SYLLABUS

MUSIC 103

(timings are tentative)

Spring 2004

January 21& 26

Get acquainted, organizational; WWW literacy.
Recapitulation: The tonal system, a historical perspective. Common language/grammar. Why it had to end - Atonality.
Aesthetic trends in 19th. century Europe - and before. The dialectics of tension and relief.


First assignment due 1/26
Second assignment due 2/2

January 28

Modes in medieval/renaissance Western music. Mode mixture/borrowings. From counterpoint to harmony and back... and forth...
About overtones, harmony, timbre/spectrum.

February 2

The Neapolitan 6 chord.

Third assignment due 2/9

February 5 - 9

Augmented 6th chords.

Fourth assignment due 2/16

February 11

9th, 11th, and 13th chords.

February 19 - First Quiz

Fifth assignment due 2/23

February 16 - 18 - 23

Enharmonic modulations. The "fully diminished" chord as VII, altered II, and altered VI. Same chord can resolve in 12 different keys. Ambiguities in 19th. century music.

Sixth assignment due 3/1

February 25

Augmented triads on I, IV, and V. Same chord can resolve in 9 different keys.

March 1

Other chromatic chords: appoggiatura chords.

Seventh assignment due 3/8

March 3

Modulations at the interval of a third. Extended tonality - layers of secondary functions.

Eighth assignment due 3/15

March 8 - 10 - 15 - 17

Expanded tonality: Prelude to Tristan und Isolde as an example - analysis.

Ninth assignment due 3/29

March 18 - Second Quiz

SPRING BREAK

March 29 - 31

Transition to atonality: Richard Strauss "Elektra" - analysis of a fragment.
Artistic movements at the turn of the century

Tenth assignment due 4/7

April 5 - 7

Motive development as a substitute for tonality. Webern Op. 3, No. 1.

April 12 - 14

Parallel movement of chords - a look at a Debussy prelude.
On musical form in 19th century music. Old patterns, conservative attitudes vs. a new language requiring a different approach to form.
Debussy's "momente" form. Other constructive devices.

Eleventh assignment due 4/21

April 19 - 21

Chords built by 4ths., 5ths., 2nds., and 7ths. Polychords and polytonality.

Twelfth assignment due 4/28

April 29 - Third Quiz

April 26 - 28 - May 3 - 5

More about modes and "artificial" scales. Modal and rhythmic systems in East European folklore; Bartok. Brief look at Messiaen's modes with limited transpositions and at Xenakis's sieves

Recapitulation session 5/6

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