17³Ô¹Ï

Student Learning Outcomes -

• A successful student will demonstrate an understanding of Western music between the years 1400 BCE to 1750 CE as a reflection of its societal/historical context.
• A successful student will discriminate - via an understanding of such musical elements as melody, harmony, rhythm, and form - between various musical styles (e.g., Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque).

Description -

An introduction to the great composers and music masterpieces of Western culture, including composer biographies with emphasis on how composers synthesize or transform the aesthetic ideals of their time. Examines how composers' music reflects their own lives as well as mirrors contemporary social, political, and religious events. Historical periods include the ancient world and the Medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque eras. Composers include Josquin, Lassus, Palestrina, Monteverdi, Purcell, Vivaldi, Handel and Bach. The honors section offers deeper theoretical content, assignments that require more sophisticated cognition/critical thinking, more rigorous assessment, and additional creative and summative projects.

Course Objectives -

1. demonstrate detailed knowledge of the historical development of musical style in Western culture in relation to the political, economic, social, and religious developments of the time.
2. apply knowledge of musical style, historical periods and genres from Western culture to representative examples of music.
3. compare and contrast repertoire of concert music through familiarity with a broad sampling of works, composers, styles and genres.
4. critique good performance from bad, from the perspectives of artistic quality and appropriate historical performance practice.
5. discuss, with insight and understanding, the social and personal implications of the development of musical style in Western culture.
6. demonstrate self-managed learning in a comprehensive journal, in which they reflect upon, evaluate, and describe their own learning process.

Special Facilities and/or Equipment -

1. Classroom with piano, computer, and audio/video equipment.
2. Access to comprehensive digital music library for representative listening examples.
3. Set of individual musical scores or an omnibus of musical scores for classroom analysis.
4. When taught via 17³Ô¹Ï Global Access: On-going access to computer with email software and capabilities, email address.

 

Course Content (Body of knowledge) -

1. Music fundamentals: melody, rhythm, harmony, texture, instrumentation, form.
2. Style characteristics and function of music in the ancient world through the Baroque period. Compare and contrast to music of other world cultures.
3. Study of specific musical works:
1. Sacred vocal music (plainchant, early polyphony, masses, motets, oratorios, passions and cantatas).
2. Secular vocal music (troubadour songs, Italian and English madrigals, opera).
3. Instrumental music (preludes, fugues, toccatas, passacaglia, fantasias, dance suites, sonata da chiesa and sonata da camera).
4. Composer biographies (Josquin, Lassus, members of the Florentine Camarata, Palestrina, Monteverdi, Purcell, Vivaldi, Handel and Bach).
4. Identification of major themes of the culture at each period in history (divine authority, redemption, freedom, artistic creativity and originality, political, social, religious ideologies, gender roles), their definition in other periods in Western culture and their parallels in other world cultures.

Methods of Evaluation -

1. detailed knowledge of the historical development of musical style in Western culture in relation to the political, economic, social, religious developments and values of the time in quizzes and examinations.
2. ability to apply knowledge of musical style, historical periods and genres from Western culture to representative examples of music in laboratory worksheets.
3. ability to compare and contrast repertoire of concert music in laboratory worksheets.
4. ability to critique good performance from bad, from the perspectives of artistic quality and appropriate historical performance practice in concert reports and through participation in on-campus and/or online discussions.
5. ability to discuss, with insight and understanding, the social and personal implications of the development of musical style in Western culture through participation in online discussions.
6. self-managed learning in a comprehensive journal, in which they reflect upon, evaluate, and describe their own learning process by writing two reflections on each topic area: a pre-reflection that includes what the student already knows about the topic and a post-reflection in which students summarize what they learned and want to remember, clarify, or pursue in more depth.

Representative Text(s) -

Disciplines -

Method of Instruction -

1. listening (on-campus) or reading (online) lecture information
2. listening to representative examples of music that illustrate concepts related to the historical/social context, stylistic categories, structural characteristics and important composers for the varied topic areas
3. participating in discussion (on-campus and/or online)
4. completing laboratory worksheets that provide additional information, as well as ask application questions correlated with listening examples

Lab Content -

1. Representative listening examples for Medieval music
1. Plainchant Mass
2. Plainchant Antiphon (Laus Deo Patri) and Psalm 112 (Laudate Pueri), from Vespers on Trinity Sunday
3. Plainchant Hymn: Pange lingua gloriosi orporis mysterium (late 13th century)
4. Ordo virtutum (excerpt, ca. 1150), Hildegard von Bingen
5. A chantar (early 13th century), Beatriz de Dia
6. Cantigas de Santa Maria
7. Melismatic organum, Kyrie Cunctipotens genitor deus (Codex Calixtinus, ca. 1120-1230)
8. Organum Haec dies (mid-to-late 12th century)
9. Motet A Paris/On parole/Frese nouvele (late 13th century)
10. Messe de Notre Dame: Kyrie (ca. 1360), Guillaume de Machaut
11. Ma fin est mon commencement (ca. 135-1360)
12. Sumer is icumen in (ca. 1250), Anonymous
13. La quinte estampie real (second half of 13th century), Anonymous
2. Representative listening examples for Renaissance
1. Quam pulchra es (ca. 1410-1430), John Dunstable
2. Flos florum (ca. 1425-1430), Guillaume Du Fay
3. Ave Maria...virgo serena (ca. 1475-1485), Josquin des Prez
4. Se la face ay pale (ca. 1435), Guillaume Du Fay
5. Missa Se la face ay pale: Gloria (ca. 1450), Guillaume Du Fay
6. Missa prolationum: Kyrie (last quarter of 15th century), Johannes Ockeghem
7. El grillo (ca. 1500-1505), Josquin des Prez
8. De le belle contrade d'oriente (1566), Cipriano de Rore
9. Solo e pensoso (ca. 1595-1599), Luca Marenzio
10. Matona mia cara (ca. 1575-1581), Orlande de Lassus
11. Now is the Month of Maying (ca. 1595), Thomas Morley
12. Missa Papae Marcelli: Credo (ca. 1565-1567), Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina
13. Ricercar (ca. 1507), Francesco Spinacino

Types and/or Examples of Required Reading, Writing and Outside of Class Assignments -

1. Reading assignments: Textbook chapters.
2. Writing assignments: Comprehensive journal, in which students first reflect upon what they already know about the topic, and then after they have completed all the learning activities associated with that topic, summarize what they have learned, what they need to clarify, and what they wish to pursue in more depth.
3. Participation in formal threaded discussion, that includes written responses to prompts for each topic.
1. Example, for Medieval sacred music: What are the characteristics of chant that made it almost universally used for spiritual purposes? Today "spiritual" or "religious" music comes in all kinds of genres. What kind of music do you think would be most effective putting you in a "spiritual" state?
2. Example, for transition from Renaissance to Baroque: Eras of musical style tend to go back and forth between being extravagant, lush, personal, individual, emotional, subjective (e.g., Baroque, Romantic) and sparse, "simple," clean, clear, direct, cosmopolitan, universal (Renaissance, Classical). This same tendency can be seen in many social and cultural contexts, for example, fashion, food, architecture, and so forth. Which of these basic trends do you feel most reflects your personality and cite some examples to illustrate.
3. Discussion postings are assessed on the following criteria:
1. Appropriateness: Did the student "answer" the question and address all components of the question?
2. Thoughtfulness and accuracy: Does the posting include correct information and demonstrate that the student is thinking about and understanding the material?
3. Overall organization: Does the student's posting form a coherent paragraph with main statements, support statements, conclusion, and so forth?
4. "ESWE" (edited standard written English): Does the student's posting contain correct grammar and spelling?