Welcome To Music 101

Introduction to MusicBurlington County College

Section 171 – Online

John Peter Holly, Instructor

What is this course about?

This course is about development

of music in western civilization

from its beginnings in Europe

in the Middles Ages up through

the 20th century in America

and around the world.

Topics in the course

will include:

Classical Music

Jazz

Film Music

The American Musical Theatre

In this course, you will learn about

the periods of Western Musical

History and listen to examples

of music from each period.

Music of both European and

American composers will be

surveyed, along with some music of

non-Western traditions.

You will also be learning

about the great composers

from each period of music,

and you will become familiar

with some of the important works

they composed.

You will also be learning

about some of the

musical forms, such as

Sonatas, Symphonies,

Concertos and Tone Poems

that composers used

in the different periods of

classical music.

By the time the course is complete,

you will know the periods

of musical history in Western culture

and will be able to identify musical

examples from each period.

You will be expected to do

weekly assignments that will take

place online in BCC’s online course

management system,

Blackboard Learn 9.1.

Listening Log:

You should also keep a listening log in a notebook of the musical samples

that you listen to. Whenever you listen to a musical example, sound

file or video performance, write down the name of the composer and the

complete name of the work. You can also make any notes about the the

music in your listening log.

In this course, you will spend a lot of time listening to different kinds of music.

Some of the music may be appealing to you, or even enjoyable.

Some of the music we listen to may not

immediately be very appealing.

You should try to listen to all of the musical samples in the course

with an open mind and try to learn and absorb

what you can from the experience.

If you have a question about the music, please jot it down while the

music is playing and then post it on a course Discussion Board in

Blackboard, or send it in a message to the Instructor.

Although you will be learning about the periods of musical history,

the names and dates of great composers and many other categories of factual information,

a lot of what you will learn in this class is subjective. In other words,

much of what you will learn in this course will not be factual information.

Most of the music that we experience

in everyday life in commercial and

popular formats has durations

of 3 minutes or less.

In this course, you will develop

skills of attention and focus

that will enable you to experience

and appreciate musical works of

considerably longer duration.

Hopefully, you should find this course to be an interesting, enjoyable

experience, as well as an educational one.

(End)