Courses Offered by the Division of Musicology

MUS 702 - SEMINAR IN MUSICOLOGY

Study and research in specific musicological problems.

Recent seminars:

Stephen Foster (Spring 2007, Pen)

Through collaborative discussion, research, and musical performance, the participants in this course will construct an understanding of Stephen Foster’s life and career within social and historical context. Foster’s composition represents a confluence of folk, popular, and elite musical traditions in nineteenth-century America in which black face minstrelsy and genteel parlor song are married in an emerging popular music publishing and performing industry.  Foster provides a lens through which issues of race and class may be examined as the United States heads towards the defining crisis of the Civil War. In Foster, the dreams of a nation are nostalgically encoded musically in opposition to the realities of industrialism and impending warfare.

The central questions guiding this seminar are: “What can Foster’s life and career tell us of our American past and how can his music continue to speak to us today?” “How is Myth Created and what is its relationship to ‘truth’?”  “How does Foster’s life and work come to embody issues of American identity through negotiation of a set of issues, including race, class, popular/traditional/elite culture, industrialism, and nostalgia?”

Cross-Cultural Interactions in Music (Fall 2006, Hallman)

This course will explore a range of "case-studies" that represent imagined or real musical encounters between different cultures, from the late 18th century to the present day. We shall begin our study with an emphasis on the Western perspective, with the intention of deepening our understanding of the underlying values and perceptions that have influenced particular musical representations of non-Western cultures. Our discussions will focus on Orientalist depictions of the East ("Near," or "Middle," and Far) in music of the 18th and 19th centuries, musical encounters in Africa and the Americas during the Colonialist period, and the search for "authentic" music of other cultures of the late 19th through 21st centuries, in composition, performance, musicology, and ethnomusicology. We will also look at manifestations of musical confrontations and juxtapositions from the perspective of non-Western composers, writers, and performers

Music and Social Transformation (Spring 2006, Brunner)

This seminar offers an inquiry into the meaning and power of music to affect change. We shall explore ways in which music has been used to empower and manipulate individuals and groups. The seminar begins with a shared inquiry into basic principles of the social psychology of music, and then each member of the seminar will explore a specific aspect of music and social transformation.

Opera and Song in England in the Late Seventeenth and Early Eighteenth Centuries (Fall 2005, J. Glixon)

An examination of English theatrical music from Purcell to the arrival of Handel. We will study music for masques, plays, and operas, both in the native English style and in the imported Italian style. Central to the seminar will be a study of an unpublished bound collection of early 18th-century song sheets (Old English Songs) in the University of Kentucky Library.

Old Time Music (Spring 2005, Pen)

Through collaborative discussion and research, the participants in this course will attempt to construct a history for the genre of “old time music.” Foundational research will include compiling a definitive bibliography, discography, and videography of materials pertaining to the subject. Construction of a history requires an interpretive framework that defines the genre and then situates the music considered to be “old time” in a cultural context. “Old time” is the folk term for folk music”--Ruth Crawford Seeger

French Grand Opera (Fall 2004, Hallman)

An intensive study of French grand opera, from the perspective of the institution of the Paris Opera, as well as its leading creators. With a focus on significant works by Meyerbeer, Halévy, Auber, and the Italian exponents Rossini, Donizetti, and Verdi, important aspects of grand opera’s music and dramaturgy are examined, including its politically charged staging of history, use of spectacle, and innovations in dramatic continuity and orchestral writing. The influence of French grand opera is also outlined in works of Wagner and Russian and Czech composers.

The Operas of Monteverdi (Fall 2003, J. Glixon)

A study of the operas of Monteverdi, examining their textual and musical sources, both printed and manuscript, and issues of dramatic interpretation and compositional technique. We will devote most of the effort to the problems surrounding L’incoronazione di Poppea, in light of the upcoming University of Kentucky production of the opera.

Performance Practice, Baroque to Romantic (Spring 2003, Hallman)

A study of vocal and instrumental performance practice of the 17th through 19th centuries which integrates score and period readings with workshops on the construction of Baroque instruments, the performance of Baroque dance, ornamentation in Mozart and Rossini vocal works, and keyboard improvisation and technical developments of the 18th and 19th centuries.

Programmatic Ideals (Fall 2002, Pen)

Music is frequently discussed in terms of the dichotomy of “absolute” and “programmatic.” This seminar will examine the connection of music to the extramusical in an historical context. The question “what is music capable of expressing?” will be central to the course, guiding participants through repertoire and philosophy associated with the aesthetics and function of music.
Course Thesis: Music is essentially a study of the metaphor. Metaphor is the defining characteristic of human thought.

Bach in the 20th Century (Spring 2002, Brunner)

This seminar is designed to explore the music of Johann Sebastian Bach as it has impacted the twentieth century. This is a vast topic, but our approach will be to survey Bach’s life and works in the first five or six weeks of the semester, then increasingly focus on individual interests and discoveries as the semester progresses. Topics to explore could include: composers who have been influenced by Bach’s music, performance practice issues, reception history, etc.

Sacred and Secular Music of Elizabethan England (Fall 2001, J. Glixon)

An examination of music of the Elizabethan era, sacred and secular, with particular attention to anthems and service music of the Anglican church. We will study the development of the style of the music, and problems in its editing and performance. Each student will, in addition to other projects, produce an edition of at least one unpublished sacred piece, working from microfilms of the original sources.

The 1960s (Spring 2000, Pen)

Study of a very narrowly focused repertoire belonging to a single “modern” decade (with appropriate margins on either side) should provide participants with the opportunity for an understanding of social and historical context, appreciation of both vernacular and elite culture, new methods of historiography, and a means for evaluating the present through the lens of the recent past.

Course Thesis: Rather than being a mirror that reflects the cultural history of a time, music can also be a force for directing the course of cultural and historical events.

Music and Gender (Fall 2000, Hallman)

An exploration of ways in which gender and varied ideas about gender are reflected in the performance, reception, and historiography of music in European-American and non-Western cultures.