[Smt-talk] Core music theory courses for undergraduates

[MICHAEL KLEIN]

Dear Colleagues,

Responding to Anna's request (which, I'm guessing, is of interest to all of
us).

Temple's theory sequence (for all music majors) consists of 4 semesters:
diatonic theory, chromatic theory, form, and post-tonal theory. Each course
is 4 credits and meets 5x a week (M/W/F with a professor, and T/R with a
graduate student). We try to do both written AND aural work in each
session, but the reality of the situation is that aural work (sadly) often
gets pushed to the Tuesday/Thursday sessions with our grad students.

Keyboard Harmony is taught as a separate class -- though not all of the
music majors are required to take the course.

Our system is not optimal, but it is the best we can do under our many
constraints, which include (but are not limited to):

1. A credit-heavy GenEd course-load, required of all Temple students (we're
not a conservatory, so we don't have that many credits to devote to music
courses).

2. A large number of students in a music-ed curriculum, which includes many
state-mandated courses that squeeze out music courses.

In short, we only have 16 credits to play with for theory. Having said
that, we do have music majors outside of music-ed who take several
additional theory courses.

On a personal note: when I think of the many theory courses that I took as
an undergraduate at Eastman (courses that gave me a solid foundation in
music theory), I feel a sense of frustration that so many institutional
barriers prevent me from devoting the time necessary to train our music
majors with the same attention to detail that I enjoyed as a student. I am
reminded of Foucault's notion of power relations, which are decentralized
in institutions. That is, it is not as easy as one might hope to find a
"person in power," whom we can hold responsible for the situations we face.
Often, the power we need to address is really an assemblage of different
constituencies, all of which (whom) have their priorities; priorities that
can be at cross purposes.

--Michael


On Wed, May 21, 2014 at 8:44 AM, Anna Gawboy <gawboy.2 at osu.edu> wrote:

> Dear colleagues,
>
> My institution has recently begun to contemplate a revision of the entire
> undergraduate curriculum. I'm curious how much time other schools devote to
> core theory (i.e., those courses required of all undergraduate music
> majors) and the basic format for their delivery.
>
> Are theory and aural skills integrated or taught in separate classes? Are
> keyboard skills included or taught separately?
>
> How many semesters/quarters of theory are required?
>
> How many credit hours are assigned to each class, and how much time does
> each class meet per week?
>
> Many thanks in advance,
> Anna Gawboy
>
> --
> [image: The Ohio State University]
> Dr. Anna Gawboy Assistant professor of music theory
> Ohio State University School of Music
> 304A Hughes Hall | 1899 College Road Columbus, OH 43210-1234
> 614-292-2044 Office
> gawboy.2 at osu.edu osu.edu
>
>
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-- 
Michael Klein
Chair, Department of Music Studies
Professor of Music Studies
Temple University
Boyer College of Music and Dance
316 Presser Hall
michael.klein at temple.edu

http://www.youtube.com/user/MLKPianist

*Intertextuality in Western Art Music*:
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*Music and Narrative since 1900*:
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"Denn alles Fleisch ist wie Gras. . ."
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