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This course will trace in exciting and vivid detail the history, performance
practices, cultural significance, and musical styles of Western music from
the Middle Ages to approximately 1750. That much of this music not only
remains familiar to us but continues to be vibrant in the musical life of
today, is testimony to both the remarkable endurance of Medieval,
Renaissance, and Baroque music, and the efforts of modern-day scholars
and performers who have provided us with a close lookin history and in
soundto the past. The course will touch on many issuessound, score,
performance, and historyand it will also give you a chance to have a
significant research experience. Our course is organized flexibly, some
weeks centered in a particular region or locale (Paris, Notre Dame), others
to a certain composer or genre (Josquin, opera), and still others to a
particular historical development (Renaissance) or school of performers
(Troubadours). Think of the course as both wide-angled and narrowly
focused. Sometimes we will dwell on a close-up of 10-15 years (as in our
coverage of the late sixteenth century); at other times we will take a wider
panoramic look a period. In either case, this course moves fast, and it is
important to be current in your reading and not fall behind in your active
listeningthe main activity around which the course is based.
All of the items are required and are available at Barnes & Noble, Kenmore
Square, or on the Blackboard site. The anthology and supplemental list
contain all of the music required for the course, and the Anthology is
essential to purchase and bring to class every day. For background and
when you run into questions that can be answered quickly, you are
encouraged to use the library and to seek out such standard reference
books as The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, available
online through Mugar as grovemusic for accurate definitions and
summaries of any of the material that we cover. The Blackboard site for this
course contains course materials, all of the supplemental listening and the
reading and visual material shown in class. It will be updated weekly.
MH 201/211 Page 2
Grading
1) Three in-class listening/short answer tests: 25% each
2) One take-home exam / paper: 20% (handed out 15 October, due 29
October)
3) Attendance at Cappella Pratensis concert on November 6 (Marsh
Chapel) with one-page summary: 5%; other listings to be posted on
the Blackboard site
(No makeups for the tests or late papers will be permitted without a valid
medical excuse)
MH 201/211 Page 3
VI. 6/8 October: Music of the High Renaissance: The Age of Josquin
des Prez
Listening: N42: Josquin, Faulte dargent, chanson (ca. 1500)
N43: Josquin, Mille regretz, chanson (ca. 1520)
N68a: Luys de Narvaez, Mille regres (intabulation, 1538)
N44: Josquin, motet, Ave Maria (1480-85)
N45: Josquin, Kyrie and Credo (excerpts) from the Missa Pange
Lingua (ca. 1515)