I WILL say some of the music department course descriptions are pretty... ya know.. feel goodie.. One jazz studies course will leach a ii, VI, I progression..
Oh,, really?
And a course on Beethoven called BEETHOVEN HERO-
Beethoven's symphonies are among the most famous works in the canon of Western classical music and are revolutionary in their conveyance of musical (and some would argue extra-musical) narrative within the symphonic genre. This class explores the idea of narrative and how it is heard in his music through a focused study of the symphonies and overtures written between 1803-1812.
OOOKAY----
1-
"Beethoven's symphonies are among the most famous works in the canon of Western classical music " Well. yes and no. The only Beethoven symphonies known to probably 90% of your average concert goer are the 5th and 9th. And in the 5th most people only know the first 4 bars. In the 9th, maybe 100 bars of the 4th mvt. Almost none of those concert goers could pass a 'drop the needle' test hearing the beginning of that 4th mvt.
2- And Beethoven Overtures? I mean, really? Maybe .1% of most audiences would recognize ANY Beethoven overture.
3-If that teacher REALLY wants to bring his students to a deeper understanding of Beethoven he/she should work with the quartets. How much ya wanna bet that whomever the teacher is, he/she wouldn't know one Beethoven Quarter from another? Of course, I COULD be wrong. It's happened before...Why, I remember, it was the winter of '63...... wicked cold, it was.......
eh, I'm just snooty....