COURSE AIMS
The stream of Music Theory courses provide students with a comprehensive understanding of the theoretical aspects that underlie in Western music through the development of aural, analytical, writing, performing and creative skills.
The Music Theory courses offer students an integrated approach into the conceptual world of music through cognitive and creative involvement leading to an understanding and appreciation of the processes affecting musical conventions. Although the focus of these courses is primarily on music of the common practice period (which is integral to all tonal music of the present), comparative topics on other music traditions are also included. The aural skills component of music theory courses is coordinated and delivered through each corresponding Aural Studies course.
As the willing and dedicated students advance through the
Music Theory courses sequence, they 1) gain greater understanding
and enhanced perception and sensibility of the technical and
rhetorical factors that contribute to the formation of stylistic
musical expressions. Through various writing, listening, and
analytical drills the students 2) are able to respond to different
aural and notated propositions with increased accuracy, fluency and
speed, and 3) associate the specific problems with the corresponding
repertoires and cultural contexts.
Topics specific for this course within the Music Theory sequence
include, non-exclusively:
Analytical,
Creative,
& Learning approaches about:
Rhythm: rhythmic dissolution and new rhythmic formulations from 1890 to present.
Harmony: changes in the tertian harmonic constructions in Western music (exteneded tertian, quartal harmony, exotic modalities.
Sound: the emergence of diverse sonic arts (musique concrete, electronic and computer music, etc).
Materials, Style & Expression: music from Iraq, Iran, China, India, Japan, Oceania, etc.
The
class
meets
once a week for a 2-hour interactive reading, listening, vewing, and
performing workshop situation. The experiencial nature of music
theory knowledge and skills acquisition presuposes full attendance
and participation in all the class discussions. Nonetheless, in this
class students freely choose their level of challenge and
involvement according
to the following scheme:
1) Students aspiring to Distinction or High Distinction marks (B or A)
On the last day of class, these students turn in a Theory Portfolio comprising the Journal and the 3 analytical projects. These students do not take a final exam.
2) Students aspiring to Pass or Credit marks (D or C)
On the last day of class, these students turn in their Study Journals. Attendance is not required for these students.
3) Students committed simply to a Pass-or-Fail test (D or F)
Attendance is not required for these students.
CONTENT SUMMARY
|
Topic |
Lecture
Content |
Readings |
|
1. |
Altered harmony |
Salome and others |
|
2. |
Debussy’s “Prelude” |
Malarme, Diaghilev, film |
|
3. |
Debussy’s “Prelude” |
Malarme, Diaghilev, film |
|
4. |
Stravinsky’s “The rite…” |
Documentary and analysis |
|
5. |
Stravinsky’s “The rite…” |
Documentary and analysis |
|
6. |
Messiaen, Birds & India |
Listening and analysis |
|
7. |
Drama, Number, Colour |
Schoenberg, documentary |
|
8. |
Quest and Music from Afghanistan, Iraq |
Listening, viewing, discussion. |
|
9. |
Concrete, Electronic |
Listening, viewing, demonstrations. |
|
10. |
Chinese music theorie/s |
Listening, viewing, analysis |
|
11. |
Cage Opens Musics |
Listening and viewing |
|
12. |
West African drumming |
Viewing and demonstration |
|
13. |
Oceania |
Viewing and discussion |
Kostka-Payne. Tonal Harmony. 5th ed. New York: McGraw Hill., 2004
Kostka-Payne. Tonal Harmony: Student’s Workbook. 5th ed. New York: McGraw Hill, 2004
Very Strongly Recommended:
Auralia. Self-paced aural learning program. Computer Laboratory, QCGU.
Benward, Bruce and Marilyn Saker. Music in Theory and Practice. 7th ed. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill,
2003.
Clendinning,
Jane
and Elizabeth West Marvin. The Musician's Guide to Theory and
Analysis.
W.W.Norton
& Co. 2004.
THEORY 4 DETAILS
1 independent study of the textbook
This component of your work consists of a natural progression of exercises from the last chapter of the Kostka-Payne textbook Tonal Harmony. Similarly as you did last semester, you progress through the reading of each section of this chapter, and select a convenient number of representative exercises. It is important to check the "Self Test" areas and the "Check points", as these offer very helpful tips to assure that you are gaining adequate familiarity with the concepts, techniques, stylistic features, and associated compositions.
3 always come prepared to class
Students
that attended many of the classes last semester attest on the value of
working beforehand on the topics scheduled for the class. Such
preparation included Studying and Exercising from the textbook and
bringing to class questions that stemmed from such exercising.
Students would bring questions related to technical, stylistic,
contextual issues that appeared after they reviewed materials done in
class, or listened or viewed at home or in the library the
materials that we presented in class.
The basic notion here is that simply showing up to class is an insufficient model for a university level education. Rather, the class is one more environment where the learning that each student does individually is assessed, expanded, confronted, etc., and we do this most effectively through exchange of information, questions, and volunteering opinions informed in various levels.
Contrary to popular belief, manifesting involvement is not the same as pretending to enjoy the subject. In all kinds of training there are less favored topics. For example, a medicine student may not enjoy Osteology, yet she remains committed to learning the names, structures, and functioning of all the bones in a human body. Manifest involvement is a way of keeping the "ball bouncing" in the play field. Through your observations, questions and reactions to the music that is presented in class you help yourself and your classmates to see the phenomenon under different light and from different perspectives. Some of us, nonetheless, enjoy and appreciate following a lecture and thinking in silence about our reactions. While this is ok., consider that the peculiar processes taking place in our minds remain otherwise unknown. So, here are a few suggestions to help us share these processes:
You may have seen in movies how sword fighters
stretch the arm with the sword in front, while they stretch the other
arm in the opposite direction. This is not only to prevent accidentally
hurting their own other hand, but also to remain aware of what may be
lying behind them –as their eyes are favoring the attention in one
direction. We do the same in processing sound. As one part of our brain
may be involved processing the timbre in a particular melody, other part
of our brain can be involved in considering what the other timbres (i.e.
orchestral instruments) are doing if they are not dealing with the
melody. We can favor, or guide our perception of a particular strand of
rhythm (the rhythm of the
melody) while other part of our brain is focused on the rhythm
of changes of register.
Following the rotund success of last semester's experience, we are making use of independent analytical projects for Theory 4 too. My starting suggestion for these project is as follows:
Project 1: a study of a composition from the Chromatic Harmony style. The body of works under this category have played a tremendous role in the history of concert music in Western societies of the last 150 years. If one hasn't experienced a piece from this repertoire first-hand, one surely has digested plenty of their clones through Hollywood film soundtracks. This project is the ideal means to grasp once at last many of the nuts'n bolts of this style.
Project 2: a study on a composition from any of the Modernist schools or trends. As you may have studied in Music Literature, a common way of seeing the development of concert music in the 20th century is to follow the "stance" of a composer in regard to the musical traditons: some wished to improve it, prolong it, evolve it, while others meant to deliberately break away from it, or jump suddenly "further ahead", or ignore it all together. Some composers like Arnold Schonberg, while meaning to continue the tradition, to the listeners his music sounds as if he was actually breaking away. Other composers, while claiming to break away from tradition actually did not sound too revolutionary; and some composers such as Stravinsky, through various periods in his career, created works in all possible "attitudes" in regard to the musical past and his contemporary situation. For the Modernist composers, technical propositions used to be extremely important —more important than Romantic ideas about inspiration and emotional outpouring. So, you will find that the theoretical challenges of studying Modernist composers can be quite intense. As we progress on the semester, we'll be exploring different ways of understanding technical and contextual data for this style. So, never fear.
Design of your projects
The best projects from last semester were those which considered the following approach:
- Well informed, succinct contextual introduction (about composer, piece, period)
- A clear and well-thought comment on personal reactions to the piece
- Accurate, verifyable technical coverage (addressing elements that create form, expression, uniqueness)
- Make use of strategic placing of musical examples
- Include a reflection/statement on the value of carrying on this study.
For Theory 4, as topics are a bit more complex, I suggest that each of the analysis be 3-pages long. We'll discuss different approches for building an informed and effective structure for these 3 pages.
6 resorting to a study team for support and continuous assessment
Without any doubt, the best projects in Theory 3 came from three or four very effective teams. The role of the team is essential for giving you frequent feedback and criticism before the projects are turned in. Your "editorial" team not only helps you in writing effectively, it also helps you in building a network of young musicians who can be of invaluable help in the unfolding of your musical, academic, or other career paths. To help you maintain continuity of work with your team, we'll integrate some sort of "checking points" assessments of your team work during the semester. Most likely, this will be in the form of a short report on your work as editor or as edited.
There will be a collection of recordings placed in the Class Reserve in the Music Library containing a selection of 9 must-know compositions. Since we meet only once a week, I think it is necessary to emphasize independent work to achieve an adequate level of exposure to the contents of academic study. The pieces in this collection come from various corners of the 20th and 21st century music repertoire. At your leisure, you listen to each composition and write your reactions in your Theory 4 Study Journal. We will discuss in class more ideas on how to best and productively register your reactions in writing. The Study Journal will be collected twice during the semester. Once before mid-semester break (week of sept. 17), and on the last day of class.
