MUS 231
Music in History I: Music and Culture from Antiquity to 1750 Fall 2024
Division I

This course explores over 1500 years of music-making in (and around) Europe and the Americas from antiquity to 1750 through an investigation of significant musical styles, forms, and theories in cultural and historical context. Our primary inquiry will be to consider how and why these musical styles and forms were created and circulated–through both oral performance and the written medium–by considering the major historical, cultural, technological, and aesthetic issues surrounding them. We will further contextualize these developments within a deeper consideration of the political, religious, racial, and gender-based interactions and divisions throughout history. In doing so, the course introduces the modern study of music history, sampling a broad range of recent scholarship reflecting an array of critical approaches to the study of early music in our own day. Weekly coursework will include readings on music historical topics, as well as listening and score analysis of key repertory in modern transcription. Assessments will take place throughout the semester through listening/score quizzes, exams, primary source presentations, and a research-based essay project focused on repertories and practices outside of the traditional musical canon.