October 8, 2004

With the Help of Fifth-Graders, Music Students Write an Opera

By THOMAS BARTLETT

In most introductory music-theory courses, students learn to distinguish between sharps and flats, quavers and semiquavers. They learn all that in Dorothy Hindman's course, too. Then they write an opera.

Ms. Hindman, an assistant professor of music, wanted students to be able to distill the knowledge they gleaned from the class. After all, why should a bunch of freshmen, most of whom probably won't be music majors, care about reading music? But give them a goal -- like writing an