OER Resources for College-level Music Appreciation Courses
Overview
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.
OER Resources for a College-level Music Appreciation Course
OER Resources for a College-Level Music Appreciation Course
There is a wide range of perspectives on and approaches to what ‘Music Appreciation’ is considered to be: the resources below aptly demonstrate this premise. The materials listed are by no means comprehensive. They are taken from the websites listed above and the ‘rabbit hole’ if you will that we experience as researchers. Meaning, by clicking on one link, we are often taken to others and this is what happened as the digging into materials took place.
Arguably, some resources you may come across are not necessarily relevant or appropriate for a college level traditional Music Appreciation class based on the Western Art music Tradition. With that being said, an instructor may choose to extrapolate materials deemed appropriate for the class being taught at the college level.
This researcher was excited to see how materials were linked. For example, you may look for Music Appreciation materials and then come across materials for Jazz, Theatre, Film and Media, World Music and Music Theory among others. Since many college music instructors also teach other courses, this would prove useful. Perhaps click on some of the links provided and explore!
Licensing at the bottom of each page; material presented chronologically; it is a Full Music Appreciation textbook and contains all materials needed for a ‘traditional’ music appreciation course.
2. Course Hero: Music Appreciation Study Guide Site also has classes that may be taken at different schools.
- Early time periods not a part of the materials: begins with the Baroque era.
- Overview of times periods presented and then works (musical examples) pertaining to period or specifics of a period, eg.: Comic Opera/Composer/Russian Five, etc.
- Works/pieces are standard and thorough.
3. Resonance: Engaging Music in its Cultural Context. UNG Press, PDF Available, may also purchase for $43.95.
- This book does not come across as a complete music appreciation course.
- Resources have additional materials that may be beneficial for a course that is already established. In other words, use in conjunction with another text.
4. Music Appreciation (Georgia Gwinnett College), Summer 2017, Multiple authors/contributors. Galileo-open learning materials.
Does need additional materials, will not stand on its own as a text. Into material is not broken down into time periods, and is presented more like an introductory guide to music theory. Could use links to pieces.
- What is Music-has references
- Musical Instruments
- Rhythm-examples of meters-too complicated? Non-western
- Melody, harmony, and texture
- Form
- Multiple modules /reference lists
5. Music Appreciation: Its Language, History, and Culture.
Could not access through OER Commons-said verboten!!
6. Music Appreciation-Open ALG Textbooks-ALG Textbook Grant. Multiple contributors. Created January 2021, Modified March 2021.
- Lower division, website, English
- OER Licensing: CC EY-NC
- TOC set by modules/reference lists-Into materials does not go through time periods. Would not consider this an undergraduate music appreciation textbook. More introductory materials to fundamentals, terminology, etc.
7. Merlot.org-Merlot collection materials
- Predominantly for younger non-college level students; there is a great deal of material out there like this; quite a bit on OER Commons.
- Interactive materials-some of the material may be used in a college level course, but instructor must parse through to make decisions.
- If you follow links, one may access BBC materials and there are good quality musical examples. The website or link might be incorporated in to a course. Would use similarly to YouTube examples. This indicates that the instructor would need to be aware if the link is removed and replace accordingly.
- There is also a link to America’s Jazz Heritage-Smithsonian Link to concerts and recordings.
8. Understanding Music: Past and Present
- Multiple authors and universities across Georgia
- Fundamentals of music, physics of sound, explore Middle Ages (MA) to present and chapter on Music in the U.S.
- ISBN: 978-1-940771-335
- OER Licensing: CC-BY-SA
- Links to YouTube listening; picture and explanations; charts/graphs; listening guides with attributions; Glossary and TOC; some information on World Music in the Appendix