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Introduction to Classical Music

Course Syllabus Course Objectives Develop your tacit, intuitive knowledge of music Understand the language that all tonal works have in common Explore the aesthetic principles that make pieces unique Gain an overview of the issues explored in college-level music theory and analysis courses Learn how to ask deep questions about music, interrogating your experience to enable you to grow as a listener, as a musician, and as a person

Course Description This is a course for students who are passionate about classical music and eager to learn more about it, but who have not necessarily had any advanced training or taken any college-level music courses. No prior experience is required beyond a basic reading knowledge of musical notation; all concepts will be explained in class, and all terms will be defined as they arise and illustrated with concrete musical examples. This course will focus on Western classical music of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, music that exemplifies tonality, the system of major and minor keys. It will tell two competing stories about classical music and try to reconcile them. On the one hand, we will explore what all tonal pieces have in common, the musical language that makes them intelligible and allows them to communicate. On the other hand, we will try to discover what makes each piece unique, how composers bend the common language to say something new. We will study pieces by Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, Chopin, Wagner, Brahms, Mahler and other composers. Although the course will incorporate historical perspectives, it will not be a chronological survey. Instead, it will combine music theory with aesthetics, balancing principles of structural organization with insights into the aesthetic meaning and effects of these principles. Prerequisites The only requirement for taking this course is a basic knowledge of how to read musical notation, including, clefs, key signatures, and so on. Otherwise, all you need to benefit from this course is a love of music of all kinds, including the Western classical music that will be our special focus. A genuine passion for music is a talent in itself.

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Course Materials The course consists of eight video lectures, which are subdivided into shorter segments of approximately 5-15 minutes each. Each lecture includes recommended listening assignments. There will be two quizzes and a final exam; these will all use multiple choice questions. Although I will recommend a number of optional readings during the videos, all questions will be based on material from the lectures. The lectures will include a variety of musical examples performed by the instructor at the piano. Although some of these examples will be complete compositions, others will represent brief excerpts that illustrate a specific concept. To assimilate the course material, it will be helpful not only to listen to these examples several times, but also to hear them in the context of the complete works from which they are taken. We will provide links to YouTube videos of many of these pieces. Honor Code Please do not use outside help to complete any of the quizzes or the final exam. Civility Mutual respect is an essential component of any academic or artistic community. As you join in discussions for this course, please treat your interlocutors with respect and avoid any remarks that might offend or denigrate other members of our intellectual community. Contact Because of the extremely large size of this class, please do not attempt to contact the instructor directly. Week 1: Tonal Forces One of the most powerful responses listeners have tonal music is a sense of anticipation and arrival, of forward momentum and direction toward a goal; the system that makes this possible is called tonality. The opening lecture will explore the tonal system, connecting the elegant logic behind it to fundamental aural experiences. Recommended Listening Assignments: The following are musical examples mentioned during this lecture. The most important examples are marked with an asterisk (*). J. S. Bach, Fugue No. 4 in C# minor from the Well-Tempered Clavier Book I (*) J. S. Bach, Chorale No. 138 (Jesu, meine Freude) Beethoven, Piano Sonata No. 7 in D major, Op. 10 No. 3, fourth movement ! ,!

Beethoven, Piano Sonata No. 21 in C major Op. 53 (Waldstein), first movement (*) Beethoven, Piano Concerto No. 5 in E flat major, Op. 73, first movement Mozart, Piano Concerto No, 21 in C major, K. 467, first movement Mozart, Minuet from Don Giovanni Schubert, Waltz in A flat ! ./0!1&234)5!67)48**9!!"#$%#&'()*%+('(,*-#,'(! ! :4;'$)9!<)$=85$!7(!.'/#,(0%-01%2#$"13! ! Week 2: Beginnings ! Having explored the tonal language that many compositions have in common, the second lecture will shift gears by asking what differentiates pieces and makes them unique, starting with how they begin. In any art that moves in time, first and last impressions tend to loom large, lingering in the memory. How do pieces establish their initial claims on our attention? What makes certain beginnings memorable? Recommended Listening Assignments: J. S. Bach, Fugue No. 2 in C minor from the Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I (*) J. S. Bach, Fugue No. 4 in C# minor from the Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I J. S. Bach, Contrapunctus IX from The Art of Fugue (*) Beethoven, Fr Elise Beethoven, Symphony No. 3 in E flat major, Op. 55 (Eroica), first movement Chopin, Polonaise in F# minor, Op. 44 Mozart, Fantasia in D minor Schubert, Piano Sonata in A minor, Op. 143, first movement Week 3: Motives, Phrases, and Short Themes Just as novels and poems break down into smaller units like paragraphs, sentences, and words, compositions can be parsed into shorter segments, including motives, phrases, and themes. How can we identify these units? How do motivic transformations ensure both unity and variety? What types of phrases and themes are there? ! -!

Recommended Listening Assignments: J. S. Bach, Chorale No. 89 (O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden) Beethoven, Symphony No. 5 in C minor, Op. 67, first movement (*) Beethoven, Fr Elise (*) Beethoven, Piano Sonata No. 1 in F minor, Op. 2 No. 1 (*) Beethoven, Piano Sonata No. 17 in E flat major, Op. 31 No. 3, third movement Beethoven, O Hoffnung (*) Chopin, Nocturne in F minor, Op. 55 No. 1 Chopin, Mazurka in A flat major, Op. 17, No. 3 Chopin, Mazurka in A minor, Op. 17 No.4 Chopin, Fantasy in A flat major Op. 49 Mozart, Symphony No. 36 in C major, K. 425 (Linz), fourth movement Mozart, Piano Sonata in B flat major, K. 333, third movement Mozart, Minuet from Don Giovanni Wagner, Prelude to Tristan und Isolde Week 4: Contrapuntal Forces Counterpoint, or the coordinated motion of voices, is one of the most distinctive features of tonal music. We will discover some of the principles behind this coordinated motion, including the phenomena of consonance and dissonance, as well as patterns that arise among voices. Listening contrapuntally can be one of the best ways to transform ones hearing. Recommended Listening Assignments: J. S. Bach, Sinfonia in F minor (*) J. S. Bach, Suite No. 1 in G major for Solo Cello, Minuet II (*) J. S. Bach, Prelude No. 1 in C major from the Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I ! >!

(*) Beethoven, Piano Sonata No. 21 in C major, Op. 53 (Waldstein), first movement Beethoven, Symphony No. 9 in D minor Op. 125, first movement Beethoven, Piano Sonata No. 26 in E flat major (Les adieux), first movement Brahms, Piano Sonata No. 3 in F minor, Op. 5, first movement (*) Brahms, Intermezzo in B flat minor, Op. 117 No. 3 Chopin, Waltz in A minor Op. 34 No. 1 Chopin, Waltz in A flat major, Op. 69 No. 1 (Les adieux) Mahler, Symphony No. 5, third movement, Adagietto (*) Mozart, Rondo in F major, K. 494 Week 5: How to Do Things With Phrases: Phrase Expansions, Contractions, and Overlaps Musical phrases can be an inexhaustible source of compositional invention, because they can be varied, expanded, contracted, and joined to each other in a number of different ways. In this lecture we will learn how to do things with phrases. Recommended Listening Assignments: (*) Brahms, Romanze in F major, Op. 118 No. 5 (*) Chopin, Prelude No. 6 in B minor, op. 28 No. 6 (*) Beethoven, Symphony No. 5 in C minor, Op. 68, first and third movements (*) Mozart, Piano Sonata in G major, K. 283, first movement Mozart, Piano Sonata in B flat major, K. 333, third movement Mozart, Piano Concerto No. 23 in A major, K. 488, first movement Schubert, Piano Sonata in C minor, Opus Posthumous, first movement Week 6: Chromaticism as an Expressive Resource In the first lecture we explored the basic resources of the tonal system, connecting these to fundamental aural experiences. Now we will explore this system more deeply, probing ! ?!

the expressive depths that chromaticism makes possible. Although these chromatic chords and modulations may require a new vocabulary to describe, they remain basic elements of aural experience. Recommended Listening Assignments: Beethoven, Piano Sonata No. 5 in C minor, Op. 10 No. 1, first movement (*) Beethoven, Piano Sonata No. 8 in C minor, Op. 13 (Pathtique), all three movements (*) Beethoven, Piano Sonata No. 21 in C major Op. 53 (Waldstein), first movement Beethoven, Symphony No. 5 in C minor, Op. 67, second movement Beethoven, Symphony No. 6 in F major Op. 68 (Pastorale) Mahler, Symphony No. 5, fourth movement, Adagietto Mozart, Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor, K. 466, third movement Mozart, Piano Concerto No. 23 in A major, K. 488, second movement Schubert, Piano Sonata in C minor, Opus Posthumous, first movement (*) Schumann, Novelette in F major, Op. 21 No. 1 Week 7: Sonata Form and Process Tonality enables composers to organize larger and larger temporal units, creating more complex structures, including sonata form. Although such structures can be described through conventional formal labels, they can also be grasped as dynamic processes. Recommended Listening Assignments: Beethoven, Piano Sonata No. 6 in F major, Op. 10 No. 2, first movement Mozart, Piano Sonata in F major, K. 332, first movement (*) Mozart Piano Sonata in C minor, K. 457, first movement Week 8: Endings The possibility of closure and completion is built into the tonal system itself, as the arrival on the tonic harmony ensures a sense of finality. How do composers bend the resources of the tonal language to individualize closure, to create endings that are unique? In the ! @!

final lecture, we will explore the dialectic of originality and convention in conferring closure on a work. Recommended Listening Assignments: (*) Bach, Fugue No. 4 in C# minor from the Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I Bach, Chaconne from the Partita No. 2 in D minor for Solo Violin Beethoven, Piano Sonata No. 8 in C minor, op. 13 (Pathtique), first movement (*) Chopin, Nocturne in B major, Op. 32 No. 1 Mozart, Piano Concerto No. 23 in A major, K. 488, second movement (*) Schumann, Der Dichter spricht, from Kinderszenen, Op. 15

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