MHS 423
Music in the Baroque
Summer, 2004

Instructor

Rob Haskins
Office Hour:
e-mail: rh007e@mail.rochester.edu

NB: Please check this site often; current syllabus information and test requirements will be posted here.

Room and Meeting time

SML 404
Mondays and Wednesdays, 2:00-4:30 p.m.

Required Textbooks

Murata, Margaret (ed.).  Source Readings in Music History.  Volume 4, The Baroque Era.  New York: Norton, 1998. 

Palisca, Claude.  Baroque Music.  Third ed.  Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1991.

Recommended Textbooks

Schulenberg, David.  Music of the Baroque.  New York: Oxford University Press, 2001.

------.  Music of the Baroque: An Anthology of Scores.  New York: Oxford, 2001.

Course Description

MHS 423 is a survey of Western music history from around 1600 to 1750.  By “Western music history,” I mean a branch of music scholarship that is primarily devoted to Western “classical” composers and their musical works examined in historical, aesthetic, and social contexts.  These include, but are not limited to: musical form and genre; compositional practices and procedures; aspects of the composer’s biography and/or historical events that shaped his or her attitudes; general intellectual or cultural trends that helped to shape musical practices; and the original venues and circumstances in which the musical works were created and heard

Requirements and Expectations

The course will consist of bi-weekly reading and listening assignments; occasional short writing assignments; bi-weekly lectures; midterm and final examinations.  (See below for a description of the writing assignments and exams.)

The reading assignments will normally consist of chapters or portions of chapters from the Palisca textbook and volume of source readings, with some reading assignments from other texts such as the Schulenberg (the books will be on reserve and some excerpts will be downloadable as .pdf files).  The listening assignments will be complete works or excerpts and will generally fall under the topic for that day’s class meeting.  I will expect you 1) to display verbal and written knowledge of composers and their works--including an understanding of musical genres and compositional techniques--and 2) to be able to discuss selected musical works with respect to the appropriate historical, aesthetic, and social contexts.

My own lectures should be thought of as separate from, and not equivalent to, the information that is covered in your reading and listening assignments.  For this reason, it is essential that you all keep up with the reading and listening assignments for the course.  More important, you must learn to engage with this material in your own unique and personal way.  Here are some suggestions that may help:

1) Purchase a binder (I recommend a 2-3 in. “D-ring” type) in which you will keep this syllabus, reserve list, your notes, photocopies of reading assignments that are not in your textbooks, and all handouts.  Good organization can make a significant difference in your final grade for the course; more important, a well-organized binder containing the materials from this course will help you later in your academic careers as you prepare for Master’s and Doctoral examinations.
2) As you read, summarize important points in your own words, draw diagrams or timelines, and write down questions about terms or ideas that are unclear to you.  Do not simply mark selected passages with a highlighting pen!
3) Collaborate with your classmates to help reinforce your engagement with the material.  Listen together!  Discuss the readings and listenings; share your notes; sketch out sample essays and definitions for terms; and strategize your studying for exams.
4) Meet with me during my office hour at least once during the course.

Grading and Description of Listening Quizzes and Exams

Writings assignments 30% (three @ 10%)
Midterm Examination 30%
Final Examination 40%

NB: The Midterm and Final Examinations are not cumulative.

Writing Assignments

The writing assignments (three in all) are designed to develop your prose-writing skills.  Typical assignments include a summary of a portion of the readings, a brief analytical essay on one of the listening assignments or on an unidentified score, or a brief essay concerning performance practice.  I might ask you to revise one or more of the assignments as needed before I determine a final grade.

Midterm and Final Examinations

The midterm and final examinations will cover your understanding of material from both lectures and required reading and listening assignments.   Each examination will contain three to four sections:

1 Short Identifications(10 out of 15 total, each about three points): Short definitions of people, places, compositional techniques, and so on, taken from the lectures and reading assignments.  Example: continuo
2 Listening:  I will ask for one or both of two skills: identifying excerpts from the listening assignments, or identifying works by way of excerpts from the scores (without hearing the score excerpt).  For Listening IDs, you will hear recorded excerpts of works drawn from the required listening assignments.  Each excerpt, approximately a minute and a half long, will be played twice.  You will generally be asked to supply a) the name of the composer; b) the title of the work; c) the movement, major section, or Act and Scene, as appropriate; and d) the date of composition or publication within five years.  For pieces that come from longer collections, you will need to supply the name of the collection; for operas, Act or (as indicated on the syllabus) Act and Scene number.  For Score IDs, you will be given photocopied excerpts from works drawn from the required listening assignments, generally two to four pages each, which will come from the handouts.  (For this reason, it is a good idea to look at the score of a work while you are listening to it, and you may find it useful to review the score excerpts on handouts when you are preparing for the test.)  For each of the photocopied excerpts, you will be asked to supply the same information asked of you for a Listening ID.  In addition, I might ask a specific question about a passage within the excerpt.
3 Short Essay: Questions that can be answered in one to three paragraphs.
  Examples:
  A) Describe the design of Monteverdi's L'Orfeo, Act II and its general significance to the drama.
  B) List the three components of a prototypical Vivaldi ritornello.
4 Essay: Generally the essay will ask you to synthesize knowledge from all or many of the assignments in a response to a broad question.  Usually, you will have a choice.
  Example: Choose A) or B)
  A) Trace the history of early opera through the end of the seventeenth century.
  B) Trace the history of the concerto from its beginnings through Vivaldi.

NBRE Reserves:

All of the material for the reading and listening assignments will be available at the Reserves Desk of the Sibley Music Library.  The listening examples are also available as streaming audio from various computers on and off campus (if you have a fast internet connection).  Some reading assignments are also available in electronic format, as .pdf files.  Do not wait until the very last minute to complete your assignment; that makes life stressful for everyone and prevents you from optimally engaging with the material.

Bring your Reserve List (see below) with you when you ask for the items on reserve.  You will need to request every item by call number.  If a Reserve Assistant cannot locate an item you need, check in Voyager to see if the item has been charged and/or if the temporary location is, indeed, Sibley Music Reserves.  If the former is the case, ask the staff person to recheck the “pre-shelving” area, the regular recording stacks, and the general location in the reserve shelf where the item is supposed to be.  If an item is not on reserve, e-mail or telephone me; I will take care of the problem as soon as possible.  Above all, remember that everyone makes mistakes and remain calm.

MHS 423 at a Glance

June 28, 2004 Introduction to Course; The New Music: Madrigal and Monody
June 30, 2004 Early Seventeenth-Century Opera and Sacred Music
July 5, 2004 Virtuosity Achieved: Seventeenth-Century Keyboard Music
July 7, 2004 Opera in Full Bloom: Italy in the Mid-Seventeenth Century
July 12, 2004 The Incredible Violin: Sonata and Concerto in the Seventeenth and Early Eighteenth Centuries
July 14, 2004 Midterm Exam
July 19, 2004 Drama and Intrigue: Italian and French Opera in the Late Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries
July 21, 2004 "In Good Taste": French Instrumental Music in the Seventeenth and Early Eighteenth Centuries
July 26, 2004 Synthesizing Influences: Opera and Oratorio in England in the Late Seventeenth and Early Eighteenth Centuries
July 28, 2004 Cosmopolitanism and Innovation: German Keyboard Music; End of an Era: J. S. Bach (Part I)
August 2, 2004 End of an Era: J. S. Bach (Part II)
August 4, 2004 Final Exam

MHS 423
Assignments, Summer 2004

June 28, 2004 Introduction to Course; The New Music: Madrigal, Monody, and Opera
 
Listening Cipriano de Rore (1515/16-1565): "O Sonno," from Il secondo libro de madregali [4 voice] (pub. 1557)

Giulio Caccini (1551-1618): "Amarilli mia bella," from Le nuove musiche (1602)

Carlo Gesualdo (1560-ca. 1613): "Moro lasso al mio duolo," from Madrigals, Book VI (1611)

Monteverdi: "Ohimè dov'è il mio ben," from Madrigals, Book VII (1619)
 
Reading Palisca, pp. 1-7 (Chapter 1, "The Baroque Ideal")

Palisca, pp. 8-29 (Chapter 2, "Origins and Foundations")

Murata (source readings), pp. 18-26 (No. 2, Giovanni Maria Artusi, from Artusi, or, Of the Imperfections of Modern Music); pp. 27-36 (No. 3, Claudio and Giulio Cesare Monteverdi, "Explanation of the Letter Printed in the Fifth Book of Madrigals"); pp. 99-109 (No. 20, Giulio Caccini, from Preface to Le nuove musiche)
 
Suggested Reading Murata (source readings), pp. 15-17 (No. 1, Pietro de' Bardi, Letter to Giovanni Battista Doni); pp. 113-20 (No. 22, Agostino Agazzari, Of Playing upon a Bass with All Instruments)
 
June 30, 2004 Early Seventeenth-Century Opera and Sacred Music
 
Listening Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643): L'Orfeo (1607), Acts I-III

Giovanni Gabrieli (1557-1612): "In ecclesiis" from Symphoniae sacrae II (1615)

Lodovico Grossi da Viadana (ca. 1560-1627): "O Domine, Jesu Christe" from Cento concerti ecclesiastici (1602)

Monteverdi: "Laudate Dominum omnes gentes," from Selva morale e spirituale (1640)

Heinrich Schütz (1585-1672): "Saul, Saul, was verfolgst du mich?" from Symphoniae sacrae III (1650)
 
Suggested Listening Jacopo Peri (1561-1633): Euridice (1600): Excerpts in NAWM (Nos. 71a-c); Chorus, "Cruda morte" (score in Palisca, pp. 37-38)

"Schütz: "O quam tu pulchra es," from Symphoniae sacrae I (1619)
 
Reading Palisca, pp. 30-57 (Chapter 3, "The Recitative Style")

Palisca, pp. 58-81 (Chapter 4, "The Rise of the Sacred Concerto")

Palisca, pp. 100-13 (Chapter 6, "The Sacred Concerto in Germany")

Murata (source readings), pp. 151-54 (No. 27, Jacopo Peri, Preface to The Music for Euridice); pp. 97-99 (No. 19, Giulio Caccini, Dedication to Euridice)pp. 109-13 (No. 21, Lodovico Viadana, Preface to One Hundred Sacred Concertos, op. 12)
 
Suggested Reading Murata (source readings), pp. 49-53 (No. 6, Heinrich Schütz, Memorandum to the Elector of Saxony)
 
July 5, 2004 Virtuosity Achieved: Seventeenth-Century Keyboard Music
 
Listening Girolamo Frescobaldi (1583-1643): Partite sopra l'aria della Romanesca (1637)

Frescobaldi: Toccata IX (1615)

Jan Peterszoon Sweelinck (1562-1621): Fantasia chromatica (no known date)
 
Reading Schulenberg, Music of the Baroque, pp. 209-22 (from Chapter 10, "Baroque Keyboard Music I: Toccata and Suite")*

Palisca, pp. 82-99 (Chapter 5, "Lute and Keyboard Music")
 
July 7, 2004 Opera in Full Bloom: Italy in the Mid-Seventeenth Century
 
Listening Barbara Strozzi (1619-ca. 1664): Cantata, Lagrime mie (1659)

Monteverdi: L'Incoronazione di Poppea (1642): Act I--Prologue, Scenes 1-5, Scene 9; Act II--Scenes 1-3; Act III--Scenes 7 and 8 (ultima)
(on CD, this corresponds to CD1, tracks 1-6 and track 12; CD 2, tracks 4-6); CD 3, tracks 7-10)
 
Reading Palisca, pp. 114-44 (Chapter 7, "Italian Cantata, Oratorio, and Opera in Midcentury")

Murata (source readings), pp. 61-63 (No. 9, Geronimo Lappoli and Anna Renzi, Contract for the 1644 Season at the Teatro Novissimo); pp. 157-59 (No. 29, Claudio Monteverdi, Preface to Madrigali guerrieri, et amorosi)
 
Suggested Reading Murata (source readings), pp. 121-26 (No. 23, Anonymous, from The Choragus, or, Some Observations for Staging Dramatic Works Well)
 
July 12, 2004 The Incredible Violin: Sonata and Concerto in the Seventeenth and Early Eighteenth Centuries
 
Listening Giovanni Gabrieli: Canzon septimi toni (C 172) from Symphoniae sacrae I (1597)

Biagio Marini (1597-1665): Sonata quarta per il violino per sonar con due corde (1629)

Henry Purcell (1659-1695): Sonata 6 from Sonatas in Four Parts (pub. 1697)

Arcangelo Corelli (1653-1713): Sonata da chiesa in G minor, Op. 3, no. 11 (1689)

Corelli: Violin Sonata in D major, Op. 5, no. 1 (1700)

Corelli: Concerto in G minor, Op. 6, no. 8 (1714)

Vivaldi: Concerto in A minor, Op. 3, no. 8 (1711)
 
Reading Palisca, pp. 145-76 (Chapter 8, "Sonata, Concerto, and Sinfonia")

Murata (source readings), pp. 136-47 (No. 26, Georg Muffat, from Prefaces to Florilegia)
 
Suggested Reading Murata (source readings), pp. 77-80 (No. 14, Roger North, from Memoirs of Music); pp. 54-56 (No. 7, Francesco Colo, from Pallade veneta)
 
July 14 Midterm Exam
 
July 19, 2004 Drama and Intrigue: Italian and French Opera in the Late Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries
 
Listening Jean-Baptiste Lully (1632-1687): Armide (1686): Overture; Act II, sc. 5 (all); Act V, sc. II (all)
 
Suggested Listening Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683-1764): Hippolyte et Aricie (1733), Act II
 
Reading Schulenberg, pp. 88-109 (Chapter 5, "Lully and French Musical Drama")*

Palisca, pp. 231-48 (from Chapter 11, "Opera in France and Italy from Lully to Scarlatti")

Murata (source readings), pp. 63-66 (No. 10, Evrard Titon du Tillet, from the First Supplement to The Parnassus of France); pp. 162-70 (No. 31, François Raguenet, from A Comparison between the French and Italian Music and Operas); pp. 170-74 (No. 32, Jean Laurent Le Cerf de la Viéville, from Comparison between Italian and French Music)
 
Suggested Reading Murata (source readings), pp. 66-70 (No. 11, Alexandre-Toussaint Limojon, Sieur de Saint-Didier, from The City and Republic of Venice); pp. 178-83 (No. 34, Pier Jacopo Martello, from On Ancient and Modern Tragedy); pp. 70-73 (No. 12, "The Truthful Reporter," Two Letters on Opera in Rome)
 
July 21, 2004 "In Good Taste": French Instrumental Music in the Seventeenth and Early Eighteenth Centuries
 
Listening Louis Couperin (c. 1626-1661): Suite in F (between 1650 and 1661): Prélude (M 13); Allemande grave (M 67); Sarabande (M 72); Branle de basque (M 73); Gigue (M 76); Chaconne (M 78); Tombeau de M. de Blancrocher (M 81) [on CD 6619: disc 1, tracks 13, 14, 17, 18, 19, 21, 23, 24]

François Couperin (1688-1733): 15ième Ordre from Troisième Livre de Pièces de clavecin (1722): "Le Regénte, ou La Minerve"; "Le Dodo, ou L'Amour en berceau"; "L'Evaporée"; "Muséte de Taverni" 

François Couperin: Premier Ordre, "La Françoise," from Les Nations (1726): Sonade, Allemande, Gigue, Chaconne ou Passacaille
 
Reading Palisca, pp. 177-96 (Chapter 9, "Lute and Harpsichord Music in France")
 
July 26, 2004 Synthesizing Influences: Opera and Oratorio in England in the Late Seventeenth and Early Eighteenth Centuries
 
Listening Purcell: Dido and Aeneas (1689): Act I, Nos. 1-6; Act III, Nos. 36 and 37 ("Thy hand, Belinda"; When I am Laid in Earth")

George Frideric Handel (1685-1759): Giulio Cesare, Act I, Sc. 1-7

Handel: Messiah (1741): Part I: Nos. 1 (Sinfony), 4 ("And the glory of the Lord"), 5 ("Thus saith the Lord"), 6e ("But who may abide");

Part II: Nos. 24 ("Surely he hath borne our griefs"), 25 ("And with His stripes); 26 ("All we, like sheep"), 33 ("Lift up your heads"), 40a ("Why do the nations"), 41 ("Let us break their bonds," 42 ("He that dwelleth in ehaven"), 43 ("Thou shalt break them"), 44 ("Hallelujah")

Part III: Nos 49 ("Then shall be brought to pass"), 50a ("O death, where is thy sting?"), 51 ("But thanks be to God")
 
Reading Palisca, pp. 249-64 (Chapter 12, "Dramatic Music in England")

Murata (source readings), pp. 175-78 (No. 33, Joseph Addison, from The Spectator)
 
July 28, 2004 Cosmopolitanism and Innovation: German Keyboard Music; End of an Era: J. S. Bach (Part I)
 
Listening Johann Jakob Froberger (1616-1667): Toccata III in C and Partita VI in C from Libro quarto di toccate, ricercari, capricci, allemande, gigue, courante, sarabande (1656)

Dieterich Buxtehude (c. 1637-1707): Ich dank dir schon durch deinen Sohn, BuxWV 195 (ca. 1674)

Buxtehude: Preludium in G minor, BuxWV 149 (before 1690)

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750): Prelude and Fugue in A minor, BWV 543 (between 1714 and 1717)

Bach: "Durch Adams Fall is ganz verderbt," BWV 637, from the Orgelbüchlein

Bach: The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I (1722): Prelude and Fugue in C minor

Bach: English Suite No. 5 in E minor, BWV 810 (ca. 1715): Prélude, Allemande, Courante, and Gigue
 
Suggested Listening Buxtehude: Praeludium in A minor, BuxWV 153 (before 1690)

Bach: Concerto in A minor (after Vivaldi), BWV 593 (ca. 1714)

Bach: The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I:: Prelude and Fugue in G major
 
Reading Palisca, pp. 197-220 (Chapter 10, "Organ and Clavier Music in Germany")

Schulenberg, pp. 234-51 (from Chapter 11, "Baroque Keyboard Music II: Fugues, Pièces, and Sonatas")*
 
Suggested Reading Murata (source readings), pp. 199-203 (No. 37, Athanasius Kircher, from Musurgia universalis, ot, The Great Art of Consonances and Dissonances); pp. 188-95 (No. 36, Johann Mattheson, from The Complete Music Director)
 
August 2, 2004 End of an Era: J. S. Bach (Part II)
 
Listening Bach: Brandenburg Concerto No. 4, BWV 1049 (1721)

Bach: Flute Sonata in B minor, BWV 1030 (1738): I

Bach: Goldberg Variations, BWV 988 (1742): Aria, Variations 1-3, Variation 7, Variation 11, Variation 15, Variation 16, Variation 17, Variation 18, Variations 25-30

Bach: Mass in B minor, BWV 232 (1747-49): Kyrie I, Christe, Gloria in excelsis, Et in terra pax, Laudamus te, Crucifixus, Confiteor, Agnus dei, Dona nobis pacem
 
Reading Robert L. Marshall, "Bach the Progressive: Observations on His Later Works," in The Music of Johann Sebastian Bach: The Sources, The Style, The Significance (New York: Schirmer Books, 1989), pp. 23-58.*
 
Suggested Reading Palisca, pp. 318-38 (Chapter 15, "Johann Sebastian Bach")
 
August 4, 2004 Final Exam

* available online as .pdf--see reserve list for course in Voyager.

Review Sheet for Midterm Exam

Introduction to Course; The New Music: Madrigal, Monody, and Opera

Le nuove musiche (1602)

monody

affections

rhetoric

The Passions of the Soul (1649)

figured bass

thoroughbass

basso continuo

basso seguente

Baroque

Giovanni Maria Artusi

L’Artusi

seconda prattica

Three Ladies of Ferrara

Luzzasco Luzzaschi

Giulio Caccini

arie

trill

gruppo

madrigal

intermedi

Petrarch (1307–1374)

Cipriano de Rore (1516–1565)

chromaticism

Gesualdo

Vicentino

Florentine Camerata

Giovanni di Bardi

Girolamo Mei

canzonetta

Jacopo Peri

Dafne

stile rappresentativo

stile recitativo

narrative recitative

expressive recitative

special recitative

Il Pastor fido (1589)

Mantua

Vincenzo Gonzaga

Alessandro Striggio

ritornello

balletto

strophic variation

Giovanni Battista Doni

terza rima

ottava rima

Romanesca

 

The Modern Church: Innovations in Sacred Music

 

prima prattica

Mass . . . and Vespers (1610)

Missa “In illo tempore”

Marco Scacchi

stile antico

stile moderno

St. Mark’s Cathedral

cori spezzati

vocal concerto

concertato style

sacred concerto

Cento concerti ecclesiastici (1602)

Selva morale e spirituali (1640)

Messa et salmi (1650)

basso ostinato

falsobordone

stile grave

polychoral music

Sacrae symphoniae (1597)

grand concerto

chorale

cantional

Hanseatic League

Thirty Years War

Musae sionae (1607)

cantio

Symphoniae sacrae

colla parte

saltus duriusculus

variatio

favoriti

 

 

Virtuosity Achieved: Seventeenth-Century Keyboard Music

 

jack

manual

register

Ruckers family

Pythagorean comma

12th-comma tuning

1/4-comma meantone

fantasia

ricercar

canzona

toccata

variations

partite

early keyboard fingering

arpeggio

articulation

tempo rubato

“forma formans”

subject

countersubject

ripresa

Toccate e partite d’intavolatura (1614, 1637)

Passamezzo

 

Opera in Full Bloom: Italy in the Mid-Seventeenth Century

 

cantata

Cardinal Barberini

lamento bass

descending tetrachord

oratorio

Teatro San Cassiano

stile concitato

Tacitus

Neostoicism

Academy of the Incogniti

Busenello

Luigi Rossi (1597–1653)

arioso

recitativo arioso

 

Review Sheet for Final Exam