| Graduate Seminars Fall 2010 Graduate Seminar in Music History: Beethoven's Piano Sonatas Bach Webern Opera History 2 Special Topics in Music History Haydn's Creation Haydn's String Quartets ________________________________________________________________________________ Graduate Seminar in Music History: Beethoven's Piano Sonatas MU552-01 Fall Semester 2010 Credits: 3 Prerequisites: Introduction to Graduate Study, Music History 4 (proficiency exam or review course) Instructor: Jan Swafford jswafford@bostonconservatory.edu Course Description An intensive study of the Beethoven piano sonatas in the context of his life, his time, and his pianos. The main focus will be on close analysis of selected sonatas from early to late. The goal of the course is to gain a broad and deep understanding of Beethoven's compositional technique, his aesthetics and ideals, his development over the course of his career, and his approach to the piano, as they rose from his foundation in the models of the past and from the world around him. Textbooks Required texts are available online from www.textbookx.com THE LIFE OF BEETHOVEN David Wyn Jones Cambridge University Press, 1998 ISBN: 9780521568784 COMPLETE PIANO SONATAS, VOLUME 1 Ludwig van Beethoven Dover Publications, 1975 ISBN: 9780486231341 COMPLETE PIANO SONATAS, VOLUME 2 Ludwig van Beethoven Dover Publications, 1975 ISBN: 9780486231358 |
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| ______________________________________________________________________ back to top Graduate Seminar in Music History: Bach MU552-02 Fall Semester 2010 Credits: 3 Prerequisites: Introduction to Graduate Study, Music History 2 (proficiency exam or review course) Instructor: Elizabeth Seitz eseitz@bostonconservatory.edu Course Description Unappreciated during his lifetime, Bach excelled in every genre of the High Baroque except opera. By examining his achievements in vocal, instrumental, and orchestral music, it will become apparent why Bach is often held up as the standard for all other composers and why later generations were shaped by the rediscovery of his music. Textbooks Required texts are available online from www.textbookx.com THE NEW BACH READER Arthur Mendel, christoph Wolff, Hans T. David (ed.) W.W. Norton, 1999 ISBN: 9780393319569 JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH: THE LEARNED MUSICIAN Christoph Wolff W.W. Norton, 2001 ISBN: 9780393322569 MASS IN B MINOR Johann Sebastian Bach Dover Publications, 1989 ISBN: 9780486259925 |
| Grading Weekly assignments, participation and presentations Final Project and presentation |
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| ______________________________________________________________________ back to top Graduate Seminar in Music History: Webern MU552-03 Fall Semester 2010 Credits: 3 Prerequisites: Introduction to Graduate Study, Music History 4 (proficiency exam or review course) Instructor: Beth Abbate eabbate@bostonconservatory.edu Course Description Vocal and instrumental works from each of Webern's three stylistic periods will be examined, beginning with the Stefan George settings from his early "aphoristic" period, proceeding to the middle "lyric" period and transition to 12–tone composition, and concluding with the highly structured late serial works. We will study and apply analytic methods appropriate to each period, and will consider the cultural context and aesthetic significance of Webern's life and work. Textbooks Required texts are available online from www.textbookx.com SYMPHONY, Op.21 Anton Webern Universal Edition ISBN: 978M008022975 5 PIECES FOR ORCHESTRA, Op.10 Anton Webern Universal Edition ISBN: 9783702436773 6 LIEDER Op.14 Anton Webern Universal Edition ISBN: 9783702423469 THE TWELVE-NOTE MUSIC OF ANTON WEBERN: OLD FORMS IN NEW LANGUAGE Kathryn Bailey Cambridge University Press, 2006 ISBN: 9780521547963
Opera History 2 MU554 Fall Semester 2010 Credits: 3 Prerequisite: Introduction to Graduate Study, Music History 3 and 4 (proficiency exam or review course) Instructor: Karen Ruymann kruymann@bostonconservatory.edu Course Objectives An historical survey of opera from the early 19th-century through the present day with a focus on the economic, social, philosophical, and political elements that contributed to the changes in this musical genre over a two hundred year span. The multidisciplinary nature of opera demands a close examination of the interrelationships between music and its sister arts. The construction of these operas will be looked at from formal, theoretical, and hermeneutic perspectives. Areas of Study • Opera after Mozart • Romantic Opera: France • Romantic Opera: Italy – Early • Romantic Opera: Italy – Middle • Romantic Opera: Germany – Early • Wagner • The Ring of the Nibelung • Late 19th-century Romanticism • New French School • Late German Romantic Opera • Neo-classicism/Opera in English • American Opera Textbooks Required texts are available online from www.textbookx.com A SHORT HISTORY OF OPERA Donald Jay Grout and Hermine Weigel Williams Columbia University Press, 2003 ISBN: 9780231119580 THE TRISTAN CHORD: WAGNER AND PHILOSOPHY Bryan Magee Henry Holt & Co. ISBN: 9780805071894 ONE HUNDRED GREAT OPERAS AND THEIR STORIES Henry W. Simon Anchor, 1989 ISBN: 9780385054485 |
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| ______________________________________________________________________ back to top Special Topics in Music History: Haydn's Creation MU559-01 Fall Semester 2010: first seven weeks (September 10—October 22) Credits: 1.5 Prerequisites: Introduction to Graduate Study, Music History 2 (proficiency exam or review course) Instructor: Teresa Neff tneff@bostonconservatory.edu Course Description Often described as 'sublime,' Joseph Haydn's oratorio Creation was recognized in its days as the culmination of oratorio composition. This work remained influential even after the composer's death. In this seven-week seminar, students will present weekly projects on individual movements of the work and their relationship to the oratorio as a whole. The final project will include an overview of this work's place in music history with an emphasis on performance practices, reception history or influences on later composers. Textbooks Required texts are available online from www.textbookx.com THE CREATION (Full Score) Joseph Haydn Dover Publications ISBN: 9780486419077 THE CREATION (Vocal Score) Joseph Haydn Oxford University Press, 1991 ISBN: 9780193354715 |
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| ______________________________________________________________________ back to top Special Topics in Music History: Haydn's String Quartets MU559-02 Fall Semester 2010: last seven weeks (October 29—December 17) Credits: 1.5 Prerequisites: Introduction to Graduate Study, Music History 2 (proficiency exam or review course) Instructor: Teresa Neff tneff@bostonconservatory.edu Course Description Joseph Haydn's innovations in string quartet composition set a new standard for the genre that inspired his contemporaries and later generations. This seven-week seminar will trace those innovations as students present weekly projects on the opp. 20, 33, 76 and 77 quartets. Haydn's harmonic language, formal structures, and rhythmic manipulations will be given special attention. These musical elements will become the foundation of a final project that traces Haydn's role in the development of the string quartet. Textbooks Required texts are available online from www.textbookx.com STRING QUARTETS, OPP. 20 AND 33 Joseph Haydn Dover Publications, 1985 ISBN: 9780486248523 ELEVEN LATE STRING QUARTETS Joseph Haydn Dover Publications, 1979 ISBN: 9780486237534 |
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