Syllabus for Music 443

kmoricz — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 21:28:12 +0000

Syllabus for Music 443 Klara Moricz Monday, 1/16/2012, at 4:28 PM

Music 443, Spring 2012

Arms Music Building 102

T/Th 2:00-3:20

Professor Klára Móricz

Office: 9 Music Building

Tel.: 542-8307

Email: kmoricz@amherst.edu

Office Hours: by appointment

Graduate Assistant: Julie Moorman

Office: 3 Music Building

Tel.: 542-2830

Email: jmoorman11@amherst.edu

Guidelines

Texts/Music: A Analysis/Interpretation (Reader)

B Anthology, vols. 1-2

C Listening: on music library website

(A and B will be handed out in class. Price TBA).

You should also have (1) a notebook and (2) a notebook of music paper.

Attendance: Since Music 443 is a seminar, attending classes is crucial, not only because the topics are not summarized in any textbook but also because your participation in class discussions is indispensable. If you cannot come to class, please consider that after 2 missed classes 3 % will be deducted from your final grade for each subsequent absence. If you miss a class, make sure that you know what the assignment is because you will be responsible for the subject we’ve covered even if you were absent. Missed appointments will count as absences.

Assignments: There will be assignments for every class meeting, including readings, analyses, listening, written essays (read in class), summaries of articles, etc. Since the goal of the class is to learn not only how to analyze music but also how to present musical observations, we will focus on writing during the semester. Please always come to class with your written assignment PRINTED OUT. I don’t accept any late assignments.

Sections: In addition to class meetings, there will be two ear-training sections per week (time TBA) with the Graduate Assistant Julie Moorman. Sections will begin in the second week of classes. Sections will help you improve your ear and put your knowledge of harmony into practice. It will also teach you technical skills you’ll need in reading scores, deciphering harmonies in complicated textures, determining keys, etc. Your section grade will be based primarily on attendance, improvement and occasional short quizzes. Your section grade will comprise 10% of your final grade.

Final grade: Your final grade will be composed of a combination of factors: class participation, assignments (oral and written), midterm paper, section grade and your final project (class presentation and written paper).

I am happy to meet with you if you need individual attention and extra help, so please do not hesitate to contact me. I am looking forward to working with you.

Syllabus

“Interpreting music involves a terrible and unsafe leap between object and exegesis, from sound that seems to signify nothing (and is nonetheless splendid) to words that claim discursive sense but are, by comparison, modest and often unlovely. What is lost in the jump is what we fear: what must remain unsaid.”

Caroline Abbate, Unsung Voices

“if we examine the current practice of music criticism, it is evident that the work (or its performance) is always translated with the poorest of linguistic categories: the adjective.”

Roland Barthes, “Le grain de la voix,” Musique en Jeu 9 (Nov. 1972)

(Jan. 24, 26)—How we got into analysis

(Readings are found in M443 Reader or online, scores in M443 Anthology, listening materials on M443 electronic reserves webpage, unless noted otherwise).

Repertory/Analysis:

Schubert, Moments Musicaux, op. 94, Nos. 5, 6.

Readings:

Cone, “Schubert’s Promissory Note: An Exercise in Musical Hermeneutics” (Course Reader, CR)

Kerman, “How We Got into Analysis, and How to Get Out” (Electronic reserves, ER)

Written assignment: dictionary entry on analysis (1-2 pages) (class-to-class detailed assignments will be posted on the course website)

Concert (optional)

January 28, 8:00 PM Schubert, Winterreise Bill Hite and Gilles Vonsattel, UMass, Bezanson

(Jan. 31, Feb. 2)—Romantic details

SECTIONS BEGIN

Repertory/Analysis:

Schumann, Dichterliebe, op. 48, Nos. 1, 2; Liederkreis, op. 39, Nos. 2, 3.

Schubert, “Die Stadt” from Schwanengesang.

Readings:

Rosen, “Fragments” (CR)

Kerman, “A Romantic Detail in Schubert’s Schwanengesang” (CR)

Taruskin about Dichterliebe, in The Oxford History of Western Music at http://www.oxfordwesternmusic.com/view/Volume3/actrade-9780195384833-div1-006003.xml?rskey=Zs9Qxc&result=1

(library, databases, music, History of Western Music). Read the chapter from “The sixteen songs of Dichterliebe….” to the end of the music example “Aus meinen Thrähnen”

Written assignment: analysis of Schubert’s “Doppelgänger”

(Feb. 7, 14)— “Music is feeling, then, not sound” (on musical expression)

Feb. 9 — no class, April 22 mandatory concert as substitute

Repertory/Analysis

Schubert: “Auf dem Flusse” (from Winterreise); RE: “Doppelgänger,” (from Schwanengesang)

Readings:

Newcomb, “Sound and Feeling.”

Newcomb, “Structure and Expression in a Schubert Song: Noch einmal Auf dem Flusse zu hören.”

Written assignment: analysis of Schubert’s “Der Atlas.”

(Feb. 16, 21)—Organicism in music: historical perspectives

Repertory/Analysis:

RE: Schubert, “Der Atlas” (from Schwanengesang)

Beethoven Fifth Symphony (scores and CDs in Music Library, on reserve)

Readings:

Solie, “The Living Work: Organicism and Musical Analysis” (ER)

Hoffmann, “Review of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony” (CR)

Tovey, “Beethoven op. 67” (CR)

Written assignment: short essay about comparing Tovey’s and Hoffmann’s analyses (post on course blog)

(Feb. 23, 28)—Organicism (continued): The rhetoric of analysis

Repertory/Analysis:

Brahms, Intermezzo, op. 118, Nos. 2, 4.

Readings:

Mann, Doctor Faustus (Kretschmar’s analysis) (CR)

Schumann, Chopin’s op. 2 (CR)

G. B. Shaw: “The Inferno at St James’ Hall” (on Liszt’s Dante’s Symphony) (CR)

Written assignment: Program notes for general audience about Brahms Intermezzo op. 118, No. 2.

(March 1, 8)—Organicism in practice: Brahms and the concept of developing variation

March 6, no class, extra class at the end as substitute—WORK ON MIDTERM PAPER

Repertory/Analysis:

Brahms, Piano Quintet op. 34 (1st movement);

“O Tod” (Vier ernste Gesänge, op. 121)

Readings:

Schoenberg, “Brahms the Progressive” (CR)

Frisch, Brahms and the Principle of Developing Variation, excerpts (CR)

Written assignment: analysis of “O Tod.”

(March 13, 15)— Organicism in practice continued. Romantic sonata forms

Midterm paper due (March 13)

Repertory/Analysis:

Schubert, String Quartet in G major, op. 161. D 887.

Liszt, Sonata for Piano in B minor.

(Schubert, Sonata for Piano in B-flat major, D. 960.)

Readings:

Dahlhaus: “Sonata Form in Schubert: The First Movement of the G-Major String Quartet, op. 161. (D. 887)” (CR)

Hamilton, Liszt: Sonata in B Minor, excerpts (CR)

Assignment: analysis of Schubert’s String Quartet, op. 161, Movement 1.

March 17-25, SPRING BREAK

(March 27, 29) —“On musical narratives”

Repertory/Analysis:

Schumann, String Quartet op. 41 No. 3

Chopin, Ballade in G minor, op. 23

Readings:

Newcomb, “Schumann and Late Eighteenth-Century Narrative Strategies” (ER)

Nattiez, “Can One Speak of Narrativity in Music?” (ER)

Samson, Chopin: The Four Ballades, excerpts (ER)

Written Assignment: analysis of Chopin’s G minor Ballade

(April 3, 5)— Who is speaking?” (On the question of agency)

Repertory/Analysis:

Schubert: “Erlkönig, op. 1,” “Der Tod und das Mädchen,” D 331.

Schubert, String Quartet in D minor, D 810 (2nd movement).

Readings:

Cone, “Some Thoughts on “Erlkönig”; and “Persona, Protagonist, and Characters,” in The Composer’s Voice (CR)

Written assignment: analysis of the second movement of Schubert’s D minor String Quartet.

(April 10, 12)—Program music: once more about musical narratives

Repertory/Analysis:

Dukas: The Sorcerer’s Apprentice.

Liszt, Mazeppa.

Liszt, Reminiscences de “Don Juan”

Readings:

Abbate, Preface and Chapter 2 “What the Sorcerer Said” in Unsung Voices (CR)

From Grove, “Narratology” at http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/40607?q=narrativity&hbutton_search.x=0&hbutton_search.y=0&source=omo_epm&source=omo_t237&source=omo_gmo&source=omo_t114&search=quick&pos=1&_start=1#firsthit

(library, databases, music, Grove Dictionary of Music)

Written Assignment: analysis of Liszt’s Mazeppa.

Hand in proposal for Final Presentation.

(April 17, 19)—Out of the mainstream: The “Others” 1 (Octatonicism)

Repertory/Analysis:

Rimsky-Korsakov, Shéhérazade.

Glinka, Kamarinskaya.

Borodin, Overtures on Russian Themes 1, 2.

Readings:

Taruskin, “Chez Pétruchka: Harmony and Tonality Stravinsky,” excerpts (ER)

Taruskin, “Chernomor to Kashchey: Harmonic Sorcery” (CR)

Written Assignment: Abstract (or short draft) of final project handed in.

April 22, Pollini at Boston (Liszt B minor Sonata)

http://tickets.celebrityseries.org/single/EventDetail.aspx?p=164

(April 24)—The “Others” 2 (Orientalism and Folklorism)

Repertory/Analysis:

Borodin, Prince Igor (excerpts)

Readings:

Taruskin, “How the Acorn Too Root” (CR)

Taruskin: “Entoiling the Falconet” (CR)

(April 26, May 1, 3, 8)—FINAL PRESENTATIONS

May 8 scheduled as exam (final date TBA)

Amherst College: Syllabus

Syllabus for Music 443