This course is an interactive discussion of music through the ages and how we as a people from various walks of life can appreciate it.

This course is designed to teach not only historical facts about music but also to encourage deeper listening to music from a variety of sources. The course is a guided journey of listening, reading, and discussion (oral and written) of music, with corresponding recommended listening and assignments for deeper understanding. An emphasis of this design is to place music within the framework of how music is experienced instead of in a chronological sequence. To that end, the modules include a unit on the music of the Civil Rights movement, with optional material on music for social justice in contemporary America, and the musical contributions of musicians from Alabama. Instructors are encouraged to modify the materials to serve the needs of the students or audience they are serving.

Music is a mobile art. When people move to faraway places, whether by choice or by force, they bring their music along. Music creates a meaningful point of contact for individuals and for groups; it can encourage curiosity and foster understanding; and it can preserve a sense of identity and comfort in an unfamiliar or hostile environment. As music crosses cultural, linguistic, and political boundaries, it continually changes. While human mobility and mediation have always shaped music-making, our current era of digital connectedness introduces new creative opportunities and inspiration even as it extends concerns about issues such as copyright infringement and cultural appropriation.

This collection of OER was curated as part of an OER Background Research mini-grant to locate and evaluate resources for a college-level music appreciation course.

Welcome to Resonances: Engaging Music in Its Cultural Context! Although this book is intended primarily for use in the college music appreciation classroom, it was designed with consideration for independent learners, advanced high school students, and experienced musicians. That is to say, it includes enough detail that expert guidance is not required and is written using broadly-accessible language. At the same time, it addresses advanced topics and positions music as a serious object of study.

Understanding Music: Past and Present is an open Music Appreciation textbook co-authored by music faculty across Georgia. The text covers the fundamentals of music and the physics of sound, an exploration of music from the Middle Ages to the present day, and a final chapter on popular music in the United States.

An introduction to the infinite universe of music from its origins to the present, this course investigates the role of instruments, culture, myth and science in the evolution of music. Illustrations through the medium of the World Wide Web present the concept of music as both communication of ideas and expression of feelings in diverse musical traditions of the world.