response 26 of 39:

Jul 4 00:17 UTC 2001

Re #0:
If you're supposing total naivete on the part of the students, a good initial
unit would probably be one that would introduce the students to the
terminology and techniques of music, just as a beginning art history class
would introduce students to the ideas of subject, composition, technique,
style, etc.  Trying to define "what is music" is always an interesting place
to start.

There are some people who've worked at recreating Ancient Greek music, but
it is of course very speculative.  It's interesting to listen to, though, and
the Greeks are definitely worth discussing because of their great
contributions to music theory (studies of modes, intervals, etc. -- other
ancient civilizations such as the Chinese also made major developments in
theory, but I don't know as much about that.  I think that the Chinese made
some of the same musical discoveries as Pythagoras a few hundred years earlier
than him, actually.  I'm taking a non-Western music history class this
fall, so maybe I'll be able to tell you more later!)

A study of Western music history generally begins around the year 500 AD with
the Romanesque period of Medieval music.  Pretty much what we have from
this era is music created for church services/rituals.  Monophonic, 
conjuct plainchant is what we're talking about here, with Pope Gregory
catagorizing and labeling a great number of them sometime between 590 and
604 AD.  Plainchant itself has its roots in many musical traditions, such
as Jewish musical traditions, responsorial singing at early Christian
gatherings, hymns (some dating back to Assyria), and Eastern Christian
chant known as Byzantine chant.

As for listening examples, there are many CDs of Gregorian chant available;
I can't think of any particular chants that are exemplary and are
"must-listens," (although if I were teaching the class I might want to sneak
the Dies Irae in there because it recurrs so frequently throughout all of
Western music).

I guess that's a place to start.

response 28 of 39:

Jul 4 15:22 UTC 2001

i'd start with the fiddle tune:
"Skunk in a Collard Patch"

response 30 of 39:

Jul 5 00:34 UTC 2001

So, why not "Nail That Catfish to the Tree" or maybe "Smash the Windows"?

response 32 of 39:

Sep 8 16:10 UTC 2001

        Western Music, by Grout, Professor of Music, Cornell 

        I have a copy of that. I *found* it laying in Angell
        Hall 20 years ago. I took one look inside and realized
        I could make great use of it. And I have. If I hear
        something on the radio I need to read about, it's
        excellent for that.

response 34 of 39:

Oct 18 16:26 UTC 2001

Now that my computer at work will play audio cds, I've started reading and
listening.  At least, I've been to the library and checked out some stuff.

response 36 of 39:

Jun 20 23:24 UTC 2003

I'd say you are.  You're leaving out the blues, which is a very, very 
important forerunner to jazz.  Not sure how the blues breaks down, but 
don't forget when Muddy Waters plugged into an amp and changed the 
Delta sound, paving the way for later artists like B.B. King and 
Stevie Ray Vaughn.  You're also leaving out rhythm and blues, which 
formed the roots of rock and roll (which term was coined by DJ Alan 
Freid [sp?])

You shouldn't forget march music, of which Carl King and John Phillip 
Sousa were a part of.  Sousa does not belong in the Eurocentric 
category which you call 'classical,' really.  Sousa and Scott Joplin 
were contemporaries, so march music and ragtime were influenced by the 
other.

I believe George Gershwin was a jazz artist and not a ragtime 
composer.  I'm not sure about Irving Berlin, either.

If you want to break down classical properly, this would be a good bet:
Renaissance
Baroque
Classical
Romantic
Late Romantic (some musicologists classify Debussy as the 
Impressionist anomaly)
20th Century- John Cage, atonalism, minimalism
Remember that Beethoven bridged the Classical and Romantic periods.

Don't forget the evolution of folk music.  Not sure how to break this 
down, but I think the easiest classifications I can think of are
Traditional folk song
Country (Appalachian, hillbilly music)
Western (saddle songs, cattleman's music)
Country & Western (the merge)
There were heavy influences from Celtic music in Country and Western 
genres.

You seem to be breaking down jazz a little bit.  Jazz started out in 
New Orleans, grew up in Chicago, and came of age in New York.
From the blues:
Dixieland
Bigband
Swing
Bebop
Cool
Fusion
Scat
Freeform
Smooth (might get a little debate on this one)

Rock and Roll per se was changed early on.  Alan Fried coined the term 
to get airplay for 'race music,' which it was called at the time.  It 
was strongly influenced by rhythm and blues and many of the white-
faced groups you hear in 50's music were doing covers of tunes 
originally recorded by black artists.  Bill Haley and Earl Perkins (he 
originally did Blue Suede Shoes) were some of the artists responsible 
for mixing Texas swing with rock and roll and the genre has been 
trading licks with country & western genres to this day.  You should 
not forget the Beatles-- although they had a foot in the folk that was 
about in that day (it was changing a lot, thanks to Bob Dylan plugging 
in his guitar)-- I think most musicologists put them in rock and roll 
and are acknowledging the songwriting of McCartney and Lennon.

Rhythm & Blues, soul, and funk are likely the grandchildren of jazz.  
You have some of the history of rhythm & blues (albeit poor), although 
I can't be sure about the other two.  Soul and funk, I'm sure, are in 
the same vein.  James Brown is named in both genres as a pioneer.  As 
far as funk, George Clinton is another large influence.

response 38 of 39:

Jun 26 02:22 UTC 2003

Thank you-- I knew I didn't have that right and I should have just 
done a quick Google search.