| ACTIVITIES | PERCENTAGES |
|---|---|
| Two papers (20% each) | 40% |
| Two exams (20% each) | 40% |
| Participation | 20% |
Table of Contents
Syllabus
Syllabus
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The calendar below lists topics by session.
Course Requirements
Listening
Listening as much and as well as you can is an essential part of success in this subject. Plan to spend a minimum of six hours outside of class per week reading, listening, and studying. If you cannot find six hours in your schedule you probably do not have time to take this class. The average class meeting will have about 20 minutes of listening assigned, usually in the form of several short works, many of which are too dense to get at in a first hearing. Some of the listening may be passive or familiarity listening - putting on the CDs while finishing a Chem. problem set or organizing your desk - but the majority will need to be active and without distraction. Make sure you have a place where you can do this listening undisturbed. I have tried as much as possible to get good recordings of great pieces; I hope they are enjoyable.
Writing Assignments
This subject is CI-M, requiring at least twenty pages of writing (exclusive of revisions). There will be at least two short response papers (either one page or 2-3 pages) and two major papers, first 8-15 pages, which will be revised and resubmitted, and a final paper of 10-20 pages. The papers serve three main purposes: to stimulate research interests in music before 1680, to improve your academic writing in general, and to improve your writing about music in particular.
A reminder that the MIT writing center does great work in helping improve writing (including making amazing writers even better). And, scheduling an appointment to have someone look over your work a couple of days before it's due is a wonderful incentive to actually writing before the night before.
The first paper is due on Lec #10 (with revisions due on Lec #16). The final paper is due on Lec #24.
Presentations
At least one presentation in class will be required. The length and format will depend on how many of us are in the class (i.e., it may be a shorter individual presentation or longer group presentation)
Exams
There will be two hour examinations in class (exam 1 will be held 5 days after Lec #11 and exam 2 will held 2 days after Lec #22). No assignments will be due during exam period.
Participation
Your participation (including but not limited to attendance) is important. In addition to classroom time, attendance is required at two concerts in which you are not a performer which include at least one piece (longer than 8 minutes) of a repertory is similar to that of this course (i.e., pre-1680). Only one may be a student concert. Turn in the concert program (or a stub if no program existed) and jot a paragraph about something you liked or didn't (5% total). I will announce some concerts of particular interest; Boston is an amazing town for Early Music so we should be able to find a number of great recitals.
Office of Sext
At the start of most sessions, the class will chant the Office of Sext for Tuesday (Feria Secunda ad Sextam), using appropriate chants for Lent, Passiontide, and the post-Easter season.
Office of Sext for Tuesday (Feria Secunda ad Sextam) (PDF)
One Final Requirement
It's great music, so let's enjoy it. Please let me know if you ever have concerns about the course or if you have suggestions for changes or improvements.
Grading
Grading will be calculated (approximately) as follows:
Other smaller assignments will be figured into either the paper grade or the exam grade. Presentations and concerts will come from the participation grade. A failing grade may be assigned for failure of any of the five components of the class.
Required Texts
Wright, Craig, and Bryan R. Simms. "Antiquity through the Baroque." In Music in Western Civilization. Vol. 1. Belmont, CA: Thomson/Schirmer, 2006. ISBN: 9780495008651.
Roden, Timothy J., Craig Wright, and Bryan R. Simms. "Antiquity through the Renaissance." In Anthology for Music in Western Civilization. Vol. A. Belmont, CA: Thomson/Schirmer, 2006. ISBN: 9780495008798. [Book and CD]
Recordings
Many listening assignments are on the CD accompanying the required text Roden, et al. Anthology for Music in Western Civilization. Vol. A.
Other selections will be from various sources placed on library reserve, including individual CDs and the Recordings to Accompany the Norton Anthology of Western Music (NAWM).
| SES # | TOPICS | KEY DATES |
|---|---|---|
| Unit 1: Introduction, chant, and medieval music | ||
| 1 | Introduction Music in the medieval western church Cycles of the day and of the year Form of the mass and of the office | |
| 2 | Preamble: Music in the Greek and Roman world Mode and chant Types of chants Reading modern chant notation Practice singing the office of sext | |
| 3 | Types of chants (cont.) Office review Chant manuscripts and notation Syllabic, neumatic, and melismatic chants Hexachords and the Guidonian hand | |
| 4 | Non-Gregorian chant Modern chant books Innovation in the chant repertoire (sequences, tropes) Liturgical drama and the compositions of Hildegard of Bingham Other chant traditions in the west and elsewhere The unending tradition of chant | Assignment 1 due 5 days after Ses #4: Three versions of Viderunt Omnes in chant |
| Bridge 1: From chant to 1315 | ||
| 5 | Secular monophony in the middle ages Troubadours and trouvères Court life in the later middle ages Discussion of previous assignment Polyphony before the Magnus Liber Theoretical sources and prehistory Musica Enchiriadis Earliest practical sources Conductus | |
| 6 | Polyphony in Paris (Notre Dame) and in the early 13th century Anonymous IV Leonin and Perotin Organum and Discant Modal rhythm Ars antiqua motet: Introduction | |
| 7 | Music in the 13th and early 14th century Motets become secular Ars antiqua manuscripts Instrumental music: Danses reals Roman de Fauvel Philippe de Vitry Isorhythm and hocket Listening quiz 1 | Assignment 2 due: Composition of Perotin style organum |
| Unit 2: Music in the (mainly Italian) fourteenth century | ||
| 8 | Guillaume de Machaut and music in France before 1370 Machaut, poet and musician Formes fixes Motets and mass Reims vs. court life Machaut and the Gesamtausgabe | |
| 9 | Trecento music 1 Discussion and performance of Se per dureça Principles of Italian notation Jacopo da Bologna and the madrigal Francesco and the ballata | Assignment 3 due: Transcription of Se per dureça |
| 10 | Trecento music 2: New trends in our knowledge of Italian music Squarcialupi codex Other sources Zachara da Teramo and the Parody mass Johannes Ciconia and the Motet | First paper due |
| 11 | Simplicity and complexity Keyboard music Cantus Planus Binatim Ars Subtilior | Assignment 4 due: Transcribe Missus ab arce |
| Exam 1 | ||
| Bridge 2: The continental renaissance | ||
| 12 | The Renaissance and music 1420-1460 Guillaume Du Fay and his contemporaries The English sound Fauxbourdon Motets and cyclic masses Ockeghem and the canon | |
| 13 | Vocal music: Josquin, his contemporaries, and his followers Patronage Documents and manuscripts Josquin and his (or someone else's?) innovations; "Ave Maria" "The pervasive myth of pervasive imitation" | |
| 14 | Other innovations in continental music, 1460-1550 Palestrina and Lasso Dance and keyboard music Instrumental forms French song Protestantism and music | |
| Unit 3: Elizabethan London | ||
| 15 | From Dunstaple to Elizabeth: Tudor England The Elizabethan Madrigal (Weelkes, Gibbons, etc.) and its Italian predecessors Music printing | |
| 16 | Chapel Royal Catholicism and Anglicanism in England (William Byrd) Music education, instruction, and theory (Thomas Morley) | Revised paper due Assignment 5 due: Answer a few questions about Morley's Plaine and Easie Introduction |
| 17 | Instrumental music and lute song (Doug Freundlich, guest performer/lecturer) Dowland and lute song Consort music Jane Pickering lute book ("Toys;" "Maids in Constrite") "Can she excuse?" "Woods so Wild?" (William Byrd setting no. 30) "Fitzwilliam virginal book" | Assignment 6 due: Maids in Constrite worksheet |
| 18 | Music in society: The cries of London More secular music in England More keyboard music In Nomine music Listening quiz 2 | |
| Bridge 3: Missed traditions in the late renaissance | ||
| 19 | Chromaticism in the late 16th-century Italian mad-rigal The dances and writings of Michael Praetorius | Second paper assignment out |
| Topic 4: Music in Venice 1570-1660 | ||
| 20 | Maestri di cappella Venice: (Rore), Williaert (Andrea and) Giovanni Gabrieli and music in the Basilica of S. Marco Cori spezzati. Gabrieli's music for brass Preamble to the Baroque and the rise of a new style: Florentine Camerata; Peri, Cavalieri, etc. (early monody) Basso Continuo | |
| 21 | Monteverdi (1567-1642) before and in Venice | |
| 22 | Opera in Venice after Monteverdi Barbara Strozzi Venice's influence: Heinrich Schütz Instrumental music in Venice | |
| Exam 2 | ||
| Conclusion: Other baroque music / music towards the end of the seventeenth century | ||
| 23 | Non-Venetian developments: Oratorio: Carissimi, Jephte Jewish music published in Venice Church music towards the end of the century | |
| 24 | Music in the 1680s | Second paper due |