general, within the context of the composer's life. The lecture concludes with a discussion of the Advent cantata Bach wrote based on the chorale "Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme."

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Web Media: San Diego State University: Elaine Thornburgh’s “Baroque Music, Part I: “Sacred Vocal Music” and “Bach and the Baroque Cantata”
Link: San Diego State University: Elaine Thornburgh’s “Sacred Vocal Music” and “Bach and the Baroque Cantata” (HTML)

Instructions: Please scroll down to read both sections, and click on the links to hear musical examples. Please note that the video on Handel’s Messiah will be viewed in the next subunit.

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4.2.3 Georg Frederick Handel

Web Media: Handel’s Messiah

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Assignment: The Saylor Foundation’s “Guided Listening 2: Handel’s Messiah Libretto and Study Guide” and “Elements of Music and Meaning in Handel’s Messiah”
Links: The Saylor Foundation’s “Guided Listening 2: Handel’s Messiah Libretto and Study Guide” (PDF) and “Elements of Music and Meaning in Handel’s Messiah” (PDF)

Instructions: Please download the “Guided Listening 2” document to read background information on Handel’s Messiah, Charles Jennens’ libretto, and follow the links to performances of selections from the oratorio. You may use this listening guide to then help with the assignment. For the “Elements of Music and Meaning in Handel’s Messiah” assignment, please follow the directions for writing the essay.
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4.3 The Classical Style

Reading: Ipl.org: Robert Sherrane’s Music History 102: A Guide to Western Composers and Their Music: “The Classical Period”
Link: Ipl.org: Robert Sherrane’s Music History 102: A Guide to Western Composers and Their Music: “The Classical Period” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read this page for an overview of the classical style as it developed in Vienna and beyond and listen to the music examples. Click on the links for Symphony, Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven.

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Web Media: National Public Radio’s Milestones of the Millennium: Lisa Simeone’s and Nicholas Till’s “The Enlightenment”
Link: National Public Radio’s Milestones of the Millennium: Lisa Simeone’s and Nicholas Till’s “Enlightenment” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read the following in its entirety.

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4.3.1 The Development of Modern Keyboard Instruments

Reading: The Metropolitan Museum: Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History: Jayson Kerr Dobney’s “The Piano: Viennese Instruments”
Link: The Metropolitan Museum: Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History: Jayson Kerr Dobney’s “The Piano: Viennese Instruments” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read the above article and click on the thumbnails showing the evolution of modern keyboard instruments in Europe and their influence on musical trends in the classical and Romantic periods.

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Web Media: National Public Radio’s Milestones of the Millennium: Martin Goldsmith’s and Charles Rosen’s “The Evolution of the Piano”
Link: National Public Radio’s Milestones of the Millennium: Martin Goldsmith’s and Charles Rosen’s “The Evolution of the Piano” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read the following in its entirety.

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Lecture: Yale University: Professor Craig Wright’s “Lecture 18: Piano Music of Mozart and Beethoven”
Link: Yale University: Professor Craig Wright’s “Lecture 18: Piano Music of Mozart and Beethoven” (Adobe Flash, QuickTime, or Audio mp3)

Instructions: Please listen to the lecture (mp3) or watch the video in Flash or QuickTime (approximately 50 minutes) for a discussion of the evolution of the modern piano and its music. This lecture is optional for those students interested in seeing and hearing the different forms of the piano from the early eighteenth through twentieth centuries. Professor Wright shows how the instrument evolved through a variety of photographs and paintings. He plays recordings of music played on the pianos owned by such composers as Mozart and Beethoven. The lecture ends with a guest piano performance by a Yale student.

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4.3.2 Mozart and the Enlightenment

Reading: Project Gutenberg’s version of Letters of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart edited by Frederick Keirst and Henry Krehbiehl in Mozart, the Man and the Artist, as Revealed in his Own Words (Dover, 1965)
Link: Project Gutenberg’s version of Letters of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart edited by Frederick Keirst and Henry Krehbiehl in Mozart, the Man and the Artist, as Revealed in his Own Words (HTML) (Dover, 1965)

Instructions: Open the document in “text” or “zip” format by clicking on the hyperlink. Then, scroll down to the excerpts from Mozart’s letters to his father Leopold Mozart grouped under the heading “Concerning the Opera.” Please read this text to get a sense for the inspirations behind Mozart’s opera and the novel approach to music drama and techniques of setting speech to music that Mozart developed in such works as Don Giovanni and the Marriage of Figaro. Consider Mozart’s famous dictum from one of these letters, “in opera, poetry must be the obedient daughter of the music.” How did this represent a shift from Baroque aesthetics? Also, how do Mozart’s letters detailing his struggles to make a living reflect the shifting role of the composer in the classical period?

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Assignment: The Saylor Foundation’s “Study Guide for Milos Forman’s Amadeus” and “Music and Society in Eighteenth Century Europe”
Links: The Saylor Foundation’s “Study Guide for Milos Forman’s Amadeus” (PDF) and “Music and Society in Eighteenth Century Europe” (PDF)

Instructions: Please download the “Study Guide” handout and follow the links to the scenes from the Amadeus film. This study guide will be useful in helping you complete the assignment. Then, please click on the link to download the assignment itself and follow the instructions to write the essay on the topic of music and society in eighteenth-century Europe. In this assignment, you will apply what you have learned in this course so far about the changing social, cultural, and political scene and its influence on music and music-making in Europe.
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4.3.3 The Classical Symphony

Web Media: Oracle ThinkQuest’s “Symphony: An Interactive Guide”
Link: Oracle ThinkQuest’s “Symphony: An Interactive Guide”(mp3)

Instructions: Click on the link above for an interactive guide that provides an overview of the Classical symphonic form. Click on and explore each of the sections listed under “The Symphony: An Interactive Guide.” Pay particular attention to the “Quick Tour” and “Symphonies” section. You may also wish to review the basics of sonata form by clicking on the red link, “A Beginner’s Guide to Sonata Form,” and listening to examples from Mozart’s Symphony No. 40 in G Minor. This media is hosted at ThinkQuest, which is an open-access learning resource created by and for students of all ages on a wide range of educational topics.

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Assignment: The Saylor Foundation’s “Guided Listening 3: The Art of the Symphony in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 in C Minor” and “Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony: Hearing and Describing the Structure of the Classical Symphony”
Link: The Saylor Foundation’s “Guided Listening 3: The Art of the Symphony in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 in C Minor” (PDF) and “Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony: Hearing and Describing the Structure of the Classical Symphony” (PDF)

Instructions: Please click on both links above. Please use “Guided Listening 3” as a document to aid you in this assignment. For the “Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony: Hearing and Describing the Structure of the Classical Symphony” assignment, please follow the directions for writing the essay.
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4.4 Romanticism

Web Media: San Diego State University: Professor Jeffrey Swann’s “Classical and Romantic Music”
Link: San Diego State University: Professor Jeffrey Swann’s “Classical and Romantic Music” (HTML and Adobe Flash)

Instructions: Please read through “Classical and Romantic Music: Parts 1-3.” You may navigate to each part by clicking on the arrow buttons at the bottom of the webpage. Each part provides a discussion of the Romantic style as it developed in nineteenth-century Europe. Note the similarities and differences between the Romantic and classical style, musical instruments, and ensembles. Please focus on the passages entitled Spirit of Romanticism,” “The Musical Environment of Romanticism,” “Nationalism,” and “Emotion, Imagination, Fantasy and Instinct.” You will find a helpful Glossary in Part 4.

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4.4.1 The Symphony in the Nineteenth Century

Lecture: Yale University: Professor Craig Wright’s “Lecture 20: The Colossal Symphony: Beethoven, Berlioz, Mahler, and Shostakovich”
Link: Yale University: Professor Craig Wright’s “Lecture 20: The Colossal Symphony: Beethoven, Berlioz, Mahler, and Shostakovich” (Adobe Flash, QuickTime or Audio mp3)

Instructions: Please listen to the lecture (mp3) or watch the video in Flash or QuickTime in its entirety (approximately 50 minutes). In this discussion of the history and development of the symphony, Professor Wright leads the students from Mozart to Mahler, discussing the ways in which the genre of symphonic music changed throughout the nineteenth century, as well as the ways in which the make-up of the symphony orchestra itself evolved during this period. The changes in the nature of orchestral music are contextualized within the broader historical changes taking place in Europe in the nineteenth century. The lecture is supplemented with musical excerpts drawn from Mozart, Tchaikovsky, Dvorak, Wagner, and Mahler.

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Web Media: The Hector Berlioz Website: Michel Austin’s (transl.) version of Hector Berlioz’s Extracts from the Treatise on Orchestration and Instrumentation (1843/44)
Link: The Hector Berlioz Website: Michel Austin’s (transl.) version of Hector Berlioz’s Extracts from the Treatise on Orchestration and Instrumentation (HTML)

Instructions: The nineteenth century witnessed landmark developments in instrumentation and orchestration. Please read both introductions, by the translator and the composer himself, to explore how Berlioz attempted to redefine the expressive possibilities of each instrument of the orchestra, and consider how this project influenced composers of the nineteenth and twentieth century. If you wish to deepen your knowledge of the orchestra, you may click on the names of individual instruments and read about innovations in their sound and performance techniques.

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Web Media: National Public Radio’s Milestones of the Millennium: Martin Goldsmith’s and Michael Tilson Thomas’s “Symphony Fantastique”
Link: National Public Radio’s Milestones of the Millennium: Martin Goldsmith’s and Michael Tilson Thomas’s “Symphony Fantastique” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read the following in its entirety.

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Web Media: The San Francisco Symphony’s Keeping Score: “Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique”
Link: The San Francisco Symphony’s Keeping Score: “Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique” (Adobe Flash)

Instructions: From the homepage, choose the “Listen” and “Watch Video” links for examples of Berlioz’s music. Then proceed to the section titled “The Score” for a more in depth look at the symphony. Apply your knowledge of melody and motifs in music to hear the idée fixe, a unifying theme in music, and its transformation throughout the symphony. Draw on your knowledge of instrumentation in order to deepen your understanding of Berlioz’s extended orchestral palette.

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4.4.2 Impressionism and Exoticism

Reading: San Diego State University: Professor Jeffrey Swann’s “Debussy’s Liberation”
Link: San Diego State University: Professor Jeffrey Swann’s “Debussy’s Liberation” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read the above introduction to Debussy’s musical aesthetics.

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Lecture: Yale University: Professor Craig Wright’s “Lecture 21: Musical Impressionism and Exoticism: Debussy, Ravel, and Monet”
Link: Yale University: Professor Craig Wright’s “Lecture 21: Musical Impressionism and Exoticism: Debussy, Ravel, and Monet” (Adobe Flash, QuickTime, or Audio mp3)

Instructions: Please listen to the lecture (mp3) or watch the video in QuickTime or Flash in its entirety (approximately 52 minutes). In this lecture, students learn about musical Impressionism. While his discussion focuses on the music of Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel, he nonetheless draws examples from other composers, as well as painters and poets who worked with a similar aesthetic style during the same time period. The class concludes with a performance of Ravel's "Ondine" by a guest pianist.

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Web Media: National Public Radio’s Milestones of the Millennium: Jan Swafford’s “Claude Debussy”
Link: National Public Radio’s Milestones of the Millennium: Jan Swafford’s “Claude Debussy” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read the following article in its entirety.

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4.5 Twentieth Century Modernism

4.5.1 Modernism: Mahler and Stravinksy

Web Media: National Public Radio’s Milestones of the Millennium: Philip Glass’s and Robert Craft’s “Igor Stravinsky”
Link: National Public Radio’s Milestones of the Millennium: Philip Glass’s and Robert Craft’s “Igor Stravinsky” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read the following article in its entirety.

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Web Media: The San Francisco Symphony’s Keeping Score: “Igor Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring”
Link: The San Francisco Symphony’s Keeping Score: “Igor Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring” (Adobe Flash)

Instructions: Click on the arrow buttons and links to turn pages in the interactive musical score.

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Lecture: Yale University: Professor Craig Wright’s “Lecture 22: Modernism and Mahler”
Link: Yale University: Professor Craig Wright’s “Lecture 22: Modernism and Mahler” (Adobe Flash, QuickTime, or Audio mp3)

Instructions: Please listen to the lecture (mp3) or watch the video in QuickTime or Flash in its entirety (approximately 50 minutes). The topic here is twentieth-century modernism, focusing on Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring. Professor Wright explores several musical reasons why The Rite of Spring caused a riot at its 1913 Paris premiere. Professor Wright then goes on to share with the class one of his favorite pieces, by Gustav Mahler, the orchestral Lied "Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen." Part of that work is available here. The German lyrics to this song, along with translations, are available here at recmusic.org.

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Reading: The Hilton Head Symphony: Alan M. Rothenberg’s “Program Notes for Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring”
Link: The Hilton Head Symphony: Alan M. Rothenberg’s “Program Notes for Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read the Hilton Head Symphony’s program notes, which will be useful in providing the context for Stravinsky’s interest in Russian/Slavic folklore, his associations with the Ballet Russes, and the tumultuous premiere of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring in Paris, 1913. You may want to make a brief outline of the important concepts in these program notes as a reference in completing the Saylor Foundation assignment for this subunit.

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Assignment: The Saylor Foundation’s “Music and Modernism in the 20th Century: Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring”
Links: The Saylor Foundation’s “Music and Modernism in the 20^th Century: Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring” (PDF)

Instructions: After you have reviewed Alan M. Rothenberg’s Program Notes for Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring above, please click on the link above to download the “Music and Modernism in the 20^th Century” assignment. Please listen to the complete work of Stravinsky, and follow the instructions to write the essay. In this assignment, you will apply what you have learned in this course so far about the changing social, cultural, and political scene and debates about music and aesthetics in the twentieth century.
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4.5.2 The Second Viennese School

Reading: San Diego State University: Professor Jack Logan’s “Twentieth Century Music: Part One”
Link: San Diego State University: Professor Jack Logan’s “Twentieth Century Music: Part One” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read the sections entitled “Individuality and the Modern World,” and “Arnold Schoenberg: The Composer as God’s Messenger on Earth.” For those students interested in further explorations of the movement toward atonality in Europe and beyond, the section on two of Schoenberg’s most famous pupils entitled “Webern and Berg” is recommended.

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Reading: Scena.org: John Winiarz’s “Schoenberg - Pierrot Lunaire: An Atonal Landmark”
Link: Scena.org: John Winiarz’s “Schoenberg - Pierrot Lunaire: An Atonal Landmark” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read this article for background information on Schoenberg’s atonal masterpiece. Scroll down for recommended recordings of Pierrot. Please note that you will have the opportunity to listen to excerpts from the piece in the next assignment. This website, www.scena.org, is an online classical music magazine published in English and French.

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Web Media: YouTube: Arnold Schoenberg’s “Moonstruck” from Pierrot Lunaire
Link: YouTube: Arnold Schoenberg’s “Moonstruck” from Pierrot Lunaire (YouTube)

Instructions: This video features soprano Patricia Rideout and pianist Glenn Gould performing “Moonstruck” and other excerpts from Pierrot Lunaire. As you view this brief video in its entirety (about 6 minutes), please follow the music with the German lyrics and English translations, which appear in the Comments section. As you listen, consider the meaning of this work in the context of the social, political and cultural upheavals taking place at the time Schoenberg wrote Pierrot in 1912. Pierrot himself is a stock comic character from the Italian commedia dell’arte tradition. As you view this video, also consider the following questions:

How does Schoenberg make use of this character to convey meaning in the work? What are the emotional and psychological effects of the Sprechstimme (“speech-voice,” the style of singing called for throughout the piece)? Schoenberg was sympathetic to the aims of expressionism, an artistic movement of the time that sought to give voice to the subconscious, and to reveal the dark side of human emotion. In what way is Pierrot successful as a work of expressionist art?

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4.5.3 Two American Originals: Copland and Ives

Web Media: National Public Radio’s Milestones of the Millennium: Robert Kapilow’s and John Adams’s “Appalachian Spring by Aaron Copland”
Link: National Public Radio’s Milestones of the Millennium: Robert Kapilow’s and John Adams’s “Appalachian Spring by Aaron Copland” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read the following in its entirety.

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Web Media: The San Francisco Symphony’s Keeping Score: “Copland: In Search of the American Sound”
Link: The San Francisco Symphony’s Keeping Score: “Copland: In Search of the American Sound” (Adobe Flash)

Instructions: Click on the arrow buttons and links to turn pages in the interactive musical score. The introduction and audio are narrated by Michael Tilson Thomas, Music Director of the San Francisco Symphony.

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Reading: San Diego State University: Professor Jack Logan’s “20th Century Music, Part 2”: “Charles Ives”
Link: San Diego State University: Professor Jack Logan’s “20^th Century Music, Part 2”: “Charles Ives: the Liberation of the Human Spirit in America” (HTML and Adobe Flash)

Instructions: Please scroll down to read all three sections detailing the life and music of this most original and radical of American art music composers: “Charles Ives and the Liberation of the Human Spirit in America,” “Passion for Liberty,” and “Insurance Man.” Click on the video icon to hear an historic recording of Ives himself playing the third movement of his Concord Sonata.

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4.5.4 Musical Postmodernism

Reading: Larry J. Solomon’s “Sounds of Silence: John Cage’s 4’ 33”
Link: Larry J. Solomon’s “Sounds of Silence: John Cage’s4’ 33” (HTML)

Instructions: Read this entire article on John Cage, which examines the radical aesthetic behind Cage's "silent" composition. John Cage was an American avant-garde composer, poet, and music theorist, who was considered to be one of the greatest and most influential American artists of the twentieth century. You will become more acquainted with a major work by John Cage in the guided listening assignment in this unit.

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Web Media: YouTube: pezziz’s “Performance of John Cage’s 4’ 33”
Link: YouTube: pezziz’s “Performance of John Cage’s 4’ 33” (YouTube)

Instructions: Please watch the entire video. As you watch the video, consider what you learned from Solomon’s essay “Sounds of Silence: John Cage’s 4’33.’’

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Assignment: The Saylor Foundation’s “Guided Listening 4: John Cage and Postmodern Musical Aesthetics”
Link: The Saylor Foundation’s “Guided Listening 4: John Cage and Postmodern Musical Aesthetics” (PDF)

Instructions: Click on the link to download the assignment page, and then follow the instructions.
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4.6 Review of Musical Styles

Lecture: Yale University: Professor Craig Wright’s “Lecture 23: Review of Musical Styles”
Link: Yale University: Professor Craig Wright’s “Lecture 23: Review of Musical Styles” (Adobe Flash, QuickTime or Audio mp3)

Instructions: Please listen to the lecture (mp3) or watch the video in QuickTime or Flash in its entirety (approximately 47 minutes). This review session focuses on strategies for identifying the various time periods of Western music history, through careful listening and close attention to the musical-stylistic characteristics of a given piece. Professor Wright plays several musical examples culled from different historical periods and then guides the students in identifying a variety of musical features that can be used to figure out approximately when the music was written. This lecture can be used to help you prepare for the Saylor Foundation’s Final Exam for this course.

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Assignment: The Saylor Foundation’s “Final Course Reflections Essay”
Link: The Saylor Foundation’s “Final Course Reflections Essay” (PDF)

Instructions: This assignment will give you the opportunity to write two essays discussing various aspects of the Western classical music tradition from a critical and analytical perspective.
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Final Exam

Final Exam: The Saylor Foundation's MUS101 Final Exam
Link: The Saylor Foundation's MUS101 Final Exam

Instructions: You must be logged into your Saylor Foundation School account in order to access this exam.
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