musc200 history of western music
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Course Syllabus
Course Name: History of Western Music First Year Available: Year 2 (Sophomore) Course Code: MUSC 200 Subject Area: Music Style of Class: Lecture Number of Credits: 3 Term(s) Offered: Spring Semesters Prerequisites: None Instructor: Alexander Theodore Sigman Course Description A broad survey of Western Classical music, extending from antiquity to the present. Course activities include lectures, writing and listening assignments, and primary source readings. Salient repertoire from each historical period is situated in a sociocultural and sociopolitical context. The reception histories of particular works will be addressed. Parallels between musical aesthetics and techniques and concurrent tendencies in other art forms, as well as the influence of non‐Western music on Western composers are discussed. Course Objectives This course will introduce students to (i) vocabulary essential for writing about and discussing Western Classical music and (ii) important repertoire from each major historical period, situated in a historical context. Course Expectations In the interest of developing skills in writing about and discussing the course content, students will be expected to contribute to class discussions regularly. All students will submit a final paper, and give a presentation on their paper topic during Week 15 of the semester. Students cannot expect to pass the course if they fail to attend the lectures on a regular basis. Grading Criteria There will be one in‐class midterm and one final examination. Grading is as follows: attendance and participation (10%); assignments (30%); midterm (20%); final paper (20%); final examination (20%). Late assignments will be penalized. Assignments and Exams Assignments and exams will include fill‐in‐the‐blank and short answer questions based on the reading, listening, and lecture content. Paper One essay (6–8 typed pages, double‐spaced), due Week 15 of the semester. You will be asked to submit a brief paper topic proposal. Your essay should be based on course readings and at least one additional book or set of articles that deals with your topic. Late papers will be penalized. Required Materials and Textbooks 1) Burkholder, Peter J., Grout, Donald Jay, and Palisca, Claude V. A History of Western Music, Eighth Edition. (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2009)
2) Burkholder, Peter J. and Palisca, Claude V. Norton Anthology of Western Music, vols. 1‐3, Sixth Edition (New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 2009) N.B.: There is a collection of CD's corresponding to the Anthology that you are NOT required to purchase. They will be on course reserve in the Library. Furthermore, the audio tracks will be available for streaming on the textbook website (see below). 3) Weiss, Piero and Taruskin, Richard. Music in the Western World: A History in Documents, Second Edition. (New York: Schirmer Books, 2007). Additional readings, scores, and recordings will be distributed in class and/or posted to the course website by the instructor. Online Resource http://www.wwnorton.com/college/music/grout8/ This website provides chapter outlines, listening selections, chapter quizzes, and study materials corresponding to the Burkholder/Grout/Palisca History of Western Music textbook and Norton anthology. This site is intended NOT as a replacement of the History of Western Music textbook, but rather as reinforcement of the concepts covered. Please be certain to complete the reading assignments—do NOT merely read the online chapter outlines! Reading, Looking, and Listening For this course, it will be essential not only to complete the reading assignments, but also to listen to the works discussed and follow along in the Norton Anthology. Remember: Reading without listening in a music history course is about as useful as reading without closely examining images of artworks in an art history course. Lectures and Readings WEEK 1: Introduction and Background (Day 1): Course Introduction and Overview (Day 2): Ancient Greece, Antiquity, and the Emergence of (Western) Music Notation; Codification of the Liturgy; Gregorian Chant WEEK 2: Medieval Period (Day 1): Song and Dance Music in the Middle Ages (Day 2): Thirteenth and Fourteenth Century Polyphony WEEK 3: The Renaissance (Day 1): The "contenance angloise": English and Burgundy in the Fifteenth Century; Franco‐Flemish composers (Day 2): Sacred Music during the Reformation WEEK 4: The Renaissance, cont'd and the Seventeenth Century (Day 1): The Sixteenth Century Madrigal and Secular Song; the Rise of Instrumental Music (Day 2): The Invention of Opera: C. Monteverdi and the Spread of Italian Opera WEEK 5: The Seventeenth Century, cont'd (Day 1): Seventeenth Century Chamber Music and Church Music (Day 2): French and English Music of the Seventeenth Century
WEEK 6: The Early and Middle Eighteenth Century: Late Baroque and the Rococo (Day 1): Italy and France: Vivaldi, F. Couperin, and Rameau (Day 2): Germany I: J.S. Bach WEEK 7: Baroque/Rococo, cont'd + MIDTERM SUMMARY (Day 1): Germany II: Händel (Day 2): MIDTERM SUMMARY WEEK 8: Instrumental Music in the Classical Period (Day 1): Sonata, Symphony, and Concerto at Midcentury; Musical Taste and Style in the Enlightenment (Day 2): First Viennese School I: Haydn WEEK 9: Mozart and Beethoven (Day 1): First Viennese School II: Mozart (Day 2): First Viennese School III: Beethoven WEEK 10: The Romantic Generation: Song and Piano Music (Day 1): Schubert, Schumann, and the German Lied (Day 2): Piano Music: Schubert, Mendelssohn, Schumann, Chopin, and Liszt WEEK 11: Romantic Orchestral, Chamber, and Choral Music (Day 1): Orchestral Music: Schubert, Berlioz, and Schumann (Day 2): Chamber Music: Schubert and Schumann Choral Music: Mendelssohn and Berlioz WEEK 12: Romantic Opera (Day 1): Early Romantic Opera in Italy, France, and Germany: Rossini/Donizetti/Bellini, Meyerbeer, and C.M. von Weber (Day 2): Later Nineteenth Century Romantic Opera: Verdi, Wagner, and Bizet WEEK 13: The Late Nineteenth Century: "New Music" and New Nationalisms (Day 1): Late Romanticism in Germany and Austria: Brahms vs. Wagner/Liszt; H. Wolf and R. Strauss (Day 2): Tchaikovsky and the Russian "Mighty Five"; Dvorak and Janacek; Grieg; American composers Week 14: The Early Twentieth Century (Day 1): Germany/Austria and Scandinavia: Mahler; R. Strauss operas; Sibelius (Day 2): France and Italy: Debussy, Ravel, Satie, Russolo WEEK 15: Modernisms (Day 1): The Second Viennese School: Schönberg, Berg, and Webern (Day 2): Stravinsky, Bartók, Ives, and Varèse FINAL PAPER DUE WEEK 16: Postwar Crosscurrents and FINAL EXAM (Day 1): Postwar Crosscurrents: Messiaen; Britten; European and American serialism; American
experimentalism; Takemitsu; electronic music (Day 2): FINAL EXAM