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MUS31490

Academic Year 2024/2025

Music and Sexuality in Early European Musical Cultures (MUS31490)

Subject:
Music
College:
Arts & Humanities
School:
Music
Level:
3 (Degree)
Credits:
10
Module Coordinator:
Dr Matthew Thomson
Trimester:
Spring
Mode of Delivery:
On Campus
Internship Module:
No
How will I be graded?
Letter grades

Curricular information is subject to change.

Many medieval and early modern European cultures saw music, and especially song, as being intricately connected with sexual desire and romantic love. This course explores the particularly intense links between music and sexuality found in three repertoires stretching between the twelfth and seventeenth centuries: the twelfth- and thirteenth-century love songs of the troubadours and trouvères; sixteenth-century madrigals; and seventeenth-century opera. The module will therefore begin by examining different scholarly models for characterising how sexuality and sexual identity were understood in pre-modern European societies, as well as for understanding how music and sexuality are linked. Students will be encouraged to weigh up the benefits and problems of these different approaches. We will then apply these approaches to each of the three different repertoires, mixing analysis of primary sources and individual songs with examination of broader cultural trends and societal changes. The first session of each week (2 hours) will introduce students to the repertoires under consideration and broad historical approaches to music and sexuality. In the second session (1 hour), we will analyse primary sources and individual songs, madrigals, and operatic scenes, all of which will be provided in English translation.

This module uses the yellow ("Check") mode of the College of Arts and Humanities "traffic light system" with regard to the use of AI (see https://www.ucd.ie/artshumanities/study/aifutures/trafficlightsystem/). Specifically, its use for translation and brainstorming are permitted (see the webpage for details). However, each use must be documented in an appendix (indicating which AI app was used, the date of access, and citing the specific prompt(s)).

About this Module

Learning Outcomes:

– Explain and appraise different current scholarly models for:
o characterising pre-modern understandings of sexuality.
o analysing the interactions between music and sexuality.
– Analyse primary sources (in English) and summarise the evidence they provide about historical understandings of sexuality and its relation to music.
– Analyse individual songs, madrigals, or operatic scenes, evaluating how they inflect our understanding of the relationship between music and sexuality.
– Evaluate the connections between music and sexuality in pre-modern European musical cultures from the twelfth to the seventeenth centuries.

Indicative Module Content:

Week 1: Understanding Pre-Modern Sexuality and its Links to Music.

Troubadours and Trouvères
Week 2: Representation: Depicting sexual desire in song.
Week 3: Regulation: Managing musical and sexual behaviour.
Week 4: Scripting: Using song in real-life desiring encounters.

Sixteenth-Century Madrigals
Week 5: Representation: The polyphonic musical expression of love.
Week 6: Regulation: Restricting the musical expression of desire.
Week 7: Scripting: Sexual identities and musical communities.
(Weeks 8 & 9: 2 weeks of study period)

Week 10: Individual presentations on primary sources.

Seventeenth-century opera
Week 11: Representation: Desire on the operatic stage.
Week 12: Regulation: Virtuosi, gender, and public morality.
Week 13: Scripting: Opera and society in the late seventeenth century.
Week 14: Transhistorical comparisons: Opportunities and problems

Student Effort Hours:
Student Effort Type Hours
Specified Learning Activities

96
Autonomous Student Learning

118
Lectures

36
Total

250

Approaches to Teaching and Learning:
Lecture and seminar teaching with extensive opportunities for discussion.
Group analysis of primary sources.

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
Individual Project: Individual presentation on a primary source. Week 10 Standard conversion grade scale 40% No
45
 No
Assignment(Including Essay): Proposal for essay topic Week 7 Standard conversion grade scale 40% No
10
 No
Assignment(Including Essay): Essay (3,000 words) arising from the course (due week 14) Week 14 Standard conversion grade scale 40% No
45
 No

Carry forward of passed components
Yes
 

Resit In Terminal Exam
Summer No
Please see Student Jargon Buster for more information about remediation types and timing. 

Feedback Strategy/Strategies

• Feedback individually to students, on an activity or draft prior to summative assessment
• Feedback individually to students, post-assessment
• Peer review activities

How will my Feedback be Delivered?

Presentation: In preparation for the presentation in week 10, students should choose one of the primary sources studied in weeks 1-5. At the end of week 5, they should submit their choice and briefly outline their approach to it, on which they will receive written formative feedback. Also, during the 1-hour classes in which we analyse primary sources, every student will act as the spokesperson for their group at least once, presenting their group’s analysis of the primary source on which they are working. They will be given formative oral feedback on that presentation, to help them prepare for their summative assessed presentation. Essay: Students will submit a proposal for their essay by the end of week 7. They will receive written formative feedback on this proposal.

Timetabling information is displayed only for guidance purposes, relates to the current Academic Year only and is subject to change.
Spring Lecture Offering 1 Week(s) - 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33 Mon 11:00 - 12:50
Spring Lecture Offering 1 Week(s) - 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33 Thurs 10:00 - 10:50
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