Birmingham-Southern College
MU 322: Music History II
Spring Term, 2009
Professor:
James H. Cook/jhcook@bsc.edu
Office: Hill 40
Telephone: 220-4968
Textbooks
Burkholder, J. Peter, Donald Jay Grout, and Claude Palisca. A History of Western Music. Seventh
ed. (New York, W. W. Norton, 2005).
Palisca, Claude, Editor. Norton Anthology of Western Music, Volume II. Fifth ed. (New York, W. W.
Norton, 2005).
The recordings that accompany the Anthology are required and available in the bookstore in CD
format. An on-line subscription is also available at slightly lower cost. If you prefer the download
option, don't bother to purchase the CDs.
The publisher's web site has several features you will want to use, chief among them the on-line
tutor. Point your browser to wwnorton.com and follow the College Books link to books on music, or
use this URL to go directly to the “Grout” home page:
http://www.wwnorton.com/college/music/grout7/home.htm
Scope and Goals
The course is a survey of the history of Western Music from the emergence of the so-called “Classic”
style of the early eighteenth century through the present day. Emphasis will be placed on
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the facts of historical development in musical style,
surviving sources and witnesses to that development,
geographical, societal and cultural influences producing discrete musical styles,
changes in performance practice during the periods covered,
the origin and development of different genres of music,
and individual composers who contributed either to the development of styles or to the body of
surviving literature.
There are several goals I have for you this term, and there are also some reasons I think this is an
important class for each of you.
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First, the acquisition of knowledge is a fundamental pursuit of the liberally-educated individual.
That's the very basis of the academic life you lead today. Go learn something you don’t already
know.
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From Antiquity through the present day, it has been a basic tenet of writers on music that the
true musician knows his subject. I want you to be just a little bit better than Snoopy, who simply
swooned and cried, “Ah, Chopin!”
Go learn something you don’t already know.
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Studying the history of the music of your own culture is part of the process of gaining knowledge
about the very substance that musicians work with on a day to day basis. You're a musician.
Everything you can possibly learn about music is important. Go learn something you don’t
already know.
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Of course, we realize that music is an ephemeral artistic product; it exists not as marks on a
page, which we can study at our leisure, but as sounds which have but a short life and then
disappear. In contrast to the music studied in Music History I, the works we'll cover this term are
more thoroughly documented. We have many more original documents, both scores and
descriptions, of music by Mozart, Beethoven, Wagner, Schoenberg and Stravinsky than we can
ever hope to uncover of music by Perotin, Machaut, Dufay, Palestrina or J. S. Bach. For about
a third of the material we'll cover this term, we even have recordings either made or approved by
the composer. Go read about this music, think about it, listen to it — and learn something new.
Summing it all up, the goal is to learn all you can about music from the designated time period. We'll
cover about 2000 years of music from the civilizations of Ancient Greece and Rome through the
Western European descendants in the middle of the eighteenth century. Your goal is to learn all you
can about it, to listen to as much of it as you possibly can, and to remember it all. Clear?
Objectives
If you do all that is asked of you in this class, making an honest effort to know the music, at the end of
the term, you should
 be able to speak knowledgably about the way music and society interacted in the period from ca.
1720 through the late twentieth century.
 be able to cite the major steps in the development of western European musical style during that
time period,
 be able to see or hear a piece of music from this time period and know from its style when it was
written, what genre of composition it is, and what its intended function was (i.e., why it was written),
 and know the major contributors to both the development of style and the surviving body of
literature.
If you keep these objectives in mind, it should help you organize the huge amount of information you'll
be expected to learn this term.
Setting priorities should be the first step in your daily study and work for this class.
Assignments
I will post daily reading and listening assignments on Blackboard. PLEASE REMEMBER THAT YOU ARE
TO READ THE ASSIGNMENTS AND LISTEN TO THE MUSIC LISTED BEFORE YOU COME TO CLASS.
In fact, if you look closely below, you'll see that being prepared on a daily basis will have a positive effect on
your grade.
You will be required to attend a listening lab each week. Three meeting times will be offered each week,
and the content will be the same in all three. You must attend one lab session each week, but you are free
to choose the one that suits your scuedule best.
You will be responsible for learning to recognize many of the assigned pieces when you hear them.
Individual assignments will clearly identify which works are possible candidates for aural ID quizzes and
which are not.
You need to be prepared in each class to give an evaluation of the recorded performances you have
listened to in preparing for class. I will expect you to assess the degree to which the spots on the page have
been accurately and artistically converted to sounds. Your evaluations will then form the basis for the first
discussion in each class meeting.
In addition to listening to music and preparing for the quizzes, you'll be expected to do some writing each
week. Don't be afraid, just do it.
Class Protocol
I expect each of you to
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Attend each class – on time. A short "pop quiz" will be given at the beginning of each class
meeting. Your daily attendance and participation grade will depend in large part on your preparation
for these daily opportunities to show what you know from the readings.
Read the assigned material before each class meeting.
Listen to assigned material before each class meeting.
Prepare questions about difficult to understand material and seek clarification at the beginning of
each class meeting.
Turn off cell phones and other electronic devices (except laptop computers for taking notes) before
class begins. If your phone rings during class, I'll confiscate it and hold it for ransom.
Bring the anthology to each class.
Notify me of any special needs or accommodations before the first quiz.
Make arrangements to make up work before missing a class because of conflicts with other classes
or college activities.
Learn to recognize and identify aurally all listening assignments.
Submit all written assignments on or before the date they are due.
Meeting all of these expectations is the first step toward success in this class.
Quizzes, papers and exams
As pointed out above, each class meeting will begin with a short quiz that covers the assigned material
for the day. These quizzes have a dual purpose:
 to give you some credit toward your grade for actually doing an assignment on time,
 and to goad you into absorbing the background information you will have to have in order to
benefit as much as possible from class discussions.
You will receive full credit for attending and participating in the class if you do well on the quiz and stay
for the entire period.
If you do not do well, or if you do not attend the entire class, you will not receive full credit for
participating in the class.
There will be six short quizzes during the term, listed on the calendar for the class. Most of these quizzes
will have a substantial aural ID component, and all will have a significant “take-home” component.
Information from the textbook, from class discussions and lectures, and from the listening labs may be
included on the quizzes.
There will be a mid-term exam. It's on the schedule well after mid-term grades are due, but it falls in just the
right place so far as the subject matter is concerned. Because of the schedule, your mid-term evaluation will
not include your grade on this exam, but your final grade for the course will. The format of the exam will be
described in detail in one of your assignments at least one week before the exam is given.
The final examination will be comprehensive, but you will find that it emphasizes material from the latter part
of the course. It will include a variety of opportunities for you to demonstrate what you have learned in the
class, including aural ID, term ID, composer ID, and at least two chances for you to write at length on a
subject.
You will be required to write two relatively short papers, details of which will be given to you two weeks
before each one is due. One will be due in the first half of the term, one in the final two weeks of classes.
Grades
Attendance and class preparation 20%
Weekly labs 8%
Daily assignments 20%
Short quizzes 12%
First paper 5%
Second paper 5%
Mid-Term Exam 10%
Final Exam 20%
I hope you know that I do not give grades — you earn them. In general, if you do everything asked of you in
this course, meeting each deadline on time and completing each assignment, and learn the material well
enough to pass the tests, you will have done satisfactory work and will receive a grade of “C.” Work of very
good or distinctive quality will earn a higher grade, and failure to complete everything on time or work of
unsatisfactory quality will earn a lower one.
I wish you well. Come talk to me if you run into trouble in this class. You all know where to find me.