| SES # | TOPICS | READINGS |
|---|---|---|
| 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 | Wright and Simms, pp. 0-28, esp. 6-7, 14-15, and 18-24. Weiss and Taruskin. Plato, "Plato's Musical Idealism," pp. 6-10. |
| 3 | Types of chants (cont.) Office review Chant manuscripts and notation Syllabic, neumatic, and melismatic chants Hexachords and the Guidonian hand | Wright and Simms, pp. 28-34. |
| 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 | Wright and Simms, p. 34. |
| 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 | Wright and Simms, pp. 41-52. |
| 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 | Wright and Simms, pp. 52-70. |
| 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 | Wright and Simms, chapters 10-11. |
| 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 | Wright and Simms, chapter 12. |
| 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 | Wright and Simms: "Musical Interlude 1: From Medieval Manuscript to Modern Performance," pp. 95-101. Chapter 14, pp. 102-110.
|
| 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 | |
| 11 | Simplicity and complexity Keyboard music Cantus Planus Binatim Ars Subtilior | Wright and Simms, chapter 13, pp. 89-95.
Cuthbert, Michael Scott. "Counting our losses." From Trecento Fragments. PhD Thesis, Harvard University, 2006. (PDF) (Skim) |
| 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 | Wright and Simms: Chapter 15, "Music in Renaissance Florence" (cf. Craig Wright's work on Nuper rosarum flores), pp. 110-115. Chapter 16, "English Music," "Fauxbourdon," pp. 118-119, and "Dunstaple," pp. 121-123. Chapter 17, "Music in Burgundy" (on Du Fay and Binchois), pp. 123-131. Chapter 18, "Ockeghem," pp. 132-135. |
| 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" | Wright and Simms: Chapter 19, "Jacob Obrecht and the Multiple Cantus Firmus Mass." Chapter 21, "Josquin des Prez and Music in Ferrara." Chapter 20, "Popular Music in Florence 1475-1540," "The Carnival Song and the Lauda," and "The Frottola." |
| 14 | Other innovations in continental music, 1460-1550 Palestrina and Lasso Dance and keyboard music Instrumental forms French song Protestantism and music | Wright and Simms: "Musical Instruments," and "The Basse Danse," pp. 142-144. Chapters 22-24, pp 168-202. (186-190 are optional) Chapter 25, "Rome and Music of the Counter-Reformation." |
| Unit 3: Elizabethan London | ||
| 15 | From Dunstaple to Elizabeth: Tudor England The Elizabethan Madrigal (Weelkes, Gibbons, etc.) and its Italian predecessors Music printing | Wright and Simms: Chapter 20, "The Early Madrigal in Florence," pp. 155-58. Chapters 26 and 27, music in Elizabethan England, pp. 210-222. |
| 16 | Chapel Royal Catholicism and Anglicanism in England (William Byrd) Music education, instruction, and theory (Thomas Morley) |
Morley, Thomas. A Plaine and Easie Introduction to Practicall Musicke. London, UK, 1597 (1771 printing), pp. 1-9 and 74. (PDF - 1.0 MB) |
| 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" |
Lute Tablature: Maids in Constrite (PDF) |
| 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 | Wright and Simms. Chapter 28, "The Later Madrigal in Ferrara and Mantua," pp. 222-31. |
| 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 | Wright and Simms: Chapter 23, "Renaissance Instruments: Instrumental Genres" (on Merulo), pp. 182-185. Chapter 29, "Early Baroque Music," pp. 234-40. Chapter 30, "Birth of Opera: Early Opera in Florence," pp. 240-44. Chapter 31, "The Concerted Style in Venice and Dresden: Giovanni Gabrieli and the Concerted Motet," p. 254. |
| 21 | Monteverdi (1567-1642) before and in Venice | Wright and Simms. "Early Opera in Mantua and Venice," pp. 244-50; and "Claudio Monteverdi and the Concerted Madrigal," pp. 254-56.
Weiss and Taruskin. "From the Letters of Monteverdi," pp. 180-84; and "Castrato Singers," pp. 225-229. |
| 22 | Opera in Venice after Monteverdi Barbara Strozzi Venice's influence: Heinrich Schütz Instrumental music in Venice | Wright and Simms. Chapter 31, "Strozzi and Schütz," pp. 256-61. Weiss and Taruskin. "Schütz Recounts his Career," pp. 184-86. |
| 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 | Optional Reading Wright and Simms. Chapter 32, "Religious Music in Baroque Rome," pp. 262-74. |
| 24 | Music in the 1680s | Optional Reading Wright and Simms. Chapter 33, "Instrumental Music in Italy," pp. 274-84; and Chapters 35-37, "Music in Paris and London," pp. 301-30. |
Table of Contents
Study Materials
Readings
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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]
Weiss, Piero, and Richard Taruskin. Music in the Western World: A History in Documents. Belmont, CA: Thomson Wadsworth, 1984. ISBN: 9780028729008.
Other References
Barker, Andrew, ed. Greek Musical Writings. Vol. 1. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 1984. ISBN: 9780521235938.
Christensen, Thomas, ed. The Cambridge History of Western Music Theory. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2002. ISBN: 9780521623711.
Ledger, Philip, ed. Oxford Book of English Madrigals. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1978. ISBN: 9780193436640.
Readings by Session