Music 358, American Music (4 units)

Instructor: Anita M. Hanawalt, Ph.D.

  • Office: ULV Chapel Organ Loft
  • Office Hours: By Appointment.
  • E-Mail: hanawalt@ulv.edu

ULV Catalog Course Description

Presents America's history through its music. Includes colonial period, 19th century, Native American, African American, and 20th century popular and classical music. No music theory or performance background necessary.

Course Goals and Learning Objectives

By the end of the course, participants will have:

  • studied basic musical terms and concepts through exploring examples of outstanding American music.
  • learned to relate music to other arts, such as visual and literary arts.
  • learned perceptive listening techniques for musics of the United States (from the Pacific to the Atlantic coast between Canada and Mexico, and also Hawaii).
  • studied an American composer, musician or musical genre in depth.

Required Text:

America's Musical Landscape w/ 3 audio CDs, 5th Edition, by Jean Ferris, McGraw-Hill, ISBN 0073043877.

Requirements:

Weekly Assignments:

  1. Read the assigned chapter(s) in the text and listen to all related listening examples.
  2. Post your responses to a critical thinking question from the text and related listening example in a one-page Critical Thinking Essay, also responding to a classmate's essay.
  3. Take a short “open book” quiz based on the assigned chapter(s) in the text.

One-Time Assignments:

  1. Post a Class Member Introduction on the Discussion Board. This brief self-introduction will help our class to begin building an online learning community.
  2. Post in the Farewell Forum to thank your classmates for their participation in and contribution to your learning.

Mid-Term and Final:

Mid-Term Webliography:
Construct a Music Webliography (a cyber space version of an annotated bibliography) of 8 website links corresponding to an American Music topic found in the chapters covered during Weeks 1-5. Your topic could be an American composer, musician or musical genre or instrument. Write a brief paragraph (2-3 sentences) describing each link, including also a 2-3 paragraph discussion on how each link relates to the other sites in your chosen group.

Final Term Project
To apply what you have learned in Music 358, combining research and listening, select a specific genre of American music, making a list of questions you would like to explore. Collect background information on this music through library and Internet sources. Watch a recorded performance of this music and also attend a live performance. Write a 3-5 page report based on your research and your observations of the two performances, comparing and contrasting the recorded performance with the live performance.

Assessment:

Term Grades will be determined using the following point system:

Introductions

2

Critical Thinking Essays

36

Quizzes

18

Midterm Webliography

18

Term Project

24

Farewell Forum

2

 

 

Incomplete Grade Policy

To request a grade of Incomplete (INC) in this class, you must complete an INC contract before the end of the term, have participated until the last day to withdraw from the class, and have completed at least 50 points out of 100. Please see the ULV Policy on the grade of INC:
http://www.ulv.edu/catalog/aca_info/grades.phtml.

Grading Scale:

94-100%

A

90-93%

A-

87-89%

B+

84-86%

B

80-83%

B-

77-79%

C+

74-76%

C

70-73%

C-

67-69%

D+

64-66%

D

60-63%

D-

0-59%

F

Academic Honesty:

Academic honesty is required of every student on every assignment completed for this course. Students who break the academic honesty policies as described in the current University of La Verne Catalog will be subject to a possible failing grade on an assignment, in the entire course, or may even be subject to dismissal from the school, depending on severity. If you have questions on academic honesty, please consult the ULV Catalog or contact Dr. Stephen Lesniak, Dean of Regional Campus Administration.