Faculty: Andrew Glendening, Department of Music
Librarian: Kevin Furniss, Cataloging/Systems Support; Earl Griffith, Head of Collection Development
Description of the nature of the project with emphasis on how information literacy will be incorporated into the curriculum
Music 201: Music History is a core course required of all music majors and minors that serves as a survey of Western Classical Music and an introduction to musicological research and methodology. Music 201 currently seeks to introduce students to four paradigms of research (Classical, Positivist, Formal/Structural, and Reception Theory) and the requisite resources to conduct such inquiries.
Research in music history is complicated by the fact the many of the resources are not available on-line, may be in a foreign language and/or may be highly specific to an individual genre or composer. Success in music research frequently involves using multiple resources, which probably will include a mixture of on-line and text sources, in sequence.
Working with Kevin Furniss and Earl Griffith, this project will redesign the course and to develop resources to help students achieve a functional level of literacy in musicological research. The plan is to start with an introduction to music research tools and then to parallel the study of the four paradigms with information literacy modules/research projects. Earl and Kevin will then be involved in the teaching of the literacy units and "mentoring" students on their research.
| Method | Approach | Resources |
|---|---|---|
| Classical | How does this work compare to an affirmed classic? | urtext editions |
| Positivist | What are the factual details of the work? Who, what, when... | primary sources: letters, manuscripts, sketches, etc. |
| Formal/Structural | What are the internal details of a work? | Journal articles, festchrifts, theoretical analysis, dissertations, etc. |
| Reception Theory | How does the critical reception of a work change over time? | Reviews, biographies, textbooks, articles, etc. |
In addition to simply finding materials, we need to develop ways to help students recognize the validity of the sources. What are the limits of on-line searches? (or Why isn't a Google search enough?) Is this material academically viable?
Another part of the project is to create examples of good writing/research for each paradigm that can be "reverse engineered" to show what is good research and how does that relate to good writing. As an example, we might "reverse" an excerpt from Jaques Barzun's Berlioz to uncover the research required and the paths to take to find and sort out such materials.
Time line for course development and implementation
Most of the work would take place in the summer of 2002. The new materials would be used for the first time in the Fall semester of 2002.
Estimate of the amount of faculty time that will be needed to complete the project
I anticipate working several days a week over the summer to search out sources, create modules and guides. The work will need to continue through the fall semester of 2002, when the course is next offered.