ABSTRACT

Many difficult questions unite to create a daunting pedagogical dilemma for the teacher of music appreciation. All the basic assumptions that underlie the structure and content of introductory courses for music majors are missing from the service-course equation. The informal setting of the music appreciation course affords ample opportunity for leisurely group exploration of those "peripheral". Nazareth College of Rochester in Rochester, New York maintains a serious academic and financial commitment to the arts, and the music department has grown continually in terms of numbers, quality, resources, and reputation. Lorenzo de Medici's musings relate directly to that introductory talk in which students took their first tentative steps into the realm of cosmic music. The scene from Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice highlights the three concepts that serves to reinforce, contextualize, and expand the assumption of common ground already established: musica instrumentalis, musica humana, and musica mundana.