Music Appreciation Online
Textbook: Jan Swafford, The Vintage Guide to Classical Music (New York: Vintage Books, 1992). ISBN:
978-0-679-72805-4. This book is available at the Cameron University Bookstore and through a wide
variety of book stores and online retailers. Additional online lecture content is embedded throughout
the course. Assigned textbook reading is preceded by a symbol. The textbook also contains a glossary
of basic terminology for the course (pp. 539-58).
What This Course Is About: This course is about what is often called “classical music.” This is the term
that is usually affixed to the nearly 2,000 year musical tradition in Western Civilization. It is a musical tradition that stretches back to the chant of the early Christian church in the Middle Ages (though
many of the ideas and concepts in Western classical music evolved even earlier in Greek Antiquity).
The “classical” in classical music refers to music which has withstood the test of time. And while many
other musical systems populate the earth, Western classical music (and its genres and musical tuning
system which were largely settled in the seventeenth century) is the most widely practiced, disseminated and most frequently heard music on earth, from living rooms to enormous concert halls.
Course Requirements: This is a “proceed at your own pace” course comprised of seven units (located
in Course Documents). After completion of the seven units, there is a comprehensive, proctored final
examination (please see the course Announcement “Proctored Examination Information” for details
on making advance arrangements to take the final examination). Students must proceed through the
activities in each unit in sequence, and the entire course (including the proctored final examination)
must be completed by the last day of final exams. N.B. There are no “due dates” in this course (except
for completion of the entire course, including the proctored final examination, by the last day of final
exams for the semester).
Listening: All listening examples for this course are online and embedded in the course in the form of
MP3 files or links to video content. Students should be conversant in downloading and playing MP3
files, and any problems associated with listening to audio content or viewing video content should be
addressed early in the course. Links to MP3 files are preceded by the symbol : depending on the speed
and available bandwidth of your internet connection, it may be possible to stream the audio (left-click).
In other cases (and for large MP3 files) it may be more expedient to download (right-click) and save
the file(s) locally.
Course Activities, Assignments and Examinations: In the folder for each unit (located in Course Documents) is an online “lecture” which incorporates a variety of reading and listening activities. New terms
and concepts in the online lecture appear in this color. Once all the reading and listening has been
completed, there is a link to an examination (comprised of multiple choice and true/false questions) at
the bottom of the page. There is a time limit and two attempts are allowed for each examination. The
final score for each examination is that of the second attempt (not the higher of the two scores). Unit
seven concludes with the writing of an essay. After the completion of all seven units, the student must
make arrangements to take the comprehensive final examination. The comprehensive final examination is open-book, open-note and consists of multiple choice and true/false questions. The final examination will be available for a period of twenty-one (21) days prior to the last day of final examinations or twenty-one (21) days prior to the last day of summer session (click here to view the Cameron
University academic calendar). Students who complete the final examination prior to the first day of
final exams (or the last day of class in the summer session) will receive an “early bird” bonus of twenty
(20) points added to his or her course total.
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Discussion Boards: There are three discussion boards available in this course. “Ask the Professor” can
be used both to post general course questions or find answers to questions that may already have been
posed (please use email to communicate individual issues). A “Course Cafe” can be used for studentto-student communication and interaction. The “Musical Puzzler” usually involves listening to an
unidentified piece of music and trying to correctly answer the questions concerning the puzzler. There
is always some aspect of the puzzler that helps to point in the right direction. Seasonal puzzlers (such
as “Halloween Puzzlers”) will appear from time to time. The first student to correctly solve the puzzler
will win twenty (20) magical points (up to a possible individual course total of 100 points). Students can
subscribe to any of the discussion boards to receive email alerts whenever a post is made.
Grade Calculation: Students in the course are working toward a possible total of 1,000 points. The
multiple choice examinations embedded throughout the course amount to a total of 820, the concluding essay is worth sixty (60) points, and the comprehensive final examination is worth 120 points. At the
conclusion of the course, grades will be assigned as follows: A (900-1000 points); B (800-899 points); C
(700-799 points); D (600-699 points); F (below 600 points).
Early Alert: As encouraged by Cameron University, this course may be using the Early Alert notification
system. Early Alert is a system for identifying students who are having difficulties in a given course. The
goal of the Early Alert system is not to penalize students, but rather to address problems—incomplete
work, attendance, test scores, etc.—they may be experiencing. By addressing these issues early on in the
course, the hope is that students will be able to take the necessary steps to improve their standing.
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