I have my first qualifying exam in less than 3 days, so that's weighing on my mind lately. But at the same time, I'm getting excited for the course I'll be teaching this fall! It'll be the final course of the required Music Theory curriculum at IU, and covers 20th- and 21st-century music and analytical techniques.

Very often such classes have an element of "look at all the crazy stuff people have done!" to them. This is especially true once you get past about 1970--generally people invoke the idea that "history has not yet made its judgment" about this period, and veer from unique piece to unique piece, talking more about characteristics or generalities than theories, structure, harmony, rhythm...

I can certainly understand this, and there's something to be said about exposing students to a bunch of crazy music. But in my classroom, I want every piece to be taken seriously; I want students to know that there's always something specific, musical, and interesting they can say about a piece of music; and I especially don't want to be lecturing all the time.

I really want students to feel they have to work hard, to get practice writing detailed, analytical prose, and to take ownership of the material.

These are all difficult goals, but ones I'm getting excited thinking about. Clearly, there's no "off" time in academia...