College of Arts & Media - Open & Free Materials by Course: Music

Resource that could be used in conjunction with a collegiate course on wind literature. The twelve chapters here explore music written for winds from as early as 1551 through 2022, when the bulk of this document was written.

• Open License: CC-BY-NC-ND

A comprehensive study of the theory and analysis of tonal Western art music. Includes a strong foundation in the understanding of rhythm, meter, and pitch as well as their notational conventions. Also explores polyphony—the simultaneous sounding of multiple independent melodies—and different sonorites that grow out of this practice. Discusses musical form, engaging with artistic works in their entirety by considering the interaction of harmonic and thematic elements, but also such other musical dimensions as rhythm, meter, texture, and expression. Supplemented with 800+ musical examples, with embedded audio files, including nearly 200 excerpts by women and other underrepresented groups.

• Open License: CC-BY-NC
• Accompanying student workbook (see below)
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Full set of exercises and activities to deepen and reinforce student understanding of music theory and analysis. Designed to supplement the textbook Fundamentals, Function, and Form, each chapter in the textbook has a corresponding workbook chapter, but the exercises are also designed to support independent use without textbook adoption.

• Open License: CC-BY-NC
• Accompanying instructor manual, see site for instructions to download

Introduces topics such as the organisation of discrete pitches into scales and intervals, and temporal organisation of musical sounds as duration, in rhythm and metre. These rudiments are presented through an introduction to the elements of five-line stave notation, and through critical discussion of the advantages and limitations served by notational systems in the representation and analysis of musical sounds. This serves as the basis of further explanations, to illustrate musical concepts including key, time signature, harmonisation, cadence and modulation.

• Open License: CC-BY-NC-SA
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Understanding Music: Past and Present creates a roadmap from some of the earliest known origins of music to modern day. This linear approach allows the reader to trace the history and evolution of music through the ages. Understanding Music: Past and Present is designed to grow the reader's appreciation of music through improved understanding and listening skills, allowing the reader to develop his or her own informed opinions and express them.

• Open License: CC-BY-SA
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Collection of supplemental études designed to enhance contemporary conducting pedagogy by amplifying the voices of composers from historically excluded groups. Conducting textbooks commonly include musical examples to expose student conductors to various musical challenges and situations. However, ...most examples found in commercially published books are excerpts of larger works composed by deceased cisgender white men of European descent.

• Open License: CC-BY-NC-SA

As professional instructors, childcare workers, or students looking forward to a career working with children, we should continuously search for ways to tap into children's natural reservoir of enthusiasm for singing, moving and experimenting with instruments. This book explores a holistic, artistic, and integrated approach to understanding the developmental connections between music and children. This book guides professionals to work through music, harnessing the processes that underlie music learning, and outlining developmentally appropriate methods to understand the role of music in children's lives through play, games, creativity, and movement. Additionally, the book explores ways of applying music-making to benefit the whole child, i.e., socially, emotionally, physically, cognitively, and linguistically.

• Open License: CC BY-NC-SA
• Read instructor reviews.

Resource that could be used in conjunction with a collegiate course on wind literature. The twelve chapters here explore music written for winds from as early as 1551 through 2022, when the bulk of this document was written.

• Open License: CC-BY-NC-ND