Module MUSI1231: Historical Trends and Issues in the 17th and 18th Centuries

Department: Music

MUSI1231: Historical Trends and Issues in the 17th and 18th Centuries

Prerequisites

• A in A-level Music.

Corequisites

• None.

Excluded Combination of Modules

• None.

Aims

• This course aims to provide students with an overview of the principal developments in European musical life from 1600 to 1800. It will also afford students an opportunity to acquire basic research skills, as well as introducing them to standard presentatinal conventions and the expectations attendant to good academic writing. In seeking to develop students' critical acumen and intellectual independence, this module will provide a foundation for more advanced study of the music of other historical periods in second and third year.

Content

• This course will introduce students to the creative achievements of notable composers active during this period, relating their work to a wider social and cultural context. Important subsidiary themes will include the emergence and development of different musical genres (such as opera, the symphony and the concerto), as well as the dominant stylistic trends that are manifest. The first term will be devoted to the music of the Baroque period, focussing on key developments in Germany, France, Italy and England. The second term will survey the transition from the late Baroque to the Classical period, culminating in an introduction to the music of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven. Some of the lectures will focus onthe study of representative musical texts.

Learning Outcomes

• Students will be expected to acquire a knowledge of mainstream seventeenth- and eighteenth-century repertoire, and be aware of key trends and developments during this period.

• This module aims to impact a training in basic research and writing skills which will be foundational for study at a more advanced level. Students will also learn to engage with historical issues from a variety of intellectual standpoints, including the philosophical, political and cultural.

• The ability to identify and conceptualise issues; the ability to situate ideas in a context and to engage in critically informed argument; the ability to use appropriate analytical skills.

Modes of Teaching, Learning and Assessment and how these contribute to the learning outcomes of the module

• Lectures.
• Seminars, with scope for student formative class presentations.
• Tutorials
• Directed reading
• Independent study of set texts and scores.

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

Summative Assessment

Formative Assessment:

Students will be asked to prepare short oral and/or written presentations on set works and/or relevant historical topics and will receive feedback at tutorials.

■ Attendance at all activities marked with this symbol will be monitored. Students who fail to attend these activities, or to complete the summative or formative assessment specified above, will be subject to the procedures defined in the University's General Regulation V, and may be required to leave the University