Mu.& in education
courses which may be concentrated on certain periods such as
Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, or on certain composers, e.g. Bach,
Beethoven, or on certain forms or media, e.g. opera, symphony,
chamber music.
- Private instr.z&on in ‘applied’ mtrsic. Many colleges provide opportu-
nities for instruction in piano, voice, organ, and string and wood
instruments, and this instruction is usually available to general stu-
dents as well as to music majors.
- Perfrmance in college mtlsical organixations. There are many opportu-
nities for taking part in various college musical organizations, parti-
cularly choral groups, but also in orchestras, bands, chamber groups,
and even in opera where schools (usually the large universities)
carry on such activities.
- Opportmities for hearing mztsic. Nearly all American colleges and uni-
versities have organized concert series by professional concert ar-
tists, also faculty and student recitals, record listening rooms and
record lending libraries.
Returning now to the course which in most cases will be the only
organized study of music in college taken by the average American
student, I should like to describe the aims and methods of the course
I referred to previously as approaching the subject from the standpoint
of the history and literature of music.
This is carried on with a mixture of music majors and general stu-
dents, the latter usually representing the great majority of the class,
and music is not treated as an isolated phenomenon, but in its relation
to life; i.e., emphasis is placed upon the humanistic rather than the
technical aspect of the art, although the latter is not neglected. Music
is presented as one of man’s various manifestations of spiritual and
artistic expression, and is considered in the intellectual framework of
any epoch that is being studied. The course is confined to Western
music, and is taken up chronologically, usually beginning with Grego-
rian chant and other medieval monophonic music, and continuing
through the period of early polyphony, the Ars Nova, the Renaissance,
Baroque, Classical, Romantic and Modern epochs. In each style-period,
representative compositions in various media are presented, ideas are
deduced from hearing them, and there is an elucidation and discussion
of these ideas.
For example, the performance of an organum of Perotin will give
rise to a discussion of the Notre Dame school of the twelfth and
thirteenth centuries, the place and function of the organum in the
church liturgy, Perotin’s use of Gregorian cantus firmus, the rhythmic
