A survey of the history of Western music from 1750 to the present. Special emphasis will be placed upon Austrian composers and music composed in Vienna, a central site in the development of musical style. The various cultural offerings in Vienna during the fall of 2010 have informed the selection of works on which we will focus.
Prerequisites:
Ability to read music and familiarity with basic elements of harmony
Additional student cost:
Students share the costs of attending opera and concert performances
Learning outcomes:
By the end of the course, students should be able to:
• discern characteristics of the development of musical style in Western art music traditions and of Viennese musical styles in particular
• understand basic methods of musical analysis
• participate in discourse pertaining to Vienna’s cultural legacy and current musical culture
Method of presentation:
Lectures, discussions, audio and audio-visual musical examples
Required work and form of assessment:
Class attendance and participation 10%
Midterm exam 25%
Event reports (2) 5%
Concert review 15%
Opera review 15%
Final exam 30%
Reading: Selected excerpts from the Norton History of Western Music (7th ed.; abbreviated HWM), as well as source readings focused on topics for discussion in class will be assigned each week.
Listening: 60-90 Minutes of listening per week – excerpts from pieces discussed in class, but not
necessarily played in class – will be available for you in the library. Listening will be on the exams.
In addition, preparation is required for your concert and opera reviews: this should include background information about the composer, the historical context of the work(s) performed and consultation of an English translation of texts performed, if any. We will discuss this assignment on the first day of class.
content:
Week 1 Introduction: Entering the discourse of Viennese musical culture
Music in Europe at 1750. Performance practice issues
Scarlatti: Sonata in D Major, K. 119
Opera seria; Händel’s Alcina
Reading Assignment: selections from HWM Chapters 20 and 21
Week 2 Haydn: String Quartet Op.33 No.2 (“The Joke”) Sonata form and Classical form in general Gluck’s Opera Reforms
Mozart’s La Finta giardiniera
Reading Assignment: selections from HWM Chapters 21 and 22
Week 3 Mozart: Le Nozze di Figaro
Piano Concerto No.23 in A Major, K.488. Symphony No. 40 in G minor
Haydn’s Symphony No. 104 (“London”)
Reading Assignment: selections from HWM Chapter 22
Week 4 Early Romanticism:
Beethoven’s “Eroica” Symphony
Schubert: Lieder, Mass No. 6 in A-flat
Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony
Reading Assignment: Selections from HWM Chapters 23 and 24
Week 5 Beyond Vienna:
Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique
Schumann’s Dichterliebe
Bel canto. Chopin, Mendelssohn, Liszt
Reading Assignment: Selections from HWM Chapters 24 and 25
Week 6 Italian Opera: Rossini’s Barbiere di Siviglia
Verdi’s Rigoletto; Puccini’s Tosca Wagner: Prelude to Tristan und Isolde Excerpts from Wagner’s Ring cycle
Reading Assignment: Selections from HWM Chapters 26 and 27
Week 7 Return to the Austrian Empire: Brahms, Bruckner, Janacek, Dvorak
Fin de siècle Vienna: Mahler; Strauss: Ariadne auf Naxos
Reading Assignment: Selections from HWM Chapters 28, 29 and 30
Week 8 The Second Viennese School: Schoenberg, Berg, Webern Debussy, Ravel.
Parisian Revolt: Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring
Reading Assignment: Selections from HWM Chapters 30 and 31
Week 9 Modernism I: Satie, Les Six Hindemith’s Cardillac
Modernism II: Bartok, Shostakovitsch, Britten
Reading Assignment: Selections from HWM Chapters 33 and 34
Week 10 High Modernism: Darmstadt. Varese, Ligeti American Music. Postmodernism
Schnittke, Henze, Furrer and beyond
Reading Assignment: Selections from HWM Chapters 34 and 35
A detailed list of all reading assignments will be provided in a handout to be presented on the first day of class. This will include brief source readings, which will be made available as a course reader.
Required readings:
Burkholder, J. Peter and Claude Palisca. Norton Anthology of Western Music, 7th Edition. New York: Norton, 2006.
Weiss, Piero and Richard Taruskin. Music in the Western World: A History in Documents. New York: Schirmer, 1984.
Recommended readings:
Crawford, John C. and Dorothy L. Crawford. Expressionism in Twentieth-Century Music. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1993.
Fubini, Enrico, ed. Music and Culture in Eighteenth-Century Europe: A Sourcebook. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994.
Hanson, Alice M. Musical Life in Biedermeier Vienna. Cambridge: The University of Cambridge, 1985.
Heartz, Daniel. Haydn, Mozart and the Viennese School 1740-1780. New York: Norton, 1995.
Heartz, Daniel. Mozart, Haydn and Early Beethoven, 1781-1802. New York: Norton, 2009.
Heartz, Daniel. Mozart’s Operas. Ed. Thomas Bauman. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1990.
Rognoni, Luigi. The Second Vienna School: The Rise of Expressionism in the Music of Arnold Schoenberg, Alban Berg and Anton von Webern. London: Calder, 1977.
Rosen, Charles. The Classical Style: Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven. New York: Norton, 1997 (rev. ed.).
Schumann, Robert. Schumann on Music: A Selection from the Writings. Ed. and trans. Henry Pleasants. New York: Dover, 1965.
Brief Biography of Instructor:
Erik Leidal earned a Master’s in Musicology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His teaching experience includes courses in Music History and Cultural Studies at UCLA. He is both a former IES Abroad student and Fulbright Scholar to Austria, and has degrees in English Literature and Music History from Rice University. He has worked in Vienna as a singer and independent artist since 2002.
A survey of the history of Western music from 1750 to the present. Special emphasis will be placed upon Austrian composers and music composed in Vienna, a central site in the development of musical style. The various cultural offerings in Vienna during the fall of 2010 have informed the selection of works on which we will focus.
Ability to read music and familiarity with basic elements of harmony
Students share the costs of attending opera and concert performances
By the end of the course, students should be able to:
• discern characteristics of the development of musical style in Western art music traditions and of Viennese musical styles in particular
• understand basic methods of musical analysis
• participate in discourse pertaining to Vienna’s cultural legacy and current musical culture
Lectures, discussions, audio and audio-visual musical examples
Reading: Selected excerpts from the Norton History of Western Music (7th ed.; abbreviated HWM), as well as source readings focused on topics for discussion in class will be assigned each week.
Listening: 60-90 Minutes of listening per week – excerpts from pieces discussed in class, but not
necessarily played in class – will be available for you in the library. Listening will be on the exams.
In addition, preparation is required for your concert and opera reviews: this should include background information about the composer, the historical context of the work(s) performed and consultation of an English translation of texts performed, if any. We will discuss this assignment on the first day of class.
Week 1 Introduction: Entering the discourse of Viennese musical culture
Music in Europe at 1750. Performance practice issues
Scarlatti: Sonata in D Major, K. 119
Opera seria; Händel’s Alcina
Reading Assignment: selections from HWM Chapters 20 and 21
Week 2 Haydn: String Quartet Op.33 No.2 (“The Joke”) Sonata form and Classical form in general Gluck’s Opera Reforms
Mozart’s La Finta giardiniera
Reading Assignment: selections from HWM Chapters 21 and 22
Week 3 Mozart: Le Nozze di Figaro
Piano Concerto No.23 in A Major, K.488. Symphony No. 40 in G minor
Haydn’s Symphony No. 104 (“London”)
Reading Assignment: selections from HWM Chapter 22
Week 4 Early Romanticism:
Beethoven’s “Eroica” Symphony
Schubert: Lieder, Mass No. 6 in A-flat
Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony
Reading Assignment: Selections from HWM Chapters 23 and 24
Week 5 Beyond Vienna:
Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique
Schumann’s Dichterliebe
Bel canto. Chopin, Mendelssohn, Liszt
Reading Assignment: Selections from HWM Chapters 24 and 25
Week 6 Italian Opera: Rossini’s Barbiere di Siviglia
Verdi’s Rigoletto; Puccini’s Tosca Wagner: Prelude to Tristan und Isolde Excerpts from Wagner’s Ring cycle
Reading Assignment: Selections from HWM Chapters 26 and 27
Week 7 Return to the Austrian Empire: Brahms, Bruckner, Janacek, Dvorak
Fin de siècle Vienna: Mahler; Strauss: Ariadne auf Naxos
Reading Assignment: Selections from HWM Chapters 28, 29 and 30
Week 8 The Second Viennese School: Schoenberg, Berg, Webern Debussy, Ravel.
Parisian Revolt: Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring
Reading Assignment: Selections from HWM Chapters 30 and 31
Week 9 Modernism I: Satie, Les Six Hindemith’s Cardillac
Modernism II: Bartok, Shostakovitsch, Britten
Reading Assignment: Selections from HWM Chapters 33 and 34
Week 10 High Modernism: Darmstadt. Varese, Ligeti American Music. Postmodernism
Schnittke, Henze, Furrer and beyond
Reading Assignment: Selections from HWM Chapters 34 and 35
A detailed list of all reading assignments will be provided in a handout to be presented on the first day of class. This will include brief source readings, which will be made available as a course reader.
Burkholder, J. Peter and Claude Palisca. Norton Anthology of Western Music, 7th Edition. New York: Norton, 2006.
Weiss, Piero and Richard Taruskin. Music in the Western World: A History in Documents. New York: Schirmer, 1984.
Crawford, John C. and Dorothy L. Crawford. Expressionism in Twentieth-Century Music. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1993.
Fubini, Enrico, ed. Music and Culture in Eighteenth-Century Europe: A Sourcebook. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994.
Hanson, Alice M. Musical Life in Biedermeier Vienna. Cambridge: The University of Cambridge, 1985.
Heartz, Daniel. Haydn, Mozart and the Viennese School 1740-1780. New York: Norton, 1995.
Heartz, Daniel. Mozart, Haydn and Early Beethoven, 1781-1802. New York: Norton, 2009.
Heartz, Daniel. Mozart’s Operas. Ed. Thomas Bauman. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1990.
Rognoni, Luigi. The Second Vienna School: The Rise of Expressionism in the Music of Arnold Schoenberg, Alban Berg and Anton von Webern. London: Calder, 1977.
Rosen, Charles. The Classical Style: Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven. New York: Norton, 1997 (rev. ed.).
Schumann, Robert. Schumann on Music: A Selection from the Writings. Ed. and trans. Henry Pleasants. New York: Dover, 1965.
Erik Leidal earned a Master’s in Musicology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His teaching experience includes courses in Music History and Cultural Studies at UCLA. He is both a former IES Abroad student and Fulbright Scholar to Austria, and has degrees in English Literature and Music History from Rice University. He has worked in Vienna as a singer and independent artist since 2002.