MUS20400

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.