Undergraduate Courses

MHL 202/203/204   Music History
A survey of music history from early times to the present. The courses emphasize familiarity with historical repertory and the musical, social and cultural context of that repertory. MHL 202 begins with music of the early Church and finishes around 1700. MHL 203 continues from 1700 to 1900. MHL 204 covers music of the 20th and 21st centuries. Prerequisites: MMT 103, MMT 113, GED 202 and GED 203 – or consent of instructor. MHL 202 is offered fall semester (Laurance), MHL 203 is offered spring semester (Spitzer), MHL 204 is offered both semesters (Spitzer, Laurance).

MHL 400   Introduction to Performance Practice
This course is a general introduction and survey of the study of performance practice from 1600 to the present. We will investigate the most important topics within this fascinating field of inquiry: rhythm, rubato, tempo, vibrato, improvisation and the changing ideas about these subjects over the course of the last 400 years. Jamason

MHL 502    Musica Antiqua: Music of the Middle Ages and Renaissance
This course surveys the music of the Medieval and Renaissance periods through in-class performance and primary source readings. The class will sing its way through music between 900 AD and 1600. Most of the repertory will be in modern editions, but we will also sing plainchant from medieval notation and Renaissance madrigals and motets from part-books. We will read documents by musicians of the period, transcribe some early notation, and decipher musical iconography in works of Medieval and Renaissance art. Because of the prominence of vocal music in these periods, all students will sing in class; however, technical proficiency is not expected, and instrumentalists are welcome. Lamott

MHL 503   Beethoven
An examination of the career of Ludwig van Beethoven, focusing on major works in representative genres (sonata, symphony, string quartet, overture, variation). We will discuss aspects of Beethoven’s compositional style, his creative process, his relationship to Viennese musical traditions and composers like Haydn and Mozart and the critical reception of his works during his lifetime and thereafter. We will also examine aspects of Beethoven’s life, beliefs and character, as they relate to his music and also as they gave rise to a Beethoven myth that persists to this day. Laurance

MHL 504   History of Jazz
This course explores the evolution of jazz from its early roots to the present. Students will study the musical elements of jazz styles within the cultural context of the times. We will listen to recordings by Scott Joplin, Louis Armstrong, Fats Waller, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Art Blakey, John Coltrane, Chick Corea, and many, many others. Fettig

MHL 505   Folk Song and Art Song
This course will consider the complex and changing relationship of Western art song to folk song traditions. Folk songs were first designated as a special kind of music in the 18th century, by the Romantic movement in English and German speaking countries. In the 19th century collecting, notating and publishing folk songs became became an important aspect of nationalist movements all over Europe. In addition composers of the 19th and 20th centuries used folksong as a as a means to forge a personal style. Songs to be studied include folk song settings by composers such as Haydn, Beethoven, Stevenson, Brahms, Dvorak, Bartok, Copland, Britten and Berio. Laurance

MHL 509    100 Years of American Music: 1845-1945
The 100 years covered by this course saw major changes in the musical life of the United States. Between 1845 and 1945 a national musical infrastructure was created with the centralization of music publishing, the development of a national touring circuit for performers and shows, and the birth of recording, movies and radio broadcasting. Distinctively American idioms were created in song, dance music, religious music, band music, musical theater and concert music, musical theater. We will follow these developments through the 19th and early 20th centuries and the ongoing search for an American musical identity. Major composers to be covered include Heinrich, Foster, Chadwick, Parker, Ives, Cowell, Kern, Berlin, Copland, Harris, and Partch. Laurance

MHL 510   American Song
The course will consider both “art song” and “popular” song – how they became distinct styles during the second half of the 19th century and various attempts to bridge the gap during the 20th century. We will study songs by Hewitt, Foster, Root, Beach, von Tilzer, Ives, Carpenter, Berlin, Seeger, Copland, Gershwin, Barber, Bolcom, and many others. Assignments will involve work with original sheet music and early recordings. Song performance in class when possible. Spitzer

MHL 511   19th-century Opera and its Literary Sources
In the 19th century creators of French and Italian opera increasingly turned to prestigious works of literature on which to base their libretti. This course examines some of the reasons for this shift, the consequences that it had for opera in general and the process of adaptation in particular works. We will consider how literary sources were routinely reworked to accommodate operatic conventions and dramatic imperatives. Some of the operas to be covered include Lucia di Lammermoor (Scott/Donizetti), Otello (Shakespeare/Rossini, Verdi), Manon (Prevost/Auber, Massenet, Puccini), Faust (Goethe/Gounod), La traviata (Dumas/Verdi) and the Tales of Hoffmann (Hoffmann/Offenbach). Laurance

MHL 512   Music since 1975
Can we find an orientation within the most recent developments of musical literature? Music since 1975 consists of lectures, listening, score analysis, readings and group projects designed to expose students to some of the main trends of the last 30 years of music history. We will study music by composers like Anthony Braxton, Giacinto Scelsi, Frederic Rzewski, György Kurtag, and discuss their backgrounds (cultural, spiritual, ethnic), musical styles and notation. We will also discuss performance practice, marketing modern music, and what makes for artistic and commercial success. Chessa

MHL 513   19th-century Program Music
This course examines symphonic program music in the 19th century and its relation to literature. Students will read excerpts from Ovid, Byron, Goethe and Burns and study works by Beethoven, Schumann, Liszt, Tchaikovsky, Strauss and Chadwick, examing the process of instrumental adaptation from narrative works. Themes will include changing theories of representation in music and the interaction of narrative literature with established musical forms. Laurance

MHL 514   Musical Life of the Middle Ages and Renaissance
A survey of the musical life of the monasteries, courts, cathedrals and cities of the Middle Ages and Renaissance periods, as recorded by poets, scholars, artists and musicians of the time. While touching o the principal forms of music of the time, our study will focus on the environments in which musical works were created and the changing role of the musician in European society. Topics will include monastic life and plainchant, the music of the Crusades, the art of courtly love, the commedia dell’arte, madrigal poetry, and Renaissance dance. Lamott

MHL 515   Tape, Vinyl, Byte: Electronic Music and Electronica
Electronic music was born in the studios of the French avant garde, but it has moved into the clubs and warehouses where techno lives today. As powerful music software has shrunk large studios inside laptops, electronic music has become more accessible to composers and non-composers alike. This course surveys electronic music from the perspective of today’s electronica. Early innovators often cited by techno artists (Stockhausen, Reich, Eno, and others) will be examined alongside important artists of today (Aphex Twin, Mouse on Mars, The Books, and others). The course also includes a 'hands-on' component, where students will be able to try out some of the techniques and the software that we study and create mixes that incorporate improvisations on instruments of their choice. Bates

MHL 516   The Genius of J. S. Bach
This undergraduate course surveys the career, works, and musical styles of Johann Sebastian Bach. We will get acquainted with the prevailing national musical styles of his time and composers who influenced him. We will inquire into his beliefs, his social circles and the circumstances of his employment and see what impact these had on his work. Finally we will try to understand his rhetorical language and approaches to form—including concerto, fugue, cantata, and dances—in a variety of instrumental and vocal genres. Representative works will be drawn from the church cantatas, keyboard and solo suites, Brandenburg Concertos, and Bach repertoire of students in the class. Lamott

Graduate Courses

MHL 602   Topics in Music History (18th and 19th centuries)
Topics courses review music history by investigating a limited number of important topics. The course will cover five topics to be announced soon. Students who do not pass part one of the History Placement Exam must take MHL 602. Harvey

MHL 603   Topics in Music History (20th and 21st centuries)
Topics courses review music history by investigating a limited number of important topics. The course will cover five topics: the rise and fall of 12-tone music, experimental music, opera and drama in the 20th century, plus two to be announced. Students who do not pass part two of the History Placement Exam must take MHL 603. Spitzer, Chessa

MHL 651 The Symphony before Beethoven (Proseminar)
The course will trace the development of the symphony from its origins in concertos and opera overtures through the concert symphonies of Mozart and Haydn. We will look at the formal organization of symphonies, their relation to other genres, their social contexts, aesthetics, and performance practice. Students will gain some familiarity with 18th-century manuscripts and prints of symphonies. Composers covered will include Handel, Vivaldi, Scarlatti, Sammartini, J. C. Bach, J. Stamitz, Haydn, Dittersdorf, Mozart, and more. Like other proseminars, the course emphasizes reading, research and writing about music history. Spitzer

MHL 652 Giuseppe Verdi (Proseminar)
This course surveys the career of Giuseppe Verdi through representative works such as Nabucco, MacBeth, La Traviata, Don Carlos and Falstaff. We will review some of the standard scenic structures of Italian opera and see how Verdi reworked them for dramatic effect. Particular attention will be paid to Verdi’s concept of “tinta” (dramatic color) and its influence on his choice and treatment of subject matter. We will also consider Verdi’s work in the larger context of opera production in the nineteenth century. This will include Verdi’s relationships with major theaters and publishers (particularly Ricordi), with his librettists, and with the singers who premiered his works. Like other proseminars, the course emphasizes reading, research and writing about music history. Laurance

MHL 653 Performance Practice: 19th Century (Proseminar)
In this class we will investigate the great performers of the Romatic Era through the study of concert reviews, criticism, letters, memoirs and treatises by leading composers and performers of the nineteenth-century. We will also study recordings from the earliest period of recorded sound, which captured performers born as early as the 1830’s. Using these diverse sources, we will investigate the important performance practice issues of the era and how this performance practice style relates to our own performances of 19th- century repertoire. Issues to be explored include tempo, rubato, articulation, pedaling, bowing, ornamentation, cadenzas, the role of improvisation, as well as changing attitudes regarding the act of performance and the development of the non-composer performer/virtuoso. Like other proseminars, the course emphasizes reading, research and writing about music history. Jamason

MHL 654 Joseph Haydn: Life and Works (Proseminar)
The course considers Haydn as a man, as a composer and as a leading figure in the European Enlightenment. We will construct a picture of Haydn from contemporary letters, biographies, concert programs, reviews and poetry. We will listen to and study a selection of works ina variety of genres, including symphonies, operas, string quartets, piano sonatas and trios, masses and baryton trios. Like other proseminars, this course require a term paper. Spitzer

MHL 655 Operetta (Proseminar)
Beginning with Offenbach’s one-act satires of the 1850s, operetta developed into one of the most internationally successful musical theater genres of the 20th century. In this course we will consider operetta’s relationship to other 19th-century French operatic genres, especially the opéra-comique and vaudeville, and the cross-pollination of operetta with the msuical theater of Great Britain, Austria, and the United States. Particular attention will be paid to the golden age of fin-de-siècle Vienna. Works studied will include operettas by Offenbach, Messager, Strauss Jr., Carl Zeller, Franz Lehár, Arthur Sullivan, Sigmund Romberg and Victor Herbert. Like other proseminars, this course require a term paper. McLaughlin

MHL 656 The Symphonic Poem (Proseminar)
This course is an in-depth examination of the rise and fall of the Symphonic Poem. Beginning with the emergence in the 18th century of the characteristic symphony, the concert overture and melodrama, we will explore how the relationship between words and instrumental music was reevaluated at the beginning of the nineteenth century, paving the way for the introduction of the Symphonic Poem. We will discuss works Dittersdorf, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Schumann, Liszt, Dvorak, Tchaikovsky, Strauss, and Debussy. We will also consider the fate of the Symphonic Poem in the 20th century, particularly its survival in the musical vocabulary of classic film scores. Like other proseminars, this course require a term paper. Laurance

MHL 657 American Music in the 19th Century (Proseminar)
This course chronicles the mixture of styles and genres that typified American Music in the nineteenth century. We will consider many aspects of music in everyday life, including religious music, social dance music, balladry, work songs, parlor songs, band music and the rise of Tin Pan Alley. Additionally we will examine the music of some of America's earliest composers of concert music, including Anthony Phillip Heinrich, Louis Moreau Gottschalk, Edward MacDowell, Amy Beach and George Whitefield Chadwick. Like other proseminars, this course require a term paper. Laurance

MHL 658 The Rise of Comic Opera (Proseminar)
This course surveys the changing expressions of the comic in European music drama between 1619 and 1816. We will, trace the history of several comic genres – opera buffa, intermezzo, opéra comique, Singspiel, ballad opera – and their cross-fertilization. We will see how the values and issues of the 17th and 18th centuries – humanism, neo-classicism, the Enlightenment, and several cycles of operatic reforms – are reflected in comic opera. The approach will include both historical background and stylistic analysis. The course will explore works by Monteverdi, Landi, Pergolesi, Gay, Grétry, Piccinni, Paisiello, and Mozart. Like other proseminars, this course require a term paper. Harvey

MHL 659 West Meets East in Music (Proseminar)
This course will examine how composers and performers in Europe and the U.S. have responded to the music of Asia. We will take a more or less historical approach, beginning with imitations of Turkish music in the 18th century, through the orientalism and exoticism of the 19th and early 20th centuries, and ending with 20th- and 21st-century attempts to synthesize East and West. “Popular” music will be considered as well as classical. There will be reading and/or listening assignments, covering repertory by composers like Mozart, Bizet, Debussy, Puccini, Holst, McPhee, Britten, Messaien and Lou Harrison. Like other proseminars, this course require a term paper. Spitzer

MHL 660 Charles Ives, the Man and his Music (Proseminar)
Virtually unknown during his most productive years as a composer (1895-1922), Charles Ives gained a reputation in the second half of the 20th century as a pioneer and an American original. The course will study a cross-section of Ives’s music – especially the songs and music for instrumental ensembles. We will explore abundant primary source materials about Ives’s musical education, his career as a businessman, his activities as a composer, and his ideas about music, politics and life. Like other proseminars, this course require a term paper. Spitzer

MHL 662 Olivier Messiaen: Selected Works (Proseminar)
The course will consider selected works for keyboard including Vingt regards sur l'Enfant-Jésus and Catalogue d'oiseaux (piano) and La Nativité du Seigneur (organ), and The Quartet for the End of Time. We will examine these works in a performance practice context illuminated by Messiaen's treatise, The Technique of My Musical Language. Issues will include Messiaen’s modal harmonies, his use of Indian rhythms, and extra-musical influences like his religious faith, his study of bird song, and his sound-color synaesthesia. Students will have the opportunity to explore additional works by Messiaen on their own, both keyboard music and works that include other instruments and voice. Conroy

MHL 663 Opera Before Handel (Proseminar)
Few operas from the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries are included in standard operatic repertory, but arias by Monteverdi, Lully, Caldara, Keiser, Purcell, Scarlatti, and their contemporaries others still turn up in modern recitals and continue to figure in vocal training. The goal of this course is to deepen our appreciation of this music through an understanding its original context. We will explore the economic and social environments as well as the aesthetic forces that shaped staged dramatic works set to music, from private spectacle to public opera in Italy, France and Germany. At the end of the semester we will cover a couple of operas by G. F. Handel. There will be readings, written assignments, in-class performances and a little work from manuscript sources. Like other proseminars, this course requires a term paper. Harvey

MHL 664 Opera on Record (Proseminar)
More than a century of recordings has left us a with wealth of opera to listen to.  But how do we evaluate what we're hearing?  What relationship do recordings have to a printed score ­­– and vice versa?  How can today's performers make use of what we learn from old recordings?  To address these questions, we will consider the so-called "creator records" made by various Puccini interpreters and by the original cast of Strauss' Der Rosenkavalier, as well as recordings of early Wagner interpreters, the first opéra-comique version of Carmen, and 101 versions of "Che gelida manina."  Topics may also include a brief history of recording technology, national differences in singing, ornamentation in Verdi, and the influence of changing technologies on how we sing, record and stage opera.  Like other proseminars, this course requires a term paper. Plack

MHL 665 The Bartok String Quartets (Proseminar)
Bartók’s six string quartets, composed between 1909 and 1939, are generally thought to be the 20th century’s greatest contribution to this medium. These six masterworks serve as landmarks in the evolution of Bartók’s intricate and highly individual style.  Bartók’s innovations in these works greatly influenced the direction that concert music took in the early- to mid-20th century.  Using selected movements from each of the six quartets, the class will apply methods of analysis that were developed specifically with these works in mind.  Like other proseminars, this course requires a term paper. Prerequisites: 701 and 721 completed or passed by exam

MHL 666 Claudio Monteverdi and the Emergence of the Baroque (Proseminar)
At the end of the Renaissance Monteverdi championed and explored the musical values that would inform the Baroque style, of which he was the first master.  The course explores such issues as Monteverdi’s treatment of dissonance in the service of expression, his use of instruments in vocal music, and the transition in his works from modal to tonal organization.  Repertoire includes selections from the fifth book of madrigals (1605), the 1610 Vespers, the eighth book of madrigals (1638), and the operas: Orfeo (1607), Il ritorno d’Ulisse (1640), L’incoronazione di Poppea (1643). Like other proseminars, this course requires a term paper. Harvey

MHL 667 The Vocal Music of J. S. Bach (Proseminar)
The vocal works of Bach are a fusion of Lutheran theology, classical rhetoric and unparalleled musical invention. This seminar will trace these themes through representative works, focusing on the sacred cantatas, the passions and the genesis of the Mass in B Minor. We also will investigate the performance traditions of these works, with particular attention to recent research in performance practice. Like other proseminars, this course requires a term paper. Lamott

MHL 668 East Meets West in Music (Proseminar)
European music was introduced into Japan, China and Korea in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and by the 1930s Asian performers were performing European works and there were Chinese and Japanese composers in Western-influenced styles.  After World War II came an explosion of interest and training in Western music (despite the Cultural Revolution in China), and a productive dynamic developed between Eastern and Western musical styles. The course will consider the culture of Western music in Asian countries and the responses of Asian composers to Western music. Composers studied will include: Matsudaira Yoritsune, Takemitsu Toru, Mayuzumi Toshiro, Miki Minoru,  Yun Isang, Chin Unsuk, Xian Xinhai, Chou Wen-chung, Bright Sheng, Zhu Jianer, Chen Yi, Tan Dun. We will consider Asian countries besides China, Korea and Japan as time permits. Like other proseminars, this course requires a term paper. Spitzer

MHL 704   Art Song to Schubert
This course concentrates on the eighteenth-century roots of romantic art song, especially in Germany, France and, to a lesser extent, England. In Germany, we will read some poetry of the mid 1700s and discuss the turn toward neo-classicism and the resultant reconsideration of text/music relationships. We will also consider the relationship of the early lied to issues of language, folk culture and national identity. Composers studied will include Telemann, Görner, Graun, Reichardt, Zelter, Zumsteeg, Haydn and Mozart. In France we will focus on the rise of the vocal romance. We will discuss early romantic ideas concerning folksong and the Middle Ages, how the romance was used in opera, and changes in content and musical language brought on by the French Revolution. Representative composers will include Moncrif, Rousseau, Martini, Méhul and Jadin. Laurance

MHL 705   The Bartók String Quartets
Bartók’s six string quartets, composed between 1909 and 1939, are generally thought to be the 20th century’s greatest contribution to this medium. These six masterworks serve as landmarks in the evolution of Bartók’s intricate and highly individual style. Bartók’s innovations in these works greatly influenced the direction that concert music took in the early- to mid-20th century. Using selected movements from each of the six quartets, the class will apply methods of analysis that were developed specifically with these works in mind. Class size limited to 15. Prerequisites: 701 and 721 completed or passed by exam. Garner

706   Beethoven Piano Sonatas
An in-depth survey of Beethoven’s thirty-two piano sonatas. Class time will be devoted to historical perspective, analysis and performance practice with respect to the sonatas. We will study recorded performances of the sonatas by older and by contemporary pianists. Hersh

707   Beethoven String Quartets
A study of the complete string quartets in detail. The class is a “hands-on-the-music” experience, with students encouraged to perform in class and to engage in serious analytical study. The perspective will focus on expressive and dramatic performance issues, as well as the seriously engaged listening experience. Hersh

708   Beethoven's Symphonies
An in-depth look at Beethoven's nine symphonies. We will try to cut through centuries of over-familiarity and even myth in order to see how these works, in their time, were truly radical in their technical, formal, and expressive means. Much of this will be accomplished by an emphasis on placing these pieces into biographical and cultural context. Work in class will range from detailed analysis of the symphonies, to comparisons of recordings that demonstrate vastly different interpretations, to a discussion of their immense impact on symphonic composition of the 19th Century and beyond. Becker

MHL 709   19th- and 20th-century Chamber Music Masterworks
In this course students will do in-depth analysis of chamber music scores (including works with piano) by Brahms, Fauré, Debussy, Shostakovich and Bartók. Emphasis will be placed on formal analysis and the compositional styles of the various composers. Conte

MHL 710   Chamber music of the Second Viennese School
The class will study the chamber music of Schoenberg, Berg and Webern. We will examine in detail Schoenberg’s Verklärte Nacht, String Quartets and String Trio, Berg’s Lyric Suite and Webern’s Bagatelles, Five Pieces for String Quartet, Quartet Op. 28 and String Trio. Analysis, performance practice and historical background will all be important. Hersh

MHL 711   Chopin
An inquiry into the life and music of Frederic Chopin. We will examine the music from the point of view of both structural and stylistic elements. There will also be required readings and score study, as well as ample opportunity for individual presentations and performances in class. Hersh

MHL 712   Classical and Popular Song Cycles
Four song cycles will be analyzed in depth: Schumann, Dichterliebe; Mahler, Kindertotenlieder; Copland, Twelve Poems of Emily Dickinson, and The Beatles, Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Other cycles will be studied as appropriate. The course will explore how groups of related songs are designed to form a musical entity. Special emphasis will be placed on the relation of text to musical ideas and the relation of the piano or orchestral accompaniment to the voice. Conte

MHL 713   Claudio Monteverdi and the Emergence of the Baroque
At the end of the Renaissance Monteverdi championed and explored the musical values that would inform the Baroque style, of which he was the first master. The course explores such issues as Monteverdi’s treatment of dissonance in the service of expression, his use of instruments in vocal music, and the transition in his works from modal to tonal organization. Repertoire includes selections from the fifth book of madrigals (1605), the 1610 Vespers, the eighth book of madrigals (1638), and the operas: Orfeo (1607), Il ritorno d’Ulisse (1640), L’incoronazione di Poppea (1643). Harvey

MHL 714   Composer Biographies
What do the lives of composers mean to performers and audiences? What insight (if any) can biography provide into a composer’s music? We will focus on three composers – Mozart, Schumann and Ives – reading excerpts from biographies by several authors. Assignments will involve reading, listening and score study. There will be a semester project on a composer of each student’s choice. Spitzer

MHL 715   Dmitri Shostakovich: His later music
The course will examine Shostakovich’s works from the 1950s until his death in 1975. These include the Preludes and Fugues for piano, Symphonies 10 through 15, the first violin concerto, and several groups of songs. The focus will be on Shostakovich’s music, not his politics – how he synthesized many stylistic sources into a distinct personal style. Many of Shostakovich’s later works have texts, including three of the symphonies. We will see how these convey the composer’s ideas and personal concerns. Susa

MHL 716   French Opera in the 19th Century
This course surveys French operatic genres through the nineteenth century. We begin with the profound changes wrought by the French Revolution and the new commercial structures that emerged in French operatic production. We will discuss the early Romantic movement, the rise in historicism in subject matter, and the influence of Italian opera, particularly Rossini. We will also examine the challenges that composers faced in producing new and innovative works, and the rise of alternate venues to the Opéra, such as the Théâtre Lyrique, the Odéon and the Opéra-comique. Works to be considered include: Rossini, The Siege of Corinth; Auber, La Muette de Portici, Meyerbeer, Les Huguenots; Gounod, Faust; Bizet, Carmen, and Massenet, Manon. Laurance

MHL 717   German Lieder
This course will explore the evolution of the German Lied from the 18th to the early 20th century, starting with Mozart and his contemporaries and continuing through Schubert, Schumann, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Wolf and Strauss. There will be some emphasis on the relationship between poetry and music and some on the evolution of the song recital and performance traditions, which we will explore through documents and historic recordings. A working knowledge of German will be helpful but not mandatory, since we will work from translations alongside the originals. Students can expect to spend a couple of hours a week on listening and informal writing assignments; there will also be a midterm and a final project. Plack

MHL 718   Giuseppe Verdi
This course surveys the career of Giuseppe Verdi through representative works such as Nabucco, MacBeth, La Traviata, Don Carlos and Falstaff. We will review some of the standard scenic structures of Italian opera and see how Verdi reworked them for dramatic effect. Particular attention will be paid to Verdi’s concept of “tinta” (dramatic color) and its influence on his choice and treatment of subject matter. We will also consider Verdi’s work in the larger context of opera production in the nineteenth century. This will include Verdi’s relationships with major theaters and publishers (particularly Ricordi), with his librettists, and with the singers who premiered his works. Laurance

MHL 719   Handel and the Theatre
Handel’s transformation of the Italian opera seria into English oratorio resulted from the collision of artistic genius with economic necessity. By following Handel’s career, students will get a glimpse into the religious, political and social fabric of Georgian England. The course will include musical analysis, score reading and listening, with particular attention to aspects of High Baroque style – rhetoric, affect, dance, and aesthetics – and their implications for performance. Lamott

MHL 720   Improvisation in Contemporary Music
This class is designed to expose the student to the ever-changing space that has been given to improvisation and improvisational behaviors in new music from World War II to the present. The course will consider music by Luciano Berio, Karlheinz Stockhausen, John Cage, Sylvano Bussotti, Cornelius Cardew, Krzysztof Penderecki, among others, and will attempt to characterize the varying degrees of musical freedom in their scores. How have these composers conceived of improvisation, and how have they created space for it in their musical notation? Are there extra-musical (socio-political) implications of improvisation in their thought? Issues of performance practice will be addressed, as well as copyright and ethical responsibility in the relationship between performers and composers. The class will include lectures, listening, score analysis, readings, and projects in which students can experiment with improvisation, notation and performance. Chessa

MHL 723   Minimalism
The musical movement known as Minimalism is arguably one of the most significant and influential of the 20th century. This class will not only discuss such "classic" minimalists as Terry Riley, Steve Reich and Philip Glass, but will broaden its investigation both backward and forward in time. We will look back to discuss pre-20th-century precursors, like Pérotin, Beethoven, Ravel, Wagner, Satie and Stravinsky. We will move forward to discuss the current generation of "post-minimal" composers, including David Lang, Michael Gordon, Julia Woolf, Meredith Monk and Michael Torke. In between we will discuss such issues as perception and musical "time," the relationship of minimalism to non-Western musics, and minimalism in visual art. Some of the other composers to be discussed include Cage, Feldman, Ligeti, Eno, Pärt, Adams, Andriessen, Kancheli and Górecki. Becker

MHL 725   Music for Film
This course explores the history, aesthetics and technique of composing music for films. Students will study how music in film creates a sense of dramatic structure, of time and place, of character, and what is unseen and unspoken, all in the service of telling a story. Emphasis is placed on film music’s incorporation of folk music, popular music, 19th-century symphonic style, 20th-century modernism, jazz, minimalism, and pre-existing classical music. Conte

MHL 726   Music since 1975
Can we find an orientation within the most recent developments of musical literature? Music since 1975 consists of lectures, listening, score analysis, readings and group projects designed to expose student to some of the main trends of the last 30 years of music history. We will study music by composers like Anthony Braxton, Giacinto Scelsi, Frederic Rzewski, György Kurtag, and discuss their backgrounds (cultural, spiritual, ethnic), musical styles and notation. We will also discuss performance practice, marketing modern music, and what makes for artistic and commercial success. Chessa

MHL 727   Music about Music: Musical Quotation from Bach to Berio
A survey and discussion of what motivates composers to quote, borrow from, and even plunder older works. What statement is the newer work making? How does it change our perspective of the older work? What musical, cultural and historical issues are raised by examining the relationship between the two? Bach, Berlioz, Ives, Stravinsky and Berio are just some of the composers whose works will be examined. Becker

MHL 728   Opera before Handel
Few operas from the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries are included in standard operatic repertory, but arias by Monteverdi, Lully, Caldara, Keiser, Purcell, Scarlatti, and their contemporaries others still turn up in modern recitals and continue to figure in vocal training. The goal of this course is to deepen our appreciation of this music through an understanding its original context. We will explore the economic and social environments as well as the aesthetic forces that shaped staged dramatic works set to music, from private spectacle to public opera in Italy, France and Germany. At the end of the semester we will cover a couple of operas by G. F. Handel. There will be readings, written assignments, in-class performances and a little work from manuscript sources. Harvey

MHL 730   The Operas of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
In many ways, Mozart's operas represent the culmination of his art. This course will focus on the libretti, staging, casting, conventions and musical composition of selected operas by Mozart, and the reception and significance of these works in history. Lamott

MHL 732   19th- and 20th-Century Orchestral Masterworks
In this course students will do in-depth analysis of orchestral scores by Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Debussy, Ravel, Stravinsky, Britten, Copland and Barber. Emphasis will be placed on formal analysis and the methods of orchestration of the various composers. Conte

MHL 733   Performance Practice: Baroque Music
This course addresses the important issues we face when we perform baroque music, exploring them through the study of baroque performance practice. We begin with the dimunition repertoire of the 16th century and continue through music of the 1750’s, using primary source materials. Topics include rhetoric, tempo and meter, historical instruments, vibrato, articulation, ornamentation and cadenzas, thoroughbass, and the social context of the original performances. Each student will focus in particular on primary sources relevant to his or her field. Jamason

MHL 734   Performance Practice: Classical Era
This course provides a basic introduction to Classical-era performance practice and the changes that occurred in keyboard, string, wind playing and singing from the 1730’s onwards. We will examine important primary source materials so as to inform our own performances of Classical-era repertoire according to what that generation of performers and composers thought. Mozart’s delightful and informative letters as well as Czerny’s writings on Beethoven’s performances will be studied in detail. Important issues addressed will include rubato, tempo and its relationship to meter, the improvisation of cadenzas, vibrato and articulation. Jamason

MHL 735   Performance Practice: 19th Century
In this class we will investigate the great performers of the Romantic Era through the study of concert reviews, criticism, letters, memoirs and treatises by leading composers and performers of the nineteenth-century. We will also study recordings from the earliest period of recorded sound, which captured performers born as early as the 1830’s. Using these diverse sources, we will investigate the important performance practice issues of the era and how this performance practice style relates to our own performances of 19th- century repertoire. Issues to be explored include tempo, rubato, articulation, pedaling, bowing, ornamentation, cadenzas, the role of improvisation, as well as changing attitudes regarding the act of performance and the development of the non-composer performer/virtuoso. Jamason

MHL 736   Performance Practice: 20th Century
This course introduces students to the great performers of the 20th century through an examination of recorded performances. We will study and analyze important recordings from1895 to 2005. Our primary focus will be on how performance traditions of standard solo, chamber, opera and orchestral music have developed from the late 19th century until our own time. A brief overview of 19th-century performance practice, as documented in written sources and historical recordings, will be followed by an examination of how performance practice traditions have changed since the beginning of the 20th century. Each student will consider in detail some great performers of their own instrument or voice type in the 20th century. Jamason

MHL 737   The Piano Trio
After briefly considering antecedent works by Rameau and the Bach family, the course will survey some of the major examples of the piano trio from the late 18th century to the present, including works by Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Tchaikovsky, Shostakovich, Earle Brown and Morton Feldman. Along the way we will examine the changing role of each instrument in the overall ensemble, along with related changes in texture, balance and technical demands on the players. Students will prepare presentations (possibly including performances) of specific works. Laurance

MHL 738   Richard Strauss Revisited
It is time to rehabilitate this great composer. This course takes a fresh look at Salome, Elektra, Ariadne, Daphne and Capriccio. These works will be examined by reading the librettos, looking at videos and films, listening to recordings, and studying scores. Susa

MHL 739   The Rise of Comic Opera in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries
This course surveys the changing expressions of the comic in European music drama between 1619 and 1816. We will, trace the history of several comic genres – opera buffa, intermezzo, opéra comique, Singspiel, ballad opera – and their cross-fertilization. We will see how the values and issues of the 17th and 18th centuries – humanism, neo-classicism, the Enlightenment, and several cycles of operatic reforms – are reflected in comic opera. The approach will include both historical background and stylistic analysis. The course will reach from comic scenes in early Italian dramma per musica to late 18th-century opera buffa, exploring works by Monteverdi, Landi, Pergolesi, Gay, Grétry, Piccinni, Paisiello, and Mozart. Harvey

MHL 740   Schubert: The Last Year
A study of the remarkable works of Schubert’s last year, 1827-1828. Works to be studied include: the Quintet in C Major, D. 956; the Piano Sonatas in C minor, A major and B-flat major, D. 958-60;; the Fantasy in F minor, D. 940 and Lebensstürme, D. 947, for piano four hands; the song cycles, Schwanengesang, D. 957 and Winterreise, D. 911. Students will analyze scores, give presentations, and participate in classroom discussion. Hersh

MHL 741   Schumann's Life and Works
A study of Robert Schumann’s vocal and instrumental music. We will cover some standard repertoire (Kreisleriana, Davidsbündlertänze, Fantasie Op. 17, Dichterliebe, etc.) and also some music that has been neglected: Paradise and the Peri, Genoveva and the later instrumental works. Student work will comprise class presentations and papers. Hersh

MHL 742   The String quartets of Elliott Carter
An in-depth study of what are perhaps the most important string quartets composed in the second half of the twentieth century. The class will include analysis and individually proposed presentations, as well as performance when possible. We will have sufficient time to explore each of Carter’s five quartets in some detail! Hersh

MHL 743   The symphony before Beethoven
The course will trace the development of the symphony from its origins in concertos and opera overtures through the concert symphonies of Mozart and Haydn. We will look at the formal organization of symphonies, their relation to other genres, their social contexts, aesthetics, and performance practice. Students will gain some familiarity with 18th-century manuscripts and prints of symphonies. Composers covered will include Handel, Vivaldi, Scarlatti, Sammartini, J. C. Bach, J. Stamitz, Haydn, Dittersdorf, Mozart, and more. Spitzer

MHL 744   The Vocal Music of J.S. Bach
The vocal works of Bach are a fusion of Lutheran theology, classical rhetoric and unparalleled musical invention. This seminar will trace these themes through representative works, focusing on the sacred cantatas, passions and the genesis of the Mass in B Minor. We also will investigate the performance traditions of these works, with particular attention to recent research in performance practice. Lamott

MHL 746   West meets East in Music
This course will examine how composers and performers in Europe and the U.S. have responded to the music of Asia. We will take a more or less historical approach, beginning with imitations of Turkish music in the 18th century, through the orientalism and exoticism of the 19th and early 20th centuries, and ending with 20th- and 21st-century attempts to synthesize East and West. “Popular” music will be considered as well as classical. There will be reading and/or listening assignments, covering repertory by composers like Mozart, Bizet, Debussy, Puccini, Holst, McPhee, Britten, Messaien and Lou Harrison. Spitzer

MHL 747 The World of Wagner's Ring Cycle
This course will examine the creation of this immense opera, its debt to ancient Greek festivals, its place in German culture, and its continuing impact on European politics and contemporary opera productions. The librettos and musical materials will be studied in depth, so that the student will come to understand Wagner’s goals, his method of composition, and the greatness of his achievement. Susa

ML 750 Words and Music
A study of Lieder and art song, giving equal weight to the texts and the music. We will explore works by Schubert, Schumann, Brahms, Fauré and Debussy. The course will involve both analysis and performance. Hersh

ML 751 Wagner's changing view of love
A study of three Wagner operas: Tristan und Isolde, Die Meistersinger, and Parsifal. Considered in chronological order, they show Wagner’s maturing attitude toward human relationships and the final complexity of his art. We will read the librettos, listen to recordings, watch videos and films, and study the scores. Susa

ML 752 Olivier Messiaen: Selected Keyboard Works
The course will consider piano and organ works, especially Vingt regards sur l'Enfant-Jésus and Catalogue d'oiseaux (piano) and La Nativité du Seigneur and Les corps glorieux (organ). We will examine these works in a performance practice context illuminated by Messiaen's treatise, The Technique of My Musical Language. Issues will include Messiaen’s modal harmonies, his use of Indian rhythms, and extra-musical influences like his religious faith, his study of bird song, and his sound-color synaesthesia. Students will have the opportunity to explore additional works by Messiaen on their own, both keyboard music and works that include other instruments and voice. Conroy

ML 753 Opera on record
More than a century of recordings has left us a with wealth of opera to listen to.  But how do we evaluate what we're hearing?  What relationship do recordings have to a printed score -- and vice versa?  How can today's performers make use of what we learn from old recordings?  To address these questions, we will consider the so-called "creator records" made by various Puccini interpreters and by the original cast of Strauss' "Der Rosenkavalier," as well as recordings of early Wagner interpreters, the first Opéra-Comique version of Carmen, and 101 versions of "Che gelida manina."  Topics may also include a brief history of recording technology, national differences in singing, ornamentation in Verdi, and the influence of changing technologies on how we sing, record and stage opera.  Plack

ML 754 20th-Century Song
In its treatment of text, language and the singing voice, 20th-century art song encompassed a wealth of diversity of innovation. Through in-depth analysis of art-song masterworks by Poulenc, Webern, Barber, Shostakovich, Bolcom, and many others, this class addresses the particulars of such diversity and innovation and how vocalists can fully inform their performance of particular songs. Grades will be determined by attendance, in-class participation and a paper. Garner

ML 755 Bel Canto Opera
This course examines several operas commonly grouped under the name Bel Canto.  At the beginning of the nineteenth century Italian opera moved sharply away from many of the formal and dramatic conventions of Metastasian opera seria.  In their place were adopted larger scenic complexes such as the cavatina, the grand duet and the central finale that better captured the intense personal conflicts, dramatic action and tragic outcomes so valued by the Romantic theater.  These new operatic conventions reached their zenith in the works of Donizetti and Bellini, both of whom deftly incorporated melodies of great lyric beauty into the dynamic plot-based libretti of writers like Felice Romani and Salvadore Cammarano.  In this survey we will examine libretto, scenic construction and melodic writing in operas of Rossini, Donizetti and Bellini, including Tancredi, Lucia di Lammermoor, Il pirata, Maria Stuarda and I puritani.  Laurance

ML 756 Orfeo's Lyre: The Elevation of Instrumental Music, 1600-1760
Through the end of the Renaissance, only vocal music genres were considered to be serious art music; by the middle of the 17th century, music for instruments had become a profoundly expressive vehicle. This course will explore the transfer of expressive power from human voice to instrument, the increasing importance of individual experience, the rise of amateur and domestic music-making, and issues of fantasy and privacy in musical expression in a range of works by 17th- and 18th-century composers, including Monteverdi (Possente spirito, Il Combattimento), Marini (Affetti musicali), Biber (Mystery Sonatas), Corelli (Opus 5), Couperin (Concerts royaux), Vivaldi, Albinoni, J.S. Bach, Handel, Quantz, C.P.E. and J.C. Bach. The course will focus on solo repertory and include works for lute, guitar, and viols. Harvey

ML 758 Mozart's String Quartets and Quintets
A study of Mozart's quartets and quintets, beginning with the six quartets dedicated to Haydn (1782) and continuing through the composer's Vienna years. The class is a “hands-on-the-music” experience, with students encouraged to engage in serious analytical study based on the experience of performance. The perspective will focus on expressive and dramatic performance issues, as well as the seriously engaged listening experience. Hersh

ML 759 Carl Orff
The success of Carmina Burana has obscured the riches to be found in Orff's other works, such as: Trionfo di Afrodite, Der Mond, Antigonae, Prometheus, and the Schulwerk. We will study Orff's music in scores, recordings and DVDs as well as his ideas about music, words, theater, and ritual.  We will also discuss Orff's life and times in Nazi Germany. Susa

ML 760 Benjamin Britten
For a famous composer, Benjamin Britten"s music is not that well-known, and accounts of his life are clouded by gossip and speculation. Enough of this! Let us hear and study Billy Budd, The Turn of the Screw, Sinfonia da Requiem. Les Illuminations,  the cello sonata, the violin concerto, the Ceremony of Carols, and other choral works. Susa