Instructor: Paul Riker Fall 2008 Office/Office Hours: Room 211 Hours TBA E-mail: paulwriker@gmail.com Music 001 Introduction to Music Section CT3FA T/F, 12:15-1:30 pm Room 226 Course Description. This course is an introduction to the elements of music and a survey of representative masterpieces of Western art music from about 1600 to the present. The goal of the course is to develop an understanding of the basic elements of music and the formal and stylistic characteristics of music of different historical periods. In the process, students may expect to develop active listening skills that enrich and deepen their appreciation of music. No previous musical experience or knowledge is required. Required Text/Listening. Kamien, Roger. Music: An Appreciation. Sixth Brief Edition. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2008. The book is accompanied by a set of 5 CD s. Course Requirements 1. Reading and listening assignments. Please complete all reading and listening assignments on time, in order to follow the lectures and participate in class discussion. You are strongly advised to listen to the music examples more than once, so that you can think about what you are listening to. 2. Concert attendance and concert reports. Students will be required to attend a minimum of two live concerts of classical music during the course of the semester, and to write a report of at least two double-spaced pages on each concert. Concert reports are due on October 21 and December 2. See pages 8-11 of this syllabus for further details. My thanks to Professor Pau for his guidelines. 3. Class presentations. The class sessions on December 9 and 12 will be devoted to in-class presentations. Working in teams of three, you will give a five-minute presentation on a short piece or song by a composer, or in a style, not otherwise covered in the course. Your presentation should highlight ways in which the piece is representative of its composer/performer, style, and/or genre. Subject to my approval, you may choose a non-classical or a non-western piece for this project. Teams should be formed, and topics chosen, by October 31. 4. Quizzes. There will be two mid-term quizzes, scheduled for October 3 and November 7.
5. Final exam. The final exam will take place on the day and time set by the College. The exam will be comprehensive: it will cover material from the entire semester. 6. Class participation. I will take attendance at the beginning of each class. Excessive absences from class will adversely affect your course grade. 7. Seating Assignments. Assigned seating is required in this class. This will allow me to get to know your names and to take attendance quickly. Your course grade will be determined as follows: Final exam 35% Quizzes 30% Concert reports 20% Class presentation 10% Class participation 5% Make-Up and Late Work. Students should make every effort to take quizzes and exams when they are scheduled, and to submit concert reports on time. A make-up quiz or exam will be given only if (i) you are ill and have a doctor s note and (ii) I am informed of your illness by e-mail before 12:00 pm on the day of the quiz or exam. Late concert reports will be penalized at the rate of one complete grade (A to B, etc.) for each class day it is late. If a report is submitted more than a week late, you will not receive credit for that report. Academic Honesty. Cheating and plagiarism will be dealt with severely. I expect your written work to be entirely original work. It is not acceptable to copy or paraphrase work that has appeared elsewhere (including on the Internet) without indicating clearly that that is what you are doing. Plagiarism is a very serious academic violation: if you are not sure what it is, please come speak to me. Classroom Policies. Be prompt and do not disrupt class by arriving late or leaving early. Make sure all cellular phones, pagers, and other similar devices are turned off before class begins. Do not talk among yourselves while I am talking or playing music. If you do, I will separate you from your neighbor(s) or ask you to leave. 2
Course Schedule The following is a tentative schedule for our course meetings. To the extent there are changes to the schedule and/or to assignments, I will announce them in class. DATE TOPIC READING (Kamien page numbers) Week One LISTENING (Kamien CD: track numbers) F 8/28 Introduction Week Two T 9/2 F 9/5 Elements of Music: Pitch, Rhythm and Notation Performing Media: Voices and Instruments 4-9; 30-37 Stravinsky, Firebird, Scene 2 (CD1: 1-2) Ellington, C-Jam Blues (CD1: 3-10) 9-29 Britten, Young Person s Guide to the Orchestra (CD1: 11-35) Week Three T 9/9 F 9/12 Elements of Music: Melody, Harmony, Key, Texture Form in Music; Overview of Musical Style Periods 38-52 Chopin, Prelude in E minor (CD1: 36) Bizet, Farandole from L Arlesienne (CD1: 37-41) 52-57 Tchaikovsky, Dance of the Reed Pipes from The Nutcracker (CD1: 42-44) Beethoven, Contredance no. 7 (CD1: 45-46) Week Four T 9/16 Overview of the Baroque; Vivaldi, the Baroque Concerto, and Ritornello Form 96-104; 124-129 Vivaldi, La Primavera ( Spring ) from The Four Seasons, Movements I-III (CD2: 1-9) 3
F 9/19 Bach s Instrumental Music; the Concerto Grosso and the Fugue 104-110; 130-132 Bach, Brandenburg Concerto no. 5, Movement I (CD1: 63-67) Bach, Little Fugue in G minor (CD1: 68-70) Week Five T 9/23 Sacred Vocal Music in the Baroque 134-135; 138-144; 146-147 Bach, Cantata no. 140: Wachet auf, Movts. IV and VII (CD2: 12-15) Handel, Messiah, Ev ry Valley and Hallelujah Chorus (CD2: 16-22) F 9/26 Baroque Opera 110-122 Monteverdi, Tu se morta from Orfeo (CD1:71) Week Six Purcell, When I am laid in earth, from Dido and Aeneas (CD1:72-73) T 9/30 F 10/3 NO CLASS QUIZ #1 (Kamien, Parts I and III) Week Seven T 10/7 Overview of the Classical Era; Sonata Form 154-165 Mozart, Symphony no. 40, Movt. I (CD2: 23-31) F 10/10 Other Classical Forms: Theme and Variations, Minuet, Rondo 165-172; 174-176 Haydn, Symphony no. 94, Movt. II (CD2:32-37) Mozart, Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, Movt. III (CD2:38-40) Beethoven, String Quartet, op. 18/4, Movt. IV (CD2:41-44) 4
Week Eight T 10/14 F 10/17 Week Nine NO CLASS (classes follow a Monday Schedule) Mozart and Viennese Classicism 177-186 Mozart, Don Giovanni, Act I: Introduction (audio - CD3:1-4; video clips-cd5) T 10/21 Beethoven and the Symphony Concert Report #1 due 193-195; 197-205 Beethoven, Symphony no. 5 (CD2:45-69) F 10/24 Overview of 19 th century Romanticism; Schubert and the German Art Song 213-225 Schubert, Erlkönig (CD3:12-17) Week Ten T 10/28 Music for the Piano: Chopin, Schumann, Liszt 225-228; 231-235; 236-238 Schumann, Estrella and Reconnaissance, from Carnaval (CD3:18-21) Chopin, Nocturne in E-flat major, op. 9/2 (CD3:26-28) Chopin, Revolutionary Etude, op. 10/12 (CD3:29) F 10/31 Form in the 19 th century: Mendelssohn, Brahms Final date to submit topic for class presentations 239-242; 262-267 Mendelssohn, Violin Concerto, Movt. I (CD5:1-6) Brahms, Symphony no. 3, Movt. III (CD3:48-50) Week Eleven T 11/4 Program Music; Nationalism 245-6; 252-6; 260-1 Smetana, The Moldau (CD3:34-40) 5
F 11/7 Romantic Opera in Italy: Verdi and Puccini 267-276 Puccini, La Bohème, Act I: excerpt (audio-cd3:51-52; video clip-cd5:) Week Twelve T 11/11 QUIZ #2 (Kamien, Parts IV and V) F 11/14 Overview of Music in the 20 th Century; Debussy and Impressionism 293-301; 304-310 Debussy, Prélude à l Aprèsmidi d un Faune (CD4:9-15) Week Thirteen T 11/18 Stravinsky 311-318 Stravinsky, Le Sacre du Printemps ( The Rite of Spring ), excerpt (CD4:16-23) F 11/21 Video presentation to be announced Week Fourteen T 11/25 Expressionism and the Second Viennese School 318-321; 323-325; 328-333 Schoenberg, Mondestrunken, from Pierrot Lunaire (CD4:24) Berg, Wozzeck, Act III, Sc.4-5 (video clip-cd5) Webern, Piece for Orchestra, op. 10/3 (CD4:28) F 11/28 NO CLASS -- Thanksgiving Week Fifteen T 12/2 Music After 1945: Constrasting Approaches Concert Report #2 due 353-4; 355-7; 360-5; 368-70 Cage, Sonata No. 2, from Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano (CD4:46-48) Varèse, Poème électronique (opening) (CD4:49-50) (continued on next page) 6
Piazzolla, Fugata (CD5:7-8) Adams, Short Ride in a Fast Machine (CD4:53-56) F 12/5 Classical Music Today: A subjective sampling N/A TBA Week Sixteen T 12/9 Class Presentations 1 F 12/12 Class Presentations 2 Week Seventeen T 12/16 Review Session for Final Exam Finals Week TBA FINAL EXAM 7
Music 1 Fall 2009 A. Pau Attending Concerts and Writing Concert Reports Each student is required to attend at least two live concerts of classical music and to write a one- to two-page report on his or her experience. Choosing a Concert Concerts of classical music can take many different forms. These include orchestra concerts led by a conductor; solo recitals on the piano or another instrument; instrumental and chamber music recitals with a small group of performers; and operas, which combine the efforts of solo singers, a chorus, an orchestra, a conductor, and stage directors and designers. Any of these forms is acceptable for purposes of the concert report requirement. The following, on the other hand, are not acceptable choices: Broadway musicals; jazz, rock or pop concerts. If you have any questions about whether a specific concert or performance is acceptable, please come ask me before you attend. I have set up a folder on the class BlackBoard page containing information on how to find concert listings. Many concerts take place on the Queens College campus: calendars are available outside the Music Department office. If you have the time to travel into Manhattan, there is a wide variety of choices at venues like Carnegie Hall (57 th Street and 7 th Avenue, N/Q/R/W trains), which features a wide range of visiting orchestras and soloists from around the world, and Lincoln Center (63 rd -65th Streets and Broadway, 1 train to 66 th Street), which is home to the New York Philharmonic, the Metropolitan Opera and the New York City Opera. The Friday issue of the New York 8
Times typically has a listing of classical concerts taking place in the following week (look near the end of the Arts section). You can also try to find information on concert listings in other newspapers, or in magazines like New York, Time Out, or The New Yorker. Concerts on campus are (unless otherwise specified) free. Many performing arts organizations offer student discount tickets: be sure to ask about them at the Box Office. Preparing for Concerts If you can, try to find out the program for the concert in advance, so you can do some reading about the composers and/or the pieces before you attend. Your textbook is a good place to start. Some organizations (including Carnegie Hall) post their concert programs online. If you are going to the opera, try to find out something about the plot beforehand: the Metropolitan Opera provides online plot descriptions for many operas at http://www.metoperafamily.org/metopera/discover/stories. At the Concert Most concerts will have a printed program that lists the works to be performed, the performers, and other information. Please remember to take a copy of the program home with you, so you can attach it to your concert report(s). A note on concert etiquette: if a work (such as a symphony or a sonata) contains more than one movement, it is customary to applaud only at the end of the whole work, and not in between movements. After the Concert If you find certain works and certain composers interesting, try to follow up on your concert experience by listening to recordings of those works, or other works by those composers. The only way to learn more about music is by listening. 9
Concert Reports Please type all your reports. They should be at least two double-spaced pages in length. The reports are due in class on October 23 and November 29. Please remember to attach a copy of the concert program to your report. Guidelines The following are some guidelines for writing your reports. In general, the reports should describe your personal experience at the concert, and also provide some details about the music. You are not restricted to what is in these guidelines: if there is anything else about the concert-going experience you would like to write about, feel free to do so. Music: 1. What kind of concert was it? (orchestra, piano, opera, etc.) 2. What was on the program? (composers, titles); what stylistic period(s) (Baroque, Classical, Romantic, 20 th century) did the pieces belong to? 3. Which piece (or section or movement of a piece) did you like best? Least? Why? 4. Briefly describe the music of each piece. * How did it make you feel? Was the music programmatic (i.e. is it supposed to tell a story)? How successfully did it do so? Even if the music did not deal with a specific story, did it evoke any particular images or pictures or stories in your mind? 5. If you can, try to include in your discussion of the music some of the concepts from the course: e.g. dynamics (loud/soft); tone color and instrumentation; form (e.g. sonata form, ABA, rondo, minuet, scherzo); rhythm; meter (duple, triple, quadruple); tempo (fast, slow, changing); texture (monophonic, homophonic, polyphonic); melody; harmony (major/minor, consonant/dissonant). * If there are too many works on the program, focus your discussion on the two or three pieces you liked most. In the case of a very long work (or an opera), you can choose to discuss a specific section (such as an individual movement, or an individual act or scene). 10
Performance: 1. How did the performance sound to you overall? Was there a performance you liked best or least? 2. Did the performer(s) succeed in bringing out the energy and the emotion of the music? Did they play or sing in tune? 3. Did they appear comfortable with the technical demands of the music? 4. Was there good ensemble and communication among the performers? How did the conductor (if there was one) perform? General Reactions: 1. Was the experience new to you? What (if anything) struck you about the concert hall and the physical surroundings? The behavior of the audience? The behavior of the performers? 2. How was the experience difference from what you expected? How was it like (or unlike) other concerts you may have attended? 3. Did you enjoy the experience? Why (or why not)? 11