First assignment

Second assignment

Final exam questions   

Final exam instructions: If you are answering the
questions in class, bring a blue book. If you are
not answering them in class at noon on
Wednesday, then answer questions 3 and 5.
Completed answers must be submitted by 2 p.m.
Wednesday. If you send them as an email
attachment, they must be in Microsoft Word
format.

First Essay Exam: The essay is due on Friday, February 22.

You are to write an essay, approximately five pages in length (about 1200 words).

If you do not want to write on one of the following questions, then you are free to choose a topic. If you choose your own topic, you must present and defend a clear thesis, either defending or challenging a central idea presented by Hanslick or Cook. For additional details about my expectations, click here.

Suggested topics:

1. Hanslick's entire book could be summarized by his remark "The artist is inscrutable, but the artwork is not." Explain how the two parts of this remark illustrate his negative and positive theses, then explain the strongest argument that he provides for each of the two theses. Illustrate the essay with musical examples of your own choosing.
   
2. On page 66 of his book, Cook says, "Just try talking about music without falling into metaphor." What is the "underlying, root metaphor" that he assigns to Western music. What conclusion does Cook want to draw from this discussion? Does Hanslick agree or disagree? Illustrate the essay with musical examples of your own choosing.
   
3. In chapter V, Hanslick contrasts hearing music and listening to music. Explain the difference by reference to musical examples of your own choosing. Would Cook agree with Hanslick's distinction? Why or why not?

Second Essay Exam: The essay is due on Friday, April 5.

You are to write an essay, approximately five pages in length (about 1200 words).

If you do not want to write on one of the following questions, then you are free to choose a topic. If you choose your own topic, you must present and defend a clear thesis, either defending or challenging a central idea presented by Gioia or Attali. For additional details about my expectations, click here.

Suggested topics:

1. Gioia's main idea is summarized in his book title. How would you explain his idea that jazz is an imperfect art? What implications does this idea have for our evaluation of a jazz performance? Going beyond Gioia, are there other kinds of music that his thesis would apply to? Illustrate your essay with musical examples of your own choosing.
2. Gioia makes a distinction between neo-classical jazz, modernist jazz, romanticist jazz. What is the distinction and why does he make it? How successfully can you extend the distinction to other types of music? Illustrate your essay with musical examples of your own choosing.
3. Attali's main idea is that music both a mirror and a form of prophecy. Explain this main idea, and then trace its development through the four stages of sacrificing, representing, repeating, and composing. Do you agree that we are not transitioning from repeating to composing? Why or why not? Illustrate your essay with musical examples of your own choosing.
4. What does Attali mean by noise? Does it have more than one meaning? In comparison, what is music? What does he think that the distinction reveals about the centrality of music in human life and human history? Illustrate your essay with musical examples of your own choosing. Finally, evaluate the plausibility of his thesis.

 

 

Final exam questions

Bring a large blue book to the final on Wednesday, May 8 at noon, when you will be told which two questions to answer. You may use books and notes.

OR:

If you are not answering them in a blue book beginning at noon on Wednesday, then answer questions 3 and 5. Completed answers must be submitted by 2 p.m. Wednesday. If you send them as an email attachment, they must be in Microsoft Word format.

1. What are two different objections that are raised against the practice of appropriating a musical style from another culture? What are the major weaknesses of these two objections?
2. Explain the proposal that, in appropriating the music of another culture, aestheticism is a more serious problem than immersion or hybridization. Be sure to explain the differences among the three, and to explain how musical, and how the difference involves the question of how musical styles convey meanings to audiences.
3. What was the most challenging idea about music presented in this course? Explain it, explain why it was challenging, and finally explain why you now agree or disagree with that idea.
4. Explain the idea that both race and gender are contingent cultural constructs. How is this idea illustrated through music? How does music contribute to YOUR OWN racial and gendered identity? How could disinterested listening contribute to changes in a listener's identity?
5. What is the central argument of the documentary Dreamworlds II? How is the same argument developed with respect to popular music apart from the video context? What are some major criticisms of each of these two positions?