Midterm 2 had the highest marks of any exam ever in MU100. This was due to a excellent progress in working with both structural and contextual music materials. But also a flawed marking system (mine) that did not punish anyone for "wrong" answers.

The purpose of the exam was to bring you forward enmasse in your understanding and ability to articulate structural/sonic and contextual music characteristics. The next step, the final exam, will bring you to the next level. The main point of the class is musical meaning.

As a class, and this is a great MU100 class, we are good at not only identifying but putting terms, characteristics, styles, etc. with music. We are also getting better at sorting out why contexts are important.

We are not very good at articulating, that is writing and speaking about, music itself (sound and meaning). Let's see how that manifested on the exam.

In MU100 all the questions, exams, essays, etc. focus on actual pieces of music as opposed to theoretical constructs, large genres, or hyperbole regarding styles and cultural spinoff products. That means you are dealing with real music and not the proxies of music. Wikipedia and many non scholarly books and articles about music deal more with proxies (music makes you smarter, music makes you cool, the artists behind the music, the woman behind the artist behind the music. . .etc.)

I. Listening -- GREAT! Amazing scores. Sonic characteristics vs. Contextual. Will be more precise in final exam.

II. Unknown Example: "On Earth as in Heaven" from the Mission. Gabriel's Oboe is part of it, as are many of the themes in the movie soundtrack. Knowing a title doesn't mean you know a piece of music. Can you describe style? sound? 7-8/10 av.

III. Preprepared Essay. . Easily the weakest for us. Why? Stuff you read isn't actually about the music and doesn't link sonic materials to meaning. So, most of you abandoned music and went for what you found online, which resulted in weaker marks.

Musical Ontology: Aspect of music (can be style, sound, timbre, practice, or overall concept) that describes how it interfaces or intersects with the world.

Examples:

Native American Flute - Playing the Heart

Shakuhachi -- Ichi on jo butsu (In one note become enlightened)

Japanese Arts -- "ma" = space

Mbuti Molimo Songs -- healing of the forest

Chinese traditional -- harmonize
heaven and earth

Church Music -- For the glory of God

Western Classical?

Because it was a reactionary movement based in a sense of lack of access or unjust treatment. . . CM is rooted in social justice, fairness, equality, equity, learning for all, intergenerational, etc. Universal human values. That's the culture.

CM didn't like that in order to access music you needed money, tons of training, knowing the right people, having the right education from birth, etc.

Music is a right, a human right.

What about the sounds themselves? Ah, there's the first tripping point.

Musicking (Christopher Small) 1998.

So, what is the basic idea, purpose, notion or characteristic of CM?

Lee Higgins in his book "Community Music in Theory and Practice" 2012, Outlines a theoretical basis for this field.

Community Music is music as hospitality

What does that mean?
Music as hospitality.

The barriers to inclusion / participation / access are removed or reduced. . open access.

Let's consider a bunch of music and see if it makes the grade.

NY Phil Orchestra Concert
Pop Concert
Coffee House Performance
Catholic Church Choir in Catholic Liturgy



OH MY . .. What is CM?

Can you think of a few more barriers to access?


Children's Choir


What about

Choir! Choir! Choir!