Research Methodology in Musicology
Code: 40827 ECTS Credits: 10| Degree | Type | Year | Semester |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4312637 Musicology, Musical Education and Interpretation of Early Music | OT | 0 | 2 |
Contact
- Name:
- German Gan Quesada
- Email:
- german.gan@uab.cat
Teaching groups languages
You can check it through this link. To consult the language you will need to enter the CODE of the subject. Please note that this information is provisional until 30 November 2023.
Teachers
- Jordi Rife Santalo
- Maria Incoronata Colantuono Santoro
- German Gan Quesada
- Francisco Javier Daufi Rodergas
Prerequisites
There are no compulsory requirements for the inscription in this subject, beyond the general admistration requirements for the master inscription.
Objectives and Contextualisation
On successfully completing this subject, students will be able to:
- Discuss different research methodologies relating to historical musicology.
- Offer useful approaches, both theoretical and practical, to archival and library research.
- Interpret documentary sources related to music.
- Offer strategies on how to present and communicate research findings.
- Introduce the use of Digital Humanities tools in musicological research.
Competences
- Analyze and interpret historical sources and documents relating to music.
- Applying critical projects musicological research and interpretive projects.
- Conduct research archive, periodicals and literature related to the field of music.
- Consider innovative projects musicological research and interpretive projects.
- Distinguish and apply different methodologies musicological research and research in music education-oriented projects.
Learning Outcomes
- Analyze the different methodological research procedures that have been developed in recent decades in relation to musicology historical perspective.
- Apply a simple way to obtain these resources of different kinds of research data on historical musicology
- Apply critical capacity in musicological research projects and interpretive projects.
- Evaluate and apply research methodologies prior to each type of research project.
- Propose innovative projects proposed in musicological research and interpretive projects.
- To discern the suitability of each analytical and interpretive methodology in relation to the issues dealt with every kind of historical and documentary source.
- Use basic resources to obtain file data on research in historical musicology
Content
This subject is structured into the following main parts:
Prof. Maria Incoronata Colantuono [Part I] (March 7 and 14, 2024)
Medieval Marian monodic repertoires
The subject, articulated in two sessions, contemplates the analysis of medieval Marian monodic repertoires and their re-creation as a performative act. The material includes chants from ancient liturgical hymns to Italian and Galician-Portuguese devotional repertoire, passing through sequential production and Aquitanian and Catalan lyric poetry.
The classes, which have the purpose to determining the main features related to the recovery of the repertoire as a living sound experience, are articulated through the analysis of the oral systems of composition and transmission in comparison with their manuscript reality.
Prof. Jordi Rifé i Santaló [Part II] (March 21, and April 4, 2024)
The sessions will focus on three methodologies of historical musicology that are applied to the research of the music of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. In this sense, it will be proposed, first, the study of the notation of these centuries; secondly, the application of the method of rhetorical-musical analysis in the construct of musical discourse; and, finally, the use of comparative methodology, that can provide with elements generating new knowledge. These methods will be explained through several practical examples.
Prof. Xavier Daufí i Rodergas [Part III] (April 11 and 18, 2024)
An approach to music education in 18th-Century Catalonia
During two sessions, some aspects related to music teaching in 18th-century Catalonia will be analysed. To understand the way this teaching was offered it will be useful to focus on three main points: chapel masters, the extant music treatises, and the foundation of the first institution for music teaching in Barcelona in the early 19th century.
Chapel masters, existing not only in Barcelona but also throughout Catalonia, were, in their respective cities and villages, the most expert musicians and composers of the time. They were entrusted with the job of teaching music to the prospective chapel masters. No extant documentation explains how these composers worked in their classes and what pedagogical methods they used. On the other hand, it is quite clear, according to the contracts and other surviving documents, that it was them who taught music (and other subjects) to the boys in the choir and to the adult singers who wished to improve their knowledge in music.
Music treatises were used by prospective composers for their education. Among those treatises, different tendencies could be found: some focus on plainchant, others on composition, others are of a conservative vein, a few are speculative… An insight into these works will reveal the knowledge expected from the 18th-century musician. Besides, these treatises will contribute to a better understanding of the performing practices of the time.
Finally, the so-called Estudi Públic de Música was an institution created in the late 18th and early 19th centuries by musicians who formerly worked at the extinct chapel of the Cathedral of Barcelona. This public institution was the precursor of the subsequent music schools created in the city.
Practical exercises: As a practical class assignment, excerpts drawn from 18th-century Hispanic music treatises will be proposed for further analysis. Their study should reveal what a musician of that time had to know to successfully carry out his profession. Besides, studying these theoretical sources should give us insight into how to understand and perform, today, the music of the 18th century. Students will be asked to solve some exercises to deepen their knowledge of the subject.
Compulsory reading: Before the beginning of the sessions, students must have read the article loaded in the subject’s Aula Moodle.
Prof. to be determined [Part IV] (April 25, and May 2, 2024)
Prof. Germán Gan Quesada [Part V] (May 9, 16, and 23, 2024)
Approaching Ancient Music in 20th- and 21st- centuries music composition: intertextual dialogues through two case studies (Ars Nova and Carlo Gesualdo).
Guided visit to the premises, library, and archive of the Institució Milà i Fontanals (CSIC-Barcelona).
Methodology
The theoretical-practical sessions of this subject (4 h each) will be held every Thursday afternoon during the second semester of the academic year 2023/2024 [March 7 - May 30] and will be lead by one of the responsible lecturers. They will require the active involvement of the students and their contents will offer a research approach to musical repertoires from an archival, analytical, theoretical and paleographical viewpoint.
At the beginning of the activities of the subject and of each of its three constitutive parts, it will be provided a short syllabus featuring the specific contents of the sessions, together with an illustrative bibliography, if needed. Likewise, it will be determined the topics of evaluation activities [Individual tasks for parts I and IV, and Research Project], supervised by any of the responsible lectures mainly through in-person tutorials.
Annotation: Within the schedule set by the centre or degree programme, 15 minutes of one class will be reserved for students to evaluate their lecturers and their courses or modules through questionnaires.
Activities
| Title | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Type: Directed | |||
| Attendance/participation to theoretical/practical and assessment sessions | 60 | 2.4 | 1, 2, 3, 6, 5, 7, 4 |
| Type: Supervised | |||
| Tutorials for the development of the research projects (Oral exposition) | 30 | 1.2 | 1, 2, 3, 6, 5, 7, 4 |
| Type: Autonomous | |||
| Reading and commentary of bibliographical sources | 50 | 2 | 1, 2, 3, 6, 5, 7, 4 |
| Scores transcription and analysis | 37 | 1.48 | 1, 2, 3, 6, 5, 7, 4 |
Assessment
Assessable activities are as follows:
- Mininum attendance/participation (80%) to the subject sessions, and compulsory attendance/participation to the scheduled visit, excepting exceptional, and duly justified, circumstances.
- Preparation of an individual task (review of an article or book chapter, transcription or analysis exercises) related to Parts I and IV of the subject.
- Preparation of a short Research Project, in order to be orally exposed [pre-scheduled date: May 30, 2024], according to the general features (length, layout) usual in academic conferences and symposia.
All assessment activities are obligatory and independent. Following the academic schedule established by the Faculty, students may retake assessment activities they have failed or compensate for any they have missed,
provided that those they have actually performed account for a minimum of 60% of the subject's final mark, and after discussing this possibility with the lecturer. The highest mark for these retaken activities is 6.
When publishing final marks prior to recording them on students' transcripts, the lecturer will provide written notification of a date and time for reviewing assessment activities. Students must arrange reviews in
agreement with the lecturer.
In the event of the assessment activities a student has performed accounting for just 30% or less of the subject's final mark, their work will be classified as "not assessable" on their transcript.
IMPORTANT REMARKS
In the event of a student committing any irregularity that may lead to a significant variation in the grade awarded to an assessment activity, the student will be given a zero for this activity, regardless of any disciplinary process that may take place. In the event of several irregularities in assessment activities of the same subject, the student will be given a zero as the final grade for this subject.
In the event that tests or examscannot be taken onsite, they will be adapted to an online format made available through the UAB’s virtual tools (original weighting will be maintained). Homework, activities and class participation will be carried out through forums, wikis and/or discussion on Teams, etc. Lecturers will ensure that students are able to access these virtual tools, or will offer them feasible alternatives.
SINGLE ASSESSMENT [pre-scheduled date: June 14, 2024]: 1) Concept test [30%]; 2) Historical/contextual test [30%]; 3) Review of a musicological chapter or article [40%]. The same assessment method as continuous assessment will be used in the event of retaken or compensated failed activities.
Assessment Activities
| Title | Weighting | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Attendance and participation - Theoretical and practical sessions | 10% | 50 | 2 | 1, 2, 3, 6, 5, 7, 4 |
| Part I - Individual task | 25 % | 3 | 0.12 | 2, 3, 6, 5, 7, 4 |
| Part IV - Individual task | 25% | 3 | 0.12 | 1, 2, 6, 7, 4 |
| Research project | 40 % | 17 | 0.68 | 1, 3, 6, 5, 7 |
Bibliography
At the beginning of the sessions of each part of the subject, it will be provided specific bibliography/webography complementary references, if needed, for a proper study of their contents.
Com citar i elaborar la bibliografia: https://www.uab.cat/web/estudia-i-investiga/com-citar-i-elaborar-la-bibliografia-1345708785665.html
Part I
ANGLÉS, Higini, ed. La música de las Cantigas de Santa María del Rey Alfonso X el Sabio, vol. I. Barcelona: Diputación Provincial de Barcelona-Biblioteca Central, 1964.
COLANTUONO, Maria Incoronata. El canto litúrgico en las "Cantigas de Santa María". Barcelona: Centre Pastoral Litúrgica, 2022. Cuadernos Phase, 265.
FASSLER, Margot. Music in the Medieval West. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2014.
ZIMEI, Francesco i Marco Gozzi, eds. Il Laudario di Cortona. Lucca: Libreria Musicale Italiana, 2015. Bibl. Accademia etrusca, I.
Part II
APEL, Willi. The Notation of Polyphonic Music: 900-1600. Cambridge: The Medieval Academy of America, 1961.
BARTEL, Dietrich. Musica poetica: Musical-rhetorical figures in German Baroque music. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1997.
CALDWELL, John. Editing Early Music. Oxford: Oxford University Press / Clarendon Press, 1987.
RIFÉ i SANTALÓ, Jordi, “The Kyries of J. S. Bach's B-minor Mass and Gottlob Harrer's D-major Mass (Harwv 32): Between Late Baroque and the ‘Style Galant’”, Bach Journal, 45/2 (2014), pp. 68-93.
Part III
BONASTRE, Francesc. Música, litúrgia i societat a la Barcelona del segle XVIII. Barcelona, Societat Catalana d’Estudis Litúrgics – IEC, 2008. Biblioteca Litúrgica Catalana, 5.
DAUFÍ, Xavier. “Un tractat de composició anònim del segle XVIII escrit en català”, Revista catalana de musicologia, XIII (2020), pp. 101-138.
HERAS TRIAS, Assumpció. “La instauració del magisteri de cant a Sant Pere de Figueres a les primeries del segle XVII”, Recerca Musicològica, I (1981), pp. 203-212.
RIFÉ, Jordi. “Les ordinacions de la capella de música de la catedral de Girona. Any 1735”, Recerca Musicològica, VI-VII (1986-1987), pp. 149-171.
_____. “Els Estatuts de la Capella Musical de la Seu de Vic, any 1733. Comparació amb les Ordinacions de la Seu de Girona, any 1735, i les de la Seu de Tarragona, any 1747”, Recerca Musicològica, IX-X (1989-1990), pp. 359-365.
PART IV (to be determined)
PART V
GAN QUESADA, Germán. "Victoria, notre contemporain? Tomás Luis de Victoria en la creación musical española actual", en Tomás Luis de Victoria. Estudios, eds. Javier Suárez-Pajares y Manuel del Sol. Madrid, ICCMU, 2013, pp. 581-588.
RAMAUT-CHEVASSUS, Béatrice. Musique et postmodernité. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1998.
WATKINS, Glenn. Pyramids at the Louvre. Music, Culture, and Collage from Stravinsky to the Postmodernists. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1994.
____. The Gesualdo Hex. Music, Myth, and Memory. New York-London: W. W. Norton & Company, 2010, cap. 10 "Stoking the Flame".
Software
Does not apply.