MUS 201 - Exploring Music: Introduction to Music History

nalysts of German Lieder (and art song in general) have emphasised the diverse ways in which music expresses the meaning of poetry, but they have remained largely indifferent to how music captures, and often enhances, poetry's materiality - its patterns of consonants and vowels, its intonational shapes, its 'music'.

This article seeks to explore the hermeneutics of metric dissonance by examining the association between displacement or syncopation-type conflicts and Romantic longing ( Sehnsucht) in the German Lied.

Book review that includes a good amount of information.

Forced by a hand injury to abandon a career as a pianist, Robert Schumann went on to become one of the world's great composers. Among many works, his Spring Symphony (1841), Piano Concerto in A Minor (1841/1845), and the Third, or Rhenish, Symphony (1850) exemplify his infusion of classical forms with intense, personal emotion.

Robert Schumann's late songs (1849--52) are in some respects difficult to understand and to perform. Paradoxically, it is their apparent simplicity that poses a challenge for performers; harmonically, texturally, and metrically less adventurous than the songs of 1840, they may on first contact seem rather bland.

The article presents the life and works of Stephen Collins Foster, a song writer. Foster's name is inextricably linked to what Carl Wittke, author of "Tambo and Bones," calls "the Negro minstrel show." Foster has found out that the Ethiopian songs are appealing to the public and took to this musical genre, that actually represented something definitely American, and, in spite of their vulgarity made this music a literature that is well worth preserving

The article offers information about the U.S. tribute to the death of the famous song writer Stephen Foster. It describes how Foster had died pathetically in Bellevue Hospital, New York City and how the purse found in his pocket has been preserved at his home town in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It also accounts on how Foster's compositions became famous in the country. Details regarding different memorials built in the country for Foster are discoursed in the paper.

People who are considered “famous” can be found in many different fields. This book describes 472 museums, historic sites, and memorials about 409 people in 26 categories, including Stephen Foster's Memorial Museum.

Blackface minstrelsy, the entertainment genre that rose in the 1830s and came to dominance in the music of Dan Emmett and Stephen Foster in the 1850s, is given short shrift in textbooks on American music. What Spike Lee has called “the most popular form of entertainment of its time” is typically conflated into a few paragraphs tucked away in blandly-titled chapters such as “Popular Music of the Civil War Era.”

The article explores the origins of the term Jim Crow and the history of blackface minstrel entertainment in the U.S.

The author sets forth lyricists'and composers'notions of courtship, technology, death, African Americans, Native Americans, and European ethnicity by grouping songs topically.

Book review with extensive information about Fanny Hensel.

The bulk of research on Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel to date has focused primarily on either the historical or editorial; analysis of her music, however, is rare. Turning the lens on Hensel's songs for solo voice is a step toward rectifying this situation.

The poetic epigrams and vignettes that precede the movements of Fanny Hensel's Das Jahr in the recently discovered autograph allow for a new, enriched interpretation of the work, previously believed to depict the composer's Italian sojourn.

The article offers information on women composers and their works.

In this article we explore Fanny Hensel's songs that end without cadences but instead with what William Caplin (2018) calls 'prolongational closure.'

WAS FELIX Mendelssohn a great composer?

Provides an overview of the works of composer Felix Mendelssohn. Characterization of his "Midsummer Night's Dream Overture"; Symphonies composed by Mendelssohn; Overview of the three important concertos he composed.

The article offers information related to German composer Felix Mendelssohn's music "Wedding March," which is most popular and most easily recognizable pieces of classical music. It mentions that Mendelssohn's Wedding March is part of his Ein Mittsommernachtstraum MWV 13 from 1842–43, the incidental music to Shakespeare 's "A midsummer night's dream."

Lyric Suite is an orchestral version of four movements from Grieg's Lyric Pieces V, op. 54. Three out of these four movements exist in two orchestral versions. The aim of the current research is to highlight peculiar traits of Grieg's orchestral style in the late period of composer's life by comparing scores of two orchestrators.

The article reviews several orchestral music recordings composed by Edvard Grieg, including "Symphonic Dances" and "Old Norwegian Romance With Variations."

Outlines various theatrical music compositions of European composer Guiseppe Verdi. Origin of the second part of the Sanctus text; Performance of the Hosanna/Benedictus text during the late seventh century; Verdi's consideration of the original scriptural contexts of the Sanctus and Hosanna/Benedictus.

From the composers' perspective, which eludes the traditional sociological perspective on publics, nineteenth-century Italian composers had a strong personal involvement with their audiences.

The article focuses on the interpretation of Giuseppe Verdi, an Italian Romantic composer, on the works of George Gordon Byron, a British poet.

Now a byword for beauty, Verdi's operas were far from universally acclaimed when they reached London in the second half of the nineteenth century. Why did some critics react so harshly?

Waiting for Verdi: Opera and Political Opinion in Nineteenth-Century Italy, 1815-1848 by Mary Ann Smart (review). [Extracted from the article]

Being one of the last Italian composers who have dedicated themselves exclusively to the operatic genre, Giacomo Puccini is considered to be the foremost representative of the dawn of the glorious era of Italian opera.

This article examines the process of dynamic building and subsiding in verismo opera.

This article offers a new interpretation of the operatic phenomenon known as verismo, and of the relationship of Puccini's Tosca with that movement.

A continuing line of research indicates that focus of attention is perhaps the most important attribute of actively participating in meaningful music listening and a model accounting for these findings has been developed.

This wide-ranging study of Gabriel Fauré and his contemporaries reclaims aesthetic categories crucial to French musical life in the early twentieth century.

The article presents an exploration into the compositional style of the French composer Gabriel Fauré, particularly regarding his violin sonatas. The author discusses the biographical and historical contexts of a number of Fauré's works.

Reviews the book "Gabriel Fauré: A Musical Life," by Jean-Michel Nectoux.

The article focuses on the experience of music in both concert and liturgical settings to show how to prepare for a deeper experience of the presence of Christ in the Eucharist. It references Faure's "Requiem,"Op. 48, to prove a piece of sacred music's ability to provoke prayer during mass. It examines the stages or steps of such immersion into beauty to demonstrate the pathway along which an aesthetic experience becomes a point of divine encounter, and eventually a catalyst for conversion.

Traces the evolution of African American music. Sacred and secular traditions; Folk spirituals; Ragtime; Folk gospel; Vaudeville blues; Swing bands; Bebop; Gospel choirs; Rock `n' roll; Rhythm and blues; Soul jazz; Jazz fusion; New jazz swing; Funk; Techno funk.

Focuses on the literary complexity and theological importance of spirituals.

The great African American tenor Roland Hayes, as well known in his day as Paul Robeson and Marian Anderson, both of whom he mentored, introduced the beauty and joy of spirituals to concert audiences

The article offers information on African-American composer, Harry T. Burleigh. It mentions that he adapted African-American spiritual music in his work; and worked with the director, Antonín Dvořák. It also informs about his work including songs "Saracen Songs," and "Five Songs by Laurence Hope" and classical music.

At its peak the Federal Music Project (FMP) employed nearly 16,000 people who reached millions of Americans through performances, composing, teaching, and folksong collection and transcription. In Sounds of the New Deal, Peter Gough explores how the FMP's activities in the West shaped a new national appreciation for the diversity of American musical expression. From the onset, administrators and artists debated whether to represent highbrow, popular, or folk music in FMP activities. Though the administration privileged using'good'music to educate the public, in the West local preferences regularly trumped national priorities and allowed diverse vernacular musics to be heard. African American and Hispanic music found unprecedented popularity while the cultural mosaic illuminated by American folksong exemplified the spirit of the Popular Front movement. These new musical expressions combined the radical sensibilities of an invigorated Left with nationalistic impulses. At the same time, they blended traditional patriotic themes with an awareness of the country's varied ethnic musical heritage and vast--but endangered--store of grassroots music.

Presents information on American music. Definition of vernacular music according to musicologist H. Wiley Hitchcock; Training for music after the Civil War; Qualities that define American music.

The article discusses the concept of the black Atlantic and compares it to themes represented in black music, particularly focusing on the works of minority musicologists Alain Locke, Alejo Carpentier, and Mário de Andrade. The author comments on the study of African folk music and spirituals as a mode of studying racial identifications. Other topics discussed include an examination of the binary racial system, musical nationalism, and African-inflected vernacular music.

Three overtly American works by German American immigrant composer Lukas Foss (The Prairie, American Cantata, and American Landscapes) offer insight into the musical expression of Foss’s immigrant experience, a motive for his compositional eclecticism that has not been previously considered.

Presents a study which examined the historical methods and motives for the incorporation of select vernacular music idioms in the university system in the United States. Influence of choral music to its musical academia; Role of the history of its band music.

Were she alive today, Clara Schumann would be one of the hippest female artists around. A gifted concert pianist, Schumann's biography busts open the corseted restrictions of the Victorian era with vibrant modern-day detail. Her innovative passion for music crumbled compositional boundaries with poetry, technical wit, and startling live performances, resulting in a career that spanned over six decades.

Focuses on the contributions made by women composers in the United States. Efforts to include music composed by women in school music programs; Accomplishments of women composers throughout history; Reference to Clara Wieck Schumann, Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel, Francesca Caccini, Alice Parker, and Ruth Watson Henderson.

Tells the story of the tragedies and triumphs of Clara Wieck Schumann (1819–1896), a musician of remarkable achievements.

Melissa Morelli Lacroix explores the love and longing, loss and pain, grief and healing found in the music of Frédéric Chopin, Clara Schumann, and Claude Debussy in a series of poetic cycles that respond to each composer's work.

The article focuses on musical works of Robert and Clara Schumann, two great artists and a married couple. Also discussed are describing their years of romance in piano works by Robert which quote and transform themes from Clara's compositions and various examples of the musical works bringing out their intimate relationship.

The article focuses on operas composed by Thomas Pasatieri. Some of the operas composed by Pasatieri are cited including "The Seagull," "Frau Margot" and "The Hotel Casablanca." Moreover, it mentions the traditional post-verismo virtues of Pasatieri's work including the vaulting vocal lines, colorful orchestration and the Romantic/Impressionist harmonies.

The author presents a criticism of the 19th century English poetry of Robert Browning. She discusses the role of music in Browning's poetry, the influence of German romanticism on music, and the impact of German philosophy Arthur Schopenhauer on the epistemological aspects of Browning's poetry.

Since Leonard Ratner's initial introduction of topoi in Classic Music: Expression, Form, and Style, topical analysis has slowly gained acceptance, due largely to the writings of such noted authors as Kofi Agawu, Wye Jamison Allanbrook, Jonathan Bellman, and Raymond Monelle.

Strauss's Don Quixote remains one of his most misunderstood tone poems. Insights into this enigmatic work can, however, be gained by situating it both within Strauss's Modernist aesthetic and his compositional path as evidenced by his tone poems as a whole.