Curriculum Guide Overview

Question domains are labelled for easy sorting: Culture, Musicology, Philosophy, Writing. All domains can be reasonably understood by upper-level undergraduates and graduate students regardless of their specialization. In general, the questions are presented in the order they occur in the book.

Besides use in discussion, these questions can be assigned as writing prompts either for a short journal entry or a full-length essay. Simply specify a minimum word count.

For a final exam option, the obvious route is to ask students to complete an analysis of a song or album of their choosing using their favorite section of Volpert’s analysis as a model. More strict parameters on this prompt would be to insist the students focus on a particular musician (such as Springsteen or Dylan, or give them a long list of greats from which to choose) or a particular framework presented in the book (such as active versus passive bands, mystic violence, or existential absurdity). This need not be done in writing; students could offer a short film or give an oral presentation with slideshow, etc.