Introduction to Western Music: From Hildegard to Handel Fall 2012

The Art, Music & Recreation Center of the San Francisco Public Library in association with the University of the Commons (uotc.org) presents

INTRO TO WESTERN MUSIC: From Hildegard to Handel Fall 2012

Instructor: John Smalley

Recommended Texts:

• Joseph Kerman and Gary Tomlinson, Listen
• Joseph Machlis and Kristine Forney, The Enjoyment of Music
• Don Randel, The New Harvard Dictionary of Music
• Piero Weiss and Richard Taruskin, Music in the Western World: A History in Documents
• Michael Chanan, Musica Practica: The Social Practice of Western Music from Gregorian Chant to Postmodernism

Online Resources

• Classical Music Library (a database of classical music recordings available through the San Francisco Public Library.Go to www.sfpl.org then eLibrary then eMusic.)
• Oxford Music Online (Go to www.sfpl.org then eLibrary then Articles & Databases.)
• IMSLP/Petrucci Music Library: Free Public Domain Sheet Music: http://imslp.org/wiki/Main_Page
• The Lied, Art Song, and Choral Texts Page (lyrics and translations of thousands of song texts): http://www.recmusic.org/lieder/
• SFPL’s blog of music resources: http://www.delicious.com/AMRLibrarian

Course Description and Objectives:  This course examines Western art music in various political, economic, and aesthetic contexts and seeks to teach listening skills, a critical vocabulary for discussing music, and a greater appreciation for the complex roles of music in society. The course looks at changing genres and styles of music and discusses composers’ choices and assumptions, as well as those of their patrons and audiences, as we move chronologically from the Middle Ages through the Baroque era. Students’ critical perceptions and responses to the music and the readings will be eagerly sought.

Course Calendar - October–November 2012

10/7     Introduction.  Elements of music.

Medieval Music.  Ars antiqua.  Terms: “chant,” “organum,” “scale,” “monophony,” “tenor,” “cantus firmus.”

Anon., Haec dies (chant)

Anon., Haec dies (organum)

Anon., O mitissima/Virgo/Haec dies

Anon., Vere dignum

Anon., In paradisum

Pérotin, Diffusa est gratia

10/14   Sacred and secular monophony. Terms: “Fifth”

Hildegard of Bingen, Ordo Virtutum

Beatritz, Countess of Dia, A chantar mes al cor

            Ars Nova.  Terms: “motet,” “isorhythm,” “polyphony,” “imitative polyphony,” “non-imitative polyphony,” “third”

Machaut, Quant en moy 

10/21   Renaissance Music.  Terms: “mass,” “motet,” “madrigal,” “cadence,” “word painting”

Josquin, Pange lingua Mass, Kyrie

Josquin, Pange lingua Mass, Gloria

Josquin, Ave Maria

Thomas Weelkes, As Vesta Was from Latmos Hill Descending

10/28   NO CLASS

11/4     Baroque Music.  Terms: “opera,” “recitative,” “aria” “ritornello,” “ritornello form,”

“sequence.”

Henry Purcell, Dido and Aeneas, “Thy Hand, Belinda”

Henry Purcell, Dido and Aeneas, “When I Am Laid”

Baroque Concerto.  Ritornello form. Baroque keyboard music

Vivaldi, The Four Seasons, “Spring,” mvt. 1

Elisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre, Gigue

11/11   Baroque Concerto (cont.) and Oratorio. Terms: “fugue,” oratorio.”

Bach, Brandenburg Concerto No. 5, mvt. 1

Bach, Fugue in C- sharp major

Oratorio.

Handel, Messiah, “There Were Sheperds”

Handel, Messiah, “Glory to God”

Handel, Messiah, Hallelujah Chorus