Music 502: Baroque Music

Objectives: Familiarity with and understanding of selected works of Western music of the 17th and early 18th century; identification and study of distinctive features of the music of this period; the ability to pursue basic research on the music of this period, and to present this research in oral and written form.

Texts:

• John Walter Hill, Baroque Music: Music in Western Europe, 1580-1750 (New York: Norton, 2005), required purchase. The publisher provides an online list of corrections to this book. The author has written an article for The Journal of Music History Pedagogy entitled "A Small Selection from among the Many Things that I Still Do Not Know about Baroque Music."
• John Walter Hill, Anthology of Baroque Music (New York: Norton, 2005), required purchase. An online List of available recordings includes links to MP3 audio files of some of examples. A Web Supplement to this anthology contains forty-five additional examples for download in full score (PDF format) with texts and translations. There is also a corresponding List of available recordings ifor the Supplement, including links to MP3 audio files.

• Wendy Heller, Music in the Baroque (New York: Norton 2014).
• Wendy Heller, Anthology for Music in the Baroque (New York: Norton 2014).
• Claude V. Palisca, Baroque Music, third edition (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1991).
• J. Peter Burkholder, Donald Jay Grout, and Claude V. Palisca A History of Western Music, 7th edition (New York: Norton, 2005).
• J. Peter Burkholder and Claude V. Palisca, ed., Norton Anthology of Western Music, 5th ed., vol. 1 (New York: Norton, 2005), Every piece in this collection can be heard on the accompanying 12-CD set, Norton Recorded Anthology of Western Music.
• Sarah Fuller, The European Musical Heritage 800-1750, revised edition (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2004). There is a five-CD set of recordings that accompanies this edition.
• Curtis Price, ed., The Early Baroque Era (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1993).
• George J. Buelow, ed., The Late Baroque Era (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1994).
• Julie Anne Sadie, ed., Companion to Baroque Music (New York: Schirmer, 1991).

Topics for discussion:

1. Introduction: monarchy, religion, and the rhetoric of the Arts
2. The birth of opera, monody, and the concerted madrigal (1-13, W1)
3. New genres of instrumental music in Italy (14-25, W2)
4. Church music in Italy, 1600-1650 (26-31, W3-5))
5. Music in France to 1650 (32-48, W6)
6. Music in the Empire through the Thirty-Years War (49-59, W7-W8)
7. Music in England to 1660 (60-65, W9-W11)

8. New vocal genres in Italy, 1635-1680 (66-74, W12-W14))
9. French music to the death of Lully (75-80, W15-W18)
10. Music in Spain, Portugal, and their colonies (81-87, W19-W23)
11. Music in the Empire during the later seventeenth century (88-100, W24-W26)
13. England from the Restoration to 1715 (108-115, W28-W34)

12. Sonata and concerto in late seventeenth-century Italy (101-107, W27)
14. Italian vocal music, 1680-1730 (116-120, W35)
15. French music, 1690-1725 (121-124, W36-W42)
16. German traditions and innovations, 1690-1750 (125-130, W43-W45)

Course requirements:

1. Attendance and participation in class discussion.
2. Reading and listening as assigned.
3. Class work as assigned.
4. Book or record review, due by midterm.
5. Research project, due at end of term.
6. Midterm examination. Bring a blue book.
7. Final examination. Bring a blue book.
8. Final grades will be simple letter grades, without plus or minus.

Review and study materials

1. Listening review 1
2. Listening review 2
3. Listening review 3
4. Dr. Steel's Baroque Anthology video playlist (YouTube)
5. Summary of Monteverdi's L'Orfeo
6. Summary of Monteverdi's Vespers
7. Contents of Banchieri's Nuovi Pensieri Ecclesiastici
8. Contents of Sances's Cantade
9. Summary of Schütz's works
10. Summary of Schütz's biblical histories
11. Libretto of Purcell, Dido and Aeneas
12. Contents of J.S. Bach, Clavier-Übung
13. Thomas Coryat describes Venetian music
14. Thomas Coryat describes Venetian orphans
15. Thomas Mace discusses musical rhetoric

Links of interest:

• Hill home page: outline, links to anthology, web anthology, etc.
• Grout home page: outlines, study guides, interactive listening guides, etc.
• Journal of Seventeenth-Century Music
• Music history events from 1600 (Classical Works)
• Early Music FAQ (Todd McComb)
• Aspects of Early Major-Minor Tonality by Doug Anderson [PDF]
• Male sopranists
• J.S. Bach home page
• Bach Central Station
• Bach Cantatas
• G.F. Handel
• Henry Purcell
• F. Couperin, L'Apothéose de Lulli, complete audio
• Choral Public Domain Library: free scores
• Petrucci Music Library (IMSLP): still more free scores

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