­Music 100C [section 02, course# 58627 ]

 

Theory, Literature, and Musicianship II :

Tonal Counterpoint

UC Santa Cruz, Spring Quarter 2008

 

Meeting in Music Center 138

Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from 11:00 AM to 12:10 PM

Prerequisites: MUS 30 C & N or equivalent; MUS 60 or piano proficiency

 

Professor:  Ben Carson (alternate instructor: John Sackett)

My office is 'Music Center 148'

(on the lower floor, between  Profs Jones' and Paiment's offices).

Office hours are on Wednesdays 9:30 to 10:30 AM, and Fridays from 1:00 to 2:00 pm

or by appointment, or by chance encounter.

phone:  9-5581

e-mail:  b e n j a    d o t   c a r s o n    a t     gee-   m a i l  

 

[ Syllabus in pdf format ] [ calendar and assignments ]

 

 

Calendar of activities and assignments

(with links to readings and some lecture notes)

 

 

Your 2-part invention assignment – emulating BachÕs 2-part inventions, and based on your work in Exercise 5 – is due Monday, May 19.

 

For musicianship labs (Week 10):

           WTC Book I:

Fugue 16 (G minor)

 

   WTC Book II:

Fugue 18 (G# minor)

 

 

DonÕt forget to practice Ņbreathing a tonal phraseÓ before composing!

 

[ proceed to calendar & assignments ]

                     

 

Course Catalogue Description for 100 A, B, and C:   Tonal counterpoint.  Chromatic harmony and its ramifications. Introduction to twentieth-century methods of composition, including serial techniques.

 

Spring Quarter (100C) Course Description:  This course introduces specific knowledge about compositional practices of the Baroque era, with special emphasis on counterpoint and imitation.  We will develop skills in the composition of tonal melody and small-scale development; there will also be some application of the principles of counterpoint to Modern music.   The material of the course is mostly informed by the style of J. S. Bach, but we will also investigate the music of his predecessors, contemporaries, and followers.

 

Regular assignments will include composition exercises, as well as the analysis of short compositions in a variety of 18th- century styles.  Each student will complete three small composition projects (a binary form in the style of a dance suite, a two-part invention, and a three-part canon), and a final project in which all principles will be displayed in a fully formed prelude and three-part fugue.

 

Objectives:

1.       Understand the art of 18th-century melodic and harmonic writing in detail.

2.       Proficiency in the advanced challenges of musicianship in the tonal language.

3.       Build on your foundational knowledge of basic tonal harmony, and expand it to include principles of rhythmic clarity, development, and imitation.

4.       Gain proficiency in contrapuntal writing, and complete an effective Prelude and Fugue project

 

Course Texts:

 

(Excerpts only: coming soon!)

Gauldin, Robert.  A Practical Approach to Eighteenth-Century Counterpoint. Prospect Heights: Waveland Press, 1995.

 

Kennan, Kent.  Counterpoint Based on Eighteenth-Century Practice.  Englewd: Prentice Hall, 1959.

 

Koss, Ellis.  Musical Form.  Palo Alto: Houghton Mifflin, 1976.

 

Reicha, Anton. Treatise on Melody [1803, 1848].  Translated by Peter Landley. Hillsdale: Pendragon Press, 2000.

 

Schoenberg, Arnold.  Fundamentals of Music Composition [1948]. Edited by Gerald Strang. London: Faber and Faber, 1967.

 

 

Recommended Texts:

Burkhardt, Charles. Anthology for Musical Analysis.  Fifth (or Sixth) Edition.  Belmont: Schirmer, 2004.

 

Course Credit and Grading:

 

Weekly exercises, including exercises and analysis:             18%       [90 points]

In-class work, including quizzes, and up to 30 pts for getting here on time*: 

12%       [60 points]

Large Projects:                                                                                            25%       [25+25+25+50]

Musicianship Lab*:                                                                                   35%      

Final Exam:                                                                                                    10%       [50 points]

                                                                                                                              100%           500 points

 

*If you are absent, without an advance arrangement, from a total of 5 meetings, including musicianship labs, or a total of 3 musicianship labs, then you will not earn a passing grade in the course.

 

More about grading:

Grades are a reflection of what you accomplish, not of who you are.  In other words, high grades are not necessarily given to Ōdeserving studentsÕ, but rather to deserving accomplishments.  Low grades are the same – in no way do they reflect my opinion of you or your potential.

                  If you are ever uncertain about why IÕve given any particular assessment, please come to me with questions. IÕll be happy that you want to know more about what was expected in that assignment.  I want this class to be, as much as possible, an exchange of questions and ideas.  The written evaluations that will supplement your grade at the end of the quarter are only a small part of that conversation.

 

 

MORE ABOUT THE COURSE

To get the best out of this course, consider:

 

  1. Being there:   Regardless of any reason for absence, students are responsible for compensating whatever work they have missed when they are gone.  Please let me know about absences that result from health conditions, family emergencies, or major transportation accidents, and so on. Other reasons – donÕt feel the need to contact me with an apology, instead, just catch up and seek my help when you need it.  In any case of absence, be sure to check with a classmate for information about what was discussed on that day, and get a clear sense of all new assignments.
  2. Performance anxiety:  In class, we'll work on your skills and your musical literacy in a direct and conversational way.  But I'm never interested in getting you to prove anything on the spot.  Please consider our classroom conversation to be a type of "group practice" – we are working on this together, and students should help each other in a spirit of collaboration.
  3. Deadlines:  Please complete your assignments in clear hand-written notation, with a pencil, and get them in on time!  Late assignments will be accepted but they will not receive full credit and I cannot guarantee that I will give them thorough comments.
  4. Email:  I love email!  I reply to most emails religiously and with pleasure. Especially if you're writing to me about the materials and the ideas that we discuss in class or in your assignments.  But please don't send email with explanations of your lateness on an assignment, or absence from classÉthose issues are better discussed in person.

 

 

Fall Quarter (100A) Course Description:  HARMONY and FORM in 19th CENTURY MUSIC.  Whereas 100A emphasizes late baroque (1700-1760+) composition techniques and their influences on later composers, 100B will focus on unprecedented aspects of 19th century composition.  These include the weakening of tonal hierarchy, and the increasing importance of smaller melodic ideas in ever-expanding forms.  We'll begin by using skills from 100A to analyze some of the more difficult 'proto-Romantic' pieces by composers like Haydn and Mozart, and then expand our discussion of harmony and form to compare later composers such as Liszt, Wagner, and Brahms.  The second half of the quarter will explore the erosion of the tonal system in the music of Strauss, Debussy, Ravel, and the "Second Viennese School."   There will likely be two projects involving thorough linear melodic- and harmonic- analysis of small pieces, and one compositional project, the details of which you will establish in consultation with the instructor.

 

Winter Quarter (100B) Course Description:  THEORIES and PRACTICES of 20th CENTURY MUSIC.  In this course we will analyze dodecaphonic, integral serial, and post-serial music (including examples from the Second Viennese School, Messaien, and the Darmstadt School, as well as various American composers and improvisers) with help from set theory, multidimensional scaling, chance operations, spectralism, microtonality, and other principles. There will likely be two analytical and two compositional projects, the goals of which each student will have considerable freedom to determine in consultation with the instructor.

 

LISTENING RESERVES

                 

                  Whole CDs on reserve

(1)  Domenico Scarlatti 

Selections:  Virginia Black, harpsichord LCD2364

(2) Elisabeth Claude Jacquet de la Guerre

Book II Suite I in D minor:  John Metz, harpsichord LCD2152

(3) Andre Campra "Les ages" (Opera Ballet): ensemble Bal interrompu   LS1128

 

                  Bach collections for weeks 1 and 2

(1) Bourrˇes I and II (from cello suite no. 3, BWV 1009):  John Williams, guitar    LCD3464 

(2) Two-part Inventions

                                    (#4 in D minor, #8 in F major

                                    #12 in A major, #14 in B-flat major):

                  Ton Koopman, harpsichord LCD 3422

(3) 4 canons from "A Musical Offering," arranged by Neville Mariner: 

                  Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields    LCD1762

 

                  Selections for weeks 3 and 4

(1) Prelude and fugue in E minor, BWV 533:  Nikolai Demidenko, piano    LCD4200

(2) Prelude and fugue in D major, BWV 532:  Nikolai Demidenko, piano    LCD4200

(3) L'Art de la fugue, BWV 1080

                  Contrapunctus V and VI:   Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields    LCD1762 

                  Contrapunctus V and VI:  Charles Rosen, piano   LS2513

(4) Well-tempered clavier, part 1, Prelude and Fugue 2 in C minor (BWV 847):

                                    Ralph Kirkpatrick, clavichord LCD3784

                 

                  Selections for weeks 5 and 6

(1) Well-tempered clavier, part 1, Prelude and Fugue 2 in C minor (BWV 847):

                                    Glenn Gould, piano LS338

(2) Well-tempered clavier, part 1, Prelude and Fugue 6 in D minor (BWV 851):

                                    Jeno Jand—, piano  LCD2190 

(3) Well-tempered clavier, part 2, Prelude 20 in A minor (BWV 889):

                                    Ralph Kirkpatrick, clavichord LCD4432

(4) Well-tempered clavier, part 2, Prelude 11 in F major (BWV 880):

                                    David Ng-Quinn, piano  LR5160 

 

                  Selections for weeks 7 and 8

(1)  Fuga a 6 voci, in the arrangement for orchestra by Anton Webern:

                                    Berliner Philharmoniker  LCD 3545 (v1, I think?)              

(2) Well-tempered clavier, part 1, Prelude 1 in C major (BWV 846): 

                  Ralph Kirkpatrick, clavichord LCD3784

(3) Well-tempered clavier, part 1, Fugue 11 in F major (BWV 856):

                   Glenn Gould, piano LS338

(4)  Well-tempered clavier, part 1, Prelude and Fugue 16 in G minor (BWV 861):

                  Jeno Jand—, piano  LCD2190 

 

                  Selections for weeks 9 and 10

(1)  Well-tempered clavier, part 1, Fugue 21 in B flat major (BWV 866): 

                  Colin Tilney, clavichord  LCD528

(2)  Well-tempered clavier, part 2, Prelude and Fugue 9 in E major (BWV 878):

                  Ralph Kirkpatrick, clavichord LCD4432

                  Colin Tilney, harpsichord LCD528

                  Glenn Gould, piano LSR518 

(3) L'Art de la fugue, BWV 1080

                  Contrapunctus VII: Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields LCD1762

                  Contrapunctus VII: Charles Rosen, piano LS2513