MUSC 228 Western Art Music II

In this course we will study the rise of Western art music from religious and folk traditions as it is constructed and interpreted with primary sources, specifically musical scores and contemporary criticism. In MUSC 227, we will examine Gregorian chant and early polyphonic genres, the growth of polyphony in the mass, motet, and madrigal, early instrumental music, and European genres of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries: opera, oratorio, cantata, concerto, suite, sonata, and keyboard music. In MUSC 228 we will study the evolution of styles and genres from the mid eighteenth to the twenty-first centuries, with a particular focus on the Western traditional musical “canon” as it is constructed and interpreted with primary sources, specifically musical scores and contemporary criticism.

The course will examine the transformation of musical language in both secular and sacred music genres. The intellectual and cultural events of this same time will also claim our attention, on account of their very direct effects on composition, performance, and aesthetics of music. Students will gain factual knowledge of these musical trends and traditions, as well as a broader understanding and appreciation of the music of these eras. In addition, through the final paper, students will develop their written skills.