BC1001-BC1002 Introduction to Music

This class with this professor is one of those that people either love or hate. Or both. I was a little of both.

The positive (which outweighs the negative):
- Boerger knows her stuff very, very well, and is incredibly passionate about it. I don't think it's possible not to get excited about Bach during her lectures (even to a classical violinist who has played Bach partitas ad nauseum).
- There's a textbook, but readings are optional and everything you need to know is covered in lecture (but copying her blackboard notes is essential!), except a few quiz questions, which she gives you beforehand.
- You get a very thorough overview of Western music and the history that surrounded it.
- She is a fantastic writing coach--much, much better than the FYS teacher I had at the time--and wants you to become a better writer, too.

The negative:
- Boerger usually came into class sort of angry (usually not about the class) and took it out on us, but she always cheered up after 10 or 15 minutes of teaching, and you could tell she loved the class.
- My section had 15 very quiet people in it. She became frustrated when nobody answered questions, we got timid whenever she was frustrated, she became more frustrated...
- I think pre-1600 Western music is sort of boring, especially if you've played classical music before. Some of it is beautiful. Most of it is totally predictable. Never took the second semester for scheduling reasons--that one might be better...
- If you don't like writing, and working hard at it, the essays are a bitch.
- Lots of memorization

Boerger is such a great resource--I just wish the class was conducted a little more effectively. I still learned a lot and found a lot of music I love.

I'm nearly tone-deaf and I loved this class. Hated the final (basically a three-hour vocabulary test), and the three listening quizzes throughout the semester were murder (but that might not be true if you're not, you know, tone deaf), but the lectures are awesome: fascinating and fun, all at once. Prof. Boerger is willing to explain concepts as simple as a "note," over and over and over again, and she's also willing to go off on tangents about concepts that interest her students; you can tell that she loves talking about music, and will happily do it under pretty much any conditions. She's tough about deadlines, though -- the papers are totally doable if you put in a reasonable amount of work, but don't even *think* of turning them in late.