Teaching Music Appreciation: A Cultural Approach

Steven Cornelius University of Massachusetts Boston
Mary Natvig Bowling Green State University

Abstract

In this paper, the authors argue that an introduction to music course is a different animal not only from history courses for music majors, but also from more focused topical courses for non-majors. We believe that after taking a music appreciation course students should be equipped with powerful tools to distill fundamental understandings from all of their musical experiences, beginning from the here and now and extending to the there and then, that is, from Beyoncé to Bach.

Author Biographies

Steven Cornelius, University of Massachusetts Boston

Steven Cornelius teaches music at University of Massachusetts Boston. Previous positions include Boston University (2008–12), Bowling Green State University (1991–2008), Bruckner-Konservatorium Linz (adjunct faculty, 1992–97), and University of Wisconsin-Madison (1982, 1984–86), among others. He served from 1996 to 2006 as music and dance critic for The Blade, Toledo, Ohio’s daily newspaper. Research focuses on music and mind, the African Diaspora, the music industry, and American music. Books include Music: A Social Experience (co-authored with Mary Natvig, 2012), Music of the Civil War Era (2004), andThe Music of Santería: Traditional Rhythms of the Batá Drums (co-authored with John Amira, 1991). Articles and reviews have appeared in Latin American Music Review, Ethnomusicology, Twentieth-Century Music, College Music Symposium, and other journals, as well as The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music. Performance credits as a percussionist include Metropolitan Opera, New York City Opera, Opera Orchestra of New York, Radio City Music Hall, Oklahoma Symphony, and Taipei Symphony, among others. PhD, University of California, Los Angeles; MM, Manhattan School of Music; BMEd, University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Mary Natvig, Bowling Green State University

Mary Natvig is a professor of musicology at Bowling Green State University. She has a PhD in musicology with a minor in theory from the Eastman School of Music. Her research areas include the music and culture of the 15th-century, composer Antoine Busnoys, music and liturgy in convents in the Middle Ages and Renaissance, women in music and music history pedagogy. She has presented her research at numerous national and international conferences and has published chapters in books by Oxford University Press and the University of California Press and is the author of Teaching Music History (Ashgate). She performs on modern and Baroque violin and directs the BGSU Early Music Ensemble.

Published

2013-04-04

Issue

Vol 4 No 1: (Fall 2013)

Section

Roundtable

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