Portland Community College | Portland, Oregon Portland Community College

CCOG for MUS 203 Spring 2024

View archive version »
Course Number:
MUS 203
Course Title:
Introduction to Music and Its Literature
Credit Hours:
3
Lecture Hours:
30
Lecture/Lab Hours:
0
Lab Hours:
0

Course Description

Covers music of the post-Romantic era and the 20th century. Prerequisites/concurrent: (WR 115 or IRW 115) or equivalent placement. Audit available.

Addendum to Course Description

Materials will be presented in a lecture/multi-media/discussion format.  Use of extensive multi media educational methods will be used to enhance lectures.  These methods include:  CD audio, CD ROM, Laser Disc, DVD, Midi, and computer presentations featuring music software.

Intended Outcomes for the course

Upon successful completion students should be able to:

Communicate effectively with musicians and nonmusicians on the historic development of the western music tradition.
Persuasively convey how the western music tradition represents a diversity of forms of music expression, cultural norms, social-political hierarchy, and religious ogma.
Educate others about how remarkable individual usical accomplishments have impacted the cultural, religious, artistic, and musical traditions of their time, and still bear influence today.
Perform and create music employing the period and stylistic characteristics of the post-romantic and 20th century western music tradition.
Advocate before political, educational, and community member organizations about the intrinsic value and importance of music in education.

Outcome Assessment Strategies

Criteria for grading and evaluating student progress will be distributed at the beginning of the term.  Individual instructors will select assessment methods, that may include:

Qualitative examinations
Quantitative examinations
Aural examinations
Homework assignments
Class and group participation

Course Content (Themes, Concepts, Issues and Skills)

  • The Early 20th Century in the Arts
  • Post Romanticism
  • The Impressionist Era
  • Main elements in Early 20th Century Music
  • The Music of Igor Stravinsky
  • The Serial Technique of Schoenberg, Berg, and Webern
  • 20th Century Nationalism
  • Early American Music:  Ives, Gershwin and Copland
  • Blues and Early Jazz Styles
  • The American Musical Theater
  • Rock and the Global Scene
  • New Directions and Composers
  • Technology and Music

Competencies/Skills

  • Recognize and describe essential musical forms of the period
  • Understand and assess the importance of historical developments in the arts of the period
  • Understand and assess the major musical developments between the early 20th century and the late 20th century
  • Apply knowledge of the representative composers lives, historical significance, and style characteristics to analysis and criticism
  • Analyze the changes in musical development
  • Assess American and other influences in blues, jazz, and rock music and analyze the place of these influences in the development of music
  • Assess the influence of global music in today's society
  • Demonstrate increased knowledge of technological improvements in equipment used to compose, play, and/or record music
  • Develop and use musical terminology