This semester, we will study a repertoire of more than one hundred musical works. They are listed on three web pages linked to this one, grouped by historical period: Ancient and Medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque. These lists are arranged by topic, in the same order as the topics on the course schedule.
The main group of pieces is that contained in the Norton Anthology of Western Music, 5th ed., volume 1 (NAWM). The Supplementary Recordings feature four longer works (SR 1-4) to complement the works and excerpts in NAWM.
The NAWM CDs are available for sale in the bookstores. The CDs are also on reserve in the Music Library and available for listening through the online reserve recordings on Variations2.
On the listening lists for each historical period (see links above or below), there are links that allow you to access the online recordings directly from this listening list, without going through the Music Library course reserves listing.
Performers for each work in NAWM are listed on the jacket that contains the CDs. For all the music in the anthology, if you sing or play through the pieces yourself, you will become more familiar with each piece and will be more likely to understand what is distinctive about each one and to remember the music for examinations.
In addition to the NAWM selections, there are four supplementary recordings to listen to, Supplementary Recordings 1-4, on reserve in the Music Library and available for listening through the online reserve recordings on the Music Library computer system. These feature the following pieces, which are also required listening:
Please listen with the score (and, where appropriate, the translation). The score for SR 1 is on electronic reserve at http://ereserves.indiana.edu. You will need a course password to access the M401 E-Reserve Page. The password will be announced in class. Scores for SR 2, 3, and 4 are (or will be) on reserve and on Variations 2. Further information on these items, including performers and timings, is given with the repertoire for the class day for which each is assigned.
You should get to know the pieces in NAWM and on the Supplementary Recordings as individual works, as representatives of major genres and styles of the past, and as pieces that can be used for comparison to illuminate what is distinctive about other pieces.
For works not otherwise marked, you will be expected to be able to identify the composer, title, genre, and approximate date; describe the piece's principal stylistic features; discuss the relation of the music to its text (when applicable); and indicate its social function and the probable circumstances of its performance.
For works marked with a plus sign (+), what you must know is not the individual work, but the type of work it represents (types of chant in NAWM 3, 4, and 42a, and types of early polyphony in NAWM 14 and 15). Thus, you will not be asked to identify the composer (unknown, in any case) or title, but you will be expected to describe the genre, principal stylistic features, social function, and performance circumstances.
All of the music we study will provide examples you can refer to in writing short answers and essays on the written examinations. The listening portions of examinations will include "known works" drawn from the listening list and "unknown works," pieces not on the listening list that are also representative examples of a certain genre, style, or composer that we have studied. For the latter, you will be asked to identify, not the piece itself, but the genre, style, probable composer, and approximate date, and to provide reasons for your answer. Generally, these unknown works will share many features with at least one work we have studied, so the greater your familiarity with the pieces on the listening list, the easier it will be to identify the unknown works. Works marked with a plus sign ( + ) will be tested using unknowns only; thus, you do not need to memorize titles for these works.
The Listening List is organized by period, on the following links:
Last updated: 27 August 2007
URL: http://www.music.indiana.edu/som/courses/m401/M401list.html
This listening list was designed by Patrick Warfield and J. Peter
Burkholder and is maintained by J. Peter Burkholder
Copyright © 1997-2007 by J. Peter Burkholder and Patrick Warfield