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Student Learning Outcomes -

• A successful student will demonstrate an understanding of Western music between the years 1750 CE to 1825 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 (Classical, Romantic).

Description -

Introduction to the great composers and music masterpieces of Western culture. Includes 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 Classical period up through early Romanticism. Composers include Gluck, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert and Weber. 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. Inclusive collection of recordings.
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, timbre, ornamentation.
2. Style characteristics and function of music, from the beginning of the Classical period through the works of Beethoven.
1. Vocal music (opera, masses, lieder).
2. Instrumental music forms (theme and variations, minuet and trio, scherzo, rondo, sonata-allegro).
3. Composer biographies (Gluck, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Weber).
3. Compare and contrast to music of other world cultures.
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 Classical era:
1. Sonata in D Major, K. 492 (ca. 1750?), Domenico Scarlatti
2. Symphony in D Major, Op. 3, No. 2, first movement (ca.1752-1755), Johann Stamitz
3. Sonata in D Major, Op. 5 No. 2, first movement (1766), Johann Christian Bach
4. Piano Sonata in C Minor, Hob. XVI:20, first movement (1771), Joseph Haydn
5. String Quartet in C Major, Op. 33, No. 3 (1781), Joseph Haydn
6. Symphony No. 103 in Eb Major, first movement (1795), Joseph Haydn
7. Piano Concerto in D Major, K. 107, No. 1, first movement, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
8. La serva padrona: "Aspettare e non venire" (1733), Giovanni Battista Pergolesi
9. Orpheo ed Euridice, Excerpts (1762), Christoph Willibald Gluck
10. Piano Concerto in C Major Op. 21, all movements, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
11. Symphony No. 40 in G Minor, K. 550, all movements, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
12. Don Giovanni, K. 527, Act 1, Scenes 1-5 (1787), Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
13. Requiem, K. 626 Introit (1791), Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
2. Representative listening examples for transition into 19th century and early Romantic era:
1. Symphony No. 3 in Eb Major ("Eroica"), Op. 55, all movements (1803), Ludwig van Beethoven
2. Piano Concerto No. 4 in G Major, Op. 58, second movement (1806), Ludwig van Beethoven
3. Piano Sonata in C Major, Op. 53 ("Waldstein," first movement) (1804), Ludwig van Beethoven
4. Symphony No. 9 in D Minor, Op. 125, fourth movement, Ludwig van Beethoven
5. Three Lieder, Franz Schubert
1. Erlk�nig, D. 328
2. Prometheus, D. 674
3. Wanderers Nachtlid, D. 769
6. Two Settings of Goethe's "Kennst du das Land"
1. Kennst du das Land (Mignons Gesang), D. 321 (1814), Schubert
2. Kennst du das Land (Mignon) (1849), Robert Schumann
7. Der Freisch�tz, Op. 77, J.177, excerpts (1921), Carl Maria von Weber

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: Biographies offer quite a lot of insight into why a composer's career evolved as it did, why certain pieces were composed or commissioned, and so forth. Before we get too comfortable connecting biography to musical compositions or musical preferences, what might be some pitfalls of interpreting music based on the composer's biography?
2. Example: Upon hearing of his death, Mozart's great contemporary Franz Joseph Haydn commented: "posterity will not see such a talent for a hundred years." To which musicologist H. C. Robbins Landon adds: "Posterity has not seen it in two hundred." Do you agree with Landon's comment? Why or why not. Who in the contemporary music field (from any genre) do you believe has as much (or is closest) to Mozart's musical talent. Explain your choice.
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?