MUSI 3050

Rally chill course with Maus. Super likeable Professor, and the only complaint I have with him is he takes a while to grade papers and tests. There’s also not a lot of work besides reading responses, with the occasional paper/test. My only problem with the course overall is that the reading material is fairly expensive. You need 2 course packets created by Maus, so you won’t be able to rent anything off of Amazon. Other than that, really solid course and an easy A

Really great fun and actually changes the way you think about music. Reading materials a little expensive but you actually use them all throughout the semester so I guess it's worth it. Having to do reading responses forces you to keep on track with the readings, tests are easy if you have paid attention in class and looked at readings, and writing assignments are genuinely fun to complete. Good experience!

There's a lot of reading, for sure. And Maus has you submit an email response for each one (no need to argue a point--can be totally informal), which makes you stay on track. I read slowly, so this was easily my most time-consuming class. It's all about time management, really; the assignments aren't hard. But each and every reading had a large effect on how I think of music. Whether you care about music as an artist or an academic, you will most surely grow from this class. Maus is beyond the silly standards that infect most of academia today. His view on undergraduate education is this: engage with the material, have an experience, form a perspective, and share that perspective. No need to argue a philosophical point, to make value judgments about anything (you'll study Cage). Just dig it. I was thinking about transferring to another university, but I think I'll stay, if only so that I have the opportunity for further study with Maus (and the department's other brilliant minds). I think his view of education is the future, and if I were you, I'd catch this wave.

Professor Maus is terrific. He is kind of awkward, but - if you can get past that - he is funny and super intelligent. He is kind of a slacker when it comes to grading papers. Really, though, he is just as much of a student as everyone in his class.

He grades everything super-leniently; if you put a discernible amount of effort into your work, you will do extremely well.

The most important part of this class is to make sure you keep up with the readings and do the email responses.

One of the best professors in the Music Department. Extremely knowledgeable in the subject matter. Lots of work on reading and writing but his grading does reward the efforts put in. Doesn't teach undergrad that often. So grab him whenever he offers the course.

This class is required for the music major. However you can take the class with no previous experience in music. You don't learn or need to know theory. Rather Maus studies musicology- you read articles written by composers, or musicoligists. It is a great class and I learned a whole lot about the 20th century music that no one knows about- Schoenberg, Cage. You also learn about the Clash, and disco. There is a wide variety and Maus loves the subject, so you will too. He grades liniently too!

It was a lot of reading and writing (sometimes too much), and I didn't find the material too interesting in particular, but the professor is great and he cares about teaching and the materials a lot.

I would NOT recommend this class for non-Music majors. It provides an overview of 20th century music and can be insightful at times, but the workload is simply not worth it. You will find that Professor Maus, while extremely smart and very nice, has an awkwardness to his teaching you might not particularly get. He's a wonderful man, but the class isn't worth it! For Music majors who HAVE to take the class, just to give you a heads-up, it will not be easy at all, but it's definitely doable. The readings get very tedious at times, so for midterms and the final be sure to partner up with someone else and help each other out by summarizing articles and discussing them together.