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Music of the Classical Period

Code: 100641 ECTS Credits: 6
2024/2025
Degree Type Year
2500240 Musicology OB 2

Contact

Name:
Aurèlia Pessarrodona Pérez
Email:
aurelia.pessarrodona@uab.cat

Teaching groups languages

You can view this information at the end of this document.


Prerequisites

1.To possess general knowledge of the History of Music, Art and Philosophy.

2.To have consolidated foundational knowledge of Music Harmony, Counterpoint and Musical Form. 


Objectives and Contextualisation

The course seeks to describe and explain the development of music and the musical phenomenon from the end of the late Baroque until the first decades of the 19th century. Thus, a contextualized tour will be made of the main composers, forms, genres, musical practices and most significant theories that configure musical activity during this period. Tools will be used to understand music in its historical context, taking into account the main centers of musical activity, the new social role of music and new forms of listening, and we will seek to highlight the musical activity carried out by women and musicians related to the colonies.


Competences

  • Critically analyse musical works from any of the points of view of the discipline of musicology.
  • Identify and compare the different channels of reception and consumption of music in society and in culture in each period.
  • Know and understand the historical evolution of music, its technical, stylistic, aesthetic and interpretative characteristics from a diachronic perspective.
  • Make changes to methods and processes in the area of knowledge in order to provide innovative responses to society's needs and demands.
  • Relate concepts and information from different humanistic, scientific and social disciplines, especially the interactions which are established between music and philosophy, history, art, literature and anthropology.
  • Relate knowledge acquired to musical praxis, working with musicians through the analysis and contextualisation of different repertoires, both related to historical music and to the different manifestations of contemporary music.
  • Students must be capable of applying their knowledge to their work or vocation in a professional way and they should have building arguments and problem resolution skills within their area of study.
  • Students must be capable of communicating information, ideas, problems and solutions to both specialised and non-specialised audiences.
  • Students must have and understand knowledge of an area of study built on the basis of general secondary education, and while it relies on some advanced textbooks it also includes some aspects coming from the forefront of its field of study.
  • Take sex- or gender-based inequalities into consideration when operating within one's own area of knowledge.
  • Use digital tools and interpret specific documentary sources critically.

Learning Outcomes

  1. Analysing ideas about an artistic phenomenon in a given cultural context.
  2. Analysing the creators of an artistic phenomenon in a specific cultural context.
  3. Analysing the recipients of an artistic phenomenon in a specific cultural context.
  4. Apply the conceptualisation of philosophy, history, literature and anthropology to musical research.
  5. Assess the reliability of sources, select relevant data and contrast information.
  6. Communicate using language that is not sexist or discriminatory.
  7. Consider the subject as a whole and identify the context in which the processes studied are inscribed and their interrelationship with the elements and factors that are involved in their sociohistorical development.
  8. Contextualise new tendencies in musical creation in general historical evolution and observe its incorporation in the sociopolitical panorama in which they are framed.
  9. Contextualise musical works in their hsitorical and cultural setting from a critical perspective.
  10. Correctly identify the essential repertoire and the main composers of each historical period.
  11. Critically identify the different orientations of musical praxis that musicians apply to the music of each hsitorical period.
  12. Define the processes of periodisation and stylistic classification and usual typology in the historical conceptualisation of the musical fact.
  13. Identify and critically assemble the basic bibliography that has shaped the field of study.
  14. Identify and critically place different musical typologies in their historical periods.
  15. Identify phenomena of the circulation of ideas in music proficiency.
  16. Identify situations in which a change or improvement is needed.
  17. Identify the complexity of music reception processes.
  18. Identify the stylistic properties of each historical period.
  19. Identifying the context of the historical processes.
  20. Identifying the specific methods of history and their relationship with the analysis of particular facts.
  21. Integrate knowledge acquired in the production of clear and concise appropriate to the academic and specialist communication.
  22. Interpret the most important theoretical texts of each period.
  23. Interrelate technological and scientific changes in each period with the creation and reception of music.
  24. Link the periods of the history of music to periods of the history of art, in their similarities and differences.
  25. Present knowledge about the history, art or other cultural movements.
  26. Produce correct, precise and clear argumental and terminological writing of knowledge acquired, both in the area of musical specialisation and dissemination.
  27. Propose new experience-based methods or alternative solutions.
  28. Recognise in musical praxis element of different cultures and different historical periods.
  29. Solve problems of a methodological nature in the area of musicology.
  30. Use specific vocabulary of history correctly.
  31. Use the vocabulary of musicology related to each period of history.

Content

1. Preliminary concepts

  • Classicism? Terminological clarifications and proposed chronology
  • Historical context of the 18th century. The Enlightenment
  • The social role of the musician and music. New musical environments and practices. Emergence of criticism and musical historiography. The interest for the other and the populace. The role of women.
  • Basic concepts of 18th century musical aesthetics: mimesis/expression, reason/emotion, beautiful/sublime, genius. The theory of affects. Musical controversies.
  • Elements for analysis: schemata, musical topics (or topoi) and sonata forms.

2. The galant style and its evolution

  • Clarification of concepts: "preclassicism", the binomial galant style/strict style, rococo, neoclassicism
  • The first gallant style: the impact of Italy
  • The music of the mid-18th century: aesthetic changes and reforms
  • Development of instrumental music: sonata, symphony, string quartet

3. Viennese Classicism:

  • Franz Joseph Haydn:
    • General trajectory
    • Contributions to the symphony and the string quartet
    • The great oratories
  • Wolfgang A. Mozart:
    • General trajectory
    • Contributions to the piano concerto, symphony and chamber music
    • Vocal, religious and secular music
  • Classicism in Ludwig van Beethoven
    • Meaning of Beethoven and debates around his figure
    • The first Beethoven
    • The "heroic" Beethoven
    • Innovations and particularities of the late Beethoven

4. Other classicisms:

  • Other important musical centers: Italy, France, England, Russia
  • The Spanish case
  • Approaching the music from the Spanish colonies

Activities and Methodology

Title Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Type: Directed      
Analysis of musical works 37 1.48 1, 2, 15, 19, 20, 21, 26
Lesson on the thoretical content 50 2 1, 2, 10, 11, 14, 15, 19, 20, 21, 26
Type: Supervised      
Analisis of works 30 1.2 1, 2, 3, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16, 18, 19, 21, 22, 26, 28, 29, 30, 31
Type: Autonomous      
autonomous tasks on Moodle 30 1.2 3, 4, 7, 12, 15, 17, 19, 20, 22, 23, 24, 25, 29, 30, 31

The content of the course will be developed through master classes with students participation, analytical commentary of musical works, guided listening and texts. 

If it cannot be done face to face, it will be done online.

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.


Assessment

Continous Assessment Activities

Title Weighting Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
First partial exam 30% 1.5 0.06 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31
Moodle tasks and participation in class 10% 0 0 4, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 26, 28, 29, 30, 31
Musical analysis in group 30% 0 0 1, 2, 3, 9, 10, 11, 14, 21, 26, 28, 29, 30, 31
Second partial exam 30% 1.5 0.06 2, 3, 4, 7, 9, 10, 12, 14, 15, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 28, 29, 30, 31

The evaluation will be carried out through the following activities:

  • First partial exam (30%)
  • Second partial exam (30%)
  • Group analysis essay taking into account the parameters presented in class (30%)
  • Moodle activities and class participation (via wooclap) (10%)

To pass the course, the exams and the essay must have been passed separately.

In the reevaluation, set by the Faculty, the student must take the exam of the suspended part or parts.

A student will be considered non-evaluable when he or she has not taken any exam.

In the event that the student makes any irregularity that could lead to a significant variation in the grade of an evaluation act, this evaluation act will be graded 0, regardless of the disciplinary process that may be instituted. In the event that various irregularities occur in the evaluation acts of the same subject, the final grade for this subject will be 0.

If the tests cannot be carried out in person, their format will be adapted (maintaining their weighting) to the possibilities offered by the UAB's virtual tools. Homework, activities and class participation will be carried out through forums, wikis and/or exercise discussions through Teams, etc. The teacher will ensure that the student can access or will offer alternative means that are within his or her reach.

 

SINGLE ASSESSMENT

  • Exam with the content of the first partial (35%)
  • Exam with the content of the second partial (35%)
  • Submission of a musical analysis according to the parameters seen in class (30%)

To pass the course, all three parts must have been passed separately.

The date for the assessment will be made public on the Virtual Campus.

 


Bibliography

BONDS, M. E. (2014), La música como pensamiento. El público y la música instrumental en la época de Beethoven, Madrid: Acantilado.

BONDS, M. E. (2020). The Beethoven Syndrome: Hearing Music as Autobiography, New York: Oxford University Press.

BONDS, M. E. (2020). Beethoven: Variations on a Life. New York: Oxford University Press.

BOYD, M., CARRERAS, J.J. (eds.) (2000). La música en España en el siglo XVIII, Madrid: Cambridge Univ Press.

CARSE, A. (1964). The History of Orchestration, New York: Dover.

CAPLIN, W. E. (2000): Classical Form: A Theory of Formal Functions for the Instrumental Music of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

CODINA, D.; DOLCET, J.; RIFÉ, J.; VILAR, J. M. (1999). Història de la Música Catalana, Valenciana i Balear. Barroc i Classicisme. Vol II, Barcelona: Edicions 62.

DENORA, T. (1995). Beethoven and the Construction of Genius: Musical Politics in Vienna 1792-1803, Berkeley, Los Angeles and London: University of California Press, 1995. 

DOWNS, P. (1998). La Música Clásica, Madrid: Akal.

ELIAS, N. (1998). Mozart: sociología de un genio, Barcelona: Península.

FEIST, R. (2001). L´école de Mannheim, Genève: Editions Papillon.

GEIRINGER, K. (1962). La familia de los Bach. Siete generaciones de genio creador, Madrid: Espasa-Calpe.

GEIRINGER, K. i I. (1982). Haydn, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1982. 

GJERDINGEN, R. O. (2007), Musicin the Galant Style, New York: Oxford University Press.

HEARTZ, D. (2003). Music in European Capitals. The Galant Style1720-1780, New York-London: WW. Norton & Company.

HEARTZ, D. (2006). Mozart, Haydn and Early Beethoven, 1781-1802, W.W. Norton, 2006.

HEINE, C.; GONZÁLEZ, J. M. (coords.) (2016). The String Quartet in Spain, Peter Lang.

HEPOKOSKI, J.; DARCY, W. (2006): Elements of Sonata Theory. Norms, Types, and Deformations in the Late-Eighteenth-Century Sonata, Oxford University Press.

HOCQUARD, J.-V. (1991). Mozart, una biografía musical (1791-1991), 2 vols., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe..

IGOA, E. (2014). La cuestión de la forma en las sonatas de Antonio Soler, Madrid: Universidad Complutense de Madrid.

KIRKPATRICK, R. (1985). Domenico Scarlatti, Madrid: Alianza (1ª ed.: Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1953).

KEEFE, S. P. (ed.) (2009). The Cambridge History of Eighteenth-Century Music, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009.

LEZA, J. M. (coord.) (2014). Historia de la música en España e Hispanoamérica. Vol. 4: La música en el siglo XVIII, Madrid: Fondo de Cultura Económica.

MARTÍN MORENO, A. (1985). Historia de la música española, 4. Siglo XVIII, Madrid: Alianza, 1985.

MANGANI, M.; LABRADOR, G.; GIUGGIOLI, M. (2019). Le sinfonie di Luigi Boccherini: contesti, fonti, analisi, Olschki.

MARÍN, M. Á. (2014). Joseph Haydn y el cuarteto de cuerda, Madrid: Alianza.

MARÍN, M. Á.; BERNADÓ, M. (coords.) (2014). Instrumental Music in Late Eighteenth-Century Spain, Kassel: Reichenberger.

MASSIN, J. i B. (1987a). Ludwig van Beethoven, Madrid: Turner.

MASSIN, J. i B. (1987b). Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Madrid: Turner.

NEWMAN, W. S. (1983). The Sonata in the Classic Era. New York: W. W.Norton & Company, 1983.

RATNER, L. (1980). Classic Music. Expression, Form and Style, London: Macmillan.

RICE, J. A. (2019). La música en el siglo XVIII, Madrid: Akal.

ROBBINS LANDON, H.C.; NORWICH, J. J. (1992). Cinco siglos de música en Venecia, Barcelona: Destino.

ROBBINS LANDON, H.C. (dir.) (1991). Mozart y su realidad, Barcelona: Labor.

ROSEN, C. (1986). El estilo clásico: Haydn, Mozart y Beethoven, Madrid: Alianza.

ROSEN, C. (1987). Formas de sonata, Barcelona: Labor.

SADIE, S. (1985). Mozart, Barcelona: Muchnik.

SPECK, C. (ed.) (2016). The String Quartet from the Private to the Public Sphere, Brepols.

SPITZER, J.; ZARLAW, N. (2004). The Birth of the Orchestra. History of an Institution, 1650-1815, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

SUTCLIFFE, W. D. (2003). The Keyboard Sonatas of Domenico Scarlatti and Eighteenth-Century Musical Style. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

TARUSKIN, R. (2010). Music in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries, Oxford History of Western Music, OUP.

WILL, R. (2002). The Characteristic Symphony in the Age of Haydn and Beethoven, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

ZASLAW, N., (ed.) (1989): The Classical Era. From the 1740s to the end of the 18th century, London: Macmillan, 1989.


Software

No specific software required. 


Language list

Name Group Language Semester Turn
(PAUL) Classroom practices 1 Catalan second semester morning-mixed
(TE) Theory 1 Catalan second semester morning-mixed