For complete information as to courses offered in the current year, students should consult the schedule of course offerings available each semester in the Registrar’s Office. Courses numbered 100 through 499 are undergraduate level; courses numbered 500 through 999 are graduate level. Course numbers preceded by a “»” are typically offered each academic year. Course numbers followed by a “T” are taught to mixed classes of undergraduates and graduates. Undergraduate students may register for graduate-level courses with the instructor’s permission. Courses followed by a “*” are repeatable for credit. Courses followed by a “**” are repeatable for credit if the topic has changed (permission from Academic Advisor required).
»MHST 111 – Introduction to Musical Styles
Introduces students to a wide variety of musical styles, chronologically and geographically, through intense work on a few pieces in a seminar format. Performance and repertory based projects; oral and written exercises; library project. (2 credits) Faculty
»MHST 117 – Introduction to Jazz History
Traces the evolution of the musical language that came to be called “jazz,” with attention to major styles and artists. Emphasis will be placed on aural analysis of jazz recordings and what to listen for in a jazz performance, including a study of rhythm section instruments and their roles in the various styles and the way jazz solos are constructed. Requirements include a research paper, midterm and final exams, and periodic short papers on discussion questions based on reading and listening assignments. Prerequisite: MHST 111. Not available to Jazz majors. (2 credits) Schaphorst
»MHST 221 – Survey of Music in Western Europe, c850-1750
The recorded history of music in Christianized Europe begins with the notation of sacred chant in the 9th century. The development of that repertory over the next several centuries laid the foundations on which the composition of music, sacred and secular, was based for generations. We will trace the changes in musical style that occurred over time, and consider the role that the principal institutions of musical patronage – Church, Court, and Theater – played in fostering those changes. Composers to be studied include Perotin, Machaut, Josquin, Palestrina, Monteverdi, Lully, Corelli, Bach, and Handel. There will be regular quizzes, a mid-term and final exam, and one written critique of an assigned reading. (3 credits) Smith
»MHST 222 – Survey of Music in Western Europe, 1720-present
Many of the notions we hold today regarding music and its role in society are rooted in ideas that emerged in the Enlightenment of the 18th century. We will begin with a close study of those ideas and the music it fostered, then follow the rise of music to its preeminent role among the arts in the 19th century. Finally, we will explore the alternative paths composers pursued following the rupture with tonality and with conventional views on music at the start of the 20th century. Works from Bach to Babbitt will be included in our survey. There will be regular quizzes, a mid-term and final exam, and one written critique of an assigned reading. (3 credits) Smith
MHST 251 – Jazz Improvisation: 1917-1955
Explores the development of the art of jazz improvisation by soloists and ensembles beginning with the first recordings of jazz improvisation in 1917 and continuing through the swing era, bebop, and early modern jazz in the 1950’s. Considers the social, cultural, and economic context of jazz improvisation. Studies the work of Sidney Bechet, Louis Armstrong, Earl Hines, Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young, Art Tatum, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk, Charlie Parker, and Miles Davis, and changing styles of ensemble improvisation and rhythm section accompaniment. Prerequisite: MHST 111. (MHST 117 or instructor’s consent required for non-Jazz/Contemporary Improvisation majors.) (2 credits) Faculty
MHST 252 – Form and Freedom in Jazz, 1956-74
Explores the new forms, sounds, and procedures in jazz improvisation and composition from 1956 to 1974 through study of the work of Miles Davis, Gil Evans, Sun Ra, Charles Mingus, Ornette Coleman, John Coltrane, Cecil Taylor, Bill Evans, Wayne Shorter, and others. Considers the social, cultural, and economic context of new developments in jazz and their receptions and meanings. Prerequisite: MHST 111 (MHST 117 or instructor’s consent required for non-jazz/CI majors) (2 credits) Faculty
MHST 253 – The Post-Bebop Era, 1949-1961
This course focuses on the stylistic approaches and innovations in jazz improvisation and composition from 1949 to 1961, when the bebop language was gradually enriched with influences from other traditional musical cultures, as well as from prominent contemporary classical composers. Taking into account the sociopolitical circumstances at the time, we will explore the works of Bud Powell, Lennie Tristano and his school, Miles Davis, Horace Silver, Charles Mingus, Herbie Nichols, Elmo Hope, John Coltrane, and Bill Evans, among others. Course assignments and tests include listening quizzes, transcriptions, analyses, short essays, and a final individual term project. (2 credits) Kordis
MHST 311 – Musical Upheaval in Italy, 1590-1650
This course will center on musical innovations in early seventeenth-century Italy. Using philosophical and theoretical writings such as the Artusi-Monteverdi controversy and the writings of the “Florentine Camerata,” we will study some of the most important repertoire of the seconda-prattica madrigal, vocal monody, the stile-moderno instrumental sonata, and courtly and public opera. Repertoire will include works by Claudio Monteverdi, Giulio Caccini, Jacopo Peri, Barbara Strozzi, Girolamo Frescobaldi, Biagio Marini, Dario Castello, and Francesco Cavalli. Prerequisite: MHST 111. (2 credits) Cypess
MHST 322 – The Baroque Sonata, 1600-1740
This course will address the fundamental issues surrounding the early development of the sonata in the Baroque era. Students will learn music that few of them are likely to know, and analyze in depth music that may be more familiar. The first half of the semester will be devoted to the sonata in seventeenth-century Italy; the second half will follow the sonata as it spreads through Europe. Each week we will hear a sonata and discuss the questions it raises, which will include the relationship between the sonata and canzona, the relationship between the sonata and the suite, social settings of the sonata, texture and instrumentation, virtuosic techniques, form. Prerequisite: MHST 111. (2 credits) Cypess
MHST 323 – Eighteenth-Century Keyboard Music
This course will survey trends, developments, and influences in solo keyboard music of eighteenth-century Europe. As we study the works of various composers and genres, we will address the issues raised by them, including: technological developments in the design and construction of pianos, harpsichords, organs, and clavichords; the social contexts (both sacred and secular) of keyboard music; the purchasers of printed keyboard music, with special attention to the rise of the merchant and middle classes; aesthetic questions including affect and rhetoric in music; formal design and other analytical issues in the genres we encounter, including stylized dance suites, character pieces, variation sets, sonatas of disparate types, and fantasias. Prerequisite: MHST 111. (2 credits) Cypess
MHST 328 – J. S. Bach & Sons
In 1735 Johann Sebastian Bach attempted to establish his musical lineage by assembling a family tree, which reaches back to the sixteenth century. And for a hundred years after his death, the Bach family figured prominently in the musical landscape of central Europe. Despite this long history, Johann Sebastian and four of his sons stand out as the most significant performers and composers of the family. This course will trace the biographies and select works of Johann Sebastian, Carl Philipp Emanuel, Wilhelm Friedemann, Johann Christoph Friedrich and Johann Christian. Our pursuit of the Bach family will take us through some of Europe’s most important cities, where we will meet kings and clerics, performers, patrons, and publishers; we will listen to cantatas, fugues, concertos, sonatas, fantasias, operas, and symphonies. The course will situate the music of the Bach family in the context of musical practice in the eighteenth century, and it will address the perceived gap between the high Baroque and the Classical eras. Prerequisite: MHST 111. (2 credits) Cypess
MHST 334 – Defining Greatness, Three Case Studies: Machaut, Josquin, and Byrd
Studies music of composers from different historical periods: Guillaume de Machaut (14th century), Josquin des Prez (15th and 16th centuries), and William Byrd (16th century). Prerequisite: MHST 111. (2 credits) Hallmark
MHST 341 – The Road to the Open: Musical Developments in the First Half of the Twentieth Century
This course will consider the different paths that composers took in overcoming the musical language of Romanticism. We will explore the gradual abandonment of tonality and thematicism in the expressionist works of Schoenberg, Strauss, Berg and Webern; the development of 12-tone techniques; the discovery of new expressive means in the music of Debussy, Skryabin, and Messiaen; as well as the turn toward simplicity and the various guises of neoclassicism in the works of Satie, Les Six, Stravinsky, Bartok, and Hindemith. There will be listening quizzes, short essays and a final project (consisting of a term paper and a presentation) on the topic of the student’s choosing. (2 credits) Marković
»MHST 352 – Women and Music
Explores issues surrounding women and music, and considers a number of women through the ages, including Hildegard von Bingen, Comtessa de Dia, Tarquinia Molza, Laura Peverara, Francesca Caccini, Barbara Strozzi, Elisabeth-Claude Jacquet de la Guerre, Fanny Mendelssohn, Clara Schumann, Ethel Smyth, Amy Beach, Ruth Crawford Seeger, and Bessie Smith. Prerequisite: MHST 111. (2 credits) Hallmark
MHST 355 – Improvisation: Performer and Composer at the Keyboard
Examines the role of improvisation in western music from the 18th to the 20th centuries, as reflected in the shifting relationship between composer and performer in keyboard music. Rather than customary emphasis on repertoire controlled by composers through notated scores, focus in this class will be on less well-known tradition of performer-controlled composition such as dance music, preludes, fantasias, variations, cadenzas, transcriptions, paraphrases, etc. Class materials include historic recordings, contemporary performance manuals and accounts, and recent scholarly literature. Students with relevant repertoire will perform pieces in class, along with occasional guests. Independent research projects will allow students to develop interests in particular forms, artists or techniques. Prerequisite: MHST 111. (2 credits) Labaree
MHST 367 – The Operas of Mozart
Explores the libretto, musical characterization, vocal discourse, tonal relations, instrumental form and function, current and past staging, interpretation, and comparison of Mozart operas. Provides a basis for criticism of Mozart’s operas as they relate to each other as well as their(2 credits) Greenwald
MHST 368 – The Music Dramas of Richard Wagner
Studies Wagner’s concept of Gesamtkunstwerk (total art work) as reflected in his music dramas and theoretical writings; their influence on the arts of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Prerequisite: MHST 111. (2 credits) Greenwald
MHST 369 – The Symphony after Beethoven
Examines the genre of the symphony as it evolved in response to Beethoven’s symphonic output. Attention given first to the Beethovenian symphonic ideal and its cultural context then to symphonies by Schubert, Berlioz, Mendelssohn, Schumann, Liszt, Brahms, Franck, Bruckner, Mahler, and others. Grade will be based on listening quizzes, short response papers on specific works and a final project on a topic to be chosen by the student. Prerequisite: MHST 111. (2 credits) Marković
MHST 371 – The Golden Age of Italian Opera: Rossini to Puccini
Surveys the conventions of 19th-century Italian opera covering works of Rossini, Bellini, Donizetti, Verdi, and Puccini. Changes in the libretto, musical structure, and role of singers are studied through developments in individual composer’s styles. Works chosen for this semester are Rossini’s Barber of Seville, Verdi’s Rigoletto, and Puccini’s Madama Butterfly. There will be listening quizzes, short essays on the chosen operas, and an individual term project. Prerequisite: MHST 111. (2 credits) Greenwald
MHST 373 – Dies irae: A History of the Requiem
This course traces the history of the Requiem from the Middle Ages to the 20th Century. Requiems to be studied include Gregorian Chant, Ockeghem, Schütz, Mozart, Berlioz, Brahms, Verdi, Fauré, Duruflé and Britten. Emphasis will be placed on the changing role of the church and the concepts of death and afterlife as illustrated in the music and text. Contextual works that focus on death will also be studied in each period. Prerequisite: MHST 111. (2 credits) Handel
MHST 375 – La Jeune France: Music in France from 1870-1950
Traces developments in French music from the renaissance of the 1870s to the serial revolution of the 1950s. Representative composers include Fauré, Debussy, Satie, Poulenc, Messiaen, and Boulez. The foundation of the Société Nationale de Musique, the Paris Universal Exhibition of 1889, WWI and WWII are studied as catalysts for aesthetic developments in French culture. Prerequisite: MHST 111. (2 credits) Handel
MHST 376 – Post-Romantic Music: Bruckner, Mahler, Strauss
This course will focus on the musical language, style and genres of postromantic music. In the center of attention will be works by Anton Bruckner, Gustav Mahler and Richard Strauss, but contextual explorations of selected pieces by their precedents (primarily Richard Wagner), contemporaries (Hugo Wolf) and antecedents (Arnold Schoenberg and Alban Berg) will be studied as well. The method of inquiry will be the analytical and interpretative study of selected works by Bruckner, Mahler and Strauss, with consideration of issues such as the expansion of tonal language, redefinition of traditional forms and genres, the relationship between music and text, music and program, music and religion and music and philosophy. Prerequisite: MHST 111. (2 credits) Marković
MHST 377 – The World of Gustav Mahler
This is an in-depth exploration of Gustav Mahler’s music, life and artistic environment centering on his symphonies and lieder. We will study the symbiotic relationship between these two genres in Mahler’s oeuvre, focusing on selected symphonies and their lieder companions. These works will be examined from the perspective of manuscript sources, biographical, philosophical and programmatic background, interpretation and reception. A broader overview of the artistic climate of fin-de-siècle Vienna, its dominant artistic circles and trends, as well as social and political forces which influenced Mahler’s career and life will provide a context within which we will explore the artistic shifts in Mahler’s musical style after the turn-of the century. In a parallel manner, an attempt will be made to reflect on Mahler from the perspective of the 21st century: on the heterogeneity of his style and the broad spectrum of expression and references his music projects – elements which have paved paths taken by musicians, writers, and filmmakers as diverse as Stravinsky, Shostakovich, Mann, Britten, Visconti, Berio, Schnittke, Ken Russel and Uri Caine. (2 credits) Marković
MHST 413 – The String Quartets of Haydn
Joseph Haydn composed 68 string quartets in the years 1750 to 1800 – works that effectively defined the genre. In this class we will survey that extraordinary body of compositions with special attention to op. 1, 20, 33, 50 and 76. Questions of form and content will be addressed, as will issues of history and performance practice. What were the historical antecedents of the string quartet? What was the role of the string quartet in the musical life of 18-century Austria? What was the nature of string instruments in Haydn’s day? What was the seating arrangement for the performance of string quartets? Course requirements include a research project, written report and final exam. Prerequisite: MHST 111. (2 credits) Smith
MHST 415 – Schoenberg and Stravinsky: Old Rivals, A New View
Examines the music and parallel careers of Schoenberg and Stravinsky.
Prerequisite: MHST 111. (2 credits) Heiss
MHST 416 – Contemporary Developments: Music from 1945 to the Present
Studies the major musical trends since 1945: extended serialism, electronic and aleatory music, return to free atonality, performance virtuosity, and improvisation. Prerequisite: MHST 111. (2 credits) Heiss
MHST 418 – Ives and Bartók: Composers as Creative
Ethnomusicologists
Examines the music of Ives and Bartók, with emphasis on its social and ethnic context. Prerequisite: MHST 111. (2 credits) Heiss
MHST 431 – 19th Century Program Music
This course examines the relationship between textual ideas and music in 19th-century instrumental works. Pre-existing literary texts and original philosophical tracts will be studied, with an emphasis on aesthetic origins and analysis. (2 credits) Faculty
MHST 434 – The Piano Sonatas of Beethoven
A study of Beethoven’s 32 piano sonatas, including analysis of their musical style and form and of the social-historical context in which they were composed and performed. Currently available scores of the sonatas will be evaluated and problems in performance examined. Grade will be based on listening quizzes, oral reports on individual sonatas, and a final project and paper on a topic to be chosen by the student. Prerequisite: MHST 111.
(2 credits) Smith
MHST 441 – Introduction to World Music
Studies the history, repertoire, performance practice, and cultural context of selected musical traditions. Music covered in the past has been drawn from traditions in sub-Saharan Africa, the Balkans, the Middle East, India, Indonesia, China, Korea, Native America, and Japan. Evaluation of student work is based on class participation, midterm exam, and final exam or term project and paper. Prerequisite: MHST 111. (2 credits) Labaree, Row
MHST 442 – Music of India
The classical traditions of North and South India are explored extensively in their cultural contexts, focusing on instrumental and vocal styles, repertoires and improvisations with special reference to the concepts of raga (melodic mode) and tala (rhythm systems). Prerequisite: MHST 111. (2 credits) Row
MHST 443 – Music of Turkey
An introduction to the music of Turkey, with an emphasis on the classical and religious tradition. Through performance projects, recordings, transcriptions, analytical papers, and readings in history, practice and culture, students will explore the continuous tradition of composition and improvisation originating under the multiethnic Ottoman empire, which dominated the Middle East, North Africa and eastern Europe since the 14th century. A prominent feature of the course will be the development of an understanding of makam and usul, the systems of melodic and rhythmic composition. Prerequisite: MHST 111. (2 credits) Labaree
MHST 444 – Folk Music: Composition in Oral Tradition
In cultures where music-making does not depend on reading and writing, how is music created, taught, preserved, varied and transmitted? To explore these questions, three folk music repertoires will serve as the focus for a semester: Irish sean nós (old style) singing and instrumental music; music of the Turkish aşık,the Sufi singer-poet of rural Anatolia; early country blues of the rural American south. While the category “folk music” is well-known in contemporary commercial music, the emphasis in this course will be on the making of music outside of modern media and marketing, and for the most part, away from city life. Students will be expected to approach the study of folk music in two ways: 1) through aural study, transcription, analysis and performance of pieces from the course repertoire, and 2) through selected readings from two centuries of writings by scholars, folklorists and anthropologists. Prerequisite: MHST 111. (2 credits) Labaree
MHST 446 – The Music of Greece
This course focuses on selected topics in the music of Greece from the 3rd century A.D. to the 1970s. Taking into account the historical circumstances at the time, we will investigate the ways in which Byzantine music and neighboring music traditions laid the foundation for the development of Demotic music (island and mainland), and other significant genres, such as Asia Minor (Smyrneika, Politika), Rebetika, Laika, and political activist songs. The course further addresses 20th-century Greek concert music and the establishment of the Greek modernist and avant-garde traditions in the works of composers such as Xenakis, Skalkottas, Christou, and Adamis. Course assignments and tests include weekly reading and listening quizzes; short written assignments; a transcription project of a traditional song that includes detailed notation, analysis, and a live in-class performance incorporating singing and dancing; and a term research paper. (2 credits) Kordis
MHST 451 – Models of Polyphony, East and West
This study of European polyphony focuses on four historic types dating from the 9th through the 18th centuries: 1) organum; 2) motet; 3) madrigal; and 4) basso continuo. The repertory of polyphony in these four types will be studied in its special notational languages and in its historical context using select pieces from the various periods. European works and practices will be compared with living oral traditions of polyphony in the Mediterranean (Sardinia, Corsica), the Balkans (Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Greece, Turkey), Africa (Liberia, Congo, South Africa) and Indonesia (Bali). Throughout the course, emphasis will be placed on polyphony as an essentially oral, performer-controlled practice. Students will occupy themselves primarily with the European repertoires, acquiring skill at reading early notation systems and transcribing performances from oral traditions. The non-European sources will serve primarily as points of comparison. By the end of the course, students should be able to recognize, by ear and in notation, the four European types and to discuss them as distinct technical and historic forms. Requirements: 1) an 8-page paper on assigned readings of the student’s choice; 2) performance projects based on student transcriptions of either recorded non-European examples or early European notations; 3) midterm and final essay exams. Prerequisite: MHST 111. (2 credits) Labaree
MHST 461 – Dido and Aeneas
An intensive look at Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas within the context of later 17th century opera. This half-semester class will focus on issues of performance practice, history of the work, and editorial problems. It will also consider recent, often provocative studies by Heller, Peraino, Harris, and Price. Live performance of excerpts will be part of the class. Written and oral project on a subject of the student’s choice; listening exam. Prerequisite: MHST 111. (1 credit) Hallmark
MHST 463 – Beethoven’s Fidelio
A study of Beethoven’s only opera Leonora/Fidelio and of the social-cultural context in which it was composed and performed. The influence that the French Revolution and revolutionary music such as Cherubini’s exercised on Beethoven will be considered in this half-semester course, as will the relationship between Fidelio and Viennese operatic traditions of Singspiel and opéra-comique. Grade based on in-class oral report, written essay on an assigned topic, listening quizzes. Prerequisite: MHST 111. (1 credit) Smith
MHST 464 – Beethoven’s 9th Symphony
A close study of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 (“Choral”). Through analysis of the score and reading from the wealth of recent literature on the work, this half-semester course examines the sources of the Symphony’s enduring power of expression and studies the possible meanings embedded in its sounds. Grade based on in-class oral report, written essay on an assigned topic, listening quizzes. Prerequisite: MHST 111. (1 credit) Smith
MHST 467 – Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte
Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute) is one of Mozart’s most complex works, a “Masonic” opera, a fairy tale opera, a musical emblem of Enlightenment philosophy and aesthetics, and a turning point in the development of German Opera that let to Weber’s Der Freischütz. Of special interest are the ways in which Mozart was able to embed so much meaning in an opera that is accessible at many levels to many different audiences. Assignments will include readings and short papers. Prerequisite: MHST 111. (1 credit) Greenwald
MHST 471 – Frauenliebe und leben
Schumann’s beloved and controversial song cycle will be the focus of this half-semester class. It will be studied within the context of other cycles of the early to mid-19th century, especially other settings of Chamisso’s poetry. The course will consider domestic life in Germany at that time; Schumann’s compositional process through his sketches and autographs; and the recent, often feminist work done on the cycle by Muxfeldt, Solie, and Hallmark. Written and oral project of the student’s choice; listening exam. Prerequisite: MHST 111. (1 credit) Hallmark
MHST 472 – Weber’s Der Freischütz
Weber’s opera has long been considered a benchmark of German Romanticism. The famous “Wolf’s Glen” scene stands as one of the most cited moments in literature in nineteenth-century opera. Der Freischütz tells a tale of devilish contracts and supernatural events that has excited audiences for nearly two centuries. Weber set this compellingly spooky drama through innovative use of musical motive, tonality, and scenic effects. This course will explore Weber’s opera and other lesser known works in its orbit, including Spohr’s Faust and Hoffmann’s Undine. Assignments will include readings and short papers. Prerequisite: MHST 111. (1 credit) Greenwald
MHST 474 – Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique
This course provides an intensive study of Berlioz’ Symphonie Fantastique focusing on issues such as the program, criticism, analysis and influence. In addition, Berlioz is situated within the context of other composers and works from the first half of the 19th century including Symphonies by Mendelssohn and Schubert, songs by Schubert and Schumann and piano works by Chopin, Schumann and Liszt Prerequisite: MHST 111. (1 credit) Handel
MHST 477 – Brahms Fourth Symphony
This course provides an intensive study of Brahms’ Fourth Symphony focusing on issues such as the integration of older compositional techniques, reception, analysis and interpretation. The Fourth Symphony is placed in context through a study of Brahms’ first three symphonies and an examination of the debate between the “conservative” and “progressive” schools in late 19th century Vienna. Prerequisite: MHST 111. (1 credit) Handel
MHST 497 – Senior Portfolio
(0 credit) Faculty
MHST 510 – Topics Baroque Music: Bach Masterworks
This class addresses special issues and problems arising from recent discoveries and research into the music of 1600-1750. The course is designed to familiarize the student with tools for research in this period, and to develop an understanding of the music’s many facets through the study of the individual genre, composer, or country. (2 credits**) Teeters
»MHST 517 – Selected Topics in Jazz:
Investigates a range of topics relating to the history, politics, sociology, personalities, and performance practices of jazz. Previous topics have included “The Life and Music of Duke Ellington,” “Thelonius Monk: High Priest of Jazz,” “Charlie Parker and the Bebop Tradition,” “John Coltrane, Jazz Messiah,” and “Jazz in the Movies, the Movies in Jazz.” Topic for the term will be posted in the schedule of courses during registration. Course requirements include a research project and written report as well as brief written or oral responses to reading and listening assignments. (2 credits**) Coleman
MHST 519 – Jazz Outside the United States
Jazz is typically described as an American art form, and its history is most often set within the borders of the United States. From its earliest days, however, American jazz spread throughout the world as an emblem of progress, peace and prosperity. By the end of the Second World War, professional jazz performers in Asia, Europe, Africa, South America and Australia had adapted jazz into local musical forms, laying the groundwork for the later “globalization” of American sound. Jazz has been embraced
as a music of emancipation, but it has also provoked heated local debates on public morality, cultural sovereignty and national identity. This course examines the reception of American jazz in a range of geographic and historic locations; the impact of these encounters on the sound of American jazz; and the current status of jazz as an international music through readings listening, lectures, and student presentations. (2 credits) Kalmanovitch
»MHST 520 – Topics in Music of the Classical Era
This course focuses on different topics from year to year all centered on music from the 18th through early 19th centuries. Topics in the past have included “Music and the Enlightenment,” “Music and the French Revolution,” and “Beethoven, Rossini, and the Transition to Romanticism.” See the schedule of classes for the current theme of the course. Assignments include weekly reading and listening to be discussed in class, short written assignments in response to assigned discussion questions, and an independent research project. (2 credits**) Smith
MHST 523 – Voices & Violins: Italian Instrumental Music of the 17th Century
This course will explore the beginnings of idiomatic instrumental music in Italy between 1600 and 1650, and the ways that composers of this repertoire drew on contemporaneous vocal writing to infuse their works with meaning. The discussions will center on volumes of music published during this period, including examples by Giovanni Gabrieli, Claudio Monteverdi, Girolamo Frescobaldi, Dario Castello, Biagio Marini, Tarquinio Merula and Marco Uccelini. (2 credits) Cypess
MHST 525 – Monteverdi’s Vespers in Context and Performance
This course will explore Claudio Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610 from the dual standpoints of historical context and performance practice. We will attempt to understand the social and musical meanings of Monteverdi’s work on its four-hundredth anniversary, and how it may be brought to life through study of performance styles of the early seventeenth century. (2 credits) Cypess
MHST 529 – The History of Sonata Form
Composers of the 18th century, building on a heritage of binary form and da capo aria, and embracing the notion of music as a rhetorical art, developed a set of principles for the composition of dramatic music – vocal and instrumental – that resulted in a design later theorists dubbed “sonata form.” In the hands of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven, these compositional principles and the music it produced gained an expressive force and prestige that left an inescapable imprint on subsequent generations of composers. In this course we will follow the threads of sonata form from their sources in 17th-century vocal and instrumental genres through enduring manifestations in recent repertory. Course requirements include weekly reading and listening assignments and an independent research project culminating in a written and an oral report. (2 credits) Smith
»MHST 530 – Topics in 19th Century Music
Rotating topics include Richard Wagner’s music dramas (the Ring), the operas of Giuseppe Verdi, and Don Juan in music from the 17th to the 20th centuries. Students study original literary sources and librettos that are based on them, the composers’ musical development from early to late stages, differing national philosophies as reflected in operatic development and performance practice. (2 credits**) Greenwald
MHST 534 – Notation of Renaissance Music
Intensive performance and transcription from notation of the 15th and 16th centuries. (2 credits) Hallmark
»MHST 535 – Writing about Music: Research Methods for the Practical Musician and Scholar
Focuses on methods of musical research and investigation for performers, historians, and theorists. Individual and class projects use research tools and bibliographical materials essential to editing, analysis, criticism, historiography, and journalism. Written assignments include a book review, a program note, short analyzes of articles from scholarly journals, and a bibliography for a proposed paper. (2 credits) Cypess
»MHST 536 – Writing about Music
Continuation of MHST 535. Students write a full-length research paper, guided through the process step-by-step. There are frequent individual conferences with the instructor. (2 credits) Cypess
»MHST 537 – Teaching Music History
Introduces materials and methods of teaching music appreciation and music history. Readings and discussion of recent issues in education and musicology, with works by Gardner, Gilligan, Kerman, Treitler, Cone, and McClary. (2 credits) Hallmark
MHST 539 – Writings on Performance in the 18th Century
Prior to the eighteenth-century, relatively few composers and theorists of music wrote essays or treatises on performance; instead, most relied on notation of the music itself to instruct their students. In the eighteenthcentury empiricism and rationalism gained fresh momentum, and with them came a desire to explain and classify every aspect of the world, including musical styles, techniques, and modes of execution. Thus an astonishing number of treatises appeared on the performance of music. These works offer a window on the music of the eighteenth-century, one that may enhance present-day performers’ understanding and execution of the music of this period. This course will survey some of the most important treatises on eighteenth-century musical performance practices by writers from England, France, Italy, and Germany (most in translation); our weekly classes and semester projects will center on the question of the applicability of these texts to concrete examples of music. At the same time, we discuss the meta-issues surrounding the use of these writings by practitioners of the “Historical Performance” movement, and consider their place in a conservatory setting. (2 credits) Cypess
MHST 540 – Topics in American Music
Explores a range of topics related to American music. Past topics have >included “The Blues as Social Commentary,” “The Black Composer and the European Tradition,” and “Women in Jazz.” Topic for the term will be posted in the schedule of courses during registration. Course requirements include a research project and written report as well as brief written or oral responses to reading and listening assignments. (2 credits**) Faculty
MHST 542 – The Avant-Garde from Eric Satie to John Zorn
Surveys composers who redefined music from the 1890s through the 1990s. Historical and philosophical study of the avant-garde tradition, the evolution of notation and compositional systems, and concurrent developments in other arts (Robert Rauschenberg, William Burroughs, Andy Warhol). Works of Ives, Cage, Russolo, Stockhausen, Nancarrow, Partch, La Monte Young, Talking Heads, Sonic Youth, and Naked City. (2 credits) S. Drury
MHST 543 – Introduction to Ethnomusicology
Introduces students to the discipline of ethnomusicology through selected readings and discussion of important issues. In conjunction with readings, the course will also examine selected repertoires, including the music of Edo period Japan, the music of the Navahos, the classical music of North India, the classical music of South India, the music of Bali. Assignments vary from year to year, but include analytical papers, research papers, performance projects, and transcriptions. (2 credits) Labaree, Row
MHST 545 – Traditions of Music Drama in Asia
Studies four major genres of music drama in Asia: Kathakali (India), Wayang Kulit (Bali), Beijing Opera (China), and Kabuki (Japan). Each genre is studied within the context of the culture from multiple perspectives: musical traditions and performance practice, drama traditions, literary and dance traditions. (2 credits) Row
MHST 546 – Music of India
The classical traditions of North and South India are explored extensively in their cultural contexts, focusing on instrumental and vocal styles, repertoires and improvisation with special reference to the concepts of raga (melodic mode) and tala (rhythm systems). (2 credits) Row
MHST 547 – Music of Turkey
An introduction to the music of Turkey, both the classical and folk traditions. Through performance projects, recordings, transcriptions, analytical papers, and readings in history, practice and culture, students will explore the continuous tradition of composition and improvisation originating under the multi-ethnic Ottoman empire, which dominated the Middle East, North Africa and eastern Europe since the 14th century. (2 credits) Labaree
MHST 550 – Topics in Medieval Music
Musical style of the 11th through 14th centuries is the primary focus of this seminar, with a specific topic chosen each time. Previous topics have included the 12th century Notre Dame repertory; the medieval motet; the composers Machaut, Landini, and Ciconia. Seminar topics include issues of performance practice, theoretical studies, notation, historical context. Individual term projects and presentation. (2 credits**) Hallmark
»MHST 551 – Ives, Schoenberg, Stravinsky
Studies the music of Ives, Schoenberg, Stravinsky, their colleagues, and the general context of their works; developments that led to those works and their influence. (2 credits) Heiss
»MHST 552 – Ives, Schoenberg, Stravinsky
Continuation of MHST 551. (2 credits) Heiss
MHST 556 – Messiaen
The music of Olivier Messiaen is often described as “highly individual.” Yet, Messiaen’s musical style is rooted in the mainstream western European musical tradition. This course explores the truly unique aspects of Messiaen’s musical style and simultaneously reveals the influence of composer’s such as Fauré, Debussy, Dupré, Stravinsky, Skryabin and Webern. Areas of study include modality, rhythmic innovation, theology, ornithology, and synesthesia. Course requirements include weekly listening and reading assignments, a research paper and an oral report. (2 credits) Handel
MHST 561 – Topics in Improvisation
Investigates various topics concerning the nature and practice of improvisation in Western musical traditions – classical, jazz, folk, and popular. Topics rotate to include courses such as: “The Music of Jazz Pianist Bill Evans” and “Musical Work vs. Musical Performance.” Topic for the term will be posted in the schedule of courses during registration. Course requirements include a research project and written report as well as brief written or oral responses to reading and listening assignments. (2 credits) Smith, Labaree, Schaphorst
MHST 563 – Issues of Women and Music
An exploration of women’s place in music history. Surveys current research, and examines specific topics and issues, including the role of religion, gender, and intertextuality in the medieval motet, the place of the courtesan as musician in Western and other cultures, the representation of women in opera, women performers’ relationship to jazz and rock, and such women composers and performers as Fanny Mendelssohn, Clara Schumann, Ruth Crawford Seeger, Thea Musgrave, and Evelyn Glennie. (2 credits) Hallmark
MHST 565 – History of Opera
This course surveys the history of opera from the 17th century to the present. Its objective is to familiarize students with chronology, terminology, forms and repertoire pertinent to the development of opera as a musical and dramatic genre. Since the emphasis of the course is one of breadth rather than detail, students will be expected to listen to and read a significant amount of material on their own, including original documents, while individual classes will be devoted to representative examples of each stage of operatic evolution. In addition to reading and listening, there will be an independent term project that examines original literary sources , musical structures, current editions and bibliography. (2 credits) Greenwald
MHST 566 – Eighteenth-Century Keyboard Music
The eighteenth century saw a dramatic rise in the status of the keyboard instrument as a medium for expression and entertainment. Keyboards of various types – organs, harpsichords, clavichords, and pianos – were used widely in a variety of social contexts, from churches to courts of the nobility to homes of the rising middle class. Music for these instruments survives in manuscript and in printed books; supplementing the music are treatises and other writings on performance practice and composition, which attest to the place of keyboard instruments and keyboard music in society. This course will take a broad view of 18th-century keyboard repertoire, attempting to understand how various trends in music and social practice came together to produce some of the most important works of the Western art-music tradition. (2 credits) Cypess
MHST 567 – Puccini’s Operas
The course will examine specifically the ways in which Puccini’s works depart from Italian opera tradition, and how he became, as Julian Budden put it, “Wagner’s best pupil.” Another emphasis will be on Puccini’s views on staging; his view that “action speaks louder than words.” The course will use either Madama Butterfly or La bohème for close study. Either of these works is a viable choice, since both speak well for the state of the art of Italian opera at the end of the 19th century, and illustrate Puccini’s mature style. Madama Butterfly is especially apt, since it is a product of the vogue for japonisme ignited by the opening of Japan a half-century earlier and resulting in widespread European fascination with the far East and a large number of “orientalist” operas (by such composers as Mascagni and Saint-Saëns). Sources for Madama Butterfly, moreover, include several easily-accessed English-language publications, including John Luther Long’s short story published in Century Magazine in 1898 (and reprinted in the English National Opera Guide libretto for the opera), and the one-act play, Madame Butterfly, by American playwright David Belasco. La bohème would also work well, since its literary antecedent, Murger’s Scenes of Bohemian Life, is also available. La bohème, moreover, raises important (and contemporary) issues about the way disease is portrayed on the stage and begs comparison with Verdi’s La traviata. (2 credits) Greenwald
MHST 568 – The Music of Gustav Mahler
An in-depth exploration of Gustav Mahler’s music, life and artistic environment centering on his symphonies. We will study several symphonies as well as Das Lied von der Erde from the perspective of manuscript sources, biographical, philosophical and programmatic background, interpretation and reception. A broader overview of the artistic climate of fin-de-siecle Vienna, its dominant artistic circles and trends, as well as social and political forces which influenced Mahler’s career and life will provide a context against which we will explore the artistic shifts in Mahler’s musical style after the turn-of the century. The course will also cover issues of differing analytical and interpretative approaches to Mahler’s works such as semiotic, post-structuralist, hermeneutic, narrative and feminist methodologies. (2 credits) Marković
MHST 569 – Music & Culture in Fin-de-Siècle Vienna
An exploration of the shift from late romanticism to modernism in the musical and cultural climate of Vienna 1870-1914. Works by Brahms, Mahler, Wolf, Schoenberg, Berg and Webern as well as popular music by the Strauss family, Lehar and others will be examined in the context of contemporaneous artistic trends (Art Nouveau and Secession, Expressionism, Modernism). There will be reading and listening assignments, short essays and a final research project (consisting of a presentation and a paper). (2 credits) Marković
»MHST 570 – Topics in Renaissance Music
Musical style of the 15th and 16th centuries is the primary focus of this seminar, with a specific topic chosen each time. Previous topics have included the music of Josquin des Pres; the Renaissance chanson; the 16th-century madrigal. Seminar topics include issues of performance practice, theoretical studies, notation, historical context. Individual term projects and presentations. (2 credits**) Hallmark
MHST 571 – The Musical Work and Musical Performance
This course examines commonly held notions about the nature of music and musical performance in Western culture. What is a musical “work”? What distinguishes a work from a performance? Where does authority for a performance reside? With the composer? In the score? With the performer? Is the result of a given performance a “work”? An aesthetic experience? A psycho-motor accomplishment? These and similar questions will be explored through readings from a range of critics and philosophers, and from consideration of music from various styles and periods in Western history, including the jazz. Requirements: weekly reading and listening assignments; a written critique of one of the assigned readings; an independent research project culminating in a written and an oral report. (2 credits) Smith
MHST 578 – Exoticism in Western Music
The 19th c. explosion of interest in non-European cultures among artists of all kinds in Europe and the U.S. was part of a wider process of globalization which built on ideas about civilizations outside of Europe developing since the Middle Ages. That globalization process continues today across the spectrum of Western culture in both popular music and concert music. Behind this long-standing passion for the exotic lies a fascination with unexperienced possibilities, alternative ways of being which “The Other” – someone different from us – seems to embody. The course will draw on classical European vocal, instrumental and dramatic repertoires from the late 18th to the early 20th centuries, building on the two principal exotic paradigms of the so-called “alla Turca” and “Hungarian” (“Gypsy”) styles. Students will also be presented with exotic 18th and 19th c. painting and with projects involving close work on non-western musical materials through listening and transcription. Final individual research projects may incorporate popular music, jazz and film, as well as concert repertoire. (2 credits) Labaree
MHST 580 – Teaching Internship
Two-year teaching assignment as an assistant in an undergraduate music history course. (0 credit) Chair
MHST 681/682 – Honors Thesis
Thesis preparation is supervised by department faculty; credits must be distributed over two semesters (see Musicology program of study). Requires department chair’s permission. (4 credits) Senior Faculty
MHST 693 – Musicology Exams
See Musicology program of study. (0 credit)
MHST 697 – Portfolio
See Musicology program of study. (0 credit)
»MHST 901 – Doctoral Seminar in Musicology
Introduces methods and materials of musicological research through individual projects focused on the life and works of a given composer. Issues include source studies, historiography, performance practice, and criticism. (3 credits) Senior Faculty
»MHST 902 – Doctoral Seminar in Musicology
Advanced musicology seminar. Focuses on historical, philosophical, analytical, and aesthetic issues raised by music and music making via rotating topics. Prerequisite: MHST 901. (3 credits) Senior Faculty
2011-08-08
FELIX MENDELSSOHN