General course description

Course title: Musicianship IV
Course number: MUSI 299
Semester: Spring 2013
Course hashtag: #musi299
Meeting time: MWF 9:00am–9:50am and TT 9:30am–10:50am
Meeting location: Whittington Hall, room 109
Professor: Kris Shaffer, Ph.D. (WT 109a)
Course website: http://csutheory.shaffermusic.com/musi299
Online course resources: http://kshaffer.github.com/musicianshipResources

Course sequence overview

The four-semester Musicianship course sequence seeks to lead students to become well-rounded musicians, with a strong foundation in the theory and practice of Western music. Given the fast changing landscape of musical careers, the best training involves mastery of skills with broad applicability, coupled with deep knowledge of a variety of musical genres and experience applying skills and knowledge to new genres. With that in mind, the CSU Musicianship courses seek to lay a solid, broad foundation, and explore several different musical styles in detail.

On the whole, this goal is achieved by bringing students to a deep understanding of music theory and its relationship to musical practice. The CSU Musicianship courses also seek to develop students’ mastery of foundational musical skills relating to listening and performing, and develop students’ ability to think critically and communicate verbally about music, primarily through writing about music and responding to the writings of others. Lastly, students are expected to master the use of both traditional and modern technology (including pencil, paper, and the piano on one hand, and computer- and web-based tools on the other) in their musical activities and grow in their ability to discern the best tools for specific tasks.

These courses make use of what is called standards-based, learning objectives-based, mastery-based, or criterion-referenced assessment. Rather than assigning homework, tests, and quizzes throughout the semester and averaging the grades of that work (with some work weighted more heavily than other work), the CSU Musicianship courses are designed around a list of learning and mastery objectives. When students demonstrate internalization of a particular unit of knowledge or mastery of a particular skill, they receive credit for that objective. Passing each course with final grades of A, B, or C depend on the extent to which students have mastered the course objectives by the end of the semester.

Concepts and skills

The goals for this course are for students to assimilate and apply certain musical concepts, and to master certain musical skills. The concepts we will address are:

• The relationship of text with melody, rhythm, harmony, and form
• Verbal and written communication about music
• The use of technology in the study and practice of music
• Chromatic harmony
• Avant-garde composition

The skills we will seek to develop are:

• Performance of stylistically normative melodies
• Analysis of harmonic structures (by ear and with a score)
• Recognition of stylistically normative structures (by ear)
• Writing about music

Units of study

Musicianship IV will be divided into three units. The first two will take place before spring break, and the third will take place between spring break and the end of the semester. In each unit, students will be expected to attain at least a working knowledge of the concepts and skills addressed in that unit. Following are the topics/assessment criteria for each unit.

Unit I: German art song

• text–music relationships
• harmonic syntax
• melodic performance
• harmonic listening (will extend into Unit II)

Unit II: Listening to chromatic common-practice music & analysis of post-common-practice music

• melodic listening (tonal-chromatic)
• harmonic listening (tonal-chromatic)
• analysis (post-common-practice)

Semester-long

• technology (music notation software, analytical software, Twitter, etc.)
• writing about music (at least one written work per unit)

Assessment

At the beginning of each unit, I will provide a detailed description of the unit’s goals and how mastery of each concept or skill will be defined.

At the end of each unit, there will be a hard deadline, by which all work to be assessed must be submitted (or by which successful performance assessments must be completed). After that deadline, no additional work will be accepted, and my assessment of the work submitted at that point will be final (exception provided below).

The bulk of the assessment in this course will be formative assessment rather than summative assessment. That is, I will check your work and guide you in your progress toward your goals, but not provide grades for each task performed. As students progress through each unit, it is each student’s responsibility to track and manage their own progress through the unit. I will provide regular verbal feedback and period written feedback on each student’s progress in reference to each criterion to help guide student progress.

Final grades

Each unit’s work will be evaluated in reference to each criterion on a four-point scale: mastery (4), working knowledge (3), incomplete understanding (2), poor understanding (1), and no significant attempt made (0).

To receive an A or B in the course, a student must receive a 3 or 4 for every criterion. To receive a C in the course, a student may receive a 2 on up to two of the criteria, but must receive a 3 or 4 on all the others.

No late submissions or assessments will be allowed after unit deadlines, with the following exception: each student will be allowed to submit work post-deadline for one criterion from unit I. This will be a one-shot deal—no continuous resubmitting. I want to provide you a balance of structure and freedom, and I hope this will be a helpful balance to keep everyone on task, but without a final-grade penalty for mastering something later than other students.

Course materials

Required

• A public Twitter account. (It can be your personal account, or a second account dedicated solely to this class.)
• Laitz, Steven. The Complete Musician, 3rd ed. ISBN-13: 978-0-1-9974278-3.
• Turabian, Kate, et al. A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations, 7th ed. ISBN-13: 978-0226823379.
• Karpinski, Gary. Manual for Ear Training and Sight Singing. W.W. Norton, Co. ISBN-13: 978-0-3-9397663-2.
• Karpinski, Gary. Anthology for Sight-Singing. W.W. Norton, Co. ISBN-13: 978-0-3-9397382-2.
• A 1/4” male stereo headphone jack to 1/8” female stereo headphone adapter: something like this or this.

Recommended, but not required

• Ammer, Christine. The A to Z of Foreign Musical Terms. 978-0-9-1131815-9.

Attendance

Any student who is more than 10 minutes late for a class meeting will be counted absent for that meeting.

At times, I will assign “entry tickets”—brief assignments that must be completed before a class meeting. These assignments will be very short, and are intended to ensure that students come to class ready for the day’s activity. Since not completing this assignment will render a student unable to contribute to and/or benefit from the activities of that class meeting, failure to complete the entry ticket will result in an absence for that class meeting.

In general, there are not excused or unexcused absences in this class. Any material covered or assignment given during class is the responsibility of every student, regardless of attendance or reason, and there are no make-ups for in-class evaluations. However, students with a note from a doctor or a dean will be allowed to make up missed work, as necessary. Students who miss class for university functions planned in advance are expected to make up missed work in advance. In exceptional circumstances, other arrangements may be made at the discretion of the instructor. In all cases, if a student knows beforehand that they will be absent or late for any reason, it is that student’s responsibility to find out what work will need to be made up before the absence.

In accordance with CSU’s Academic Integrity Policy (see 2012–2013 Student Handbook for complete policy), any student who is absent for 25% of the class meetings will be dropped from the course and will receive a grade of FA (Failure for Absences). All absences count toward the 25%, including excused absences and absences resulting from officially approved travel or events (sports, athletic bands, off-campus performances, etc.).

Academic honesty

Group study is a significant component of this class. However, all assignments for individual assessment—unless I announce otherwise—are to be completed by individuals, and are to be the original work of those individuals. It is fine for classmates to check each other’s work for errors, train each other’s ears, and discuss potential solutions to sticky musical situations with one another; however copying, working off of another’s work, or producing a “joint solution” are unacceptable unless explicitly stated otherwise. The instructor reserves the right to assign a grade of zero to any assignment that is completed dishonestly, fail the student for the course, and/or proceed with completion of the university Academic Violation Form. (See 2012–2013 Student Handbook for complete Academic Integrity Policy.)