Fall 2004

Music 249, sec 1. The Italian Ars Nova and Ars Subtilior. Professor Nadas.

The repertories and styles of fourteenth- and early fifteenth-century Italy, beginning with music at the courts of Milan, Verona, and Padova in the first half of the period, and concluding with the works of late Trecento composers -- in particular, Landini, Paolo, Ciconia, and Zacara. Topics to be covered include the Rossi, Squarcialupi, and San Lorenzo manuscript anthologies, Italian and French notational systems, and issues surrounding performance practices. Course projects will focus on the musical language of fin-de-siècle Italian lyric forms, motets, and Mass movements within the historical context of the Great Schism. Class presentations and a research paper.

Music 249, Section 2. Nineteenth-Century American Popular Song. Professor Finson.

We will survey the beginnings of the popular song industry in the United States during the nineteenth-century, exploring its various genres from the gentility of parlor songs to the raucous populism of blackface minstrelsy. Class papers will focus on "binder" volumes from the period in the Music Library, and our peregrinations will take us into correlative areas of American social and political history of the period.

Music 337, Section 1. Wagner and Wagnerism: Critical and Compositional Reception. Professor Fauser.

In this seminar, we will be examining the critical and compositional reception of Richard Wagner's works and writings. The first part of the semester will be dedicated to the critical reception of Wagner's works and ideas in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The second part of the semester will focus on the compositional reception of Wagner in works (among others) by Ernest Chausson, Claude Debussy, Jules Massenet, Giacomo Puccini, Camille Saint-Saëns, and Richard Strauss.

Music 337, Section 2. How Music Unfolds in Time. Professor Neal.

Musical rhythm and meter have been considered by music theorists at various times as concepts that are complimentary, opposing, interdependent, and nearly synonymous. Within the domain of western tonal music, these concepts function within hierarchical frameworks that extend from the immediate level of musical articulations to the pacing of the musical phrases and sections over the span of an entire composition. Within the domain of contemporary popular music, these concepts become critical in exploring the appeal of both individual songs and distinct styles and genres. As analytical tools, theories of rhythm and meter offer explanations of how a piece connects text, music, and performance practice to reach an audience.

In this seminar, we will examine twentieth-century music-theoretic writings on rhythm, meter, and time in music, including Cooper and Meyer, Kramer, Rothstein, and Hasty, then extend those theories into the domain of popular music. Questions regarding rhythm and meter in approaches to setting text, in relation to the natural rhythms of the human body, and in reference to limits of cognition and perception will be explored through contemporary music-theoretic articles. Extensions and applications of those theories will combine notions of articulation, rhythm, meter, phrase, and form in analysis of different popular styles including electronic dance music, country, hip-hop, and pop. Individual research projects will allow students to apply theories on rhythm and meter to analyses of musical styles of their choice.