Dear MUSHL 101 Students,

Since Blackboard has been down for the last week, let’s work around it.  Please post your comments at the bottom of this post.  Let’s move the deadline to this Wednesday, May 6th, by midnight.  To remind you of the Blackboard Assignment, here it is:

Our class has been primarily based on listening to digital recordings via a CD player or mp3 player and speakers. This article deals with how much of our musical listening experience is entirely reliant upon our ears (rather than, for example, watching a violin player use her bow to produce a sound).

This article in particular is a difficult read, perhaps due to the translation from French into English.  I think you may find these Wikipedia links helpful for reference:

acousmatic sound
acousmatic music

By midnight on Wednesday May 6th, read the article by Pierre Schaeffer and post a comment in response to his remarks on the Discussion Board thread. It can be downloaded here with the provided link “Schaeffer-Acousmatics” or also in the Course Documents section. TO DOWNLOAD THE READING, CLICK HERE.

Again, as a reminder quick word about posting protocol:

Please be specific to the points Schaeffer makes and respond appropriately.  Also, feel free to respond respectfully to other student viewpoints.  There hasn’t been much discussion or response from one comment to the next.  I suspect this is due to the tendency for many of you to wait until the last minute to read and comment…

Now, in preparation for tonight’s lecture on musical theater and film, here’s a great article that you can access in full through the Hunter Library website:

Eric Salzman, “Whither American Music Theater?” The Musical Quarterly, Vol. 65, No. 2 (Apr., 1979), pp. 230-244