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Pay for Play: How the Music Industry Works, Where the Money Goes, and Why

Contributor: Wayte

Publisher: University of Oregon Libraries

License: CC BY-NC-SA

The history of music is closely linked to the history of copyright law. This book explores how the law shaped music and the music industry. From church and court patronage in pre-19th Century Europe, to the effects of social media on music, this book explores the abiding influence of the law on music.

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Original Études for the Developing Conductor

Contributors: Caldwell and Shapiro

Publisher: Virginia Tech Publishing

License: CC BY-NC-SA

Original Études for the Developing Conductor is a collection of supplemental études designed to enhance contemporary conducting pedagogy by amplifying the voices of composers from historically excluded groups. Each étude was commissioned from and composed by a living composer, the majority of whom are woman-identifying composers and/or composers of color. Each étude also addresses multiple specific pedagogical goals common to all conducting classrooms.

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Music Appreciation: History, Culture, and Context

Contributors: Le, Scully, and Edwards

Publisher: LOUIS: The Louisiana Library Network

License: CC BY

Music makes us human. Every culture on earth has music. In fact, every human society extending back into prehistoric times has had music. Most of us are surrounded by music. We use it to enhance our mood and to regulate our metabolism, to keep us awake and help us go to sleep, as background to accompany the work, study, exercise, and relaxation that fills our days. But it is precisely when music steps out of this background and asks for our attention, engages our memory and our expectations, that it becomes a fundamentally artistic endeavor. Music is a sonic response to a question that’s not really about sound at all, but rather is historical and social. The study of music is the study of human thought, experience, and history. This course is about the musical imagination. It’s how to think about music, but it’s also about music as a mode of thinking. (inspired by Michael Hays, Professor of Architectural Theory at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design: Welcome to The Architectural Imagination (edx.org).

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The Bible and Music

Contributor: McGrath

Publisher: PALNI

License: CC BY

The Bible and Music by Dr. James F. McGrath provides an introduction and overview of the various ways that music and the Bible have been and continue to be connected. Part 1 focuses on history, presenting what we know about how music in the Ancient Near East sounded, how markings in the Masoretic Text of the Hebrew Bible have been interpreted as musical symbols, how chanting of biblical texts has featured liturgically in synagogues and churches, the impact of the Protestant Reformation, and musical developments in North America as enslaved Africans encountered biblical texts and stories. Part 2 focuses on specific texts in Jewish and Christian scripture and looks at how they have been interpreted through the process of setting them to music, including the soundtracks of cinematic depictions of biblical narrative and allusions to the Bible in popular music. Part 3 focuses on composers from the Middle Ages all the way down to the present day. Throughout the book, musical examples are not merely mentioned but embedded so that reading and listening may be seamlessly combined. The book does not presume prior knowledge of either music or the Bible, and additional links within the text provide definitions and further explanations for those who need or desire them.

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Foundational Sight Singing

Contributor: Stewart

Publisher: TRAILS

License: CC BY-NC-SA

Sight reading music can be a daunting endeavor for aspiring, and even experienced, musicians. Foundational Sight Singing was created to provide a systematic approach to learn to read, hear and perform music. The ordered presentation of both melodies and rhythms in this text helps students develop accuracy and fluency in sight singing which is a fundamental skill for all musicians. It is a text for developing proficiency in reading and sight singing that can be used in a variety of contexts from individual practice to choral or instrumental ensemble rehearsals to college ear training courses. Multiple exercises are provided for drilling and practice at each level throughout the text to grow the students’ fluency and proficiency in reading and performing pitch and rhythm. This text will help students build a solid foundation upon which they can establish mastery.

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Music in World Cultures

Contributors: Mihalka and Hunter

Publisher: University of Arkansas

License: CC BY-NC

This text provides just a small sampling of some of the various musical styles and traditions that might be found, though the skills developed in this course can be applied to any type of music.

(3 reviews)

Music Theory for the 21st-Century Classroom

Contributor: Hutchinson

Publisher: Robert Hutchinson

License: Free Documentation License (GNU)

Music Theory for the 21st–Century Classroom is an openly–licensed online four–semester college music theory textbook. This text differs from other music theory textbooks by focusing less on four–part (SATB) voiceleading and more on relating harmony to the phrase. Also, in traditional music theory textbooks, there is little emphasis on motivic analysis and analysis of melodic units smaller than the phrase. In my opinion, this led to students having difficulty with creating melodies, since the training they are given is typically to write a “melody” in quarter notes in the soprano voice of part writing exercises. When the assignments in those texts ask students to do more than this, the majority of the students struggle to create a melody with continuity and with appropriate placement of harmonies within a phrase because the text had not prepared them to do so.

(2 reviews)

Music on the Move

Contributor: Fosler-Lussier

Publisher: University of Michigan Press

License: CC BY-NC

Music is a mobile art. When people move to faraway places, whether by choice or by force, they bring their music along. Music creates a meaningful point of contact for individuals and for groups; it can encourage curiosity and foster understanding; and it can preserve a sense of identity and comfort in an unfamiliar or hostile environment. As music crosses cultural, linguistic, and political boundaries, it continually changes. While human mobility and mediation have always shaped music-making, our current era of digital connectedness introduces new creative opportunities and inspiration even as it extends concerns about issues such as copyright infringement and cultural appropriation.

(3 reviews)