Music 501: Medieval and Renaissance Music

Texts:

• Jeremy Yudkin, Music in Medieval Europe (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1989), required purchase. Includes many complete musical examples to serve as an anthology. Note: This book is currently out of print. The instructor will provide copies to the class.
• Allan W. Atlas, Renaissance Music (New York: Norton, 1998), required purchase.
• Allan W. Atlas, Anthology of Renaissance Music (New York: Norton, 1998), required purchase.
• Howard Mayer Brown and Louise K. Stein, Music in the Renaissance, 2d ed. (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1999).
• J. Peter Burkholder, Donald Jay Grout and Claude V. Palisca, A History of Western Music, 8th edition (New York: Norton, 2010).
• J. Peter Burkholder and Claude V. Palisca, edd., Norton Anthology of Western Music, 6th ed., vol. 1 (New York: Norton, 2010). Every piece in this collection can be heard on the accompanying 14-CD set, Norton Recorded Anthology of Western Music.
• James McKinnon, ed., Antiquity and the Middle Ages (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1991).
• Tess Knighton and David Fallows, eds., Companion to Medieval and Renaissance Music (New York: Schirmer, 1992).

Topics for discussion:

1. Ethnomusicology and antiquity
2. Chant and liturgy
3. Secular monophony
4. Early polyphony
5. Ars antiqua polyphony
6. Ars nova polyphony
7. Late 14th-century avant-garde
8. Dunstable and the Burgundians
9. Josquin and his contemporaries
10. Madrigal and chanson
11. Reformation and counter-reformation
12. Instrumental music
13. Late renaissance trends

Course requirements:

1. Attendance and participation in class discussion.
2. Reading and listening as assigned.
3. Class work as assigned.
4. Article review, due by midterm.
5. Transcription project.
6. Research project, due at end of term.
7. Midterm examination. Bring a blue book.
8. Final examination. Bring a blue book.

Review materials

1. Listening Guide I
2. Listening Guide II
3. medieval terms for review
4. Renaissance terms for review
5. Review outline I of Atlas
6. Review outline II of Atlas
7. T. Morley defines musical genres
8. Sarum mass, a full liturgical performance of a late medieval English mass (priest's blog with videos). In addition to the Sarum Chant, you hear Thomas Tallis' mass Puer natus, the processional motet Videte miraculum, and John Sheppard, Gaude Maria.
9. Performances of selections from the Atlas Renaissance anthology (YouTube Playlist)
10. Other performances of medieval and renaissance music (YouTube Playlist)

Other resources

1. Chant books including Liber usualis from Musica Sacra
2. Vocal performance practice (Blue Heron)
3. White Mensural Notation
4. Renaissance music essays (Metropolitain Museum of Art)

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