History of Music - from 1820 to 1890

Objectives

a) Identify and discuss the most important concepts in the History of Nineteenth Century Music;
b) Contextualize musical phenomena related to the period in question historically, sociologically and culturally;
c) Identify issues, stylistic trends, personalities, institutions, genres and musical practices concerning the historical period under consideration;
d) Identify aurally the main characteristics of certain nineteenth century musical genres;
e) Develop a written theme or write a text for the larger public of the programme notes type.

General characterization

Code

01103224

Credits

6.0

Responsible teacher

Luísa Mariana de Oliveira Rodrigues Cymbron

Hours

Weekly - 4

Total - 168

Teaching language

Portuguese

Prerequisites

N/A

Bibliography

  • Della Seta, F. (1993). Italia e Francia nell’ottocento. EDT.
  • Di Benedetto, R. (1991). Romanticismo e scuole nazionali nell ottocento. EDT.
  • Frisch, Walter (2012). Music in the nineteenth century. W.W. Norton.
  • Samson, J. (2001). Romanticism. The new Grove dictionary of music and musicians. MacMillan, vol. 21, 596-602.
  • Samson, J. (Ed.) (2002). The Cambridge history of nineteenth-century music. Cambridge University Press.
  • Taruskin, R. (2005). Music in the nineteenth century. The Oxford history of western music, vol. 3. Oxford University Press.

Teaching method

Diachronic and synchronic approach. The key ideas of each programme module are exposed in class by the teacher, there is always a component of interaction with students (discussion of problems and musical works, questions or other interventions). About 40% of the classes will be practical, aimed either at the commented reading of texts previously prepared by the students, or commented listening to musical works or, if possible (when the number of students is not too high), presentation of short papers written by them.

Evaluation method

Continuous assessment - Individual and/or Group Work(40%), Written Test(60%)

Subject matter

1. Different historical approaches to nineteenth century music. Problems of periodization. Centres and peripheries. Romanticism and romantic taste. Originality and consumer music. The formation of the canon. Historicism. The rise of the interpreter. Transnational networks.
2. The centrality of opera in Italy’s musical life, from Rossini to Verdi. Its European and American diffusion.
4. German cultural space and Romanticism: the Lied, romantic opera, the rediscovery of the past.
5. Paris: cultural centre of Europe. Opera as an image of the nation. Meyerbeer and cosmopolitanism. Instrumental virtuosity and itinerancy. The rise of the piano. Berlioz and French Romanticism.
6. The situation mid-century. Liszt and the symphonic poem. Wagner and his music-drama project. The operatic diversity in the Paris of the Second Empire. Italian opera after unification. Vienna and the instrumental tradition.
7. Nationalisms and cosmopolitanisms: European and American case studies.

Programs

Programs where the course is taught: