Music M401: History and Literature of Music I: Antiquity to 1750 is the first half of a two-semester team-taught course on the history and literature of music in Europe and the United States. It will be taught this fall by the following team:
This semester, we will trace the history of music in Europe and its American colonies from ancient Greece to the time of Bach and Handel. During the course, you will become familiar with a repertoire of over one hundred pieces of music, chosen to illustrate the various genres and styles that emerged over two thousand years of continual change. We will also study the historical contexts and social functions of these pieces and the circumstances in which they were performed.
By the end of the semester, you should be able to recognize and describe the most important genres and musical styles practiced in Europe and the Americas in this period, including the individual styles of several composers, and to place composers, pieces, styles, and genres in an historical time frame. Besides gaining this broad knowledge of the field, you will also undertake a research project on a specific topic in the history of music in Europe or the European colonies before 1750, giving you an opportunity to explore in depth a subject of special interest to you.
The class meets on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for lectures and on Tuesday and Thursday for small-group discussion sections. Each Associate Instructor will lecture once to the entire class and will lead two of the discussion sections.
The M401 website is your guide to the semester. Here you will find a detailed description of the course objectives and notes on course requirements and expectations, with links to a complete course schedule, a list of anthologies and books on reserve, the listening list for the semester, and instructions on the research project. All of these webpages are also available as handouts. Numerous other links provide further information and assistance, and more may be added over the course of the semester. For an index to the entire website, see the M401 Home Page.
Read this section carefully. It explains in detail what you are expected to accomplish during the semester and how you will be tested. We make this explicit so that you know what to expect and what is expected of you.
The goal of the class is to enrich your experience of and knowledge about music in the European and American tradition by exploring the music of the past and the circumstances and values of the cultures that produced it. By understanding music in its historical context and learning about its inherent value within a certain culture and time, you will become more sensitive to its meanings and to how to interpret it and perform it. Even if your main focus in your professional life is on music after 1750, learning about early music will help you understand why later music has the shape it has, for every aspect of music has historical roots, often extending back centuries.
With this as an overall goal, we will focus on developing a specific set of skills. By the end of this semester, you should be able to hear or see the music of an unfamiliar piece from Europe before 1750 and
To do this, you need to have acquired and organized a certain amount of information.
All of these skills will be practiced in discussion sections and tested on the examinations, which will include listening and score identification of known and unknown musical works, identification of important terms, names, and concepts, and essays. There will also be occasional quizzes in lecture and in section. Guidelines and review guides for the examinations are available on the M401 Home Page. Please look at them early and often.
In addition, over the course of the semester, you will undertake a research project on a topic in the history of music in Europe or the European colonies before 1750, resulting in a research paper. Completion of the research project will show that you can use the skills acquired in this class and in your previous training as a musician and scholar to research a subject area and confront a specific issue in depth.
Your discussion section instructor will read and grade your examinations, will assign your grade for discussion section, preparation, and participation, and, in consultation with Prof. Burkholder, will guide and grade your research project. Your course grade will be calculated from your grades on each aspect of the class, weighted as follows:
Examinations
First hourly: 12% | 60% |
| Research project | 25% |
| Discussion section, preparation, and participation | 15% |
However, you must receive a passing grade in each area to pass the course. That is, if you receive a grade of F in any area (on an average of the three examinations, or on a weighted average of the components of the research project, or on discussion, preparation, and participation), you will receive an F for the course.
You are responsible for the assigned readings in HWM and WT, musical selections in NAWM (including the reading on each work), the related study questions in SLG, and pieces on the Supplementary Recordings on reserve (SR 1-4).
The topics and assignments for each class day are listed in the course schedule. Use the Study and Listening Guide and the study questions on the Weiss-Taruskin readings to coordinate your reading with your listening and score study. You are expected to complete the assigned reading and listening and the related study questions (as assigned by your instructor) prior to the lecture or section devoted to each topic.
Lectures will not simply repeat what is said in the texts, but will supplement and reinforce the material. Examinations will cover material from both the texts and the lectures.
The discussion sections are discussion sections, not drill sections or supplementary lectures, and they will require your active participation. Come to them prepared to discuss the readings and pieces listed for that day and for the preceding lectures, to share your answers to the study questions related to those readings and pieces, and to review work assigned previously. You will be expected to comment on the history, style, and compositional technique of the assigned works and on the material presented in the lectures and readings. There may also be written assignments for sections.
You should plan to spend at least eight hours each week reading the texts, listening to the music, answering study questions, and reviewing. Keep up with the assignments, and do not wait to cram for the exams. You are advised to listen to each assigned piece several times, both when we first consider it and again when preparing for the exams. The better you know these pieces, the easier it will be to identify and discuss them on exams, to identify and discuss similar works we have not studied (the "unknown" listening excerpts on exams), and to write essays in which the pieces serve as examples for broader issues.
We recommend that you buy the recordings for NAWM. This will make it much easier for you to familiarize yourself with the music and to coordinate your listening with your reading. If it is too expensive for you to buy these recordings alone, you might buy a copy jointly with one or two friends.
There is a website for HWM and NAWM, including chapter outlines, review quizzes, and many other resources. The URL is www.wwnorton.com/musichistory. The code in your copy of HWM gives you access to the Norton Online Listening Lab, which features a variety of resources.
It is your responsibility to know and understand Indiana University's policies, procedures, and penalties regarding academic integrity, as discussed in the Code of Student Rights, Responsibilities, and Conduct (see www.dsa.indiana.edu/Code/index1.html, Part II, Section G, particularly the definitions of cheating, fabrication, and plagiarism). Negligence or ignorance of a policy will rarely be accepted as an excuse for violation of the policy. Cheating on examinations or plagiarism or fabrication on any aspect of the research project is likely to result in an F for the course.
Because it is vital that you understand plagiarism and avoid it in your research project, you must complete the School of Education tutorial on plagiarism, pass the test, and present the confirmation certificate to your AI before September 21. Assignments 3, 4, and 5 will not be accepted until you have passed this test. Tutorial and test are available at http://education.indiana.edu/~istd.
In lectures and sections students have opportunities that are not duplicated elsewhere to interact with music, with each other, and with the instructors. Therefore, we expect you to come to class regularly and on time. Attendance is mandatory for discussion sections. It is our experience that students who frequently miss class do poorly or fail.
Any day you are late or absent, please get class notes from one or more classmates. You are responsible for knowing the content of every class, including announcements and assignments. Instructors cannot take responsibility for filling you in on what you missed.
If you have a diagnosed medical condition that affects your ability to perform standard college-level work such as papers and examinations, please inform your instructors of this situation as soon as possible. While privacy laws do not require you to inform the instructors of the specific nature of the medical condition, it is important that reasonable modifications of the work be made as soon as possible to meet these situations.
Similarly, if an examination or assignment is scheduled on a religious holiday you observe, or conflicts with a School of Music ensemble engagement or a major professional obligation (such as an international competition), please inform Prof. Burkholder during the first two weeks of class so that reasonable accommodations can be made. See the IU Bloomington policy on religious holidays for information and to download an Accommodation Request Form.
Last updated: 16 August 2007
URL: http://www.music.indiana.edu/som/courses/m401/AboutM401.html
This webpage was designed and is maintained by J. Peter Burkholder
Copyright © 1997-2007 by J. Peter Burkholder