2011-2012 Archived Catalog Information

Music has been a major component of the liberal arts curriculum since the Middle Ages, when it was part of the Quadrivium. It embodies the ideals and essence of every culture that produces it. It is woven into the social and historical milieu of every age. Music is the only one of the three great arts – literature, the visual arts, and music – that is primarily aural and abstract in nature. In listening attentively to music, we not only sharpen our powers of hearing and analysis, but we also experience and have mirrored the deepest feelings of our beings, the depths of our souls. Music is both an intellectual and sensual art. At Suffolk University we examine composers and their music, within their social and cultural context, and study the grammar and rhetoric of music, in order to experience it to the fullest. When we engage with great music at the deepest level, it changes us, forever. It fills our lives with beauty and joy. It deepens our understanding of what it means to be human. Suffolk offers three choices for the academic study of music: the B.A. in Music History, alone or as a double major with, for example, Business or English; a Music History Minor combined with another major of the student’s choice; or elective music courses in the student’s area of interest. Courses cover the range from medieval to contemporary, and from World Music to Mozart. Opportunities to perform music are offered in jazz and a cappella groups sponsored by the Performing Arts Office, and through the Department of Theatre.