MUS20400 Early European Music

Academic Year 2024/2025

This module introduces students to European musical cultures between 750 and 1750, encompassing styles which are often divided into the Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque eras. We will begin by considering the opportunities and challenges encountered when we try to understand musical cultures that are historically distant from us. Students will be encouraged to engage with questions about the kinds of evidence required to understand such musical cultures, and how we should go about interpreting that evidence.

We will then examine three key topics, which are spread across the historical period covered by this module. Students will be first introduced to the songs of the troubadours and trouvères, who were the earliest known composers of song in the vernacular (that is, languages other than Latin) in Europe. This will be followed by considerations of sixteenth-century sacred polyphony and the birth and development of opera in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. In all three of these topics, students will be encouraged to consider the repertoires studied from numerous different angles, thinking both about how this music was used in society and about how it was put together technically.

Folders containing preparatory reading and listening materials for each week will be available on Brightspace. Students will be expected to use these materials to prepare for lectures, which will include numerous opportunities for active engagement and discussion. Students will be encouraged to develop an interest in one of the three topics under consideration with a view to writing a final research essay on a topic of interest.

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Curricular information is subject to change

Learning Outcomes:

On completion of this module students should be able to:

– Explain and examine the opportunities and issues presented by studying early music.
– Identify and describe important genres, styles, musicians, and composers of the period in question.
– Recognise, analyse and compare selected compositions in terms of their style and origin.
– Evaluate the relationship between music and its cultural and historical context.
– Discuss and explain key aspects of each topic in the light of contemporary musicological scholarship.
– Conduct research using a variety of reliable sources and write a coherent essay engaging with relevant scholarship.

Indicative Module Content:

Thinking about Early Music – opportunities, challenges, questions
The songs of the troubadours and trouvères
Renaissance polyphony - techniques and context
The invention of a genre - Opera in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries

Student Effort Hours: 
Student Effort Type Hours
Lectures

22
Specified Learning Activities

36
Autonomous Student Learning

42
Total

100
Approaches to Teaching and Learning:
Lectures supplemented by discussion based on the close reading of texts. 
Requirements, Exclusions and Recommendations

Not applicable to this module.


Module Requisites and Incompatibles
Not applicable to this module.
 
Assessment Strategy  
Description Timing Component Scale Must Pass Component % of Final Grade In Module Component Repeat Offered
Quizzes/Short Exercises: Multiple Choice Questionnaire: Assessment 1 focusing on the lectures of weeks 1-4 Week 4 Graded No

15

 No
Quizzes/Short Exercises: Multiple Choice Questionnaire: Assessment 2 focusing on the lectures of weeks 5-7 Week 7 Graded No

15

 No
Quizzes/Short Exercises: Multiple Choice Questionnaire: Assessment 3 focusing on the lectures of weeks 9-12 Week 12 Graded No

15

 No
Assignment(Including Essay): Essay: Research essay of 3,000 words. Initial outline of topic to be prepared during week 8 and submitted in week 9. Final essay due at end of trimester (week 14). Week 14 Graded No

35

 No
Participation in Learning Activities: Continuous Assessment: Preparation and participation in discussions at lectures Week 1, Week 2, Week 3, Week 4, Week 5, Week 6, Week 7, Week 9, Week 10, Week 11, Week 12 Graded No

20

 No

Carry forward of passed components
Yes
 
Remediation Type Remediation Timing
In-Module Resit Prior to relevant Programme Exam Board
Please see Student Jargon Buster for more information about remediation types and timing. 
Feedback Strategy/Strategies

• Feedback individually to students, post-assessment

How will my Feedback be Delivered?

Not yet recorded.

Burkholder, Grout and Palisca, A History of Western Music, 10th edition (New York: W. W. Norton, 2019).
Burkholder and Palisca, Norton Anthology of Western Music. Vol. 1, Ancient to Baroque. 8th edition (New York: W. W. Norton, 2019).