The Effect of a Music Appreciation Course on Students' Verbally Expressed Preferences for Composers

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of a course in music appreciation on I attitudes of college nonmusic majors (N = 187) regarding favorite composers, as verbally expressed in the absence of music stimuli. Students participating in a 10-week music appreciation course were tested for knowledge of course content and surveyed for ranked listings of their 10 favorite composers before and after the course. These data were analyzed for precourse to postcourse changes and their interrelationships, as well as their relationships to music training, textbook content, and recording purchases. The primary focus of the music appreciation course was the music and composers of the formal tradition as reflected by the textbook content. After completing the course, students had a significantly greater tendency (p < .01) to include composers of this tradition on ranked listings of their 10 favorite composers. There was a significant (p < .05) but moderate relationship between textbook content and both frequency of mention and rank sums of composers of the formal tradition. The inclusion of more composers of the formal tradition on the ranked listings had no significant relationship (p > .05) to cognitive gains, musical training, or recording purchases. The increased inclusion of composers of the formal tradition may have been a result of familiarity with and not necessarily greater liking of their music. Weaknesses of the investigation are discussed, along with recommendations for future research.