| Western Music: Medieval To Mozart |
Liberal Arts |
3210 (001) |
Fall 2025 |
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Description
This course surveys over 2,000 years of music in Western civilization. Historical, cultural, and social contexts are studied as they pertain to the music. After an introduction to the Greeks (8th century BCE), music such as medieval chants, motets, Renaissance masses, madrigals, Baroque concertos, operas, and Classical symphonies (ca. up to 1800) are studied. Lectures trace the changes from vocal to instrumental practices with closer looks at some representative period instruments. Biographies are used to demonstrate social, educational and geo-political changes, which shaped the final results of composers' creativity: music. European musical centers -- Paris, Venice, and Vienna -- and their musical establishments receive special attention. Students learn a macro-level music vocabulary and are encouraged to use it in their discourse. Each lecture is structured around a composition that exemplifies the most salient features of a particular period. Listening and reading is required before each lecture. Students are assigned two short essays (6 pages each) as well as a midterm and a final exam that focus on listening skills and understanding/usage of music vocabulary.
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Class Number
1525
Credits
3
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| Western Music: 19th Century |
Liberal Arts |
3211 (001) |
Spring 2025 |
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Description
This course is a survey of Western music from Beethoven to Mahler with emphasis on musical style, form, and nationalistic tendencies in historical, cultural, and social contexts. Each lecture focuses on a particular composition, composer, or genre. The intrinsic form of the Romantic era sonata--allegro is examined through the lens of a symphony, sonata, concerto, and string quartet. This course addresses issues such as the role of the opera; connections/influences between composers, writers, poets, painters and their impact on music history; small-scale home music making; and the developments of the 19th-century symphony. Students learn how to listen analytically to 19th-century music and are encouraged to use a macro-level music vocabulary in their discourse. Composers include Beethoven, Schubert, Chopin, Schumann, Mendelssohn, Liszt, Paganini, Mussorgsky, Bizet, Berlioz, Smetana, Rimsky-Korsakov, Verdi, Wagner, Brahms, and Mahler. Prior to lectures, students will watch documentaries and read short articles. This course also places a strong emphasis on listening to music and describing it. Two exams, a midterm and a final, focus on listening skills. Two short essays (6 page each) allow students to talk about music experiences and to use their acquired music vocabulary.
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Class Number
1469
Credits
3
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| Top: Sights and Sounds of Eastern Europe |
Liberal Arts |
3252 (001) |
Spring 2025 |
|
Description
Standard textbooks of European music have long emphasized their commitment towards studying the Western part of the continent. When it comes to the eastern region of the mainland, no such textbook exists. The scholarly marginalization of Eastern Europe¿s cultural, religious, and ethnic diversity contributes to negligence and underappreciation of the region. The purpose of this course is to examine the history and arts at several sites in this region and to listen to its music. Through this approach, we will examine cultural identities such as Greek, Byzantine, Slavic, Eastern Orthodox, Russian, Jewish, Ottoman, and Romani. We will visit historical and contemporary sites such as Kaliningrad, Kiev, Cracow, Prague, Budapest, Istanbul, Zagreb, and Ljubljana. We will also listen to ¿classical¿ music of Romanians, Poles, Russians, and Hungarians as well as to ¿folk¿ music from Transylvania, the Balkans, and the Baltic states. The music repertoire of this course spans from medieval Polish and Hungarian manuscripts to the late 20th-century Estonian (Arvo Part) and Russian (Sofia Gubaidulina) composers.
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Class Number
1463
Credits
3
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| Top: Sights and Sounds of Eastern Europe |
Liberal Arts |
3252 (002) |
Summer 2025 |
|
Description
Standard textbooks of European music have long emphasized their commitment towards studying the Western part of the continent. When it comes to the eastern region of the mainland, no such textbook exists. The scholarly marginalization of Eastern Europe¿s cultural, religious, and ethnic diversity contributes to negligence and underappreciation of the region. The purpose of this course is to examine the history and arts at several sites in this region and to listen to its music. Through this approach, we will examine cultural identities such as Greek, Byzantine, Slavic, Eastern Orthodox, Russian, Jewish, Ottoman, and Romani. We will visit historical and contemporary sites such as Kaliningrad, Kiev, Cracow, Prague, Budapest, Istanbul, Zagreb, and Ljubljana. We will also listen to ¿classical¿ music of Romanians, Poles, Russians, and Hungarians as well as to ¿folk¿ music from Transylvania, the Balkans, and the Baltic states. The music repertoire of this course spans from medieval Polish and Hungarian manuscripts to the late 20th-century Estonian (Arvo Part) and Russian (Sofia Gubaidulina) composers.
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Class Number
1299
Credits
3
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