ID 103

"Which is more musical: a truck passing by a factory or a truck passing by a music school?" -John Cage

"Listening is noticing and directing attention and interpreting what is heard. Deep Listening is exploring the relationship among any and all sounds." -Pauline Oliveros

No prior music experience required! (Although you are also welcome if you have played music before!) We will study, create and perform music that grows out of specific places and spaces on campus, by finding the sounds of these places and through using ethnography to identify thematic elements of these spaces. Working with found objects in the environment, the group will form an ensemble and explore rhythm, motif, counterpoint, structure, and other compositional elements. You will become a composer, performance artist, and cultural critic! Join us, because we need your creative ideas!

Peter Appelbaum

Terri McIntyre

(215-572-) 4476

appelbaum@arcadia.edu

Taylor 312A

(215-572-) terri.mcintyre@arcadia.edu

We will often walk over to other campus locations, and may occasionally begin a class session by meeting at another location on campus, so stay informed, please!

Additionally, we will likely have at least one field trip requiring extra time for travel; every effort will be made to accommodate other obligations you may have that could potentially conflict with the field trip; however, it would be very helpful if you could plan in advance and also problem solve ways to avoid such potential conflicts.

Freshmen Seminar requires that each student attend at least four additional cultural and/or other community events on or off campus, so you will need to plan for this time commitment as well.

This is a pass/fail course. To pass, you must satisfy the following minimum requirements:

- Attend each class session. More than two absences automatically leads to failing this course, as per the campus freshmen seminar policy.

- Be a part of the composition and performance of at least two whole-group compositions.

- Compose and perform at least one of your own place compositions either individually or as part of a small group.

- Maintain your own Composer's Notebook/Portfolio (see the specifications below).

- Attend the class field trip or share with the class what you learned from your own pre-approved individual field trip.

- Attend at least four on/off campus cultural/community events, submitting a 300-500 word composer's reaction paper for each event.

In this course you will maintain a composer's notebook that will enable you to pursue particular compositional investigations. These investigations will help us develop an understanding of what it means to be a composer and ethnographer, as well as provide the platform for actually doing the work of our course.

This notebook may not be like other notebooks/portfolios you have kept in the past. Think of it as a sort of lab notebook where you keep systematic records of experiments. Photographers keep notebooks about lighting, lenses, and settings; historians keep records of their research and developing theories; poets keep portfolios; cook and architects keep notebooks. These records help these professionals keep track of, study, and improve their practice; they simply help them to do their work.

Notebook Section:	Satisfactory:	Accomplished:	Needs Improvement:
Composition Ideas	Organized to keep track of your evolving ideas, experiments, and solutions	Analyzes, synthesizes and applies ideas introduced in class to your evolving compositions. The record of work can be used to trace the progress from ideas to fully complete compositions.	Not enough ideas generated; ideas do not lead to compositions; compositions do not grow out of careful development.
Notation Development	At least one idea for notation tested out in a compositional experiment per week	The notation is designed to solve a technical or other compositional problem; fully developed notation used for later compositions; reflection on the usefulness of notations.	Notations do not address a compositional or performance need. Notations are too complex or too simple, making them useless in analyzing your pieces.
Place Observations	Notes from at least two observations of at least 15 minutes per week	Notes are analyzed for potential compositional ideas based on patterns and themes.	Not enough observations; too few notes at each observation; observations not used to develop compositional ideas.
Ethnographic Interviews	At least one interview per week	Interviews are analyzed over time for patterns and themes to be used in compositions.	Not enough interviews; too few notes from each interview; not used to develop compositional ideas.
Reflections and Planning	At least one entry per week other than reaction papers. Entries address issues raised by class exercises and/or the representation of place.	Reflections include repeated use of critical perspectives in looking back on your work in order to make decisions about how to move forward.	Too few reflections; not enough planning based on reflections. No critical perspectives evident.

Every Freshmen Seminar requires that students attend campus/community cultural events, in order to encourage participants to become more familiar with these resources. Each seminar also requires that students respond in writing to at least four of these events. In our course, these papers will take on the dual purpose of help us to consider the relationships between space and place. Include these reflections in your Composer's Notebook as extra entries in you Reflections and Planning section. In your 300-500 word reflection, answer the following questions: (1) How are the spaces in which these events occur transformed by the event into a social "space"? (2) what compositional elements could be representative of (a) the space, (b) the place, and (c) the event? (3) What ideas for compositions can you use in our class and your own ongoing compositional experiments? (4) Apart from connections to our course, in what ways might your experiences at these events lead to further explorations on your part, academically and/or socially as a member of the Arcadia community? Dates above are to help you accomplish this according to a reasonable schedule. Feel free to complete these earlier than indicated.