Music 300 – Compositional and Analytical Approaches to the Music of Modernism

Instructor: Dr. John Roeder, j.roeder@ubc.ca

Tutor: Scott Cook, salexcook@yahoo.ca

Marker: Claire Arthur

Lectures: Mondays and Wednesdays, 10-11 am, Music Bldg. Room 116.

Tutorial: Thursdays at 11 am (Rm. 302), or 1 pm (Rm. 302), or Fridays at 1 pm (Rm. 301).

Required textbooks, available at the UBC Bookstore. Bring these to every class.

Roig-Francolí, Miguel. 2008. Understanding Post-Tonal Music. McGraw-Hill.

Roig-Francolí, Miguel. 2008. Anthology of Post-Tonal Music. McGraw-Hill.

[these will also be used in Music 301]

Supplementary textbooks, on reserve in the Music Library:

Straus, Joseph. 2005. Introduction to Post-Tonal Theory. 3d ed. Pearson Prentice Hall.

Rahn, John. 1980. Basic Atonal Theory. MacMillan.

Friedman, Michael. 1990. Ear Training for Twentieth-Century Music. Yale.

This course develops the concepts and musical skills that are essential to understanding and performing the new kinds of art music that were composed in the first half of the twentieth-century—"post-tonal" music in which functional triadic harmony is absent or subsidiary to other musical processes. Works representative of major composers in this period—Debussy, Stravinsky, Bartók, Schoenberg, Webern, Berg, Hindemith, Messiaen—will be considered in detail. Through analysis and composition exercises, students will become proficient in the basic concepts of pitch-class-set theory and 12-tone theory, and further develop their knowledge of principles of musical form (begun in Music 100-201), in preparation for Music 301, which treats the art music of today.

There will be five homework assignments (25% of the total course grade), two musicianship quizzes (20%), a midterm examination (20%), and a final examination (35%). You must pass the final examination to pass the course. Refer to the syllabus below for critical dates.

Tentative syllabus:

Class	Date	topic	R-F pp.	due
I.1	5 Sep	Course overview. Review of Music 100 concepts: analysis, form, grouping structure (segments, motives), continuity (melodic, harmonic, rhythmic), cadence, focality (repetition, accent, position, formula). Modes; pentatonic collections.	1-13
I.tut	6,7Sep	Practice writing and hearing modes, pentatonic scales (33#1-2); aural and written interval identification; tonic finding
II.1	10 Sep	Debussy, "La cathédrale engloutie" (Anth. #1): collections, motives, linear continuities, non-functional tonality, golden section	13-24
II.2	12 Sep	[Roeder away] Analyze Debussy Sarabande (Anth #2, R-F p. 34) and Prelude for the Afternoon of a Faun.
II.tut	13,14 Sep	Drill intervals, cells, pc numbers. Review transposing instruments, C clefs; transcribe beginning of Stravinsky Rite.
III.1	17 Sep	Stravinsky, Rite Part I introduction (Anth. #4) and Danses des Adolescentes [Morgan Anth #9] (R-F 34-35).	24-33
III.2	19 Sep	Pitch class, clock representation, pc-intervals, cycles (Straus 156-7), symmetric cells/sets, transpositional combination, pitch and pc symmetry	37-51
III.tut	20,21 Sep	[Cook away] Drill Ch. 2 concepts, pitch and pc intervals; preparation for Assignment 1
IV.1	24 Sep	Symmetrical scales; analyze Bartók pieces (Anth. #5 and #6)	51-65	Assignment 1 (exx, brief an, comp.)
IV.2	26 Sep	Pitch-class set theory, I: interval, normal order, T and I classes, index, prime form	69-86
IV.tut	27,28 Sep	Drill transformations; Straus 22-32 (Webern Op 25, Schoenberg Op. 21); help with Asst 2
V.1	1 Oct	Pc-set theory, II: ic vector, Z relations, invariance matrices, complements (Straus 122), hexachord theorem, symmetry	86-100
V.2	3 Oct	Hearing pc sets/analyzing atonal passages. Segmentation, tranformation, composing out. Webern, Op. 5/III (see also Straus 108 revised) and Op. 3, No. 1 (Straus 103)	105-120	Assignment 2 (Bali w/revs)
V.tut	4,5 Oct	Begin and written trichord identification (continue through rest of course). Analyze Berg Op. 2, No. 2 (Anth #12, text 127-128; see also Straus 125-129); composing out.	127-128
VI.2	10 Oct	Two Schoenberg songs, Op. 15, Nos. 7 (Anth # 11) and 11 (Straus 67-73)	120-126
VI.tut	11,12 Oct	Trichord ID; help with Assignment 3
VII.1	15 Oct		129-137	Assignment 3
VII.2	17 Oct	Schoenber Op. 15, No. 11	137-142
VII.tut	11,12 Oct	Review for midterm examination and musicianship quiz
VIII.1	22 Oct	Drawing on the past I: Stravinsky, Agnus Dei (Anth #13): cadence, counterpoint, texture	129-137
VIII.2	24 Oct	MIDTERM EXAMINATION on lecture I.1 - VI.2 [Bartok Mik 140, 144 Morgan p. 96; Straus Ex. 3-12 p. 98]	1-126
VIII.tut	25,26 Oct	Musicianship quiz
IX.1	29 Oct	DOTP II: Hindemith's theory, Ludus Tonalis Interlude (Anth # 14)	137-142
IX.2	31 Oct	12-tone rows: basic properties and operations; matrix; labeling alternatives	159-171
IX.tut	1,2 Nov	Trichord ID; 12-T matrices; singing rows
X.1	5 Nov	Analyze Dallapiccola pieces (Anth. #19-20)	171-178
X.2	7 Nov	12-tone invariants, symmetries. Analyze Webern Op. 27, II (Anth. #22) and Op. 28, II (Morgan Anth #12)	182-195	Assignment 4
X.tut	8,9 Nov	Trichord ID; exercises pp. 179-181; Schoenberg Op. 25 Trio.
XI.2	14 Nov	Hexachordal combinatoriality. Schoenberg Op. 33a (Anth #23): areas, form.	195-213
XI.tut	15,16 Nov	Ch. 8 exercises; help with Assignment 5
XII.1	19 Nov	Stravinsky's serialism; rotation. "Lacrimosa" (Anth. #24) and Dirge Canon from In Memorian Dylan Thomas	220-226
XII.2	21 Nov	Additive meters; polypulse. Nonfunctional triadicism; "polytonality".	245-254	Assignment 5
XII.tut	22,23 Nov	Exercise p. 242, I.1 (Stravinsky Abraham and Isaac); prepare for musicianship quiz.
XIII.1	26 Nov	Messiaen: rhythmic techniques, modes of limited transposition; "Turangalila" Symphony excerpt (Anth. #27)	253-264
XIII.2	28 Nov	Review and class evaluation
XIII.tut	29,30 Nov	Musicianship quiz. Tutorial evaluation