Mark Mazullo
mazullo@macalester.edu
Office: 107 Music
Office Phone: x6582		 Fall 2004
MWF 1:10-2:10 PM
Room 202 Music
Macalester College
Music 342: Western Music of the 17th and 18th Centuries
Course Overview | Calendar | Readings | Listening Assignments
You, when you come, will be told that we musicians of the eighteenth century were no better than servants: the willing slaves of the well-to-do. This is quite true. It is also quite false. Yes, we were servants. But we were learned servants! And we used our learning to celebrate men's average lives.

We took unremarkable men usual bankers, run-of-the-mill priests, ordinary soldiers and statesmen and wives and sacramentalized their mediocrity. We smoothed their noons with strings divisi! We pierced their nights with chitarini! We gave them processions for their strutting, serenades for their rutting, high horns for their hunting, and drums for their wars! Trumpets sounded when they entered the world, and trombones groaned when they left it! The savor of their days remains behind because of us, our music still remembered while their politics are long forgotten.

Tell me, before you call us servants, who served whom? And who, I wonder, in your generations, will immortalize you?

from Peter Shaffer's Amadeus, Act One
Course Description
This course surveys the development of musical style and the changing nature of music culture over two centuries. Beginning with the emergence of opera in Italy around 1600, the first half of the course follows the spread of the "Baroque" style from Italy to the rest of Europe focusing on such topics as Venetian opera, musical life in the extravagant court of Louis XIV in France, instrumental music of the 17th century, and Johann Sebastian Bach's masterful contribution to the high Baroque. The second half of the course traces the evolution of "pre-Classical" genres and styles of the early-mid 18th century (concerto, symphony, comic and serious opera) into the high Viennese classicism of Haydn and Mozart.

Our central concerns will be twofold: (1) to understand the place of music in social and cultural life, and (2) to gain an appreciation of the rhetoric of Baroque and Classical music. To that end, course activities will take several forms, including lectures, musical analyses, and performances. Lectures will introduce key terms and concepts and will address broader concerns of cultural life (including composer biographies). In-class analysis and performance will lead to a more detailed understanding of key works and a sensitivity toward performance practice issues.

The course assumes no historical knowledge of the periods in question. However, basic skills in the analysis of tonal music are required. Course prerequisites are Music 113 and 114 (Theory I and II). Music 214 (Form and Analysis) is recommended, but not required. Students without sufficient knowledge of musical form may need to meet individually with me occasionally to get the appropriate information (though time in class for review may be sufficient for these purposes).

Assignments and Grading
There are three tests for the course (including the final exam) and three papers.

Tests will include identification of terms, essays that ask you to put music in some kind of context, discussion of important points from readings, and style identification and analysis from score or listening examples. All tests are cumulative. The purpose of testing is not for me to gain some kind of "objective" understanding of your "intelligence." Rather, it is your preparation for a test that is of the most value. For me, giving tests ensures that students become appropriately familiar with the material.

Each paper will focus on a central work--Monteverdi's L'incoronazione di Poppea, Bach's St. Matthew Passion, and two piano concertos by Mozart. Separate assignment sheets for each paper will be distributed in class. I will suggest specific topics, but you are always free to suggest a topic that interests you personally, so long as it relates to the general subject and goals of the assignment.

In addition to tests and papers, each student is required to perform at least once during class, to speak intelligently about the piece being performed (relating it to the topic at hand), and to answer any questions that may arise. More details on this aspect of the course will be addressed in class.

All homework is required. There are daily listening and/or reading assignments. For all readings, be prepared to summarize and respond to the author's points. For all listening, be prepared to comment on the piece's form, style, exceptional characteristics, and any other musical details you find interesting. Focus on understanding the rhetoric of the piece: what elements of the piece enable it to express what it expresses? The homework is meant to prepare us for an engaging class discussion. Failing to do homework will result in a lack of participation on your part, which in turn will lead to a low "class participation" grade. (See following percentages.)

Your final course grade will be determined according to the following percentages:

   Three tests (averaged): 40%
   Three papers (averaged): 40%
   Class participation (performance, homework, attendance, participation in dicussions): 20%

Course Texts
Two scores are required for purchase, because they pertain directly to two of your papers:

(1) J.S. Bach, St. Matthew Passion (in full score) Dover miniature score ($6.95)
(2) W.A. Mozart, Piano Concertos no. 20 (K. 466) and 21 (K. 467) Dover miniature score ($4.95)

Both are available at Ruminator Books.

Course readings will be available on electronic reserve, with a single hard copy also available at the reserve desk at the Dewitt Wallace Library. Scores and recordings for listening will be on course reserve in Dewitt Wallace Library.

I may assign occcasional reading from the latest edition (2000) of the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. You are required to be familiar with this important reference source. It is availalble in online format, and class time will be spent at the beginning of the semester on familiarizing you with this resource.