MUSIC IN THE ROMANTIC ERA (MUS 7755)

MUSIC IN THE ROMANTIC ERA (MUS 7755) LOUISIANA STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF MUSIC & DRAMATIC ARTS SPRING 2013 instructor Dr. Blake Howe (bhowe@lsu.edu) M&DA 274 meetings Tuesdays and Thursdays, 12:00 1:20 M&DA 221 office hours Thursdays, 1:30 3:00 prerequisite Students must have passed either the Music History Diagnostic Exam or MUS 3710.

Howe / MUS 7755 Syllabus / 2 GENERAL INFORMATION COURSE OBJECTIVES This course pursues the diversity of musical practices in the long nineteenth century, examining the styles, genres, forms, and musicians that have been considered in at least some sense of the term Romantic. Our geographical focus is on the interaction of Italian, German, French, and Russian musical traditions, though our journey will include detours to England, the United States, Norway, Spain, and Bohemia. We will also focus our attention on the most frequently trafficked genres of the century the symphony (or symphonic poem), opera, and piano music with briefer considerations of song, chamber music, dance, concerto, and oratorio. Among the core themes of our history are self- expression, interiority, and other signs of Romantic subjectivity in composition and performance nationalism and exoticism (or, more generally, a musician s relationship to the cultural politics of his or her audience) the metaphor of organicism, including new strategies for unity and cohesion (e.g., Donizetti s reminiscence motives, Liszt s thematic transformations, Wagner s leitmotives, Franck s cyclical form, etc.) Beethoven s long shadow over the nineteenth century, and how later generations of composers appropriated, contested, or otherwise grappled with his legacy. We will seek new critical and analytical readings of well- known composers from this period (including Franz Schubert, Felix Mendelssohn, Giacomo Rossini, Franz Liszt, Robert Schumann, Hector Berlioz, Frédéric Chopin, Richard Wagner, Giuseppe Verdi, Pyotr Ilyich Chaikovsky, Johannes Brahms, Antonín Dvořák, Gustav Mahler, and Richard Strauss), while spending plenty of time on some lesser- known figures (including Daniel- François- Esprit Auber, Fanny Hensel, Louis Moreau Gottschalk, Miliy Balakirev, Amy Beach, and Edward MacDowell). The term paper assignment will give some students the opportunity to become experts in the music of other undeservedly obscure composers or musical traditions. Students are encouraged to use this course to seek out unfamiliar repertoire for future study and performance. Most reading excerpts derive from nineteenth- century sources, and so another important goal of this course is the examination and interpretation of primary sources, particularly historical essays on aesthetics, criticism, and diaries and travelogues of musicians. We will construct our history of this period largely from these primary documents. Our guidebook to the century will be Richard Taruskin s The Oxford History of Western Music. This is a lively, engaging, and strongly opinionated survey of the era, and we will spend much time this semester debating Taruskin s challenging provocations.

Howe / MUS 7755 Syllabus / 3 COURSE MATERIALS There is one required textbook: Richard Taruskin, The Oxford History of Western Music [OHWM], Vol. 3, The Nineteenth Century (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2005). All other reading and listening assignments will be posted onto Moodle or made available in the music library. If you would like to purchase books for reference purposes, the following general titles are recommended: Carl Dahlhaus, Nineteenth- Century Music, trans. J. Bradford Robinson (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989). Leon Plantinga, Romantic Music: A History of Musical Style in Nineteenth- Century Europe (New York: W. W. Norton, 1984). CLASSROOM ETIQUETTE Students must have access to all relevant readings, translations, scores, and handouts during class. Students should also bring materials for taking lecture notes, including staff paper. Laptop computers may be used as long as the wireless function has been disabled. In order to foster a productive learning environment, students must silence or shut down all other electronic devices. Per the policy of the University, no food or drink is allowed in the classroom. Because participation is graded heavily, regular attendance is imperative to the successful completion of this course. Students who must be absent due to illness, family emergency, or an official University function should inform the instructor in advance and obtain all lecture notes (and any other missed announcements) from a fellow student. In order to ensure that all students have the opportunity to gain from time spent in class, students are prohibited from engaging in any form of distraction or disruption. (Examples of disruptive behavior are provided by the Office of Student Advocacy & Accountability.) ACADEMIC INTEGRITY All students should acquaint themselves with the University s Code of Student Conduct. Students caught cheating, plagiarizing, copying, or otherwise violating the University s policy on Academic Integrity will be reported to the Office of Student Advocacy & Accountability for disciplinary action. (They will also receive a 0 on the relevant assignment or exam.)

Howe / MUS 7755 Syllabus / 4 DISABILITY ACCOMMODATION Students with disabilities including invisible disabilities are encouraged to contact the Office of Disability Services (112 Johnston Hall) should they require accommodation. There is absolutely no stigma attached to any such request. GRADING Performance in the course will be assessed with a letter grade, based on the following weighting of participation and papers: Class Preparation and Participation 60% Term Paper 40% 1. Bibliography (2.5%) 2. Abstract (2.5%) 3. Peer Editing (First Version) (5%) 4. Second Version (15%) 5. Final Version (15%) Students whose final percentage is between 90 and 100% will receive an A; students whose final percentage is between 80 and 89% will receive a B; students whose final percentage is between 70 and 79% will receive a C; students whose final percentage is between 60 and 69% will receive a D; and students whose final percentage is below 59% will receive an F. Grades will not be rounded up (e.g., 89.7% = B). There is no extra credit. Except in cases of family emergency or severe illness (provable only by a doctor s note from the Student Health Center), students may not submit late assignments. In such circumstances, students should contact the instructor.

Howe / MUS 7755 Syllabus / 5 CLASS PREPARATION AND PARTICIPATION For graduate level courses, students should expect to spend about three times the length of a class meeting (80 min. 3 = 240 min.) preparing for that class meeting. Listening and viewing assignments are listed on the course s Moodle webpage; they may also be streamed there. Unannounced quizzes covering the required reading and listening assignments may be given throughout the semester. Reading assignments are listed on the course s Moodle webpage; many are also available for download. There are three categories of reading assignments: (1) Taruskin s The Oxford History of Western Music [not available for download], (2) source readings, and (3) important recent historical and analytical studies (required for graduate students in musicology and theory, but optional for everyone else). Unannounced quizzes covering the required reading and listening assignments may be given throughout the semester. For each class, students must contribute their written reflections on the reading and listening assignments to the online discussion boards on Moodle. These entries (of at least 300 words, possibly spread across multiple posts) should be written as responses to the reading and listening assignments, considering their historical significance (for repertoire and source readings) and evaluating their arguments (for historical and analytical studies); they may also take the form of a response to posts by your fellow students. (It is also acceptable to use the discussion board as a venue to ask questions, to suggest discussion topics for the next class meeting, and to express confusion about a reading assignment.) These reflections will be graded on comprehensiveness, insightfulness, and clarity. Written reflections are usually due at 10:00 pm on the evening before class. This early deadline will allow the instructor to plan the class meeting around these online discussions. Reflections will be graded at random points throughout the semester. Students must actively contribute to class discussions; at random points throughout the semester, this participation will be evaluated by the instructor. (Students may safely assume that they receive perfect evaluations unless they hear otherwise from the instructor.) The class participation grade will be the average of the grades of all written reflections, quizzes, and evaluations of class participation.

Howe / MUS 7755 Syllabus / 6 TERM PAPER For the term paper assignment, students will read a book- length collection of writings from a nineteenth- century musician; these can take the form of memoirs, autobiographies, diaries, letters, and music criticism. Students will then complete one term paper (of between 2,500 and 3,000 words), examining this literature and discussing its historical significance. The assignment will be divided into several smaller steps, and students must successful complete (with a passing grade) an initial step before moving onto the next. The schedule of the term paper assignment is as follows: selection of your text (use the sign- up form on Moodle by 1/29) a statement of topic, along with a bibliography of the three most significant sources on your topic and a repertoire list of musical works you plan on consulting (including performances and editions) (due on Moodle on 2/14) an abstract, written in the style of a 350- word conference proposal to the American Musicological Society (due on Moodle on 3/7). a first version, submitted to your two writing partners (on 3/21), who must return your draft with substantive feedback (on 3/26) a second version, submitted to the instructor (due in- class on 3/28), which will be returned with comment and suggestions for revision (on 4/16) a final version (due in- class on 4/23) Grades on the second and final versions of your term paper will be based on the following rubric: 35% content (sophistication of analysis, historical inquiry, etc.) 35% prose (clarity, grammar, punctuation, formatting) 25% organization of ideas (structure: introduction, conclusion, thesis, etc.) 5% citations (proper citations in footnotes and bibliography) Rather than attempting a broad summary of your text, focus your attention on interesting details that catch your eye/ear, or a historical problem that you seek to solve. What does your text reveal about its author and, more generally, about the culture in which he or she lived? What issues (of aesthetics, performance, compositional craft) are revealed through a close reading of your text?

Howe / MUS 7755 Syllabus / 7 Students may sign up to read one of the following texts; they may also pursue other possibilities with the approval of the instructor. AUTOBIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR/DIARY Rudolph Aronson, Theatrical and Musical Memoirs (New York: McBride, Nast, and Co., 1913). Amy Fay, Music- Study in Germany: The Classic Memoir of the Romantic Era (New York: Dover, 1965). Arthur Friedheim, Life and Liszt: The Recollections of a Concert Pianist, ed. Theodore L. Bullock (New York: Taplinger, 1961). Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka, Memoirs, trans. Richard B. Mudge (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1963). Louis Moreau Gottschalk, Notes of a Pianist: The Chronicles of a New Orleans Music Legend, ed. Jeanne Behrend (Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2006). Memoir of Madame Jenny Lind- Goldschmidt: Her Early Art- Life and Dramatic Career, 1820 1851, 2 vols. (London: J. Murray, 1891). The Piano Master Classes of Franz Liszt, 1884 1886: Diary Notes of August Göllerich, ed. Wilhelm Jerger, trans. Richard Louis Zimdars (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1996). Nikolay Rimsky- Korsakov, My Musical Life, trans. Judah A. Joffe, ed. Carl Van Vechten (New York: A. A. Knopf, 1942). Louis Spohr, Autobiography (London: Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts & Green, 1865). Richard Wagner, My Life, trans. Andrew Gray, ed. Mary Whittall (Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1983). LETTERS Selected Letters of Berlioz, ed. Hugh Macdonald, trans. Roger Nichols (New York: Norton 1997). Johannes Brahms: Life and Letters, ed. Styra Avins, trans. Josef Eisinger and Styra Avins (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1997). To My Best Friend: Correspondence between Tchaikovsky and Nadezhda von Meck, 1876 1878 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993). Chopin s Letters, ed. Henryk Opieński, trans. E. L. Voynich (New York: Knopf, 1931). The Letters of Fanny Hensel to Felix Mendelssohn (Stuyvesant, NY: Pendragon Press, 1987). The Letters of Franz Liszt to Marie zu Sayn- Wittgenstein, trans. and ed. Howard E. Hugo (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1953).

Howe / MUS 7755 Syllabus / 8 Felix Mendelssohn: A Life in Letters, ed. Rudolf Elvers, trans. Craig Tomlinson (London: Cassell, 1986). Letters of Clara Schumann and Johannes Brahms, 1853 1896, ed. Berthold Litzmann (New York: Vienna House, 1971). The Verdi Boito Correspondence, ed. Marcello Conati and Mario Medici, trans. William Weaver (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994). Hugo Wolf, Letters to Melanie Köchert (New York: Schirmer, 1991). MUSIC CRITICISM Hector Berlioz, The Art of Music and Other Essays (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1994). Hector Berlioz, The Musical Madhouse: An English Translation of Berlioz s Les grotesques de la muisque, ed. Alastair Bruce (Rochester: University of Rochester Press, 2003). Dwight s Journal of Music, 40 vols. (Boston, 1852 81) [read any two- year span]. Eduard Hanslick, Music Criticisms, 1846 99, ed. Henry Pleasants (Baltimore: Penguin, 1950). E. T. A. Hoffmann s Musical Writings: Kreisleriana, The Poet and the Composer, Music Criticism, trans. Martyn Clarke, ed. David Charlton (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989), 213 446 [criticism]. Felipe Pedrell, Por neustra música (Barcelona, 1891). Carl Maria von Weber, Writings on Music, ed. John Warrack, trans. Martin Cooper (Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1981). The Music Criticism of Hugo Wolf, ed. and trans. Henry Pleasants (New York: Holmes & Meier, 1978).

Howe / MUS 7755 Syllabus / 9 COURSE SCHEDULE Information on reading and listening assignments for each class meeting will be updated on Moodle. I. FROM BEETHOVEN TO BEL CANTO: THE GERMAN ITALIAN DIVIDE 1/15 Beethoven, the Sentimental, and the Sublime Ludwig van Beethoven, Friedrich Schiller, and Christian Friedrich Michaelis 1/17 Beethoven s C- Minor Moods Ludwig van Beethoven, Johann Friedrich Reichardt, and E. T. A. Hoffmann 1/22 Beethoven vs. Rossini Ludwig van Beethoven, Gioachino Rossini, and Giuseppe Mazzini 1/24 Bel Canto Mania Vincenzo Bellini, Gaetano Donizetti, and Edmond Michotte II. ROMANTIC ARTISTS AND THEIR MUSICAL IDENTITIES 1/29 Romantic Interiority and the Musical Trance Václav Tomášek, John Field, Franz Schubert, and Wilhelm Wackenroder 1/31 Schubert and Subjectivity Franz Schubert, Josef von Spaun, and Adolf Bernhard Marx 2/5 Volkstümlichkeit and Beyond Ludwig van Beethoven, Franz Schubert, Johann Abraham Peter Schulz, Johann Gottfried Herder, and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Howe / MUS 7755 Syllabus / 10 2/7 Mendelssohn s Music of Nationhood Felix Mendelssohn and Johann Christian Lobe 2/14 Peasants and Politics in German and French Opera Carl Maria von Weber, Daniel- François- Esprit Auber, and Giacomo Meyerbeer 2/19 Glinka s Synthesis Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka and Vladimir Fyodorovich Odoyevsky 2/21 Solo Expressions, Organic Constructions: Remodeling the Concerto Ludwig van Beethoven, Niccolò Paganini, Franz Liszt, Felix Mendelssohn, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, and Leigh Hunt 2/26 Schumann: Miniatures, Fragments, and Ruins Fanny Hensel, Robert Schumann, and Friedrich and August Wilhelm Schlegel 2/28 Berlioz and the Enigmas of Musical Representation Ludwig van Beethoven, Felix Mendelssohn, and Hector Berlioz 3/5 Chopin as Foreigner: Nationalism and Pathology at the Keyboard Frédéric Chopin, Robert Schumann, François- Joseph Fétis, and George Sand 3/7 Some Musical Others: Exoticism and Orientalism Louis Moreau Gottschalk, Georges Bizet, Camille Saint- Saëns, Alexander Borodin, Victor Hugo, and Semyon Nikolayevich Kruglikov

Howe / MUS 7755 Syllabus / 11 III. NEW MUSICAL DRAMAS 3/12 Lisztian Transformations Ludwig van Beethoven, Franz Liszt, Eduard Hanslick, and Franz Brendel 3/14 Slavs as Subjects and Citizens Bedřich Smetana, Mikhail Glinka, Mily Balakirev, and Vladimir Stasov 3/19 Deeds of Music Made Visible: Wagner and the Ring Richard Wagner 3/21 Chromatic Lovedeaths Richard Wagner, Hugo Wolf, and Friedrich Nietzsche 3/26 Artist, Politician, Farmer: Verdi and the Italian Tradition Giuseppe Verdi, Arthur Pougin, and Abramo Basevi 3/28 Late Verdi, via Rossini and Wagner Giacomo Rossini, Giuseppe Verdi, and Ugo Pesci 4/9 Realists and Sadists Modest Musorgsky, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Pietro Mascagni, Giacomo Puccini, Nikolai G. Chernyshevsky, and Giovanni Verga

Howe / MUS 7755 Syllabus / 12 IV. SYMPHONY FROM THE SHADOWS OF BEETHOVEN 4/11 From the Shadows of Beethoven, the Return of the Symphony Robert Schumann, Johannes Brahms, and Eduard Hanslick 4/16 Intricate Designs: Thematische Arbeit and Transformation in Chamber Music Johannes Brahms, Amy Beach, George Henschel, Gustav Jenner, and Arnold Schoenberg 4/18 Cyclical Strategies Anton Bruckner, César Franck, Camille Saint- Saëns, Vincent D Indy, Hugo Wolf, and Eduard Hanslick 4/23 Recovering the Past: New Worlds from Old Ones Antonín Dvořák and Amy Beach 4/25 The Symphony as Self- Expression (or Not) Pyotr Ilyich Chaikovsky and Eduard Hanslick 4/30 National Music, in Miniatures and Monuments Edvard Grieg, Antonín Dvořák, Jean Sibelius, Edward MacDowell, Johannes Brahms, Enrique Granados, and Paul Rosenfeld 5/2 Transcendence Gustav Mahler, Richard Strauss, Robert Louis, and Eduard Hanslick