COURSE REQUIREMENTS

Music 42, Dr. Beckford, Spring, 2004

Required Texts
Grout, Donald J. and Claude Palisca. A History of Western Music, 6th edition. New York: W. W. Norton, 2001.

Palisca, Claude, ed. Norton Anthology of Western Music, Vol. 2, 4th edition. New York: W. W. Norton, 2001.

Weiss, Piero and Richard Taruskin. Music in the Western World: A History in Documents. New York: Schirmer Books, 1984.

Optional Recordings
Palisca, Claude, ed. Norton Recorded Anthology of Western Music, Vol. 2, 4th edition. New York: W. W. Norton, 2001.

Optional Style Manual (for term papers)
Bellman, Jonathan.  A Short Guide to Writing About Music.  New York:  Longman, 2000.  (Available at the bookstore in the trade book section)

Reading Assignments
Assume that anything in the text is fair game on an exam. So please read the text thoroughly before it is discussed in class. This is not only the most efficient road toward understanding what you have read, it also permits you to participate in discussion. Emphasize the topics selected in class. Readings from the Weiss-Taruskin text will be assigned throughout the term. This text will offer historical documents which give contemporary insights into your material.

Listening Assignments
Listen to all recorded examples in the anthology before, during and after reading about their significance. Some works will be selected for "Listening for Identification" in which you must be familiar enough with the work to identify it from a short excerpt played in class. For a more thorough understanding and appreciation of the music, follow the printed music as you listen to the recording. This will also prepare you for score identification in which you must recognize composers' styles from excerpts of printed music.

Term Paper
All students will write a paper on a topic related to the material studied in this course. The topic must be approved by the instructor, an outline and bibliography must be submitted on the assigned date, and the completed paper turned in on the date due to avoid a lowering of your grade. The paper is to be ten to twelve pages of text, typed (word processed), double-spaced, with citations and bibliography. Further details will be given later in the course.

Grades and Tests
Grades will be computed as follows:

Three one-hour Exams (100 pts. each) 300 pts.

Final Exam 200 pts.

Term Paper 100 pts.

Seven Quizzes (10 pts. each) 70 pts.

Term Paper Outline 20 pts.

Special Project (to be announced) 10 pts.

TOTAL 700 pts.

Grades will be based on 10% graduate divisions of the exam, quiz, etc. scores. For example, an Exam grading scale would be 100-91=A; 90-81=B; 80-71=C; 70-61=D; 60-0=F. Final Grades will computed as follows: 700-631=A; 630-561=B; 560-491=C; 490-421=D; 420-0=F.

Attendance
The guidelines for attendance as published in the 2003-04 Furman University Catalog (p. 45) are adhered to in this course: "A student who has earned credit on a minimum of 28 hours will be dropped from a course if absent 25 percent of the class meetings. . . . a grade of F will be recorded unless the absences were due to providential reasons, in which cases a grade of W may be assigned after consultation with the Associate Academic Dean." (p. 46) Good attendance and active participation in class discussions can help a borderline grade.

Persons with Disabilities
If you are a student with disabilities who needs accommodations in your classes, please contact Susan Clark, Coordinator for Disability Services (at 2322) during the first week of this term.

Academic Dishonesty
Please refer to pages 45-46 for information regarding Academic Dishonesty. Such actions will not be tolerated in this class. "If at any time students are uncertain about what constitutes plagiarism or about any other form of academic dishonesty, it is their obligation to consult with their teachers so that they full understand what is expected of them."

Office Hours
Office hours will be announced during the first week of class. Please make arrangements to see the instructor if any aspect of the course is troubling you. Do not wait until the last week of class to try to correct a semester's worth of problems!

Helpful Hints
· Do your listening and readings ahead of time. Don't wait until the night before the exam. Frequent contact with this material will allow the information to reside in your long-term memory.

· Practice "active listening" not "passive." This music will have no meaning if you listen to it while doing your Math 16 assignment.

· Come to class (even if you are not prepared)

· Look ahead, work ahead.

· The key to music history is a knowledge of style -- to be able to identify, define, describe, compare, and explain the reasons for a style. However, dates, places, and people are some of the tools required to build your understanding of historical styles.

· I have a web site that is related to this course. You may find some postings and links that may be helpful to you in this course. The web site address is: http://www.alpha.furman.edu/~jbeckfor/Mus42/muslit.htm