Dr. Dan Lipori's Website: Music 380

Music 380: Music History Review

Music 380-01. Music History Review

Daniel Lipori, Instructor
Winter 2008 Quarter
MWF 11-11:50 AM, Music Room 117

1. OFFICE HOURS: TBA

Office Phone: 963-1242
Email: liporid@cwu.edu
Web Page: http://www.cwu.edu/~liporid

Also whenever my office door is open, feel free to come in if you have any questions or problems concerning this course.

2. COURSE DESCRIPTION AND GOALS:

Music 380 is an introductory survey of Western Art Music from the Medieval Period through current times.

Class time will be spent discussing historical background on the composers and musical styles of these periods. There will be several listening assignments to accompany the lectures. Reading assignments will be given daily to accompany the lectures.

The objectives for the quarter are:
1. a better understanding of western art music.
2. the development of analytical, listening, and score study skills of musical works.

3. TEXTS AND RESERVE ITEMS:

a. Required Texts:

Seaton, Douglass. Ideas and Styles in the Western Musical Tradition. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2007.

Compact Disc of Listening Selections.

b. Reserve Items (To be held in Music Library):
Weiss, Piero and Taruskin, Richard, eds. Music in the Western World: A History in Documents. New York: Schirmer, 1984.

4. COURSE REQUIREMENTS AND GRADING:

a. Daily assignments:

(1) Assigned Readings from primary text and other sources as needed.
(2) Listening selections.

b. Evaluation:

(1) 3 Assignments (each 50 points) 150 points.
(2) Exam 1 100 points.
(3) Exam 2 100 points.

c. Grading:

350 total points possible

320-350 points = A
315-319 points = A-
310-314 points = B+
285-309 points = B
280-284 points = B-
275-279 points = C+
250-274 points = C
245-249 points = C-
240-244 points = D+
210-239 points = D
0-209 points = F

d. Absences:

Attendance is not mandatory but strongly encouraged. If you know prior to a class meeting that you will be absent, please let me know beforehand so we are not waiting for someone to start a lecture. You are responsible for obtaining all materials covered during missed classes.

Verbal Changes to assignments, due dates, etc. given in class will always take precedence over what is written in the syllabus.

e. Late Assignments:

Personally, I feel that there is no good reason for turning an assignment in after the scheduled due date, other then your death. But, if something else should come up, here are my policies. An assignment is considered late if it is turned in after 12pm for a morning class or after 5pm for an afternoon class the day the assignment is due. Assignments will be lowered one letter grade for each class day late. A weekend will count for at least two days late. No assignments will be accepted after the scheduled final exam for the class.

5. ASSIGNMENTS:

You will have one assignment pertaining to every two periods of music studied. For each of these assignments you will choose one option from several choices. More specific details concerning assignments are given later in this syllabus. Of course with all assignments, you are welcome to turn them in before the due date or I am happy to look over an assignment a day or two before it is turned in to make sure you are on the right track.

6. PROPOSED CLASS SCHEDULE:

Week 1: 1/4

Introduction
Chant of the Medieval Church (pp. 23-47)

Week 2: 1/7, 1/9, 1/11

Medieval Secular Music (pp. 49-63)
Development of Polyphony (pp. 65-83)
Music in the Late Middle Ages (85-100)
The Rise of the Renaissance (pp. 103-115)

Week 3: 1/14, 1/16, 1/18

The High Renaissance (pp. 117-137)
Instrumental Music of Renaissance (pp. 139-48)
The Reformation (pp. 151-60) (WT 100-07; 135-43)

Week 4: 1/21, 1/23, 1/25

Mon. 1/21 MLK Day. No Class
Wed. 1/23 Assignment 1 Due

The End of the Renaissance (pp. 163-73)
The Arrival of the Baroque (pp. 175-90)

Week 5: 1/29-2/2

The Early Baroque (pp. 193-211) (WT 1-3; 174-78)
The Late Seventeenth Century (pp. 213-235)
The Early Eighteenth Century (pp. 237-255) (WT 246-48)

Week 6: 2/4, 2/6, 2/8

Catch Up/Review

Wed. 2/6 Exam 1

New Currents in the Early Eighteenth Century (pp. 257-273)

Week 7: 2/11, 2/13, 2/15

The Classic Style (pp. 275-99) (WT 298-300)
The End of the Eighteenth Century (pp. 301-21)
The Rise of the Romantic Movement (pp. 323-50) (WT 326-29)

Fri. 2/15 Assignment 2 Due

Week 8: 2/18. 2/20. 2/22

Mon. 2/18 President’s Day. No Class

The Mature Romantic Period (pp. 353-377) (WT 340-45; 363-65)
The Second Half of the Nineteenth Century (pp. 379-405)

Week 9: 2/25, 2/27, 2/29

The Arrival of the Twentieth Century (pp. 407-22) (WT 438-43)
Between World Wars (pp. 425-52)

Week 10: 3/3, 3/5, 3/7

In the Second Half of the Twentieth Century (pp. 455-78)
Music Technology/Recent Trends

Fri. 3/7 Assignment 3 Due

Wed. 3/12 Final Exam (8-10am)

Assignment 1
Due on or before Wednesday January 23

Choose one option and prepare a report on the topic of your choice. The length will vary depending on the option but if the option you choose is purely text, it should be between 3-5 pages in length of double d spaced type. Be sure to indicate which option you have chosen in the heading of our paper.

Option One
Medieval Secular Song

Listen to and analyze a Medieval secular song and a current popular song. Identify resemblances and differences between these songs. Comparison should include the subjects and poetic imagery in the lyrics, musical forms, and ways in which a popular song in either period is suitable for dancing.

Option Two
Rondeau

Write a song in rondeau form. In composing the text, remember that the first line of the refrain (A) and the first two lines of the verse (a, a) will have different words but the same rhythmic structure. The first refrain line (A) must be usable between the first two lines of the verse (i.e.,...aAa...); one way to do this is to open the poem with a phrase of address. The second refrain line (B) and the third verse line (b) must have the same rhythmic structure and different words, and each should conclude in a thought. In constructing the music, only two phrases need to be composed, the second (B and b) ending with a complete cadence. You only need to create a melody and text; no other voices are needed. Rondeau should be a minimum of sixteen bars of 4/4 meter or equivalent.

Option Three
Parody Mass

Create a parody Mass based on a secular piece. You may wish to rearrange the music a great deal or simply to work the Mass movements text into the notes as they stand. Care should be taken with declamation and punctuation. Set TWO texts of the Mass ordinary in primarily a homophonic and syllabic fashion with all voices moving together ala Palestrina and the reforms of the Council of Trent. Use standard rules for resolving dissonances as taught in freshman/sophomore theory. Each movement should be a minimum of sixteen bars of 4/4 meter or equivalent.

Option Four
Worship Services

Attend a service in the Lutheran and/or a Calvinist (Presbyterian, Reformed, etc.) church. Report on what elements of worship the regular services in these churches share with the Roman Catholic Mass and which items are characteristic of Protestant traditions. Also discuss the music itself, noting whether chorales or psalms are sung. If the choir sings an anthem, note both its place in the liturgy and its musical style.

Assignment 2
Due on or before Friday February 15

Option One
The Doctrine of Affections

Define the Doctrine of Affections as it pertains to Baroque music and general attitudes regarding music’s expressive power. Consider in your answer whether the doctrine is in any way indebted to language (especially dramatic language); and whether the emotion behind a word is more powerful than the word defining it. Consider also the musical ramifications of such and idea.

Option Two
Early Opera

Watch a Baroque opera (at least an hour) (Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas is just about an hour) and list the dramatic functions of each of the musical forces in late-seventeenth century opera; solo singers, chorus, orchestra. When and how do their different types of musical numbers and styles of singing or playing (1) advance the drama, (2) express affective responses to dramatic situations, (3) provide musical diversion, and (4) punctuate the dramatic structure?

Option Three
Music and Patronage

Choose and answer TWO.
1. Define a patron. How does a patron in the classical European sense differ from today’s ticket or record buyer?
2. Do we today have any system of support for musicians comparable to the old aristocratic patronage?
3. Are certain types of musical styles and structures better suited to development under musical patronage? (Consider length, instrumental and vocal resources used, etc.) Why?
4. Are there non-musical forms of patronage around today?

Option Four
More Patronage

Watch again the 1st act of Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro. (On reserve in the Music Library) In what ways (textually, dramatically, and musically) does the marriage of Figaro highlight issues associated with patronage? Are any features of Mozart’s life mirrored in the drama?

Assignment 3
Due on or before Friday March 7

Option One
Beethoven

Read some biographical material on Beethoven. Do you believe Beethoven would be any less important in the history of music if we knew only his music and not about his life? Do his deafness, his affair with the ‘Immortal Beloved,” his feelings about Napoleon and the noble aristocracy have an important effect on our understanding his music? What about his struggles with composition as recorded in his sketchbooks?

Option Two
The Cult of the Performer

Discuss some of the features of 19th century Romantic music that make it particularly suitable to serve as a vehicle for the adulation of performers. What is the role of performance tradition in building our current adulation of performers? As you answer this consider whether performers could have generated the same kind of cult status in the 14th or 16th century.
What highly celebrated musical performer most attracts your attention? For what characteristics is this performer celebrated?

Option Three
The Composer and the Public

Discuss the relationship between the composer and the public in the current day. To what extent should the public’s ability to comprehend music constrain the composer’s creativity? What role should the government have in encouraging music and the other arts? What should be government’s role in directing artistic expression for the public good?

Option Four
Popular Music

Discuss the cultural position of popular music in recent times. In what ways does the situation of modern popular music differ from that of popular music in earlier centuries? Can modern popular music be clearly separated from art music, and are the divisions among popular styles less significant than those that separate popular from “serious” music? How do the varied styles within popular music and ”serious” music contribute to social divisions in modern Western culture?