Syllabus

Instructor

Teaching Assistant

Course description

Music History 40D is the final quarter of the undergraduate survey sequence. It is designed to acquaint students with a selection of music from around 1900 to the end of the twentieth century and beyond with a focus predominantly on Europe, America, and Asia. We will examine how each style and genre of music we study engaged with its social and political surroundings. In addition, we will question how this music was shaped by historical circumstances and context. We will strive to connect detailed musical analysis—“why this note and not some other one”—with some fundamental issues of cultural analysis—“how does this piece articulate and affect understanding of identities, social ideals, and political ideologies?”

Course Aims

In this course, students will:

  • Broaden their knowledge of the repertoire of music composed in the 20th and 21st centuries;
  • Come to understand a series of important compositional techniques from this time in their musical, chronological, and historical contexts;
  • Learn to think analytically about the repertoire under consideration;
  • Develop a broad overview of a range of musical styles throughout this time;
  • Explore the repertoire under consideration in relation to the artistic, aesthetic, socio-political context in which it was composed or written;
  • Investigate gender dynamics in relation to the music of the 20th and 21st centuries, and explore this repertoire in relation to gender theory;
  • Develop a series of methodological skills relevant to the study of music history;
  • Write music-historical assignments in a number of formats including program notes, blog posts, and term papers;
  • Develop an understanding of musicology and public musicology.

Prerequisites

All students must have completed Music Theory 16C.

Required Texts

No textbook is required for this course. Instead, students should check the resources uploaded to this website for each lecture. Students should compile these resources as the quarter proceeds into a virtual binder containing materials for the whole course.

Listening

Playlists for Music 40D will be made available

Mode of assessment

  1. Participation (40%)
  2. Assignment No. 1 (20%): Concert Program, due on Monday of Week 5
  3. Assignment No. 2 (20%), Blogpost on a single composer, due on Monday of Week 8
  4. Assignment No. 3 (20%), Essay. Note, a complete draft of this essay must be submitted one week before the final deadline.

Students must have a passing grade in each of the 4 components in this mode of assessment to pass the course.