Document Type
Syllabus
Publication Date
Fall 9-1-2024
Course Description
A review of the ways humor has been expressed in music in a variety of genres and styles including both Western Art Music and popular styles. Student work in the class will include extensive reading and preparation for seminar-like discussions and a series of writing and research assignments leading to a substantial paper. WARNING: Humor often works through transgressing norms and is a changing concept. Works of music that were intended as humorous in the past, may be considered by some listeners to be sexist, racist, or ableist. Students considering the class should be aware that some topics in the class may be troubling for some listeners, but need to be discussed fully and sensitively to address this subject.
Recommended Citation
Balensuela, Matthew, "MUS 390S Humor and Music Balensuela Fall 2024" (2024). All Course Syllabi. 797, Scholarly and Creative Work from DePauw University.
https://scholarship.depauw.edu/records_syllabi/797
Student Outcomes
By the end of this course the successful student will be able to: understand, research, and discuss various issues in how humor has been used in various musical styles; integrate practical musical skill with critical thinking and intellectual inquiry through various course assignments such as research, writing, and oral presentations, and, discern societal impacts on the diversity of musical institutions and practices embrace through the inclusion of a wide spectrum of creative lives in music whose diversity spans not only gender and nationality but also types of careers in music (composers, performers, theorists, historians, patrons…).