Undergraduate Program
Selected Course Offerings:
Music History
A number of electives in Music History are offered on a regular basis. They include:
Music 001: Exploring the Nature of Genius.
Professor Craig Wright.
Manifestations of genius explored in the works of selected creators: Hildegard (of Bingen), Brunelleschi, Leonardo da Vinci, Shakespeare, Mozart, Picasso, and Stravinsky. A rudimentary introduction to medieval chant; Renaissance art, architecture, and drama; music of the classical period; and avant-garde painting and dance of the twentieth century. Introductory studies in cognitive psychology, focusing on the phenomenon of the prodigy and the nature of exceptional artistic creativity. Historical readings reveal the "what" of genius, while psychological studies may shed light on the "why” and the “how."
Music 022: Music, Love, and Sexual Desire in Medieval Europe.
Professor Margot Fassler.
Exploration of the ways that music and young musicians in the Middle Ages reflected cultural issues such as friendship, courtship, gender, relationships to authority figures, sexuality and homoerotic love, spirituality, the “sickness” of love, and models of chastity.
Music 236: Mozart and the Classical Era.
Professor Craig Wright.
Introduction to the music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. A survey of the musical forms of the classical era is followed by an examination of selected compositions by Mozart. Special attention is paid to the piano concertos and late operas, especially those for which there are multiple versions on film.
Music 340: Listening in Nineteenth-Century Paris.
Professor Gundula Kreuzer.
A journey through the musical capital of nineteenth-century Europe. Various facets of Parisian musical life examined in order to trace changes in the public experience of music under the influence of wider political, sociocultural, and technical revolutions. Focus on the rise of grand opera and on legacies for twentieth-century "serious" music and popular mass culture.
Music 444: Composing, 1978-2008.
Professor Seth Brodsky.
Transformations in musical composition and the role of the composer during the last thirty years. Musical works situated against a backdrop of current events, both in popular culture and in the world of composerly production. Readings in cultural and aesthetic theory, as well as responses from critics, scholars, and composers. Works by Boulez, Berio, Ligeti, and others.
Music 467: Mahler, Modernism, and the Symphony.
Professor James Hepokoski.
A study of Mahler's earlier symphonies, Nos. 1-4, in the context of an emerging European musical "modernism," c. 1885-1905. Analysis of selected movements; interpretations of program and structure; consideration of cultural and compositional background.
Music 468: Mozart Operas.
Professor Ellen Rosand.
Mozarts' mature operas from dramatic, historical, and analytical perspectives. Repertory drawn from Idomeneo, Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Le nozze die Figaro, Don Giovanni, Cosi fan tutte, Die Zauberlflöte, and La clemenza di Tito.
