ENG 306-003 Essay Writing: Writing About Music
Course Schedule
(home)

Week One
Th, 1.8 First class, introduction

Week Two
T, 1.13
Reading: Chapter 1 in Bellman’s Writing About Music, pgs 1-19
Writing: Write song narrative.

W.1.14 Last day to add or drop (without a grade)

Th, 1.15
Reading: Chapter 2 in Bellman, pg. 21 and Paul Williams’ “How Rock Communicates”and Lester Bangs's "In Which"
Writing: Journal (writing)

Week Three
T, 1.20
Reading: Chapter 3 in Bellman, Cantwell’s “Help Me Make it Through the Night” pg. 30
Writing: Journal (music)

Th.1.22
Reading: Marc Jacobson’s “Tangled up in Bob” pg. 89 and Greil Marcus’s “What is this Shit?”
Writing: Journal (writing)

Week Four
T,1.27
Reading: Jon Landau’s “I Saw Rock & Roll Future and its Name is Bruce Springsteen” and Dai Griffiths’s “Three Tributaries of the ‘The River’”
Writing: Journal, outline your first paper.

Th.1.29
Reading: Chapter 4 in Bellman, pg. 51, Steve Erickson’s “L.A.’s Top 100” pg. 68
Writing: Paper #1 and Journal due

Week Five
T, 2.3
Reading: "Louis Armstrong and Furniture Music" by Ted Gioia and Gary Giddins’s "Boom” pg. 111
Writing: Journal (music)

Th.2.5
Reading: Ken Burns’ Jazz, Matthew Duersten’s “The Moon Looks Down and Laughs” pg.292 and David Margolick’s “Southern Trees”
Writing: Journal, write about a music documentary project other than Burns’s… how has he changed the genre (if at all)?

Week Six
T.2.10
Reading: "Storiella Americana as she is Swyung; or, The Blues as Representative Anecdote" by Albert Murray
Writing: Journal, outline your second paper.

Th.2.12
Reading: Chapter 5 and 6 in Bellman, pg. 69, 82
Writing: Paper #2 due for Review

Week Seven
T.2.17
Album: Bach’s The Goldberg Variations (Glenn Gould’s 1957 and 1981 recordings, liner notes)
Reading: "Introduction" from The Goldberg Variations, by Peter Williams
from The Gold Bug Variations, by Richard Powers
Writing: Journal, talk about the various variations at play in these texts. What are the central “themes”?

Th.2.19
Reading: "Glenn Gould Interviews Glenn Gould About Glenn Gould" and "Aria with Diverse Variations" by Douglas R. Hofstadter
Writing: Journal, write about another set of musical permutations.

Week Eight
T.2.24
Album: Switched on Bach
Reading: Pinch and Trocco’s “Switched on Bach” and Glenn Gould’s "The Record of the Decade"
Writing: Journal (music)

Th.2.26
Reading: Thomas Levinson’s “We Need New Instruments Very Badly”
Writing: Work on your draft

Week Nine
T.3.2
Conferences
First Draft of First Essay Due

Th.3.4
Final Draft of First Essay Due with Journal

Week Ten
3.6-3.12 Spring Break

Week Eleven
T.3.16
Reading: from Joseph Lanza’s Elevator Music
Writing: Journal, talk about your experiences with “mood music” and what that means.

Th.3.18
Reading: from Kim Stanley Robinson’s Memory of Whiteness and "Origins and Collective Functions" or "Music, Brain, and Body" by Anthony Storr
Writing: Journal (music)

Week Twelve
T.3.23
Reading: Roger Shepard’s "Cognitive Psychology and Music" and RJ Smith’s “The Many Faces of Korla Pandit” pg. 151
Writing: Journal (writing)

Th.3.25
Reading: Simon Reynold’s “Walking on Thin Ice” pg. 193
Writing: Journal, talk about the art/music distinction and other bands that have flirted with this.

Week Thirteen
T.3.30
Reading: Steve Albini’s essay from The Baffler, Kelefa Sanneh’s “Getting’ Paid” pg. 275 and Sasha Frere-Jones’s “Haiku for Eminem” pg. 138
Writing: Journal, talk about what it means to “sell out” and find someone who has (by your definition).

W.3.31 Last day to withdraw (with a 'w')

Th.4.1
Reading: Lovering’s "The Global Music Industry: Contradictions in the Commodification of the Sublime" and Kate Sullivan’s “J. Lo vs. K. Sul” pg. 25
Writing: Paper #3 due

Week Fourteen
T.4.6
Reading: Lester Bangs’ “In Which”, Steve Albini’s "Eyewitness Record Reviews" and “Two from The Onion” pg. 62
Writing: Journal, preliminary outline/discussion of your final paper

Th.4.8-4.11 Easter Break

Week Fifteen
T.4.13
In-class work, peer review

Th.4.15
First Draft of Final Essay Due
Conferences (voluntary)

Week Sixteen
T.4.20
Course Evaluations/Peer Review cont.

Th.4.22 Last Day of Class
Final Paper and Journal Due