COURSE OBJECTIVES

To help you reach your highest potential as an intelligent, ACTIVE listener.

This course is first and foremost about your own intellectual growth and development. You will be given the opportunity to involve yourself personally and emotionally in music that has come to be regarded as among the greatest in the Western classical tradition. Class participation and attention is the most important part of this course. The level of commitment you bring to this course will directly affect your ability to participate in class discussions. It is hoped that you will develop an appreciation for the elusive art of music on a level you have not previously experienced. You should emerge from this course with a clear understanding of the determining style characteristics of periods in music history, and possess the basic tools for further investigation into music of any genre, time period, or mode of expression.

To challenge you to apply your listening skills to music of other cultures.

You will also be asked to confront music (Western and non-Western) outside the canon of accepted works.

Readings will be assigned that stimulate class discussion about aesthetic judgment and its value to a full human life.