Music 2610

Basic Music IV

 

Western Michigan Univ.                                                                             David Loberg Code

School of Music                                                                                2315 Dalton, x7-4683

Summer I 2008                                                                                 Email: code@wmich.edu

Rm 2111 – M/T/R 9-10:40                                                  Office Hrs: Tu-Th 10:40 or appt.

 

COURSE DESCRIPTION:

 

      The primary goal of music theory is to develop in you--the performer, the teacher--the critical tools needed to understand a piece of music, create a meaningful musical interpretation of that piece, and convey that interpretation to your audience or students. This aspect of music theory is meant to be imminently practical and intimately connected with what you do in the studio, in the practice room, and on the stage. Music 2610 is a continuation of Mus 2600. It is a study of form, process, and style in various musical periods with an emphasis on analysis of complete works.

 

MATERIALS NEEDED FOR COURSE:

 

1. Burkhart, Charles. Music for Analysis (6th ed.)

2. Kostka/Payne. Tonal Harmony.

 

SYLLABUS (subject to change)

Week of

May 5      Structural Units and Functions           

May 6      Binary Principle

May 8      Ternary Principle

May 12      Sonata-Allegro form

May 13     

May 15      Quiz #1

May 19      Sonata cont'd

May 20      Rondo

May 22     

May 26      Memorial Day (no classes)

May 27      Concerto         

May 29      Quiz #2

Jun 2      Invention        

Jun 3      Fugue             Bibliography due

Jun 5                       

Jun 9      Variation Forms

Jun 10     

Jun 12      Quiz #3

Jun 16      Serialism         Form Handouts due

Jun 17      Indeterminacy                

Jun 19      Minimalism        Final Paper due  

Jun 23      Review

Jun 24      Final Exam

 

TESTS AND GRADING:

     

Your grade for the course will be based upon the following materials:

                  Quizzes (3 @ 15%)       45%

                  Paper                   25%

                  Final                   25%

                  Homework & Participation 5%

 

      The grading scale will be as follows:

A     93-100      C     73-77

BA    88-92       DC    68-72

B     83-87       D     60-67

BC    78-82       E     59ø

Should this scale result in a very unbalanced grade distribution (it usually doesn't), grades may be curved to compensate. The above schedule and procedures in this course are subject to change in the event of extenuating circumstances (as determined by the instructor).

 

RESPONSIBILITIES:

      You are expected to participate fully in class. Talking, sleeping, listening to headphones, doing homework, surfing the web, and similar distractions are inappropriate in class. Attendance is expected for all class meetings. Any absence (including arriving late and leaving early) is regarded as an unexcused absence (with the exception of official tour dates and documented emergencies) and can affect your final grade. Since you have chosen to enroll in this class, it is your responsibility not to schedule other activities during class time (e.g., work, lessons, rehearsals, naps, etc.) Your instructor is under no obligation to make-up missing materials or activities. If you miss a class, it is your responsibility to find out what you missed from other students. If a medical or family emergency prevents you from attending an exam, you must notify me on or before the date of the exam (via voicemail, email, or a message left at the School of Music Office, 387-4667). Unless you are in the hospital, there is no excuse for not being able to get a hold of me. If you wait until the next class meeting to ask me about a make-up it will be too late. For late assignments, percentage points may be deducted for each day past the deadline in accordance with the Fibonacci sequence. Excessive absences will have a negative effect on your final grade.

      You are responsible for making yourself aware of and understanding the policies and procedures in the Undergraduate Catalog (pp. 274-276) that pertain to Academic Integrity. These policies include cheating, fabrication, falsification and forgery, multiple submission, plagiarism, complicity and computer misuse. If there is reason to believe you have been involved in academic dishonesty, you will be referred to the Office of Student Conduct. You will be given the opportunity to review the charge(s). If you believe you are not responsible, you will have the opportunity for a hearing. You should consult with me if you are uncertain about an issue of academic honesty prior to the submission of an assignment or test. Additional information about WMU's policies regarding student conduct and academic dishonesty can be found at: http://www.osc.wmich.edu

 

TECHNOLOGY STUFF:

      All cell phones must be turned off during class. If your phone should ring, please answer it outside and don't come back. Laptops and PDAs can only be used for taking class notes and a copy of your notes must be emailed to the instructor at the end of class. The instructor reserves the right to view any open materials (books, papers, laptops, etc.) to determine if they are being used for class purposes. (If you don't want me to see something, don't have it out.)

      Your WMU account (Bronco NetID) is where any official WMU emails will be sent, including emails for this class. I will not send class information to your personal account (e.g., gmail, hotmail). While I will have regular office hours, some of you will find it more convenient to contact me via e-mail. You can ask me a question (maybe about your homework) and I will answer it. I will check my e-mail from home as well, so you will usually receive a response either the same or the next day. Also, I may be posting materials on a WWW site. Follow the course materials links from the School of Music web page to Mus 2610.

 

 

PAPER:

 

      There is a paper assignment for this course. I will provide a list of forms from which you can choose. To ensure an even distribution, each class member will sign up for one (unless the class is quite large). The paper will include a comparison of definitions and descriptions of the particular form from at least four different scholarly sources. The paper will also include listing of compositions exemplifying this form and a detailed description of one of them. The piece should be model example of the form you are describing. (If possible, it could be for your instrument/voice or even one that you have played or are playing.) Finally, in addition to the paper itself, you will prepare a 1-page handout on this form to distribute to the other members of the class. There is no required length. It needs to be long enough to get the job done. There are LOTS of details below. They are not meant to overwhelm you, but rather to give you guidance in writing this paper. I suggest you continue reading.

 

DEADLINES:

      3 June: typed bibliography with your four primary sources

      16 June: 1-page handout distributed to each member of class

      19 June: completed paper (with complete bibliography)

Assignments are due during class. Submissions after class will be considered late. Copies via email will be accepted to meet the deadline, but a subsequent hard copy is required for a final grade. Early submissions of the final paper will be given one percentage point extra credit for each day early (up to one week).

 

FORM:

      Your paper should have a form and a style. Start by giving it its own title. Your paper needs an introduction, a middle, and a conclusion. Don't just start talking about your topic, explain what is going to be in your paper. This web site has helpful information for about writing introductions:

http://www.taft.cc.ca.us/newTC/Academic/LiberalArts/OWL/INTRO.HTML 

The intended reader of your paper should be someone at your level of knowledge and expertise who lives far away from Kalamazoo. In other words, this person has not taken Music 2610 from me, but has taken a similar class. You do not have to define basic technical terms of harmony and form that we have learned in class. You may need to define terms that are more advanced or are perhaps specific to a particular form. You must also define any subjective terms you use. For example, if you describe several passages as containing "harsh chords", you must explain what harsh means in theoretical terms. Your paper should be self-explanatory to anyone who reads it. You should not have to be standing next to the reader to help explain things. You should not address me or make direct references to our class (e.g., "this is similar to the Beethoven piece we talked about last week"). The quality of your presentation and writing style will affect your grade. Write efficiently; make every word count. Examine each sentence to see if the idea it contains can be expressed in a shorter form. Do not apologize for your ideas or qualify them unnecessarily ("it seems to me that..."; "in my opinion..."). Make an argument; build a case for your central ideas; anticipate questions about details and answer them before they are asked. Scrutinize your paper as if a stranger (whom you don't like very much) had written it; pick it apart, probe it for weaknesses. You should ask someone outside of class to read it and critique it for you. Avoid getting lost in generalities; anchor your comments with references to specific measures, themes, harmonies, etc...

 

 

SOURCES:

     Sources should be text books, scholarly books, scholarly articles. There are a couple of books on reserve. Two good places to start are the New Grove's (available in library and online): http://libproxy.library.wmich.edu/login?url=http://www.grovemusic.com/

and the International Index of Music Periodicals:

http://libproxy.library.wmich.edu/login?url=http://iimpft.chadwyck.com

If you need help finding other published sources ask me or a librarian. You may not use a web site unless it is a specific publication by a qualified author. See this link for evaluating web sites:

http://lib.nmsu.edu/instruction/evalcrit.html

 

ON WIKIPEDIA:

Wikipedia and other non-refereed web sites can be used for your general background information, but are NOT acceptable as official sources in your bibliography. If you want to know why, look at these links:

http://apps.carleton.edu/campus/library/for_faculty/faculty_find/wikipedia/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Academic_use

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:General_disclaimer

 

CITATIONS:

All of your sources must be cited in the body of the paper and included in your bibliography. Use a specific citation form (e.g., MLA, Chicago Manual of Style, etc.). The first time you discuss a source, introduce the author and work by name in the body of your text (e.g., In his book Hearing in Time, Justin London states that...). After the first mention, you can just refer to the source by the last name only from then on (e.g., London later describes the use of...). Any and all specific ideas or quotations from a source need to be credited with a footnote (or endnote) that includes the page number. It is not O.K. to paraphrase for an entire paragraph and just put a general footnote at the end of the paragraph. Following are links with information for citations and references:

 

Citing music sources in a paper:

http://www.lib.uwo.ca/music/citemus.html

 

Style Guides:

http://www.wmich.edu/library/guides/find/styleguides.php

http://www.kzoo.edu/is/library/reference/guides/citations.html

 

 

MUSICAL EXAMPLES

 

You may need to include some musical examples in the body of the paper to illustrate specific points. Do not simply photocopy the entire piece and staple it to the end of the paper. You do not need a musical example for every measure number discussed: in some cases, a verbal description is adequate. Use a musical excerpt to provide a concrete example of a technique that occurs in several places, or when you are making a specific point about the music which needs a visual aid. Include only as much in the example as is necessary. Each example must be introduced at the appropriate place in the text (see Example 3).

 

 

Example 3. Irregular resolution to C major ("Der Doppelganger", mm.59-62).5

 

Each excerpt must contain a label with a brief descriptive title. Each excerpt must contain all pertinent information to make it understandable (e.g., clefs, instruments, tempo, measure numbers, etc...) and should be referenced by a citation. Each excerpt must be followed by a detailed discussion leading the reader through the pertinent points. Do not assume your reader will know why you chose a particular example, or what specifically they are supposed to look at in the example. They do not speak for themselves, you must do it. While the examples will appear in the middle of your text, they should not be counted when determining the length of the paper.

 

 

Additional information:

 

On Plagiarism:

http://www.atis.wmich.edu/faculty/turnitin/plagiarism-what-to-know.html

 

Here are some websites with tips for writing:

http://www.wmich.edu/mus-theo/nsl.html

http://www.geocities.com/CollegePark/1150/writing.html

http://www.lclark.edu/dept/history/tips.html

 

 

 

 


WMU HELP FINE_ARTS MUSIC


School of Music, Western Michigan University,
Kalamazoo, MI 49008-3831
code(at)wmich.edu
http://www.wmich.edu/mus-theo/courses/m261.html
Revised: 7 Jan 2008