Music 111: Introduction To Music Spring 2019 (M-W-F, 11:00-11:50) Steve Saunders Office: 235 Bixler/Phone: x5677/email: sesaunde@colby.edu Class Homepage: http://www.colby.edu/music/saunders/mu111 Class Moodle Page: https://moodle.colby.edu/course/view.php?id=212758 Office Hours: MW 9:00-10:00 (but drop by any time!) Overview Music 111 is an overview of Western art music from the earliest surviving examples of notated music through classical compositions of the present. The first two weeks of the course furnish an introduction to fundamentals of music theory and develop a technical vocabulary for discussing music. The remainder of the course unfolds chronologically, covering the so-called Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, Romantic, and Modern/Post-Modern periods. Music 111 is, in part, a history course: you will study composers' biographies and the cultures in which various musical compositions arose. Yet the emphasis will be less on facts about music, than on musical works themselves--above all on music's mysterious power to move us. Much of the time you devote to the course will be spent in an activity that should be enriching, and often, thrilling: listening to some of the greatest masterworks of Western music! While conventional study skills will come in handy in this course, it will be equally critical for you to develop your ability to listen analytically. In other words, plan on spending lots of time listening. Textbook Purchases R. Larry Todd, Discovering Music (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018). Be sure to purchase a copy of the textbook with an access code to the publisher s Dashboard feature whose silver coating has not been removed. Most of the listening assignments are on-line and require access via Dashboard. After purchasing your textbook, register your copy here: https://register.dashboard.oup.com/catalog?pagename=colbyc_saunders. Once you have Dashboard credentials, you can login here: https://dashboard.oup.com/ Links to both sites are also found on the class web page: www.colby.edu/music/saunders/mu111 1
Requirements and Evaluation You will integrate information from a variety of sources in MU111: from lectures, from assigned readings in the text and on e-reserve, from listening assignments on the textbook website, and from other listening assignments available as streaming audio from our class webpages, http://www.colby.edu/music/saunders/mu111. The web-based assignments will guide your listening to assigned works, augment information from the text or lectures, and help you to improve your listening skills. You are responsible for all assigned reading and listening on exams. You may also want to use the study aids on our class web page and on the Discovering Music website. Your grade will be based on: 1. Scores from four (4) hour exams (60%). The listening portion of the exams will contain some identification questions (i.e., identifying the composer and work after hearing an excerpt, not always the beginning!). There will also be questions that allow you to demonstrate your awareness of music's style, form, salient melodic and harmonic features, etc. Be certain to work through the listening exercises in the text and online carefully. 2. The score on a final exam (30%). The final is cumulative. 3. Concert requirement and short research paper (10%). See detailed description on the following page. Class Attendance Regular attendance is crucial to your success; you are responsible for obtaining lecture notes for any missed lectures. Powerpoint presentations are also available from the class webpage. I will generally allow one make-up exam per student for hour exams missed because of athletic events, illness, or personal emergencies, provided that you notify me by the class before the exam. There are no excused absences from the final exam. Please turn off cell phones before coming to class the penalty is that I get to answer if it rings or see whom you re texting or what website you re surfing. Academic Honesty Plagiarism, cheating and other forms of academic dishonesty are serious offences; sanctions may include failure on the assignment, failure in the course, or suspension or expulsion from the College. The library has valuable resources about common forms of academic dishonesty: http://libguides.colby.edu/avoidingplagiarism 2
Concert Requirement and Research Paper A. CONCERT ATTENDANCE: Attendance at five concerts. Four of the concerts should be of Western Art Music; you will receive a copy of the Colby Concert Calendar early in the semester and updated lists later in the semester. The fifth concert can be of any type music. You can also count one concert in which you are a performer. You receive credit for the five concerts by turning in a program that includes your name and, in the margins, brief notes on one or two salient features of each work on the concert. See me if you attend a concert for which there is no program. B. CONCERT REPORT/RESEARCH PAPER: Select a single work (or movement) that you particularly enjoyed from one of the concerts. With my OK, you can also choose a recorded work, as long as it is one that we have not studied. The ideal length is a work that lasts 3-7 minutes. Listen to the piece in several performances; follow a score if you read music. Then write a 3-4 page (doublespaced) essay about the work modeled on the treatment of works in the Todd Discovering Music text. Your paper should have two parts: 1) A brief historical introduction to the composer, the background of the work; and/or the historical context. Avoid plagiarism: be sure to footnote all your sources; do not use sources from the web without evaluating their quality. Begin by consulting the major scholarly encyclopedia for music the Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Print version in the Bixler library; available online via Oxford Music Online in the catalogue or via http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/ 2) a listening guide that captures what you hear in the piece that seems important to convey to other listeners. Your listening guide should identify the recording that you used and include timings. It can be similar to the ones found in the text. Exemplary reports typically: Clarify the overall form of the piece; Divide the work into logical sections; Make note of important structural features (e.g., returns of major themes; variation; climaxes; tempo changes, transitions; sequences, etc.); Use technical musical terms accurately. Concert report is due at the last class meeting of the semester. 3
Music 111: Course Syllabus DATE TOPIC ASSIGNMENT (To be completed before each class) A Vocabulary for Music W Feb. 6 Music, Why Bother? F Feb. 8 M Feb. 11 W Feb. 13 F Feb. 15 Music's Horizontal Dimension: Pitch, Intervals, Scales, and Melody Music's Temporal Dimension: Rhythm, Meter, and Tempo Music's Vertical Dimension: Harmony, Tonality, and Texture Other Musical Parameters: Color, Dynamics, and Form Read Syllabus/Visit Web Page Todd: 2-16 L: MU 111, Assignment #1 (on class web pages) Todd: 16-26 L: MU 111, Assignment #2 (on class web pages) Todd: 26-31; reread 11-16 L: MU 111, Assignment #3 (on class web pages) Todd: 32-48; 57-59 L: MU 111, Assignment #4 (on class web pages) M Feb. 18 Exam 1: Musical Vocabulary W Feb. 20 F Feb. 22 Music in Medieval Europe Chant: Music and Liturgy in the Middle Ages Alternate assignment for Unit 1 Due The Beginnings of Polyphony: Organum and the Notre Dame School Todd: 48-51; 60-74 Taruskin: Persistence (e-rsrv) L: All the Ends of the Earth (3) Hildegard: O Greenest Branch (4) Todd: 74-79 Taruskin Notre Dame (e-rsv) L: All the Ends (3, again) Leonin: Viderunt omnes (5) M Feb. 25 Machaut and the Ars Nova Todd: 79-87 L: Machaut, Since You Have Forgotten Me (6) Machaut, When I Was First Visited by Love (MU111, Web Assignment #5) 4
W Feb. 27 F March 1 The Renaissance Renaissance Rebirth: Dufay and His Contemporaries "The Notes Must Do as He Wills": Josquin des Prez and the Music of the High Renaissance Todd: 92-104 L: Dufay, Missa se la face ay pale, Kyrie (7) Todd: 104-109 Atlas: Inventions in Style & Transmission (e-reserve) L: Josquin, Ave Maria (8) M March 4 Renaissance Sex and Sensuality: The Madrigal Todd: 113-118 L: As Vesta Was (10) The Cricket (Web Assign. #7) The White and Sweet Swan (MU 111 Web Assign. #7) W March 6 Moral Dilemmas and Perfect Art: Palestrina and Todd: 109-113; 124-25 The Counter-Reformation L: Palestrina, Kyrie (9) F March 8 Exam 2: Medieval and Renaissance M March 11 The Baroque Era The Early Baroque: Music in an Age of Excess Todd: 130-41 L: (All on Web Assignment #8) Gabrieli, Blow the Trumpet Caccini, Amarilli, mia bella Monterverdi, Beatus vir W March 13 Monody, Monteverdi, and the Birth of Opera Todd: 141-53 L: Monterverdi, Powerful Spirit (12) Purcell, When I Am Laid in Earth (13) F March 15 M March 18 W March 20 Instrumental Music of the Baroque and Stories without Words The Music of J. S. Bach and the Idea of Artistic Greatness Hallelujah!: The Music of George Frederic Handel Todd: 154-64 L: Corelli, Trio Sonata (14) Vivaldi, Spring (15) Todd: 164-85 L: Fugue in G minor (16) Brandenburg Cto. 5 (17) Wachet auf, 1 st mvmt. (18) Todd: 186-203 L: Water Music-Hornpipe (20) Rejoice Greatly (21) Hallelujah Chorus (22) 5
The Classical Period F March 22 Music in the Age of Enlightenment Todd: 208-18 L: Little Night Music III (25) Emperor Quartet II (28) March 23-31 Spring Break: No Classes M April 1 The Sonata and Other Forms of the Classical Era Todd: 219-34 L: Little Night Music I, (23) W April 3 The Joke as Art, or The Music of Franz Josef Haydn Surprise Symphony, II (24) Todd: 234-45 L: Surprise Symphony, IV (27) Symphony 88, IV (Web Assignment #10) F April 5 No Class M April 8 Mozart the Myth/Mozart the Man Todd: 246-63 L: Concerto in A, 1 st mvt. (29) Se a casa madama (30) Queen of the Night Aria (32) W April 10 Exam 3: The Baroque and Classical Eras F April 12 Beethoven: The Composer as Hero Todd: 264-89 L: Symphony #5 (34-37) The Romantic Era and Beyond M April 15 Schubert and the Dawn of Romanticism Todd: 294-318 L: Erlking (38) If You Love for Beauty (40) Gretchen at the Spinning Wheel (Web Assignment W April 17 F April 19 Music, Drugs, and Inspired Madness: Berlioz and Romantic Program Music Music as Religion: The Music Dramas of Richard Wagner #11) Todd: 342-61 L: Sym. fantastique IV (46) Todd: 361-80 L: La donna é mobile (47) Gods Entrance into Valhalla (48) Sat April 20 Met Simulcast of Die Walkurie at Waterville Opera House-noon (attendance optional; details TBA) M April 22 The Romantic Piano Todd: 327-41 L: Nocturne in Eb (41) Prelude in D minor (42) Petrarch Sonnet 104 (43) The Roman Saltarello (44) W April 24 Brahms the Conservative? Todd: 380-88; 414-15 L: Violin Concerto III (49) Sympbony #4 IV (Web Assignment #12 F April 26 Impressionism in France Todd: 434-40 L: Afternoon of a Faun (57) M April 29 Exam 4: Beethoven, Romanticism and Impressionism 6
From Modernism to Post-Modernism W May 1 Modernism and the Crisis of Tonality Todd: 402-09; 420-34 L: Mahler, Song No. 2 (55) Bartok, Music for Strings, Percussion/Celesta, III (62) Shostakovich 5 th II (64) Ives, General Booth (66) F May 3 NO CLASS: Colby Liberal Arts Symposium M May 6 Early Modernism I: The Music of Igor Stravinsky W May 8 F May 10 Early Modernism II: 3 S's: Schönberg, Serialism, and the Second Viennese School Whither Music? Music in a Post-Modern World Todd: 440-45; 455-61 L: Rite of Spring (58) Symphony of Psalms II (61) Todd: 430-33 (again); 446-51 L: Valse de Chopin (59) Trio from Suite for Piano (both on Web assignment #13) Concert Papers Due Todd: 530-55 L: Appalachian Spring (69) Poème èlectronique (76) 4 33 J (77) Concerto grosso I (78) Short Ride in a Fast Machine (79) 7
LISTENING REQUIREMENTS FOR EXAMS Exam #2 Composer Title Recording* Medieval Anonymous Chant: Vidernunt omnes (All the Ends of the Earth) (3) Hildegard of Bingen O viridissima virga (O Greenest Branch) (4) Leonin Organum:Viderunt omnes (All the Ends of the Earth) (5) Machaut Since You Have Forgotten Me (6) Quant en Moy(When I was first visited by Love) LISTENING #5 Renaissance Dufay Missa se la face ay pale, Kyrie (7) Josquin des Prez Ave Maria (8) El grillo (The Cricket) LISTENING #7 Weelkes As Vesta Was from Latmos Hill Descending (10) Arcadelt The White and Sweet Swan LISTENING #7 (Il bianco e dolce cigno) Palestrina Pope Marcellus Mass, Kyrie (9) *Numbers in parentheses refer to the numbering of pieces in the textbook. Listening assignments (e.g., LISTENING #5), can be accessed from the MU111 class web page: www.colby.edu/music/saunders/mu111 8
Exam #3 Baroque Gabrieli, G. Blow a Trumpet in the New Moon LISTENING #8 Caccini, G. Amarilli, mia bella LISTENING #8 Monteverdi Happy is the Man (Beatus vir) LISTENING #8 Monteverdi Powerful Spirit (Possente spirtu) (12) from Orfeo Purcell When I Am Laid in Earth from (13) Dido and Aeneas Corelli Trio Sonata in A minor (14) Vivaldi Concerto in E Maj., "The Spring" (15) First Movement Bach, J. S. Fugue in G minor (16) Brandenburg Concerto #5 (17) (1st movement) Cantata, Awake, a Voice is Calling (18) (opening chorus) Handel Water Music (Hornpipe) (20) Messiah (Rejoice Greatly) (21) (Hallelujah Chorus) (22) Classical Mozart Piano Concerto in A Major (29) 1st Movment Se a casa madama, aria from (30) The Marriage of Figaro A Little Night Music (23 and 25) 1st and 3rd Movements Queen of the Night Aria from (32) The Magic Flute Haydn Symphony #94, "The Surprise" (24) 2nd Movement Symphony #94, "The Surprise" (27) 4th Movement Symphony #88 in G Major LISTENING #10 4th Movment String Quartet Op. 76, no. 3 (28) "The Emperor," 2nd Movement 9
Exam #4 Beethoven Symphony #5 (complete) (34-37) Schubert Erlkönig (The Erl-King) (38) Gretchen at the Spinning Wheel LISTENING #11 Schumann, C. If You Love For Beauty (40) Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique (IV) (46) Dream of a Witches Sabbath Chopin Nocturne in E flat Major (41) Prelude No. 24 in d minor (42) Liszt Petrarch Sonnet 104 (43) Hensel The Roman Saltarello, Op. 6, no. 4 (44) Wagner The Gods entrance into Valhalla (48) from Das Rheingold Verdi La donna é mobile (47) Brahms Violin Concerto, III (49) Symphony No. 4, IV, Allegro energetico LISTENING #12 Debussy Prelude to The Afternoon of a Faun (57) New for Final Exam (in addition to a selection of earlier works) Mahler Ging heut morgen über s Feld (55) Songs of a Wayfarer, No. 2 Bartók Music for Strings, Percussion & (62) Celesta, III Shostakovich Symphony No. 5 (II) (64) Ives General Booth Enters into Heaven (66) Stravinsky Le sacre du printemps (58) (Intro and Augurs of Spring) Symphony of Psalms II (61) Schönberg Valse de Chopin (59) from Pierrot lunaire Trio from Suite for Piano (1924) LISTENING #13 Copland Appalachian Spring (excerpt) (69) Varèse Poème életronique (opening) (76) Zwilich Concerto grosso, I (78) Adams Short Ride in a Fast Machine (79) 10