MUS 131A Spring 2018 History of Music I: Ancient through Early Baroque Tuesdays and Fridays, 11:00-12:20 PM, Slosberg Music 215 Professor Karen Desmond (kdesmond@brandeis.edu). My office hours are Tuesdays and Friday, 12:30 PM to 1:30 PM, or by appointment. Room 222, Slosberg. The TA for this class is Shawn Mikkelson (mikkelson@brandeis.edu). This class is a survey of music history from antiquity to the beginning of the 17th century, considering major styles, composers, genres, and techniques of musical composition from a historical and analytical perspective. LEARNING OUTCOMES 1. You will have an in-depth knowledge of the content, techniques, and style of specific Western European repertoires from the Middle Ages to the early 17th century; 2. You will be able to identify significant features of these repertoires through listening and examination of scores, and to apply the appropriate technical terminology and analytical techniques within oral and written narrative descriptions and analyses of this music; 3. You will be able to communicate on the intersections between cultural, social, and political landscapes and artistic artifacts and activity, and the value of these artifacts and activities to particular societies; 4. You will be able to write a lengthy research paper with scholarly rigor, integrating previous scholarship with your own analytical observations and interpretations of medieval and Renaissance repertoires, either at the level of close reading of particular works, or a stylistic assessment of a larger repertoire.you will also learn to use the resources of a university research library.
2 REQUIREMENTS It may appear that there are many requirements for this class, however, these requirements have been carefully planned to ensure cumulative learning throughout the semester and to reduce the need for cramming before lengthy exams or rote memorization. The weekly listening logs encourage the cumulative learning of the repertoire and its style and techniques, and the responses to the reading encourages full class participation in class discussions and ground your growing understanding of the period s musical style within a larger historical understanding. Your learning of technical terms and apprehension of musical techniques and style is encouraged and then assessed through regular short in-class quizzes. There is no final exam, and your cumulative knowledge of musical style and its historical context is then applied to an intensive written project, which is completed in stages throughout the semester. Quizzes (towards Learning Outcomes 1 & 2): 30% There will be five quizzes (dates noted in the Course Outline and Schedule below) throughout the semester to facilitate and assess the learning of terminology and the development of listening skills. They will consist mostly of short-answer, multiple-choice, and/or word-matching questions, including responses to audio excerpts. The terms and skills to be tested in each quiz will be posted on Latte. Listening Logs (towards Learning Outcomes 1 & 2): 15% Credit/No Credit. If your listening log meets the following requirements you will receive full credit. If not, you will receive no credit. You must submit 10 listening logs over the course of the semester. Each Monday (by 5pm) you will write responses to the listening assigned for that week; these help you focus your thinking about the music repertoires we are studying and expand your knowledge of these repertoires. A prompt will be posted on Latte to focus your response. You will receive credit for your log when you have a made a good faith effort to write something about your reaction to the works assigned, with reference to the terminology and concepts learned in class. Class Participation, including regular attendance and contribution to discussion of readings (towards Learning Outcome 3): 15% Reflection on readings (5% of the 15%): Completing the readings prior to the Friday class is required. Before the Friday class, by 10 am, please post on Latte one thoughtful discussion question or observation on the reading(s) for that class. This is required for every Friday class and will contribute 5% of the 15%. Leading the class discussion (10% of the 15%): Each Friday class, two students will lead our discussion of the day s readings. The students will present an overview of each reading s main arguments, propose relevant and thoughtprovoking discussion questions, and guide the class dialogue for approximately 20 minutes. Each student will lead two class discussions. In addition, shortly after the submission of Draft 2 of your research paper, each student is expected to briefly present the work you have chosen and your thesis statement to the class for discussion. Attendance is taken at every class. If you need to miss class due to illness, a family emergency, or for religious observances, you must contact me beforehand via e-mail or make prior arrangements with me in class. More than two unexcused absences will affect your class participation mark, dropping it by 1.5% for each unexcused absence.
3 Research Paper (towards Learning Outcomes 1, 2, 3, & especially 4): 40% 3,000-4,000 words, submitted in three stages. Draft 1 (5% of the 40%): Close reading of one work (Due March 9 by 5pm) Credit/No Credit. If Draft 1 meets the following requirements you will receive full credit. If not, you will lose the 5%. In the title of your submission, identify the composition you have chosen to focus on from the list in Latte. Locate the modern edition of the piece, and a recording of the work, using the list of resources provided on Latte. Locate the text and translation of the work, using the resources provided on Latte. Submit a scan of the text and translation; and a scan of the modern edition with five significant moments in the score, marked up with numbered boxes. Submit a 500-word narrative description of the work, referring specifically to the five marked-up boxes and using some technical terminology. Draft 2 (10% of the 40%): Situating your chosen work in the larger context (Due March 29 by 5pm) Credit/No Credit. If Draft 2 meets the following requirements you will receive full credit. If not, you will lose the 10%. Submit a 1000-word draft narrative (your bibliography may be included in this word count) on your work that includes the following elements: Identify the genre of your work. Situate your work within the output of the composer (i.e., identify the number of works written by the composer in this genre, and where this work falls within this output). In the case of anonymous works, skip this requirement. Identify other composers also writing works in this same genre during the lifetime of your composer. If your work is anonymous simply identify the number/extent of works written in this genre during this century that this work was composed. Compare and contrast your work with at least one other work in this genre either written by the same composer or written by another composer. Include marked-up scans (with at least 5 marked-up elements) of the two works to accompany this narrative. Propose a thesis statement. Final paper (25% of the 40%): Final Paper (Due April 27 by 5pm) Extensions only granted if requested before the due date, with a good justification. If no extension granted, a late paper will go down by one grade level (i.e., an A becomes an A-) each day. Submit your final 3,000-word paper. All papers must be submitted as MS Word or PDF documents, line spacing set at 1.5 lines, in 12-point Times New Roman font, with footnotes and a bibliography. The citations must be formatted following the Chicago Manual of Style. Your paper should have the following sections: an introduction that clearly has a clear thesis statement (the paper s main argument) and motive, that is, why the paper s key question(s) are interesting and important. a subsection (with an appropriate heading) that provides a close descriptive reading of your chosen work. a subsection (with an appropriate heading) that takes this evidence beyond the work in question, and offers an analysis and interpretation of the evidence. You may explore your work in more depth either by comparing it to at least one other comparable work, and/or situate within a larger repertoire of similar works, and/or contextualize it within the cultural landscape of the time. a conclusion. You will note, of the requirements for this course, if you submit 10 listening logs, attend class regularly, fulfill your participation requirements in the Friday class discussion, and submit drafts 1 and 2 of your research paper, this is worth a full 45% of your final grade. This is a 4-credit course, and as such, you are expected to devote nine hours of work to this class outside of class time.
4 Textbook This is the required textbook for this course. It is available in the Brandeis book store. It is a score anthology so that you can follow along with the music in class, and study the music before class, while completing the listening assignments. Please bring to class each day. Oxford Anthology of Western Music. Volume One: The Earliest Notations to the Early Eighteenth Century, edited by David J. Rothenberg and Robert R. Holzer, Richard Taruskin and Christopher H. Gibbs (Oxford, 2013) ISBN 9780199768257 In the Course Outline below, compositions for which scores are not provided in the required Oxford anthology will be handed out in class (marked with an asterisk). Many of the class readings will be taken from the following book, which is available as an ebook through the Brandeis library. Richard Taruskin, Music from the Earliest Notations to the Sixteenth Century, The Oxford History of Western Music, vol. 1. New York: Oxford University Press, 2009. Class Policies Attendance in class is required and attendance will be taken each day. Two unexcused absences are allowed; further absences will affect your class participation mark. No use of social media or non-class related activity on phones or laptops during our class meetings (no texting, emails, Facebook, etc.). Brandeis Policy Statements Students with disabilities: If you are a student with a documented disability on record at Brandeis University and wish to have a reasonable accommodation made for you in this class, please see me immediately. Academic Integrity: You are expected to be honest in all of your academic work. Please consult Brandeis University Rights and Responsibilities for all policies and procedures related to academic integrity. Students may be required to submit work to TurnItIn.com software to verify originality. Allegations of alleged academic dishonesty will be forwarded to the Director of Academic Integrity. Sanctions for academic dishonesty can include failing grades and/or suspension from the university. Citation and research assistance can be found at LTS - Library guides. This means that you submit your own work, and that all material and information taken from other sources, including any paraphrases of the work or ideas of another person (note this is broader than simply referencing direct quotations) is acknowledged in correct scholarly form. I am required to report violations of academic integrity to the Director of Academic Integrity. If you have any questions about quoting, citing, or referring to another person s work, please ask before submitting your paper; I am happy to discuss it with you.
5 COURSE OUTLINE AND SCHEDULE The readings are to be responded to and discussed on the Friday of the week in which they are listed. The works listed under Listening are to be responded to in the log to be submitted by the Monday of the following. Works indicated with an asterisk (*) are not in the required Anthology textbook, and the scores will be handed out in class. Jan 12 (Fr). Introduction. Listening: Anthology no. 7, Three Frankish Hymns. Jan 16, 19 (Tu/Fri). Plainchant: Mass and Office liturgies; the development of music notation. Reading (by this Friday): Taruskin, chapter 1, pp. 1-25 (beg. to Psalmody in Practice: The Mass ). Listening (by next Monday): Anthology no. 2, 3, and 4 (various chants for mass and office). Jan 23, 26 (Tu/Fr). Plainchant: strophic forms; medieval understandings of pitch relationships. Reading (by this Friday): Taruskin, chapter 2, pp. 41-7, 53-61, 72-80 ( Sequences ; How they were performed ; The Mass Ordinary ; Tonaries to Mode classification ). Listening (by next Monday): Hildegard, Columba aspexit. Jan 30 (QUIZ), Feb 2 (Tu/Fr). Secular monophony: amour courtois and the genres of trouvère song. Reading (by this Friday): Taruskin, chapter 3, pp. 105-33 (beg. to A note on instruments ). Listening (by next Monday): Moniot d Arras, Ce fut en mai. Adam de la Halle, Je muir, Je muir. Adam de la Halle, Bone amourete. Feb 6, 9 (Tu/Fr). 13th-century organum: Polyphony and the notation of rhythm. Reading (by this Friday): Taruskin, chapter 6, pp. 169-96 (beg. to Organum cum alio ). Listening (by next Monday): Leonin, Viderunt omnes. Perotin, Viderunt omnes. Perotin, Alleluia nativitas.* Anon., Ex semine (motet). Feb 13, 16 (QUIZ) (Tu/Fr). The medieval motet. Reading (by this Friday): Taruskin, chapter 7, pp. 207-212, 217-219, 221-226, 228-233, chapter 8, pp. 255-60 (beg. to Tenor families plus Establishing the Prototype ). Listening (by next Monday): Anon., L autre jour/au tens pascour/in SECULUM. On parole/a Paris/FRESE NOUVELE. Vitry (attrib.), Tribum que non abhorruit/quoniam/merito. Machaut, S il estoit/s Amours.* Winter Break, February 19-25 NO CLASS Feb 27, Mar 2 (Tu/Fr). 14th-century songs and medieval counterpoint. Reading (by this Friday): Taruskin, chapter 9, pp. 289-309, chapter 10, pp. 366-374 (beg. to What Instrumentalists Did plus Landini ). Listening (by next Monday): Machaut, Douce dame jolie. Machaut, En mon cuer. Machaut, Puis qu en oubli.* Machaut, Ma fin est mon commencement.* Landini, Non avrà ma pietà.
6 Mar 6,9 (Tu/Fr). The rise of European music. England and the Continent. Reading (by this Friday): Taruskin, chapter 11, pp. 422-452 ( Dunstable to end). Listening (by next Monday): Dunstable, Quam puchra es. Du Fay, Ave maris stella. Du Fay, Helas ma dame.* Binchois, Deuil angoisseux. Draft 1 of Research Paper Due March 9 by 5pm. Mar 13 (QUIZ), 16 (Tu/Fr). The cyclic mass. Reading (by this Friday): Taruskin, chapter 12, p. 459-76, 483-95 ( The Cyclic Mass to Patterns of Emulation plus The Man at Arms and Pervading Imitation ). Listening (by next Monday): Anonymous, Missa Caput, Kyrie. Ockeghem, Missa Caput, Kyrie. Busnoys, Missa L home armé, Sanctus, Agnus Dei. Mar 20, 23 (Tu/Fr). Josquin. Reading (by this Friday): Taruskin, chapter 14, pp. 547-72 (beg to A Model Masterpiece ). Listening (by next Monday): Josquin des Prez, Ave Maria... virgo serena. Josquin. Illibata Dei virgo nutrix.* Mar 27 (Tu). The Reformation. Reading (by this Friday): Taruskin, chapter 18, pp. 758-769 ( The Lutheran Chorale ). Listening (by next Monday): Martin Luther, Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland.* Martin Luther, Ein feste Burg.* Draft 2 of Research Paper Due March 29 by 5pm. SPRING BREAK March 30-April 6 NO CLASS April 10 (QUIZ), 13 (Tu/Fr). Church music in England in the 16th century. Reading (by this Friday): Taruskin, chapter 16, pp. 670-689 ( Byrd to end). Listening (by next Monday): William Byrd, two Agnus Dei movements from The Mass in Four Parts, The Mass in Five Parts. Aston, Ave Maria dive matris.* Orlando di Lasso, Tristis est anima mea.* April 17, 20 (Tu, Fr). Printing: Madrigals and Motets. Reading (by this Friday): Taruskin, chapter 17, pp. 691-4, 721-741 ( Music Printers ; The Literary Revolution to Exterior Nature ). Listening (by next Monday): Arcadelt, Il bianco e dolce cigno. Rore, Dalle belle contrade d oriente. Marenzio, Solo e pensoso. Gesualdo, Moro e lasso. April 24 (QUIZ), 25 (Tu, W). Early 17th-century vocal: Humanism and the birth of opera. Reading (no log due): Taruskin, Music in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries, chapter 1 (optional) Listening (no log due): Monteverdi, Lamento della Ninfa. Monteverdi, Lamento d Arianna. Monteverdi, L Orfeo, Act II. Monteverdi, L incoronazione di Poppea, Act I, scene 10; Act III, scene 8 (final duet Pur ti miro ). Final Paper Due April 27 by 5pm.