Graduate Courses

History of Music Intensive Review

A review course for graduate students, covering classical antiquity to the 21st century. Fall only. (2,0) Tremblay

Music Bibliography

As an introduction to the materials and techniques available to the performing musician, the course includes fundamentals of library research, the computer as a library research tool, acquaintance with and use of essential music reference texts, and exploration of local and national library resources. This course is restricted to students matriculating in the MM pro- gram; GPD students may enroll only with the permission of the instructor. Fall and spring. (2) Ottervik

Master's Essay

A scholarly work written under the supervision of a member of the musicology faculty. Required for the master's degree in Musicology. See the specific guidelines in this catalog. Fall and spring. (2) Faculty

Graduate Research

An introduction to methods of research through independent written projects in music history. Required of all doctoral candidates and musicology majors. Fall and spring. (2) Faculty

Dissertation

A study of an original musical topic, approved by the DMA Committee, culminating in the completion and defense of a scholarly work written under supervision of the student's academic advisor. (4) Faculty

Lecture-Recital Paper

A study of a specific musical topic, approved by the DMA Committee and suitable as the basis for a lecture-recital, culminating in a written paper and a public lecture-recital. Fall and spring. (2) Faculty

Consultation/Degree-in-Progress

For graduate students working with a faculty member to complete a dissertation or a lecture-recital essay. Registration required each semester following completion of coursework in order to maintain active status in the program. Fall and spring. (1) Faculty

Musicology Independent Study

Designed for those who wish to make a concentrated study of selected topics in musicology. Open only to advanced students with approval of the instructor and the department. Fall and spring. (1-3) Faculty

Musicology Colloquium

The colloquium introduces DMA students to doctoral-level academic study at Peabody. Emphasis is on critical thinking, argument from sources, written and oral presentation. Every other week an invited speaker gives a talk in the area of his or her expertise (speakers and topics will be announced at the beginning of each semester). In alternate weeks students give presentations. The lectures are open to members of the Peabody community and the general public. (3-3) S. Weiss

Musicology Seminars

Musicology seminars offer in-depth study of selected topics in musicology. Prerequisite: passing mark on the Music History Placement Exam or passing grade in Music History Intensive Review. Students required to take English as a Second Language courses must obtain permission of the instructor to enroll in graduate seminars, even if they have already passed Music History Intensive Review.

Verdi's Operas, I

Verdi's operas from Oberto to La traviata. A two-semester seminar covering all of Verdi's operas. The two semesters may be taken independently but see 610 • 612 for its prerequisite. Textbook: Julian Budden, The Operas of Verdi. (3,0) P. Weiss

Schubert's Beethoven Project

The course covers the large instrumental works Schubert began writing in 1824 in Beethoven's genres: the Octet (D 803), the Arpeggione Sonata (D 821), the three last string quartets (D 804, D 810, D 887), the string quintet (D 956), the last six piano sonatas (starting with D 845), the two piano trios (D 898, D 929), and the "Great" C-major Symphony (D 944). The course will involve in-depth analysis of many of these works, as well as a consideration of Schubert's reception of Beethoven and of the timing and meaning of the divide of 1824 in Schubert's work. (3,0) Gingerich

Topics in Renaissance Music

This class explores the repertoire, history, and current scholarship of Western European music in the period ca. 1380-1600. Topics include compositional history, patronage, the dissemination of music, reception, performance practice, music theory, and authenticity. Class time will involve a moderate amount of lecturing, in addition to class discussion, musical analysis, and listening. (3,0) Saunders

Baroque Performance Practice

What assumptions did performers bring to interpretation in the baroque era? This class provides a detailed overview of prevalent performance conventions of the time as taught to us by primary sources, including Quantz, CPE Bach, Leopold Mozart, Muffat, and Geminiani, as well as some insight into why these matters are important and what drives the early music movement. While everyone will be expected to develop a solid grasp of the most significant issues, each student will also independently cultivate expertise in a specific area of his or her choosing. (3,0) Moran

Music and Visual Arts Since 1900

This course addresses a variety of examples of music in multimedia works of art and popular culture – with supporting texts from the fields of musicology, art history, and philosophy – to consider the interactions between music and visual media from painting to cinema and television, and from contemporary opera design to the video game. (3,0) Walden

Bach: The Passions

An overview of the work of J.S. Bach with concentration on the Passions. (3,0) Sprenkle

Berlioz and the Romantic Imaginations

Few composers embody the ideal of the "Romantic" artist as extravagantly as Hector Berlioz. While works like the Symphonie fantastique, La damnation de Faust, Les Troyens, Roméo et Juliette, and the Requiem are exemplary works of musical Romanticism, Berlioz's life itself, with all its drama, excess, and turbulence, stands as a testament to the power of the Romantic spirit in 19th-century European art. This course situates Berlioz in the context of 19th-century Romanticism, considering the influences (musical and otherwise) that affected Berlioz's style, contemporary assessments of his music, and his influence upon subsequent generations of artists. An examination of the composer’s Memoirs, along with excerpts from the orchestration treatise and his extensive body of musical criticism, will supplement our study of the musical works. We will broaden our perspective of Romantic aesthetics with readings from Wordsworth, Coleridge, Kant, Hoffmann, and others. With a focus upon Virgil, Shakespeare, and Goethe, the three authors whose works bore most directly upon Berlioz's creative development, we will also consider the reception of those authors' writings during the 19th century and the ways in which Berlioz's musical settings offer particularly contemporary readings of these classic works. (3,0) Giarusso

Issues in Ethnomusicology

An introduction to the theories and methods of ethnomusicology. Topics include transcription and analysis, fieldwork, performance practice, and intercultural aesthetics. (3,0) Tolbert

The Concerto in the 19th Century

A historical overview of standard repertoire concerti from the 19th century, including an in-depth analysis of works by Beethoven, Schumann, Mendelssohn, Chopin, Liszt, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, and Dvorak. (3,0) Sprenkle

Verdi’s Operas, II

Verdi's operas from Les Vêpres siciliennes to Falstaff. Students who have not taken 610 • 611 should prepare to take a brief exam based on chapters of the course textbook. Textbook: Julian Budden, The Operas of Verdi. (0,3) Gallo

Teaching Virtuosity: Pedagogy and Performance at the Paris Conservatory

Who were the key faculty members when the Paris Conservatory was established in 1795? What did the performers teach? When were pedagogical standards for different instruments and vocal types codified? Why do we still play some of the same canonical repertoire even today? This seminar on the Paris Conservatory will attempt to address these questions. Central to this course will be an examination of the concerto, including the rise of the genre at the beginning of the 19th century, Parisian vs. Viennese perspectives, its connection to the conservatory, and its composers and proponents. (0,3) Ahn

The Symphonies of Johannes Brahms

This course offers the student the opportunity to undertake a detailed study of Brahms' symphonies from a variety of critical and analytical perspectives. We will consider Brahms' relationships with past musical traditions, his own understanding of his place in music history, and ways in which these works serve as a bridge between romanticism and modernism. Harold Bloom’s theory of the "anxiety of influence" will be used throughout the course to assess the nature of Brahms’ fraught relationship with the concepts of "tradition" and "progress" as it is revealed in the symphonies. Consideration of non-symphonic works of Brahms, in addition to works by Bach, Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, Wagner, Bruckner, and Shoenberg, will enrich our understanding of these four seminal works. (0,3) Giarusso

Musical Literacy in Western Culture Before 1800

This seminar examines the history of written music in the larger context of Western textual culture, applying ideas from the fields of book history and history of literacy to the study of music. We will examine the history of notation and consider issues of orality, literacy, and education as they relate to the composition, copying, circulation, and use of musical texts. The course focuses on rare books and manuscripts in the university’s collections; the major requirement will be a research project dealing with original source materials. Although we will deal primarily with the period from antiquity to the 18th century, students are invited to apply the issues and methods under investigation to materials in their primary fields of interest. (0,3) Archibald

Schumann as Critic

Robert Schumann is among the most emblematically romantic composers. Rarely, however, do students or audiences come to know the breadth of Schumann's compositional output and his extraordinary contributions as a music journalist, both of which greatly inform interpretation of his more familiar repertoire. This course seeks to address this discrepancy. The first part of the course is a comprehensive survey of Schumann's life and works based on lectures, reading and listening. The second part of the course will consist, after a weeklong introduction, of student lecture presentations on various aspects of the relationship of Schumann's criticism and his music. Performance, particularly of works Schumann reviewed or songs by other composers with texts which were also set by Schumann, is strongly encouraged and can be a substantial part of the presentation.(0,3) Talle

Music and Diaspora

This course explores the functions of music in diaspora cultures in Europe and America, for example as a signifier of diaspora identities, in the construction of a sense of community across dispersed groups, and in the production of cultural myth and stereotypes. By considering Jewish and Romany communities in Europe, and Jewish, African American, Latin American, and other cultures in the United States, it will address how diaspora groups employ music to share memories and traditions, and as a tool of both assimilation and the preservation of separate identities. Students will view music in relation to film, sound recording, literature, and visual arts to investigate the roles of music in diaspora cultures. (0,3) Walden

Beethoven’s Symphonies

A structural analysis of Beethoven's nine symphonies with attention to historical effect on the genre: listening and analytical quizzes, essay. (0,3) Sprenkle

Two Operas, Two Historical Epochs

A detailed study of Berg’s Wozzeck and Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro in their cultural con- texts. (0,3) Sprenkle

Transnationalism and Globalism in Music

An examination of contemporary world music genres from an ethnomusicological perspective, with emphasis on transnational and global issues. (0,3) Tolbert