Sound Reasoning

Abstract

“Sound Reasoning” is a web-based, introductory music appreciation course. It offers a new approach to music appreciation for adults, focusing on style-independent concepts. While the course concentrates primarily on Western classical and modern music, the concepts that are introduced apply to music of any style or era. The goal of “Sound Reasoning” is to equip you with questions that you may ask of any piece of music, thereby creating a richer and more comprehensive understanding of music both familiar and unfamiliar. Here are some additional features of the course. 1) ”Sound Reasoning” is completely listening based. No ability to read music is required. 2) The course assumes little or no musical background. A minimum of terminology is invoked. 3) Musical examples are interpolated directly into the text. 4) The course is interactive. A “listening gallery” with exercises follows each module, so that you may practice and refine your listening skills. 5) The modules may be studied in sequence or individually. 6)You may easily print a .pdf of any module.. “Sound Reasoning” is designed as both a stand-alone, self-paced course as well as a supplement to existing university classes. Thanks to Connexions, “Sound Reasoning” is available free of charge twenty-four hours a day in a cross-platform format. “Sound Reasoning” was created thanks to an Access to Artistic Excellence Grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and an Innovation Grant from Rice’s Computer and Information Technology Institute. The author wishes to thank Richard Baraniuk, the founder of Connexions; Geneva Henry, Joey King, Katie Cervenka and Elvena Mayo of the Connexions staff; and Jan Odegard and Moshe Vardi of CITI. He wishes to extend his great gratitude to the Connexions technical team with whom he collaborated: Brent Hendricks, Scott di Pasquale, Charlet Reedstrom and Max Starkenburg. He would especially like to thank Elizabeth Gregory and Brian Nelson, who were his primary technical assistants and provided invaluable support. The author welcomes your comments about all aspects of the course, from its contents to its ease-of-use. Please send any correspondence to Associate Professor Anthony Brandt at abrandt@rice.edu. You must have the latest version of Macromedia's free Flash plugin to play the musical examples. The course works best using Internet Explorer 6 on Microsoft Windows, or Mozilla on any platform.