Course Evaluation: MUSC 120

Today I wrote my first university exam for MUSC 105! I think it went okay, and now I just have three more to go! Woo!

Anyway, in the spirit of more course evaluations, today I will be doing a review for MUSC 120 (History of Music I).

Course Description: Pretty self-explanatory, you learn about the history of music. Western music, that is. You go from about the year 300 AD or so to 1600 AD, covering topics from Gregorian Chant to Renaissance instrumental music.  It might sound like a snore-fest to some people from the sounds of that, but it was actually really interesting and the music is really great!

Textbook use: This course requires two textbooks, Norton Anthology of Western Music Vol. 1 (and the accompanying CDs) and A History of Western Music (Burkholder). The Anthology is full of musical excerpts that are often referenced in class. The Burkholder textbook has readings for each lecture in it, but it’s just to reinforce the lectures in more detail. Honestly, you could probably get away with not using the books for this course, but I found it useful for my studying to have the textbook and Anthology.

Homework: This class doesn’t have much in the way of homework except for a research paper due some time in November, plus the topic proposal and bibliography for it due in late October.  There is a ten-question quiz every week, with all the questions being multiple choice.  If you just review your notes before the quiz they really aren’t very difficult.

Professor: Professor Fischer is a great prof.  He is extremely knowledgable and passionate about the course material, moves at a good pace, speaks clearly, and communicates the subject matter very well.  He also really takes an interest in how his students are doing and is clear about you do and do not need to know for quizzes and exams. He even extended the due date of our research paper because he decided we didn’t have enough time with the original date!

Class format: Two lectures per week with a quiz every week on the previous week’s lectures. Makes use of powerpoint and audio clips in conjunction with the anthology. Class size is the largest one I have, about 120 or so. There is a course centre each week which is basically an extended office hours which you are not required to attend but are an easy way to ask the professor a question.

Additional comments: This is the first of four core history courses required to complete the B.Mus. A lot of people said they fell asleep because of the comfortable recital hall chairs, but I thought it was a really interesting course!