This course explores 1000 years of music-making in Western European culture, beginning with the philosophical and theoretical origins of that music in ancient Greece and extending to the life and music of J.S. Bach. Topics covered will include how the sound of music changed over a millennium; the different functions it served and how genres developed to serve these functions; the lives of the men and women who composed, performed, and wrote about music; and how the changing notation and theory of music related to its practice over the centuries. At the same time, the course provides an introduction to the modern study of music history, sampling a broad range of recent scholarship reflecting an array of critical approaches to the study of early music in our own day.
Format: three meetings per week; field trip(s) may be required. Evaluation will be based on class participation, written assignments, midterm and final exams.
Expected enrollment: 8.
