[Assignments] [Course Structure and Assignments]
ASSIGNMENTS
Each assignment is due in the instructor's mailbox during the week indicated below. Count Week 1 as the first week that classes begin and Week 15 as the final week of the term. Trimester dates are listed at the upper left hand corner of your registration form.
All papers must be typed, with a cover page, footnotes and bibliographies [where appropriate]. Use the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers as a guide to the appropriate format. All assignments must be mailed in before the assignment deadline. Send in an extra copy, marked “For HUX Files,” and keep a copy for yourself. Also, keep a copy of the title page of the paper returned by the instructor which contains your grade, comments, and date. Send a self-addressed, stamped (with adequate postage) envelope for the return of each assignment. If you do not fully understand the assignment or need help, telephone the instructor during office hours, e-mail or mail in your questions.
All of these assignments should be modest-sized papers around the 4 - 5 pages in length.
Each of the papers should be done after each three-week period of the course. Please DO NOT SEND ALL OF YOUR PAPERS IN AT THE SAME TIME as this does not allow for any interaction between you and your instructor, and if you get off on the wrong foot, it is too late to do anything about it.
COURSE STRUCTURE AND ASSIGNMENTS
This course has three major components: reading, listening and writing. The desired outcome is that the student’s written assignments will present a synthesis of the reading and listening. There are five (5) assignments, some of which offer alternatives. They focus on some of the better-known works of the period, however, you can always draw comparisons between the specifically assigned works and others that you have read about or heard elsewhere. Each of these papers should be 3-5 pages in length, and should follow MLA guidelines for style and documentation.
ASSIGNMENT I
Select two excerpts from the recorded works chosen for this course (use complete movements or selections). Choose one composed by Monteverdi and one from Handel or Bach. Compare these excerpts with the general descriptions of Baroque musical characteristics found in the Palisca text. Write a paper elucidating what you are able to hear that:
1. places your selections within the parameters of Baroque style
2. marks the work as being either early or late Baroque.The HUX 571 tape contains Bach and Handel excerpts for the old Assignments I and V, and Monteverdi excerpts for the old Assignments II and III, from a previous version of this course’s materials. As an alternative, you can select excerpts from Monteverdi’s Orfeo, to compare to any of Handel’s operas, or the instrumental interludes from Orfeo to compare to either of the late baroque concerti grossi.
ASSIGNMENT II
What were Monteverdi’s contributions to the development of opera? How did his treatment of the Orpheus myth differ from those of earlier composers? Why would the noted music historian, Manfred Bukofser, refer to Orfeo as the “first masterpiece of operatic history.” (Music in the Baroque Era, p.58). When writing this paper, cite at least three excerpts from music you have actually heard. Chapter 3 in Palisca should provide a good basis for the answer to this question.
ASSIGNMENT III - OPTION A RECOMMENDED FOR STUDENTS WITH A GREATER KNOWLEDGE OF MUSIC
In The Cambridge Companion to Bach, Richard Jones points out that Bach was “very largely self-taught.” He further discusses several 17th century German composers who served as his models. Select one of Bach’s major keyboard works, and write a 3-5 page paper that explores the ways in which Bach was probably influenced by these earlier composers. Chapters 5 and 11 in Palisca should help you with this assignment.
ASSIGNMENT III - OPTION B RECOMMENDED FOR STUDENTS WITH A GREATER INTEREST IN INTERDISCIPLINARY STUDIES IN THE HUMANITIES
In The Cambridge Companion to Bach, John Butt proposes the hypothesis that. “Bach saw the very substance of music as constituting a religious reality, that the more perfectly the task of composition … is realized, the more God is immanent in music.” Drawing on this text, supplementary readings, and at least one musical example (a short section of Bach’s B Minor Mass is included on the course tape, although a longer excerpt is desirable), either support or refute Mr. Butt’s hypothesis.
ASSIGNMENT IV - OPTION A
Drawing upon Chapter 10 in Palisca, and your earlier work on Montevedi’s Orfeo, write a 3-5 page paper on the developments of high baroque opera as seen and heard in Handel’s Giulio Cesare. This paper should focus on what happens in the Handel opera, but should draw comparisons to the Monteverdi work. To completely understand this transformation, you will probably need to survey what happened in the development of operatic forms in the intervening time between the two composers. Palisca’s Chapter 7 should be helpful in this regard. If possible, view a video tape of the Handel opera as well as listening to the CD.
ASSIGNMENT IV - OPTION B (INTENDED FOR VOCAL OR INSTRUMENTAL PERFORMERS)
On occasion, one finds performing musicians who complain that music history courses are not relevant to their roles as performers. As an active performing musician (cellist and conductor) who has concentrated her doctoral study in performance practices in the 18th century, I am convinced that this need not be the case. Consequently, I offer you the opportunity to propose a topic dealing with Baroque performance practices as it relates to your performing media, and use that as a replacement for this assignment. A few sample topics are: how do you start and end a trill; suggestions for embellishing the da capo of an aria (or repetition of a variation for an instrumentalist); or, the well-realized figured bass accompaniment. Chapters 13 and 15 in The Cambridge Companion to Bach can provide a starting point for this assignment.
ASSIGNMENT V
For the final assignment you are asked to compare some movements from one of Handel’s Concerti Grossi, opus 6, regarded by many as his most mature instrumental music, to some movements from one of Bach’s famous Brandenburg Concerti Grossi. In this assignment you are asked to identify late Baroque elements and to comment on what you and our authors believe to be the essential differences between Handel and Bach. One often hears the cliché that “X” expresses the spirit of the age, but there is almost inevitably a “Y” who also expresses the spirit of the age, and who is totally the opposite from “X.” Such is probably the case with Bach and Handel. Try to account for their Baroqueness, but also their differences. The Handel is Concerto Grosso Opus 6, #10 in D Minor for violins, cello, strings and continuo, and the Bach is the Brandenburg Concerto #2, also in F Major for trumpet, recorder, oboe, and violin, with string orchestra accompaniment.
The Hux tape includes the first movements of the Handel and the second and third movements of the Bach. If possible listen to recordings of the complete works. If you have access to Bukofser’s text, he has some very pertinent commentary on this subject.