Music and Literature for Children
Offered - Spring
Course number - LENG-352
Utilizing interdisciplinary approaches to interpretation, composition, and music education, this course offers critical and creative approaches to understanding and articulating characteristics of exemplary musical and literary works for children and adolescents. This course explores the connections between children's music and children's literature through literary and musical analysis, as well as composition in both music and English. In the vast children's music market, some compositions exhibit very high quality, while others seem to be market-driven drivel. What distinguishes the good from the bad, the meaningful from the fluff? How do we account for the progression from Prokofiev to Barney the Dinosaur? This course tries to answer these questions and more by positing that quality music for children can and should be both aesthetically interesting and intellectually engaging. We will look at music for children and explore the connections between children's music and children's literature. The course will focus on different genres of music and literature, from classical and folk to film scores and pop covers. We will also be reading and discussing the source material that inspired the music, including folk tales, nursery rhymes, and works by Lewis Carroll, Edward Gorey, Christina Rossetti, Shel Silverstein, and Lemony Snicket, among others. Particular attention will be paid to the nature of the diverse child audience that educators and performers will encounter in front of a classroom and an audience. As a capstone, there will be a music project component (involving sequencing software), so that students can apply their musical and critical acumen to music composition for children.
Credits: 3
Course Chair: Darla Hanley
Prerequisites: LENG-201
Required of: None
Electable by: All