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Musical Notation I

Code: 100654 ECTS Credits: 6
2024/2025
Degree Type Year
2500240 Musicology OB 3

Contact

Name:
Maria Incoronata Colantuono Santoro
Email:
mariaincoronata.colantuono@uab.cat

Teachers

(External) Maria Incoronata Colantuono

Teaching groups languages

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


Prerequisites

A good level of Music theory and harmony is recommended


Objectives and Contextualisation

 

To provide the students with the theoretical and practical knowledge to be able to read, transcribe and perform Medieval Music, written in the main notation systems of the time. 


Competences

  • Demonstrate a sufficient level of knowledge of historical and current musical language and theory, including the rudiments of harmony and counterpoint, to be able to correctly approach the study of composition.
  • Know and understand the historical evolution of music, its technical, stylistic, aesthetic and interpretative characteristics from a diachronic perspective.
  • 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 collecting and interpreting relevant data (usually within their area of study) in order to make statements that reflect social, scientific or ethical relevant issues.
  • 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.

Learning Outcomes

  1. Acquire fluency of sightreading to practical musical ends.
  2. Apply different models of musical notation in musical praxis.
  3. Be familiar with editions of early music.
  4. Discuss musical theory and praxis with musicians.
  5. Identify the main systems of writing in Western music, both vocal and instrumental (10th to 17th centuries).
  6. Identifying the context of the historical processes.
  7. Integrate knowledge acquired in the production of clear and concise appropriate to the academic and specialist communication.
  8. Make condifent use of vocabulary relative to musical paleography.
  9. Make historical distinctions between the different systems of musical notation.
  10. Produce correct, precise and clear argumental and terminological writing of knowledge acquired, both in the area of musical specialisation and dissemination.
  11. Transcribe the main systems of Western music according to the modern conventions of notation and edition.
  12. Use the appropriate terminology in the construction of an academic text.
  13. Write critical papers on musicology that are planned and organised efficiently.

Content

  1. Gregorian semiology
  2. Neumatic notation
  3. Earlier polyphonic notation
  4. Modal notation
  5. Mensural Notation
  6. Notation of the French Ars nova
  7. Italian Notation around 1300

Activities and Methodology

Title Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Type: Directed      
Theoretical and practical face-to-face lessons 45 1.8 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 11
Type: Autonomous      
Personal study of the course material 32 1.28 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13
Reading of specific bibliography (books and articles) 7 0.28 6, 7, 10, 12, 13
Transcription excercices 62 2.48 3, 5, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13

The development of the syllabus through practical classes based on the proposed musical fragments, following the explanation of the theoretical-practical principles on which they are based.

Completion of all the proposed transcription exercises with the active participation of the students. 

 

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
Final exam 50% 2 0.08 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13
Test 1 25% 1 0.04 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12
Test 2 25% 1 0.04 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 

ASSESSMENT:
										
											
										
											Completion of two partial exams (25% each) and a final exam (50%). The exams will consist of the transcription of one or more musical fragments and a questionnaire with questions about the history of the notations and the repertoires they transmit.
										
											Each test, if necessary, must be able to be defended orally in a group or in individual tutoring sessions
										
											
Clarifications:
										
											
										
											- In order to be able to calculate the final grade of the course, both partial exams must be passed independently
										
											
										
											- The suspended contents and exams not performed for justified reasons will be re-evaluated in the resit exam
										
											
										
											- In no case will it be possible to pass the course with a failed medium grade for the partial exams
										
											
										
											- To be able to access the resit exam, the students must have taken the two partial exams and the final exam, and have obtained a minimum average course grade of 3.5.
										
											
										
											- Only the suspended contents will be re-evaluated in the resit exam
										
											
										
											- Individual exams will not be held outside the assigned day and time, except in duly justified cases of force majeure
										
											
										
											- In the event that the student commits any irregularity that could lead to a significant variation in the grade of an assessment act, this assessment act will be graded with 0, regardless of the disciplinary process that may be instituted. In the event that several irregularities occur in the evaluation acts of the same subject, the final grade for this subject will be 0.
										
											
										
											- In the event that the tests cannot be taken 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 done through forums, wikis and/or exercise discussions through Teams, etc. The teacher will ensure that the student can access it or will offer him or her alternative means, which are within their reach.
										
											
										
											- StudentS will be considered "not assessed" if they have not taken the partial exams or the final exam of the subject

SINGLE ASSESSMENT
										
											
										
											- On the same day, 3 activities will be carried out: 2 transcriptions with 30% weight for the grade each, and 1 activity of filling in a questionnaire about the history of the notations and the repertoires they transmit corresponding to 40% of the final grade.
										
											
										
											- At the time of carrying out each assessment activity, lecturers will inform the students (on Moodle) of the procedure and the date of review of the qualifications.
										
											
										
											- The same assessment method as for the continuous assessment will be used.
										
											
										
											 
										
											For the date of the final exam, please refer to the information given at the beginning of the trimestre.
 

Bibliography

Apel, W., The Notation of Polyphonic Music 900-1600 (Cambridge, 1953/5ª edic., etc.)

Bradley, C., Poliphony in Medieval Paris: the art of composing with plainchant, ed. Cambridge University Press (2020)

Caraci M., Sabaino D., Aresi S., Le notazioni della polifonia vocale dei secoli IX-XVII, ed. ETS, 2007

Colette M. N. - Popin M.– Vendrix PH., Histoire de la notation du Moyen Âge à la Renaissance, Paris, Minerve, 2003

Hiley D. - Szendrei J., Notation, § III.1, Plainchant, in Groveonline

Kelly TH. F., Capturing Music. The Story of Notation, New York, W.W. Norton, 2014

Laudario di Cortona (Il). Cortona, Biblioteca del Comune e dell’Accademia Etrusca, ms. 91, ed. Libreria musicale italiana, 2015

Luisi F., Gozzi M., Scotti A., Il canto fracto. L’altro gregoriano, ed. Torre d’Orfeo, 2005

Paléographie musicale: les principaux manuscrits de chant grégorien, ambrosien, mozarabe, gallican, Solesmes, 1889-.

Schimd M.E., La notazione musicale. Scrittura e composizione tra il 900 e il 1900, a cura di A. Cecchi, Roma, Astrolabio, 2017


Software

There is no requiered software


Language list

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