Music Humanities

Music Humanities is a one-semester survey course, part of the Core Curriculum. The official name of the course is Masterpieces of Western Music, but it is usually just called Music Humanities or Music Hum. It is normally taken by Columbia College students at some point after their freshman year.

The course usually concentrates on one or two composers per week. At the instructor's discretion, composers may include Josquin, Palestrina, Monteverdi, Vivaldi, Bach, Handel, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, Chopin, Wagner, Brahms, Debussy, Mussorgsky, Stravinsky, Schoenberg, Berg, Webern, Ligeti, and others. Jazz is also a required topic.

Like most Core classes, Music Hum has been accused of Eurocentrism. For students interested in non-Western music, there is an Asian Music Humanities course.