Academic Catalog

MUS 2CH: HONORS GREAT COMPOSERS & MUSIC MASTERPIECES

Foothill College Course Outline of Record

Foothill College Course Outline of Record
Heading Value
Effective Term: Summer 2022
Units: 5
Hours: 4 lecture, 3 laboratory per week (84 total per quarter)
Advisory: Not open to students with credit in MUS 2C.
Degree & Credit Status: Degree-Applicable Credit Course
Foothill GE: Area I: Humanities
Transferable: CSU/UC
Grade Type: Letter Grade (Request for Pass/No Pass)
Repeatability: Not Repeatable

Student Learning Outcomes

  • A successful student will discriminate - via an understanding of such musical elements as melody, harmony, rhythm, and form - between various musical styles (e.g., Romantic, Impressionism, Modern).
  • A successful student will Demonstrate an understanding of Western music written between the years 1825 CE to the present as a reflection of its societal/historical context.

Description

Introduction to the great composers and music masterpieces of Western culture. Includes composer biographies with emphasis on how composers synthesize or transform the aesthetic ideals of their time. Examines how their music reflects their own lives as well as mirrors contemporary social, political, and religious events. Historical periods are mid-19th century Romanticism through the present. Composers include Schumann, Chopin, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Berlioz, Liszt, Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky, Strauss, Verdi, Wagner, Bizet, Debussy, Ravel, Ives, Cowell, Bartok, Berg, Webern, Stravinsky, Copland, Varese, Babbitt, Cage, Crumb, Ligeti, Penderecki, Reich, Glass and Adams. The honors section offers deeper theoretical content, assignments that require more sophisticated cognition/critical thinking, more rigorous assessment, and additional creative and summative projects.

Course Objectives

The student will be able to:

  1. demonstrate detailed knowledge of the historical development of musical style in Western culture in relation to the political, economic, social, and religious developments of the time.
  2. apply knowledge of musical style, historical periods and genres from Western culture to representative examples of music.
  3. compare and contrast repertoire of concert music through familiarity with a broad sampling of works, composers, styles and genres.
  4. critique good performance from bad, from the perspectives of artistic quality and appropriate historical performance practice.
  5. discuss, with insight and understanding, the social and personal implications of the development of musical style in Western culture.
  6. demonstrate self-managed learning in a comprehensive journal, in which they reflect upon, evaluate, and describe their own learning process.

Course Content

  1. Music fundamentals: melody, rhythm, harmony, texture, timbre, ornamentation
  2. Style characteristics and function of music from the mid-19th century through the present
    1. Vocal music (opera)
    2. Instrumental music forms (concert overture, modified versions of forms studied in previous classes, including ternary and binary)
    3. Composer biographies (Schumann, Chopin, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Berlioz, Liszt, Tchaikovsky, Strauss, Verdi, Wagner, Bizet, Mussourgsky, Debussy, Ravel, Ives, Cowell, Bartok, Berg, Webern, Stravinsky, Copland, Varese, Babbitt, Cage, Crumb, Legeti, Penderecki, Reich, Glass, Adams)
  3. Compare and contrast to music of other world cultures
  4. Identification of major themes of the culture at each period in history (divine authority, redemption, freedom, artistic creativity and originality, political, social, religious ideologies, gender roles), their definition in other periods in Western culture and their parallels in other world cultures

Lab Content

Laboratory activities are provided for students to practice and apply their theoretical knowledge regarding each topic area's structural characteristics (rhythm, melody, form, instrumentation, and harmony), style, genre, and important composers. Activities consist of online laboratory worksheets correlated with listening examples. Examples of the types of representative music selected for study in Romantic era music and 20th century music are provided.

Representative listening examples for Romantic era:

  1. Lieder ohne Wdorte: Op. 30, No. 3 (1837), Felix Mendelssohn
  2. Mazurka in a minor, Op. 17, No. 4 (1833), Frédéric Chopin
  3. Preludes, Op. 28, Nos. 1-4 (1839), Frédéric Chopin
  4. Ballade No. 1 in G Minor, Op. 23 (1835), Frédéric Chopin
  5. Carnaval, Op. 9, excerpts (1835), Robert Schumann
  6. Galop de bal (ca. 1840), Franz Liszt
  7. Études d'exécution transcedante, No. 1 in C Major (1838; revised 1851), Franz Liszt
  8. Il Barbiere di Siviglia, excerpts (1816), Gioacchino Rossini
  9. Rigoletto, excerpts (1851), Giuseppe Verdi
  10. Tristan und Isolde, excerpts (1859), Richard Wagner
  11. The Nutcracker, excerpts (1829), Peter Illyich Tchaikovsky
  12. Symphony No. 9 in E Minor, Op. 95 Largo (1893), Antonin Dvorák
  13. Symphony No. 4 in E Minor, Op. 98, fourth movement (1855), Johannes Brahms
  14. Symphony No. 1 in D Major, third movement (1888), Gustav Mahler

Representative listening examples for Impressionism and 20th century:

  1. Prélude a l'apres-midi d'un faune (1894), Claude Debussy
  2. Préludes, Book 1: "Voiles" (1910), Claude Debussy
  3. Mikrokosmos, Book 4, No. 101: Diminished Fifth (between 1932 and 1939), Béla Bartók
  4. The Cage (1906), Charles Ives
  5. Le Sacre du printemps, excerpts (1913), Igor Stravinsky
  6. Saudades do Brasil, excerpts (1921), Darius Milhaud
  7. The Banshee (1925), Henry Cowell
  8. Pierrot lunaire (1912), Arnold Schoenberg
    1. No. 7, "Der kranke Mond"
    2. No. 14, Der Kreuze
    3. No. 21, "O alter Duft"
  9. Five Pieces for String Quartet, Op. 5, No. 4 (1908), Anton Webern
  10. Wozzeck, Act 1, Scene 1 (1925), Alban Berg
  11. Classical Symphony, Op. 25, third movement (1917), Sergei Prokofiev
  12. Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta, third movement, Béla Bartók
  13. Appalachian Spring: Suite, excerpt (1945), Aaron Copland
  14. Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima (1960), Krysztof Penderecki
  15. 4' 33" (1952), John Cage
  16. Missa Gaia: Mass for the Earth, first movement (Introit - "Within the Circles of Our Lives") (1992), Libby Larsen
  17. The Gospel According to the Other Mary, excerpts (2012), John Adams

Special Facilities and/or Equipment

1. Classroom with piano, computer, and audio/video equipment.
2. Access to comprehensive digital music library for representative listening examples.
3. When taught via Foothill Global Access: ongoing access to computer with email software and capabilities, email address.

Method(s) of Evaluation

Methods of Evaluation may include but are not limited to the following:

The student will demonstrate detailed knowledge of the historical development of musical style in Western culture in relation to the political, economic, social, religious developments and values of the time in quizzes and examinations
The student will demonstrate ability to apply knowledge of musical style, historical periods and genres from Western culture to representative examples of music in laboratory worksheets
The student will demonstrate ability to compare and contrast repertoire of concert music in laboratory worksheets
The student will demonstrate ability to critique good performance from bad, from the perspectives of artistic quality and appropriate historical performance practice in concert reports and through participation in on-campus and/or online discussions
The student will demonstrate ability to discuss, with insight and understanding, the social and personal implications of the development of musical style in Western culture through participation in online discussions
The student will demonstrate self-managed learning in a comprehensive journal, in which they reflect upon, evaluate, and describe their own learning process by writing two reflections on each topic area: a pre-reflection that includes what the student already knows about the topic and a post-reflection in which students summarize what they learned and want to remember, clarify, or pursue in more depth
For the honors section, students are required to complete a substantial summative project

Method(s) of Instruction

Methods of Instruction may include but are not limited to the following:

The student will listen to (on-campus) or read (online) lecture information
The student will listen to representative examples of music that illustrate concepts related to the historical/social context, stylistic categories, structural characteristics and important composers for the varied topic areas
The student will participate in discussion (on-campus and/or online)
The student will complete laboratory worksheets that provide additional information, as well as ask application questions correlated with listening examples
Feedback on tests and assignments delivered via email; class discussion may be delivered in chat rooms, listservs and newsgroups

Representative Text(s) and Other Materials

Barkley, E., and Hartwell, R.. Great Composers and Music Masterpieces of Western Civilization. 2021.

Types and/or Examples of Required Reading, Writing, and Outside of Class Assignments

  1. Reading assignments: Textbook chapters.
  2. Writing assignments: Comprehensive journal, in which students first reflect upon what they already know about the topic, and then after they have completed all the learning activities associated with that topic, summarize what they have learned, what they need to clarify, and what they wish to pursue in more depth.
  3. Participation in formal threaded discussion, that includes written responses to prompts for each topic.
    1. Example: You have read about Strauss and his involvement with the Nazis. In truth, Strauss apparently thought of himself as apolitical and just wanted to be left alone to write music (nor was he the only such composer--Haydn and Prokofiev come to mind as well). Should Strauss have been demonized for cooperating with the Nazis? In the larger view, what is an artist's obligation under such circumstances? And moving into the present, does it matter, for example, what a particular musician or group thinks of current U.S. politics? Do today's most popular artists have the right and/or responsibility to take an obvious political stance? Try to cite a specific example to defend your answer.
    2. Example: Stravinsky once commented that it was not music's job to express anything, and that "composers combine notes, that is all." He believed that music is primarily form and logic, and shouldn't be simply an expression of one's emotional state. Like Bach (and Haydn and to some extent Mozart and Brahms), Stravinsky saw composition as a craft. Throughout his long career, he set aside specific times and composed about the same amount of music each day. How does Stravinsky's music and philosophy represent a complete departure from Romanticism? If you are a composer (and please state so) or if you aren't a composer, use your imagination: To what extent is composition a craft and to what extent is composition an art?
    3. Discussion postings are assessed on the following criteria:
      1. Appropriateness: Did the student "answer" the question and address all components of the question?
      2. Thoughtfulness and accuracy: Does the posting include correct information and demonstrate that the student is thinking about and understanding the material?
      3. Overall organization: Does the student's posting form a coherent paragraph with main statements, support statements, conclusion, and so forth?
      4. "ESWE" (edited standard written English): Does the student's posting contain correct grammar and spelling?

Discipline(s)

Music