Perspectives on the Liberal Arts and Sciences: Course Proposal Narrative
General Education Advisory Committee
Queens College, City University of New York
Course Title: Music Appreciation
Primary Contact Name and Email: Edward Smaldone
Date course was approved by department: June 1, 2008
Justification
Please describe how the course will address criteria for Perspectives on the Liberal Arts and Sciences courses.
Be sure to include an explanation of the course’s specific learning goals for students to make a connection between these
and the general criteria for Perspectives courses.
Music Appreciation is a course designed to introduce students to the abstract components common to all musical
genres and styles. These are the basic elements of music: Melody, harmony, rhythm, texture, timbre, form, genre,
etc. Once these basic concepts have been explored, students are introduced to a wide variety of genres and styles,
placing each in historical and cultural perspective. This often includes references and comparisons to works from
other liberal arts disciplines including literature, poetry, theater, the visual arts, etc. Primarily (because of our
Western European Heritage) the musical examples studied tend to be from Western Europe from about the 7th or 8th
Centuries up to the present, though the course typically also introduces and compares these examples with music
from non-Western Cultures (Africa, China, India, etc.) as well as indigenous folk and art forms developed within the
United States (Popular music and Jazz). The basic tools of inquiry (aural analysis of abstract musical constructions)
are thus applied to a broad range of styles. In addition, the particular characteristics of each style are considered
within the cultural, economic, social, political and religious framework from which each artistic example arises.
Thus the course clearly supports the goals of Criteria #1 and 2. All three context of experience criteria are also met:
European traditions constitute the bulk of the sources studied; students typically address developments in the US
(both in terms of the development of Classical Music within the United State, e.g. – the music of Leonard Bernstein –
and the development of Jazz as a hybrid form of Western European and non-European influences; World Cultures are
also explored. In addition, most of criteria 4 – 8 are addressed to varying degrees;
4 – students explore the role of music in cultures throughout the world.
6 - students actively apply their developing analytical skills to recorded and live performances of music and write
reports quantifying their experience.
7 – Discover how musical genres develop over time and in reaction to changing cultural conditions
8 – Students explore the primary documents in the form of the compositions.
May 2008
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Criteria Checklist
Please be sure that your justification addresses all three criteria 1-3, below. For criteria 4-8, please check all that apply
and discuss these in your justification.
A Perspectives course must:
1. Be designed to introduce students
to how a particular discipline creates
knowledge and understanding.
2. Position the discipline(s) within
the liberal arts and the larger society.
3. Address the goals defined for the
particular Area(s) of Knowledge the
course is designed to fulfill.
May 2008
In addition, a Perspectives course will, where appropriate to its
discipline(s) and subject matter:
X 4. Be global or comparative in approach.
5. Consider diversity and the nature and construction of forms
of difference.
X 6. Engage students in active inquiry.
X 7. Reveal the existence and importance of change over time.
X 8. Use primary documents and materials.
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Course Materials, Assignments, and Activities
Please provide an annotated list of course readings and descriptions of major assignments or exams for the course, as well
as distinctive student activities that will engage students in working toward the course goals discussed in the course
description and/or justification.
Please include the author and title for each reading or text, along with a short description providing information about how
the reading will contribute to course goals.
The Enjoyment of Music, by Kristine Forney and Joseph Machlis, WW Norton, 2007
Music, An Appreciation, by Roger Kamien, McGraw Hill, 2008
These two texts (and others similarly designed) cover all of the necessary reading assignments for the
proposed course. These readings include detailed explorations of technical content (elements of music),
historical perspective, cultural context and musical examples (CD recordings) for all topics. Examples of
primary non-musical source materials (copies of letters and other primary documents) are also contained
within these texts. In addition, students typically attend a number of live concert performances and write a
concert report analyzing the experience; students listen to musical examples in class while engaging in realtime analytic techniques (identifying features such as form, instrumentation, meter, harmony, etc.); exams
include listening questions which require knowledge of style and content; some sections require a research
paper.
Assessment
Perspectives courses must be recertified every five years, and we are seeking ideas for how to best carry out this
assessment. What forms of evidence that the course is meeting its goals as a Perspectives course would be appropriate to
collect for this course during the next five years? How would you prefer assessment to be conducted? How might
evidence of effective teaching and student learning be collected and evaluated?
Assessments can be achieved by collecting samples of student concert reports and written reactions
engaged near the end of the course experience. Students’ ability to synthesize and pull together the various
strands of inquiry that constitute the bulk of the course material will demonstrate an effective introduction
to the cultural role of music. What often changes most, for the student, is the ability to hear more than just
music, when listening to music. An informed student recognizes the specific materials of an individual
musical example at the same time he/she hears the resonance of culture and history. The ability to identify
the salient features of a particular musical example as well as articulate how it compares with other similar
and disparate examples is a desirable goal that is typically achieved in this course.
Administration
What process will your department develop to oversee this course, suggest and approve changes, and conduct assessment?
Who will be in charge of this process? Also indicate whether the course will be primarily taught by full-time or adjunct
faculty, or by a combination of the two types of instructor.
This course is taught by adjuncts and full-time faculty. Faculty are generally given the freedom to use
whatever text they prefer, and to freely choose specific musical examples to illustrate and explore the
concepts of the course. Text choices and syllabi are reviewed regularly to see that the comprehensive
nature of the course objectives is appropriately addressed. The Chairman (and/or the P&B and/or the
School of Music Curriculum Committee) would regularly review materials.
May 2008
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