| Graduate Seminars Spring 2011 Graduate Seminar in Music History Mahler Paris at the Turn of the Century Schumann and the Romantic Spirit Britten Opera History 1 Graduate Seminar in Music History (Music Education) Music of the Common Practice Period: Haydn to Mahler Special Topics in Music History Bartok The Music of Purcell in Post-Restoration England Berio and his Sequenzas Schubert ________________________________________________________________________________ |
| Graduate Seminar in Music History: Mahler MU552-01 Spring Semester 2011 Credits: 3 Prerequisites: Introduction to Graduate Study, Music History 3 and 4 (proficiency exam or review course) Instructor: Elizabeth Abbate eabbate@bostonconservatory.edu Course Description This seminar will focus equally on the life, music, and cultural world of Mahler, covering symphonies 1–9 and related songs, the problem of the completions of the 10th symphony, and the performance history of Mahler's music, particularly from the beginning of the Nazi years until the Bernstein performances with the Vienna Philharmonic in the 1960s. The course will consider how Beethoven's 9th symphony acted as a prototype for Mahler's entire symphonic output, what pagan epic is represented in the final movement of the 2nd, "Resurrection" symphony, the many ways scholars have analyzed the last movement of the 6th symphony, whether the 4th and/or 7th symphonies might have been intended ironically, what constitutes Mahler's early, middle, and late musical language, how his relationship with Alma and the "triple blows of fate" were reflected in his music. |
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| ______________________________________________________________________ back to top Graduate Seminar in Music History: Paris at the Turn of the Century MU552-02 Spring Semester 2011 Credits: 3 Prerequisites: Introduction to Graduate Study, Music History 3 and 4 (proficiency exam or review course) Instructor: Elizabeth Seitz eseitz@bostonconservatory.edu Course Description Paris was one of the epicenters for music, literature, and visual arts at the turn of the century. Many artists flocked to Paris because of the artistic freedom and atmosphere of experimentation so prevalent at the time. The music of Fauré, Ravel, Debussy, and Satie will be examined, along with expatriots such as Manuel de Falla and Igor Stravinsky. |
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| ______________________________________________________________________ back to top Graduate Seminar in Music History: Schumann and the Romantic Spirit MU552-03 Spring Semester 2011 Credits: 3 Prerequisites: Introduction to Graduate Study, Music History 3 (proficiency exam or review course) Meeting time: Instructor: Jan Swafford jswafford@bostonconservatory.edu Course Description This course will be a study of the Romantic sensibility in art, philosophy, and music, centered on Robert Schumann and other figures who defined the era, including Berlioz, Schubert, Wagner, Liszt, E.T.A. Hoffmann, and Adolph Marx.We will also touch on the revolution in philosophy that contributed to the Romantic spirit, especially the writings of Kant, Hegel, and Schopenhauer. The goal of the course is to gain an in-depth understanding of the musical, poetic, philosophical, and spiritual foundations of 19th-century Romanticism providing a context for understanding the music of the period. |
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| ______________________________________________________________________ back to top Graduate Seminar in Music History: Britten MU552-04 Spring Semester 2011 Credits: 3 Prerequisites: Introduction to Graduate Study, Music History 4 (proficiency exam or review course) Instructor: Elizabeth Seitz eseitz@bostonconservatory.edu Course Description Benjamin Britten is the most important English composer of the 20th-century. He almost single-handedly revitalized English opera, and his music, often imbued with deeply held political and moral beliefs, and a distinctive tonal system have had a powerful effect on the worlds of both amateurs and professional music makers. This course will examine main currents in Britten’s music and aesthetic as exemplified in his operas, song-cycles, chamber music, church parables, works for children, and orchestral works, with particular emphasis on the works for voice.
Opera History 1 MU553 Spring Semester 2010 Credits: 3 Prerequisite: Introduction to Graduate Study, Music History 1 and 2 (proficiency exam or review course) Instructor: Karen Ruymann kruymann@bostonconservatory.edu Course Objectives An historical survey of opera from its inception through the operas of Mozart 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 from the various philosophical perspectives of Humanism, Neo-Platonicism, and the Enlightenment. Areas of Study • Late Italian Renaissance, the Florentine Camerata, Early Monteverdi • Italian Court Opera, Public Opera - Venice - Late Monteverdi • Lully, Ballet and French Opera, English Masque • Purcell • Opera Seria and Handel • Gluckian Reform, Early 18th Century Opera Buffa • Mozart: Opera Buffa • Mozart: Opera Seria • Mozart: Don Giovanni 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 ONE HUNDRED GREAT OPERAS AND THEIR STORIES Henry W. Simon Anchor, 1989 ISBN: 9780385054485 Recommended THE EARLY BAROQUE ERA: FROM THE LATE 16TH CENTURY TO THE 1660'S Curtis Price, ed. Prentice Hall, 1983 ISBN: 9780132238359 |
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| ______________________________________________________________________ back to top Graduate Seminar in Music History (Music Education): Music of the Common Practice Period: Haydn to Mahler MU552 Spring Semester 2011 Credits: 3 Prerequisites: Introduction to Graduate Study Instructor: Elizabeth Seitz eseitz@bostonconservatory.edu |
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| ______________________________________________________________________ back to top Special Topics in Music History: Bartok MU559-01 Spring Semester 2011: first seven weeks Credits: 1.5 Prerequisites: Introduction to Graduate Study, Music History 4 (proficiency exam or review course) Instructor: Teresa Neff tneff@bostonconservatory.edu Course Description Today, Bela Bartok is known primarily as a composer, but during his lifetime he was a pianist, teacher, and avid collector of folk music. Although clearly a modern composer, his music also reflects his diverse interests and the influence of earlier composers such as Bach and Beethoven. This seminar will survey selected works by Bartok, paying particular attention to his integration of old, new, and folk idioms. |
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| ______________________________________________________________________ back to top Special Topics in Music History: The Music of Purcell in Post-Restoration England MU559-02 Spring Semester 2011: first seven weeks Credits: 1.5 Prerequisites: Introduction to Graduate Study, Music History 1 (proficiency exam or review course) Instructor: Karen Ruymann kruymann@bostonconservatory.edu Course Description This course will explore the music of Henry Purcell through its inextricable relationship with the Court and religious culture of the Restoration and Post-Restoration. Poets and composers often included subtle messages of subversion in their collaborations that censured the crown, promiscuity of the court, or negotiated the highly dangerous religious divides of the era. We will examine the sacred, secular, and instrumental music of Purcell from this perspective, culminating in a close examination of his compositions for the theatre, including his dramatic operas. Finally we will investigate the perplexing notion that English opera “died” with Purcell only to be resurrected in the mid-twentieth century by Benjamin Britten. |
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| ______________________________________________________________________ back to top Special Topics in Music History: Berio and his Sequenzas MU559-03 Spring Semester 2011: last seven weeks Credits: 1.5 Prerequisites: Introduction to Graduate Study, Music History 4 (proficiency exam or review course) Instructor:Elizabeth Abbate eabbate@bostonconservatory.edu Course Description Focusing on six of Berio’s fourteen Sequenzas (with reference to others), this course will consider Berio’s use of harmonic fields, unusual sound production techniques—together with their accompanying notational problems and performance issues—and the centrality of dramatic gesture. We will also discuss how the Sequenzas fit into Berio’s compositional life as a whole, looking briefly at some of his other important pieces, and touching on his interest in semiotics and in creating layers of meaning. |
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| ______________________________________________________________________ back to top Special Topics in Music History: Schubert MU559-04 Spring Semester 2011: last seven weeks Credits: 1.5 Prerequisites: Introduction to Graduate Study, Music History 3 (proficiency exam or review course) Instructor: Elizabeth Seitz eseitz@bostonconservatory.edu Course Description Franz Schubert was one of the most prolific composers of all time. His accomplishments in lieder composition are unparalleled, but it is not just songs for which he is known. In the chamber music, symphonies, piano music, and even operas, he took decisive steps toward a more personal and emotionally charged Romantic language which had profound consequences for later composers. |
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