Musical Discovery Begins with Interactive Experiences

Students in Frederika King's MU137 Listening to Music class discover the foundations of Western Classical music. The accompanying course Web site carries this same thread of musical discovery.

The Listening to Music site is built around three interactive musical experiences:

Experience 1: Students hear Johann Sebastian Bach's piece "Toccata and Fugue in d minor" as images of the composer and pipe organs fade in and out of view. The experience culminates in a series of reference buttons. Rolling over each button reveals additional information about the composer, the piece and the instrument.

Experience 2: Peter Tchaikovsky's "Swan Lake" guides students through images of swans and ballet dancers. The slideshow concludes with reference options, where students can learn more about the composer, the song and ballet.

Experience 3: The final experience creates connections between Claude Debussy's composition "Clair de Lune" and its use in popular films such as "Ocean's 11" and "The Right Stuff." At the conclusion, students are presented with details on Debussy, the piece and Impressionism.

Each of these experiences is reinforced both by the material students encounter in the classroom and through the supporting audio clips and documents available through the course Web site. King uses the site's built-in media library to manage an extensive collection of music files, and she organizes this material to guide students during test preparation. A custom glossary of key periods and phrases is also available to students for reference and exploration.

For help adding audio and other multimedia elements into your course site, please contact the Instructional Technology Group at x8961.