Instructor: Daniel Beller-McKenna

Office Hours M-W, 2:15-3:00

Purpose

This course is designed to familiarize you with the historical development of Western European art ("classical") music since about 1500. Much of the course work will be devoted to listening to musical works and examining musical styles of the last four centuries. In addition to a textbook, I will assign occasional auxiliary readings. These are intended to simulate your critical thinking about music’s role in society (historically, socially, politically, etc.) Reading music is not a requirement for this course. NB: Since the honors section of this course is combined with a non honors section, I will reserve a day every few weeks for discussion honors reading assignments. Students not enrolled for honors are welcome to do these additional readings and attend these sessions as well.

Texts

There is one required e-text book for the course, Joseph Kerman and Gary Tomlinson, Listen (6^th edition). It is available at the Durham Book Exchange. They will also have a few hard copies of the text (which should also be readily available to purchase via Amazon.com and other internet vendors), but the e-book is less than 50% the price of the hard copy. In addition to this book, I will occasionally assign brief on-line readings.

All of the listening listed here is available through the Naxos CD label’s on-line streaming audio site. Click here for instructions on how to use Naxos. There are two playlists for this class (explained in those instructions): B-McK-402-Listen contains items covered in the textbook; B-McK-402-supplement includes music not covered in the textbook but which I will cover in class.

All of the assigned listening for the class are also on reserve in the Multimedia room of Dimond Library (2^nd floor) either on the four-CD set designed to accompany the listen book or on individual CDs covering the supplemental material. If you are experiencing difficulty using the Naxos site please do three things: 1) let me know; 2) Contact the computer help line at 862-4242; and 3) make use of the CDs on reserve in the library until the difficulty is resolved

Blackboard Website

Almost none of the information for this course (handouts, assignments, Study-guides, etc.) will be handed out in hard copy but will be made available through the Blackboard Website. By registering for this course you automatically have access to this website and—if you did not already have one through a previous course—have had a Blackboard account opened for you. To access blackboard, direct your web browser to blackboard.unh.edu and log in. Visit http://www.unh.edu/blackboard/ for instructions from there. (If you have had a Blackboard account for a previous course, continue using your Name and Password from that course.)

Requirements

1. Assigned reading and listening on a weekly basis.

2. There will be two exams, a mid-term and a final. There will be no individual make-up exams given: Students missing the mid-term will take a cumulative make-up exam near the end of the semester (in addition to the final exam). The final exam will be held Tuesday, December 18, 1:00-3:00. Please make sure now that you are able to attend the final exam at that time. There will be no re-scheduling or make-ups for the final exam.

3. There will be weekly, relatively easy quizzes consisting of: 1) multiple choice questions on the most important issues covered during the previous week; and 2) listening identification of the current week’s assigned listening. For the latter, I will play a brief excerpt of a piece and you will identify the title of the piece from a multiple choice list of pieces. I will drop the three lowest grades among these quizzes including any “0”s received for missed quizzes. There will be no make ups for missed quizzes regardless of circumstances. For some ideas on how to listen productively to the assigned music read here.

4. Regular attendance is required. Since lectures will frequently amplify and diverge from the text in your book, I expect all students to come to every class unless prevented by illness or emergency. Doctor’s appointments, meetings with other professors, class trips, etc. do not count as emergencies: please speak to me ahead of time if you have a UNH related conflict.

Grading

Written assignments	20%
Quizzes	20%
(2) Exams	60% (30 each)

Course Plan

For a detailed class to class list of topics and reading/listening assignments, see the course overview under the Course Info button on the course Blackboard page

WEEKS	TOPIC
1-2	Music Basics
3-4	Early Music (Medieval/Renaissance)
4-6	Baroque Music (1600-1750)
7-9	Classicism
10-12	Romanticism
13-15	Music of the 20^th century

final exam: Tuesday, DECEMBER 18, 1:00-3:00

There will no alternative times for taking the final.