ABSTRACT
Music 200 is an introductory level music appreciation course for undergraduate students at NCSU. Since 2000, the Department of Music has offered the course both as a general class open to all undergraduate students (Music 200) and as a First Year Inquiry (FYI) class for freshmen only. The common goals of both classes are to acquaint students with the elements of music, musical styles, instruments, and so forth, and with the contexts and purposes of music-making in contemporary life and in the past; and to broaden students’ understanding of music in social and cultural life. Investigations into the scientific aspects of music, such as the properties of sound, acoustics, the mechanism of hearing, and recording technology, allow the students to discover, to test, to experiment, while inquiry into artistic areas—musical expression, interpretation, meaning, value—invite opinions and judgments.
