Spring 2008

Home	|	Time Line	|	Listening selections	|	Class schedule	|	Related Links

Tuesday, Thursday 9:45 - 11:00
104 Chambers
3 credits

Instructor: Mark Ballora
ballora@psu.edu

Office: 9 Brumbaugh Hall		Office Hours: Monday and Thursday 1:30 - 3:00 or by appointment		Phone: 863-3386

Electroacoustic: The transformation of energy between the electrical and acoustic domains. Philosophy of Electroacoustic Music: "Anything goes -- or at least anything might go, and we won't know until we try." Colby Leider, "Observations Re: Jon Appleton." Journal SEAMUS 17 (1-2):2-3. What is INART 55? This class will cover the history of music produced from electricity, focusing on the development of musical composition within the contexts of culture and technology. It satisfies three credits of General Education Arts (GA). There is no textbook purchase required for the class. Your guide will be this Web site. Check it -- often. Class sessions will consist of presentations of musical pieces and discussions of these pieces in the historical contexts described on the pages linked from the course schedule. Students will be expected to read the historical material and complete a series of homework assignments that demonstrate an understanding of basic terms. There are two "tracks" students may take. Both tracks require the completion of three tests plus a series of weekly homework assignments and listening journal reports. However, one track will be based primarily on memorization and will involve more extensive testing. The other track will require less memorization and rely less on test scores, but will involve the creation of a research paper on a piece of music that will be submitted in three stages throughout the term. Grades for the class will be assigned as follows: Memorization Track   Paper Track Attendance 5%   Attendance 5% 9 Homework assignments (2% each) 18%   9 Homework assignments (2% each) 18% 9 Listening Journals (3% each) 27%   9 Listening Journals (3% each) 27% 3 in-class tests (10% each) 30%   3 in-class tests (5% each) 15% Final exam 20%   Research paper (submitted in three parts, worth 10%, 10%, and 15%) 35% A minor portion of the grade is based on attendance. Each class, an attendance sheet will be passed out at the beginning of class. Those who have signed it within the first 15 minutes will be counted as present. There is no allowed number of excused absences. Rather, since this is a fairly small part of the grade, missing a few classes will not affect the final class grade. If a student does outstanding work in all other categories, the attendance requirement will not count towards the final grade. Homework assignments will consist primarily of crossword puzzle assignments that are based on the on-line history text pages. One homework assignment will be the creation of a graphic timeline describing a short musical work. Listening Journals will be submitted as hard copy at the beginning of class on the due dates. Electronic submissions will not be accepted. A discussion question will be posted on the course ANGEL pages each week and students will be asked to submit a paragraph in response to it. Homework and Listening Journal assignments are due at the BEGINNING of class, ad HARD COPY, on the posted due dates. While a grace period of 5-10 minutes will be allowed, the work will be collected after this time and work submitted later will be penalized as being late. Late work submitted on the same day will be docked 25%. Work submitted a day late will be docked 50%. Work will not be accepted two days after the posted due date. Please don't make a game of this, people. We're all adults here. Do your homework and turn it in on time. Crossword puzzles will be graded as a simple ratio of correct answers to total number of answers. Other homework assignments will be graded on a three-tiered scale: check-plus = outstanding (100%) check = good/acceptable (95%) check-minus = could use more work (85%) The idea is that those who have difficulty with the homework won't sink their grades over these assignments - if you have difficulty you can expect a grade of B for this portion of the class grade. The tests will be in two parts. The first will be a listening component, where students will be asked to identify the composer and title of the listening items for that particular test, as identified on the Listening List page. The second will be vocabulary and terminology, with multiple choice questions asking students to identify correct terms taken from the crossword puzzle assignments. Students opting to write papers will take a shorter version of the in-class tests and will not take a final exam. Students wishing to take the paper option must notify the instructor prior to the first in-class exam. Students completing research papers will submit them in three stages. Click here for a more detailed description of the research paper.

Home	|	Time Line	|	Listening selections	|	Class schedule	|	Related Links