Example Assignment: 100-level Survey Music Course
Course: “Music Appreciation,” a 100-level survey course about western classical music
Students in this course write a two-page reflective paper each week. Many of the papers give students freedom to choose a composer and piece of music from within a given historical period, but for a few of the assignments, I have all students listen to and write about the same piece.
Terra Nostra was the assignment in week 8 of a 10-week quarter, after students had gained a bit more listening experience, and the assignment utilizes the version of the film which includes the poetry.
Prompt:
The piece we will explore is Terra Nostra, a multimedia symphony about climate change, composed by Christophe Chagnard. You can learn more about the background of Terra Nostra via these two resources:
Please begin by experiencing the music in its entirety.
In your paper, please:
- briefly explain the origin of the piece and what it is meant to address
- describe the music, utilizing vocabulary introduced in this class
- describe the multimedia elements of the piece (video and poetry)
- describe your reactions to listening to the full piece, and what, if any reaction it inspired in you related to the issue of climate change
