MUSCLG 200A
Introduction to Music Scholarship
Description: Seminar, three hours. Designed for graduate musicology, ethnomusicology, and music students. Introduction to history of different fields of music scholarship (with strong focus on musicology) and to selected debates in those fields. Practical tools for research, logic and structure of arguments, evidence, critical thinking and critique, historiography, rhetoric and voice, and archival and ethnographic research. Introduction to practical written forms such as abstract, grant proposal, paper/book proposal, and review. Letter grading.
Units: 0.0
Units: 0.0
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Most Helpful Review
DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS. I took MUS HIST m137: LGBTQ Perspectives in Pop Music F09. I feel so strongly about this class that it's the first time I've ever posted on Bruinwalk. Sure, the topic seems interesting enough, but there are SEVERAL problems with its format: 1) There is a 50 minute midterm and a final. In order to finish, you absolutely have to take up the entire time; Morris expects you to write extremely fast and jam packs his exams so that you have to. 2) There are THREE 4-6 page papers for this course. Though the prompts may seem fun, they are most definitely not. If you are not LGBTQ you will have a hard time choosing songs to write about from an LGBTQ perspective. Plus, he expects these short papers to be well-written, and because they are shorter it is actually HARDER to fit everything you want to say and still make it a good paper. 3) Furthermore, all the evidence in this course and the reader doesn't seem to help fully illustrate what's going on historically. For the midterm, final and all three papers I had to go to Wikipedia countless times because Morris likes to dibble dabble by naming tons of artists, tons of songs, and elaborates on their significance for maybe two minutes. Basically, he throws a TON of information at you so it's hard to discern what's really going to be on the exams. It forces you to take lots of notes and write down lots of names, so a laptop is a must. 4) The readings sound nice but unlike other courses you take maybe one or two main points from them. There are a ton of readings for this class and discussion is mandatory. You HAVE to go to lecture to do well in this class. The difficulty rating is LOW but the workload is HIGH HIGH HIGH. There are SO Many other classes you can take to qualify for a GE. I did really well (aced everything going into the final) in this class, but I would absolutely NEVER recommend it, it is such a pain. Lecture for 2 hours, 1 hr discussion on Fridays, 3 papers, a midterm AND a long, 3-hour final? NO THANKS. Look somewhere else.
DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS. I took MUS HIST m137: LGBTQ Perspectives in Pop Music F09. I feel so strongly about this class that it's the first time I've ever posted on Bruinwalk. Sure, the topic seems interesting enough, but there are SEVERAL problems with its format: 1) There is a 50 minute midterm and a final. In order to finish, you absolutely have to take up the entire time; Morris expects you to write extremely fast and jam packs his exams so that you have to. 2) There are THREE 4-6 page papers for this course. Though the prompts may seem fun, they are most definitely not. If you are not LGBTQ you will have a hard time choosing songs to write about from an LGBTQ perspective. Plus, he expects these short papers to be well-written, and because they are shorter it is actually HARDER to fit everything you want to say and still make it a good paper. 3) Furthermore, all the evidence in this course and the reader doesn't seem to help fully illustrate what's going on historically. For the midterm, final and all three papers I had to go to Wikipedia countless times because Morris likes to dibble dabble by naming tons of artists, tons of songs, and elaborates on their significance for maybe two minutes. Basically, he throws a TON of information at you so it's hard to discern what's really going to be on the exams. It forces you to take lots of notes and write down lots of names, so a laptop is a must. 4) The readings sound nice but unlike other courses you take maybe one or two main points from them. There are a ton of readings for this class and discussion is mandatory. You HAVE to go to lecture to do well in this class. The difficulty rating is LOW but the workload is HIGH HIGH HIGH. There are SO Many other classes you can take to qualify for a GE. I did really well (aced everything going into the final) in this class, but I would absolutely NEVER recommend it, it is such a pain. Lecture for 2 hours, 1 hr discussion on Fridays, 3 papers, a midterm AND a long, 3-hour final? NO THANKS. Look somewhere else.
AD
Most Helpful Review
Actual course taken: Music History 7 Music history 7 is both an easy and extremely enjoyable GE. The professor is a wealth of knowledge and is such a pleasure to listen to for an hour and fifty minutes. The exams are extremely straightforward, and the essay was actually a ton of fun to write! As long as you pay attention in lecture you should receive a very good grade!
Actual course taken: Music History 7 Music history 7 is both an easy and extremely enjoyable GE. The professor is a wealth of knowledge and is such a pleasure to listen to for an hour and fifty minutes. The exams are extremely straightforward, and the essay was actually a ton of fun to write! As long as you pay attention in lecture you should receive a very good grade!
Most Helpful Review
Upton comes off as sweet and caring but in reality she is anything but. If you disagree with her she takes it very personally and gets defensive and mean. I raised my hand during a lecture to ask questions and for clarification and I was met with irritated glare and a response of "Can I just finish this because I'm right." Fantastic, I wasn't doubting that and just wasn't clear on exactly what you are saying. Here lectures are extremely scattered and even to someone that is a 3.5 student and pays regular attention during lectures, and copious notes, she still did not fully explain her concepts and her midterms, while very fair essay questions, were extremely difficult to answer because she didn't adequately give us the information to fully answer the question the way she asked. And quite frankly, she's a medievalist but doesn't speak or even know Latin, despite 90% of the her studies being music that is in Latin. In my mind, that's like a scholar of Russian Literature not speaking Russian. Nor does she know how to do the Hand Reading system used by the Boy Choirs of the Renaissance and prior in the monasteries. How this woman ever got tenure in a major Musicology department is a massive mystery to me and anyones guess. I wish I could really respect her but ultimately, I really cannot, and really do not think she is worthy or earning of students respect and is extremely unprofessional.I feel more sorry for the other tenure faculty in the department and future students.
Upton comes off as sweet and caring but in reality she is anything but. If you disagree with her she takes it very personally and gets defensive and mean. I raised my hand during a lecture to ask questions and for clarification and I was met with irritated glare and a response of "Can I just finish this because I'm right." Fantastic, I wasn't doubting that and just wasn't clear on exactly what you are saying. Here lectures are extremely scattered and even to someone that is a 3.5 student and pays regular attention during lectures, and copious notes, she still did not fully explain her concepts and her midterms, while very fair essay questions, were extremely difficult to answer because she didn't adequately give us the information to fully answer the question the way she asked. And quite frankly, she's a medievalist but doesn't speak or even know Latin, despite 90% of the her studies being music that is in Latin. In my mind, that's like a scholar of Russian Literature not speaking Russian. Nor does she know how to do the Hand Reading system used by the Boy Choirs of the Renaissance and prior in the monasteries. How this woman ever got tenure in a major Musicology department is a massive mystery to me and anyones guess. I wish I could really respect her but ultimately, I really cannot, and really do not think she is worthy or earning of students respect and is extremely unprofessional.I feel more sorry for the other tenure faculty in the department and future students.
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