Dr. Marianne R. Pfau                                                                           

Camino 173B, x4101, mpfau@sandiego.edu

T/Th: 12:05-2:15, 5:20-5:40

or by appointment

 

 

Music 332: Music History III

1830 – Present (Schubert to Adams)

 

 

COURSE DESCRIPTION

 

A historical survey of music from the Romantic Era through the Present, offered in a cultural context.   We will study composers of Western music and learn how to distinguish their works according to changing style characteristics, shifting esthetic and philosophical perspectives, and changing historical circumstances.  Historical study, informed listening and criticism, writing based on library research, analytical writing are central aspects of the course. Music 130 or equivalent are suggested as preparation for this course.

 

MATERIALS

 

Text:    Craig Wright and Brian Simms.  Music in Western Civilization, Vol. III, Schirmer 2005.

 

Study Guide: Music in Western Civilization, Vol. III, Schirmer 2005.

 

Notated Listening Examples/Translations: Anthology,  Vol. III

Listening Selections: CD set, vol. III.

 

REQUIREMENTS and Study Hints

 

As a study routine for this course, it is best to do the assigned readings/listenings once before each class so that you can participate actively in discussions, and to do your in-depth reviewing of the same material right again after class, or on the next day. Delays in listening and reading will not work well for most students.

 

You should plan on listening to each work we study at least 8 times, in order to be able to recognize and identify each in the tests and exams.

 

Please bring the anthology to every class session, and be prepared to annotate it as we go through the listening examples in class.

 

Please give me advance notice of any absences.  More than three absences will lower your final grade.

 

No make-up exams will be given. If you miss an exam for any reason but a documented medical emergency, you loose the points.

 

Exams and Other Work for Credit:

 

There are two Tests, a Mid-term Project, and a Final Exam. All involve listening, analysis, and essays, but the exact format will be determined with student input.  

 

On March 3, 2007 there will be a  concert visit with 1-page review:  Bach Collegium San Diego performs the inaugural concert of our new “Angelus: Sacred Early Music Concert Series”, directed by M. Pfau.  The review considers Baroque music as source of inspiration for the composers of the Romantic Age.   

 

Two further live concert visits (one of “Romantic Music” and one of  New Music”) round out the grade.  Suggested: attendance at San Diego Opera’s performance of  Alban Berg. Wozzeck, April 14, 17, 20, 22 (matinee).

 

GRADES

 

Test                                          15%                 100-93 = A, 92-90 = A-

Research Project                      15%                 89‑87 = B+, 86‑83 = B, 82‑80 = B-

Mid-term                                  20%                 79‑77 = C+, 76‑73 = C, 72‑70 = C‑

Final                                         20%                 69-67 = D+, 66-63 = D, 62-60 = D-

March 2 Concert + Review      10%                 below 59 = F

2 Concert Attendances             10%                

Participation                             10%                

                       

Total                                     100%                 

 

Course Outline (subject to change)

Week 1: Jan. 30 and Feb. 1, 2007

Part I. Romanticism

 

1. Franz Schubert  

Works for Voices  

Chamber, Piano, and Orchestral Compositions  

Songs  

 Franz Schubert, Erlkönig  

 Franz Schubert, Ganymed  

 Franz Schubert, Nähe des Geliebten  

2. Music in Paris under Louis Philippe: Berlioz and Chopin  

Musical Culture in Paris  

Hector Berlioz, Symphonie fantastique, 4th movement, “March to the Scaffold”  

Hector Berlioz, “Absence” from Les nuits d’été  

Frédéric Chopin, Nocturne in D_ major, Opus 27, No. 2  

3. Leipzig and the Gewandhaus: Felix Mendelssohn

and the Schumanns 

Music in Saxony 

Felix Mendelssohn, Piano Trio in D minor, Opus 49, 1st movement 

Robert Schumann, Symphony No. 1, 2nd movement 

Clara Schumann, “Liebst du um Schönheit” 

 

Week 2: Feb.  6 and 8

4. German Opera of the Nineteenth Century: Weber and Wagner  

Carl Maria von Weber, Der Freischütz, Act 2, Wolf’s Glen Scene, concluding section  

Richard Wagner, Das Rheingold, Entrance of the Gods into Valhalla  

5. Opera in Italy: Rossini and Verdi  

Gioachino Rossini  The Barber of Seville, Act 1, No. 1

Giuseppe Verdi  Otello, Act 4, Sc. 3  

 

Week 3: Feb. 13 and 15

6. Nationalism and Virtuosity: Franz Liszt  

Hungarian Rhapsody No. 15 (Rákóczy March)  

Liszt, Wagner, and the New German School  

Music for Orchestra: The Symphonic Poem  

7. Vienna in the Late Nineteenth Century: Brahms and Bruckner  

Johannes Brahms,  Symphony No. 3, 1st movement 

Brahms,  Feldeinsamkeit,” Opus 86, No. 2  

Anton Bruckner, Christus factus est  

8. Music and Ballet in Nineteenth-Century Russia: Mussorgsky and Tchaikovsky  

St. Petersburg in the Late Nineteenth Century  

Modest Mussorgsky, Sunless, “Within Four Walls”  

Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky  The Nutcracker, Act 1, Sc. 8  

 

Week 4: Feb. 20 and 22

Test 1 on Chapters 1-8

9. Vienna at the Turn of the Twentieth Century:

Gustav and Alma Mahler  

Mahler’s Life and Music  

   Gustav Mahler, “Um Mitternacht 

   Gustav Mahler, Symphony No. 5, 4th movement (Adagietto)  

Alma Mahler: Musician and Muse  

   Alma Mahler, “Die stille Stadt”  

10. England at the End of the Romantic Period:

Elgar and Vaughan Williams  

The English Choir Festivals  

Edward Elgar  

   Enigma Variations, theme and 9th variation (“Nimrod”)  

English Music after Elgar: Ralph Vaughan Williams  

 

Week 5: Feb. 27 and March 1

11. Opera in Milan after Verdi:

Puccini, Toscanini, and Verismo  

The Opera Business  

The Claque  

Innovations at La Scala  

Arturo Toscanini  

Puccini at La Scala  

Madama Butterfly, Aria, “Dovunque al mondo 

Part II. THE EARLY TWENTIETH CENTURY

12. Paris of the Belle Époque: Debussy, Fauré, and Lili Boulanger  

New Poetry  

Impressionism in Painting  

New Realities: Claude Debussy  

   Fêtes galantes I, “En sourdine 

   Images I, Reflets dans l’eau 

  Nocturnes, Nuages 

 

Week 6: March 6 and 8

12. continued

Gabriel Fauré 

   Dans la forêt de septembre,” Opus 85, No. 1 

The Spread of Debussyism: Lili Boulanger 

   Lili Boulanger, Clairières dans le ciel, “Elle est gravement gaie 

13. Richard Strauss in Berlin  

Richard Strauss  

  Salome, concluding scene  

Strauss and “Progress”  

14. Music in Russia during the Silver Age: Igor Stravinsky  

Realism in Russian Art and Literature  

Music during the Silver Age  

Sergei Diaghilev and The World of Art  

The Ballets Russes  

Igor Stravinsky  

The Rite of Spring , Procession of the Sage, The Sage, Dance of the Earth  

The Russian Revolution  

 

Week 7: March 13 and 15

Mid-term

15 Atonality: Schoenberg and Scriabin  

New Music and Abstract Art  

Arnold Schoenberg  

The Atonal Style  

   Piano Piece, Opus 11, No. 1  

   Pierrot lunaire  No. 8, “Nacht (Passacaglia)”  

Other Atonalists: Alexander Scriabin  

   Alexander Scriabin, Piano Prelude, Opus 74, No. 5  

16. French Music at the Time of World War I: Ravel and Satie  

Maurice Ravel  

   Le tombeau de Couperin, Rigaudon  

Erik Satie  

  Sarabande No. 2 for Piano  

World War I  

 

Week 8: March 20 and 22

17. New Music in Paris after World War I: Stravinsky and the Six  

Musical Life in Paris  

Regaining Control  

Igor Stravinsky and the Neoclassical Style  

  Octet, “Sinfonia” (1st movement)  

Darius Milhaud and “The Six”  

   Saudades de Brazil, “Botofago 

18. Vienna in the Aftermath of War:  Twelve-Tone Methods  

Austria after 1918  

Organizing the Twelve Tones  

Schoenberg’s Twelve-Tone Method  

   String Quartet No. 4, 1st movement  

Anton Webern  

   Symphony, Opus 21, 2nd movement  

 

Week 9: March 27 and 29—Research Projects on Materials from Chapters 19, 20, and 22, due on April 10, 2007

19. Musical Theater in Germany in the 1920s: Berg and Weill  

Georg Büchner and Alban Berg, Wozzeck, Act 3, Sc. 2  

Kurt Weill, The Threepenny Opera, “Ballad of Mac the Knife”  

20. Béla Bartók and Hungarian Folk Music  

Bartók’s Use of Folk Music  

Eight Hungarian Folk Songs, Fekete fo"d 

Concerto for Orchestra, 1st movement  

22. Paul Hindemith and Music in Nazi Germany 

Musical Life under the Nazis 

Hindemith’s Life and Works 

Hindemith’s Theory of the Twelve Tones 

Mathis der Maler, Scene 6, Entrance 3 

Symphony Mathis der Maler  

 

Week 10: Easter Break

 

Week 11: April 10 and 12

23. Music in Soviet Russia: Prokofiev and Shostakovich  

Sergei Prokofiev  

Musical Culture in the Soviet Union  

   Piano Sonata No. 7, 3rd movement  

Dmitri Shostakovich  

   Shostakovich, Piano Concerto No. 1, 1st movement  

24. Self-Reliance in American Music: Ives, Seeger, Nancarrow  

Music in Colonial America  

Nineteenth-Century Developments  

Charles Ives, Aesthetics  

   “Charlie Rutlage 

  The Unanswered Question  

Later Figures: Ruth Crawford Seeger and Conlon Nancarrow  

   Seeger, String Quartet, 3rd movement  

   Nancarrow, Study 3a for player piano  

 

Week 12: April 17 and 19

25. American Composers Return from Europe: Copland and Barber  

Copland’s Life and Music  

Copland, Piano Variations  

Copland, Appalachian Spring  Variations on a Shaker Hymn  

Samuel Barber, Adagio for Strings  

Barber, Hermit Songs, “Sea-Snatch”  

26. Tin Pan Alley and the Broadway Musical  

The Popular Song Business  

George Gershwin, “The Man I Love”

Broadway Musicals  

Rodgers and Hammerstein: Oklahoma!  “I Can’t Say No!”  

Leonard Bernstein, West Side Story, “Cool”  

 

Week 13: April 24 and 26

Part 3. CONTEMPORARY MUSIC

After World War II 

27. Reflections on War: Britten, Penderecki, and Others  

Richard Strauss, Metamorphosen  

Arnold Schoenberg, Survivor from Warsaw  

Benjamin Britten and the War Requiem, Agnus Dei  

Krzysztof Penderecki, Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima  

28. Twelve-Tone Music and Serialism after World War II  

The Twelve-Tone Revival  

Milton Babbitt and “Total Serialism 

Babbitt, Composition for Piano No. 1  

Igor Stravinsky, Agon  Bransle Double 

Pierre Boulez, Le marteau sans maître  , L’artisanat furieux 

 

Week 14: May 1 and 3

29. Alternatives to Serialism: Chance, Electronics, Textures  

Chance Music: John Cage  

Cage, Music of Changes, Part 1  

Electronic Music: Edgard Varèse  

Varèse, Poème électronique  

New Musical Textures: Olivier Messiaen  

Messiaen, “Mode de valeurs et d’intensités”  

31. Music in the 1960s and 1970s: Live Processes,

Minimalism, Metric Modulations 

New Uses of the Voice: Luciano Berio and George Crumb 

Berio, Circles, “Stinging Gold Swarms” 

Crumb, Ancient Voices of Children, “¿De dónde vienes?” 

Elliott Carter 

Carter, String Quartet No. 2, Introduction and 1st movement 

Minimalism: Steve Reich 

Reich, Clapping Music  

 

Week 15: May 8 and 10

32 Returning to the Known: Music of the Recent Past  

Mixing Styles: György Ligeti  

Ligeti, Hungarian Rock  

The Transformation of Minimalism: John Adams  

Adams, Nixon in China, Act 1, Sc. 1, “News”  

Reviving the Recent Past: Joan Tower  

Tower, Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman, No. 1  

The Renaissance Reborn: Arvo Pärt  

Pärt, Berlin Mass, Credo  

Music in the Twenty-First Century – student  perspectives

 

FINAL Exam

 

May 17, 11 am-1 pm