My experience teaching at a number of different institutions -- Carnegie Mellon, the University of Pittsburgh, Bowling Green State University, the University of California-Berkeley, and the University of San Francisco, among others -- has shown me how different schools have different cultures and thus different needs for their students.

 

The highly skilled performers at Carnegie Mellon benefit most from both broad and deep engagement with the classical repertory. In order to create the best curriculum in which the undergraduate can learn the history of music, I have initiated several changes with the support of my colleagues:

 

1. Undergraduate music majors now take an expanded and unified sequence of three semesters of music history, beginning in the spring of the sophomore or (for vocalists) the junior year. The first semester includes the Medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque periods; the second covers the Classical and Romantic periods; and the third focuses on music from the late 19th century to today, including several classes devoted to popular musics. Graduate students needing a review of this history now study only what they need to know, in one of two classes now available to them.

 

2. In keeping with the newly expanded and unified music history sequence, students now study from a new textbook, Richard Taruskin and Christopher Gibbs's Oxford History of Western Music (student edition). This text models elegant, engaging, and thoughtful writing about music while providing a "long line" in its presentation of composers and their music, a line that provides a coherent narrative arc in which to contextualize and better comprehend the rich history of music. 

 

3. In order to track the success of this new curriculum, I have begun an assessment procedure whereby students are tested at regular intervals throughout their four years of study. The test results will provide the data necessasry to make continual and informed improvements to the curriculum for the purpose of optimizing student learning.

 

4. A long-term project to present the classical repertory in an interactive, meaningful, and stunning digital interface is now underway. Several years ago, Carnegie Mellon placed special focus on acquiring a broad, experiential knowledge of music when it created its innovative series of Repertory and Listening courses. In order to organize and make sense of the large repertory, this new project groups and classifies music in simple and practical ways that promise to make the vast classical repertory easily understood and navigated.