Music 396: Special Studies in Music History

Miles Davis—An American Original

Syllabus 2000

Elmhurst College

Dr. Mark Harbold

Course Goals	Materials You Will Need	Course Activities & Requirements	Course Schedule
Listening Assignments	Course Policies	Important URLs	How to Find Me

Course Goals

To discover the unique nature of jazz research
To understand how historical events and the collision of cultures contributed to the shaping of jazz musicians and jazz history
To develop greater understanding of jazz styles: their history, their development, and relationships between them
To hear important features of jazz styles and jazz performances
To “make” history by assembling and interpreting historical artifacts
To delve deeply into the life and music of a seminal figure in jazz history—Miles Davis

Return to top

Materials You Will Need

Required textbook—
Miles Davis with Quincy Troupe. Miles: The Autobiography. Touchstone Press, 1989.
Ian Carr. Miles Davis: The Definitive Biography. Revised edition. Thunders Mouth Press, 1998.

Optional materials—
Martin Williams, ed. Smithsonian Collection of Classic Jazz (SCCJ). Revised edition. Smithsonian Institution Press, 1987.

Return to top

Course Activities & Requirements

Specialization—you will choose a special focus area that will guide your research for the semester
Research—assigned readings, analytical listening, library work, and other varied forms of research related to your specialization
Lecture/Demonstrations—by instructor, guest lecturers, and students (see Projects below)
Discussion—in-class and WebBoard discussions in which you represent your specialization
Projects—primary medium for “making” history, they include an annotated bibliography, a PowerPoint project, and a seminar-style presentation

Grades

Your final grade will be based on the following—

Listening Quizzes	8 @ 2.5%	=	20%
Class Discussion	2 @ 10%	=	20%
Projects	3 @ 15%	=	45%
Final Exam	1 @ 15%	=	15%

About Assignments and Testing

Listening Quizzes—Eight short (10-20 minutes) listening quizzes, always given at the beginning of a class period. A typical quiz will include excercises in listening identification and description of stylistic and performance features. Quizzes will not be made up (except in case of excused absence). Quiz dates can be found on the Course Schedule below. Click here to see Listening Assignments for this course.

Class Discussion—The primary means we will use to develop skills in research, listening, and “making history.” Half of your discussion grade is based on in-class discussion, the other half on WebBoard discussion. (Click here to go to the WebBoard for this course.) The following formats will be used.

Listening and discussion
Open question and discussion (both in class and on the WebBoard)
Reports and consultation on research projects
Discussion of assigned readings and library work (both in class and on the WebBoard)

Return to Course Activities

Projects—Three projects in which you will “make history.” Using skills honed in class discussion, you will assemble and evaluate the historical artifacts most closely related to your area of specialization. Each project adopts a different format, taking you into different areas of jazz research. The three project areas are—

Annotated bibliography—a cooperative project in which you will assemble a comprehensive bibliography (MLA format) of the research materials most relevant to your specialization. Annotations will describe the content and usefulness of each source. All entries will be compiled into a web page that will be mounted on the course web site.
Seminar-style presentation—an in-class presentation focusing on an aspect of Miles Davis’ life and music that is related to your area of specialization
PowerPoint presentation—a multimedia presentation that assembles and interprets significant “artifacts” from your area of specialization

A note on seminar-style presentations: A seminar is a course in which students share responsibility with the instructor for lecture preparation and presentation. A seminar-style presentation is simply an in-class talk given by you on a particular topic. To prepare for these presentations, you do the same research as for a scholarly paper, but since the finished “product” is a class presentation rather than a paper, you will choose and organize your information in a way that makes sense for a face-to-face presentation. For each seminar-style presentation you must create handouts that help your audience follow the presentation. Handouts will provide analytical notes and notated musical examples where appropriate.

Due dates for Projects 1 and 3 can be found on the Course Schedule below. The due date for Project 2 will vary depending on where each student’s presentation fits best into the course syllabus; this due date will be negotiated once you choose your area of specialization. For ALL projects, you must hand in a complete bibliography (MLA format) and discography. Your presentation should be 15-20 minutes long (longer if you use many listening examples).

Return to Course Activities

Final Exam—The in-class final exam includes both a listening component and a final summary (in essay format) of the research you did in your area of specialization.

Listening
Same format as for listening quizzes—listening excerpts will include tracks from Time After Time and from the list compiled by Music 396 students (click here for complete list). Under “Historical Significance,” be sure to identify the style or phase from Miles’ career that each example represents (in addition to your usual reflections on the importance of the performance, the album, and the band).
Research Report
Use the following outline to report on the research you did this semester for Projects 1, 2, and 3.
Topic

Brief description of your topic.

Objectives

What questions did you want to answer?

What kinds of sources did you hope to find?

What answers were you looking for?

Research

What sources did you actually find?

What sources were you unable to find?

Which primary sources were most relevant to your topic?

What answers did you actually find?

What questions were you unable to answer? Why?

What sources do you WISH were available, but were hard to find or do not exist?

Conclusions

Were you able to meet all of your objectives?

For those objectives where your answer was yes, explain how you did so.

For those objectives where your answer was no, explain why not.

Return to Course Activities
Return to top

COURSE SCHEDULE

Aug 29 Unit 1—Introduction to Jazz Research	Aug 31 Unit 1—Jazz History to 1945 Read—SCCJ booklet, “Jazz Music: A Brief History,” p 7-28
Sept 5 Unit 1—History of Jazz Trumpet Guest lecturer, Doug Beach	Sept 7 Unit 1—Introduction to Miles Davis Read—Carr, Postscript, p 555-63 Specialization Due
Sept 12 Unit 1—Jazz Research Orientation Session Library, Rm 030	Sept 14 Unit 2—1927-1945 Read—Carr, Ch 1; Miles, Ch 1-3 Listening Quiz 1
Sept 19 Unit 2—1946, Relaxin’ at Camarillo Read—Carr, Ch 2; Miles, Ch 4	Sept 21 Unit 2—1947, Scrapple from the Apple Read—Carr, Ch 2; Miles, Ch 4-5
Sept 26 Unit 3—1948, Bird on 52nd Street Read—Carr, Ch 3; Miles, Ch 5 Listening Quiz 2	Sept 28 Unit 3—1949, Birth of the Cool Read—Carr, Ch 3; Miles, Ch 5
Oct 3 Unit 4—1950-52, Dig Read—Carr, Ch 4; Miles, Ch 6-7 Listening Quiz 3	Oct 5 Unit 4—1953-55, Walkin’ Read—Carr, Ch 4; Miles, Ch 8-9 Project 1 Due
Oct 10 Unit 5—1956, Classic Miles Davis Quintet Read—Carr, Ch 5-6; Miles, Ch 10 Listening Quiz 4	Oct 12 Unit 5—1957, Miles Ahead Read—Carr, Ch 6-7; Miles, Ch 10
Oct 17 Unit 5—1958, Milestones, Porgy and Bess Read—Carr, Ch 7-8; Miles, Ch 11	Oct 19 Unit 5—1959, Sketches of Spain Read—Carr, Ch 9; Miles, Ch 11
Oct 24 Unit 5—Kind of Blue Read—Carr, Ch 9; Miles, Ch 11	Oct 26 Unit 6—1960-64, From Carnegie to the Philharmonic Read—Carr, Ch 10-11; Miles, Ch 12 Listening Quiz 5
Oct 31 Unit 6—1964-67, Sorcerer Read—Carr, Ch 11-12; Miles, Ch 13	Nov 2 Guest lecturer, Doug Beach
Nov 7 Unit 6—1967-69, Filles de Kilimajaro Read—Carr, Ch 12-13; Miles, Ch 13-14	Nov 9 Unit 7—Bitches Brew Read—Carr, Ch 14; Miles, Ch 14 Listening Quiz 6
Nov 14 Unit 7—1969-71, Live-Evil Read—Carr, Ch 15-16; Miles, Ch 15	Nov 16 Unit 7—1972-75, Pangaea Read—Carr, Ch 16-18; Miles, Ch 15-16
Nov 21 Unit 8—1980-83, Decoy Read—Carr, Ch 19-20; Miles, Ch 17 Listening Quiz 7	Nov 23 Thanksgiving Recess
Nov 28 Unit 8—1984-87, Tutu Read—Carr, Ch 21-22; Miles, Ch 18 Project 3 Due	Nov 30 Unit 8—1988-91, Amandla Read—Carr, Ch 23-24; Miles, Ch 19-20
Dec 5 Project 3 Presentations Listening Quiz 8	Dec 7 Project 3 Presentations
	Dec 14 Final Exam, 1 pm

Return to top

Course Policies

Class Participation

Attendance and participation are important. Under normal circumstances, tell me ahead of time if you must miss class. In emergencies, present a note from your doctor, the college health service, or the Dean when you return. You can be absent or late up to three times each without penalty; further lateness or absences will count against your final grade.

Academic Dishonesty

This course follows guidelines published in the E-Book.

Elmhurst College Disabilities Policy

Elmhurst College will make reasonable accommodations for persons with documented disabilities. If you have a disability that may have some impact on your work in this course, please contact the Director of Advising at 103 Goebel Hall (617-3450).

Return to top

Important URLs

Course WebBoard—http://206.68.119.120/~mus396/

Course Listening Assignments—http://www.elmhurst.edu/~markh/miles/mileslisten.htm

EC Web-based Email—http://206.68.117.1/twig/index.php3/

Music Department Web Page—http://www.elmhurst.edu/~mus/

Mark Harbold’s Web Page—http://www.elmhurst.edu/~markh/harbold.html

Library Special Studies in Music History: Miles Davis Web Page— http://www.elmhurst.edu/library/courses/music/mus396.html

Miles Ahead: A Miles Davis website— http://www.wam.umd.edu/~losinp/music/miles_ahead.html

Return to top

How to Find Me

If you need assistance of any kind in this course, please contact me. You can see me during office hours, or make an appointment.

Office	Irion 113
Office Hours	MWF 10:30-11:30 TTh 2:30-3:30
Email	markh@elmhurst.edu
Phone	630.617.3521
Fax	630.617.3738

Return to top

Page created 08/18/00 by Mark Harbold—last updated 12/07/00.