Music History Review 1
Fall 2005
Professor Massimo Ossi
1) Description
Goals of the course: to establish a foundation of repertory and historical narrative that will enable students to enter more specialized courses on music before 1750.
The core of the course is the repertory included in the Norton Anthology of Western Music and in the Norton Recorded Anthology of Western Music. Readings in J. Peter Burkholder et al’s A History of Western Music, as well as the lectures, will provide the contextual and historical materials necessary to link the pieces into a general narrative.
In the tests and quizzes, the main emphasis will be on:
1) recognition of known musical examples, including such basic information as composer, title, date, place of composition, genre, etc.;
2) the ability to identify important stylistic traits that characterize each individual example as belonging to specific periods, genres, and aesthetic currents;
3) the ability to associate unknown examples with those included in the repertory assigned for the course, applying the criteria developed in no. 2 above;
4) the essential analytical skills and approaches appropriate to historical repertories; and
5) the ability to place examples, both known and unknown, within their historical context, including social and religious functions, aspects of patronage, musical aesthetics, and intellectual currents.
2) Assessment
2 Tests at the end of the first two major historical periods: Medieval (26 September); and Renaissance (31 October). The Baroque period is covered in the Final Exam. Each Test is worth 20% of the final grade.
Final Exam, cumulative, worth 35%.
6 Listening Quizzes, of which I will use the 5 best grades (see Course Schedule). Each Quiz is worth 5% (25% cumulative)