Synopsis: Major religious and cultural trends of in the history of the
West are approached through twelve masterworks of choral music, by considering
the sources and cultural functions of the texts, the spiritual or philosophical
outlook of the composer, and the ways he or she used the available musical
resources of the period to craft a highly personal statement of belief.
Philosophies and religions covered include Christianity and Judaism, Enlightenment
thought, Freemasonry, Humanism, pacifism, and modern responses to the Holocaust.
Composers covered include Bach, Handel, Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven, Brahms,
Mahler, Scho"nberg, and Britten.
Objectives: The student who completes the course successfully should
be able to do the following:
grades: midterm 30%, final 40%, attendance and participation 30%
make-up exam policy: Just say no.
assignments: Each week there is a major piece of choral music to listen to. You are also required to read the text, which will usually be found in the recording. Often there are other readings as well. See also the supplementary bibliography at the end of this syllabus.
reserve: The required recordings and their texts will be on reserve in the Music Listening Library. In most cases, the relevant CDs are available for optional purchase at the U-Store. For readings from the Bible, I recommend the following translation (on reserve on Firestone A-floor and also for sale at the U-store), though any translation will do: The New Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical Books, ed. Bruce M. Metzger and Roland E. Murphy (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991). [call number BS 191.5.A1 1991. N49] Please note that the reading from 1 Maccabees (Feb. 18-20) is not found in Jewish or most Protestant Bibles, but only in Catholic Bibles or Protestant Bibles that include the Apocrypha. Similarly the New Testament readings (Feb. 11-13, Apr. 15-17) will be found only in Christian Bibles.
Please listen to the music and read the readings before the precept on Friday.
prerequisites: No prior knowledge of music, religion, or anything else is assumed.
required watching: Solemn High Mass (on reserve in the Language Lab. Try to watch it as an anthropologist observing an unfamiliar cultural ritual (it will in fact be unfamiliar to most of you). What seems to be the point? What does this ritual "say"?
required reading: the Roman Catholic Mass (the "Tridentine" text that was used 1570-1965) in Bard Thompson, Liturgies of the Western Church (Cleveland: World, 1961) pp. 54-91. [call number 5940.903] This is the text of the Mass you were watching on the video. Does reading it make you want to give different answers to the questions asked about the video?
optional browse: if interpreting rituals sounds interesting, take a look at Ronald Grimes, Ritual Criticism: Case Studies in its Practice, Essays on its Theory (Columbia, S.C.: University of South Carolina Press, 1990). [on reserve, call number: BL600 .G76 1990] Other books on the study of Jewish and Christian worship, though not required, have also been placed on reserve.
terms and concepts: melody, phrase, melismatic, syllabic, liturgy, Mass, Real Presence, transsubstantiation, elevation
required reading: the handout.
terms
and concepts: monophony, polyphony, homophony, consonance, dissonance,
points of imitation, suspension, pedal point, passing tone, Ordinary of
the Mass, Proper of the Mass, Parody Mass
required readings: (1) The text of the cantata. (2) In the Bible, read the Song of Solomon (also known as the Song of Songs), and Matthew 25:1-13. Question: What religious or philosophical value can you find (if any) in these poems about human erotic love? (3) the handout.
terms and concepts: cantata, chorale, chorale concerto, French overture, dotted rhythm, secco recitative, accompanied recitative, speech rhythm, chord, da capo aria, duple meter, triple meter, Pietism, varieties of Reformation Protestantism: Anglican, Lutheran, Calvinist, Anabaptist.
required reading: (1) The text of the oratorio. (2) In the Bible (apocrypha), read 1 Maccabees, chapters 1-8. (3) The Order for Evensong of the Church of England (little changed from the text of 1662) in The Book of Common Prayer . . . according to the Use of the Church of England 16-26. (4) the handout. Optional handout on the books of the Bible. Question: Obviously Handel did not set the whole story to music, but selected portions of it. Why do you think Handel chose the parts he chose? What opportunities for choral music are there in the (Anglican) Evensong?
terms and concepts: Canon of Scripture, Old Testament, New Testament, Masoretic text, Septuagint, Latin Vulgate, apocrypha, deutero-canonical books, pseudepigrapha, Evensong, Vespers, anthem, oratorio, overture, soprano, mezzo-soprano, alto, tenor, baritone, bass, castrato, falsetto, fugue, double chorus, contrafact.
optional alternative version, completed by Maunder, recorded by Christopher Hogwood and The Academy of Ancient Music (Oiseau Lyre CD 411712-2 OH)
required reading: (1) The text of the Requiem. Question: What view of death is presented in this text? (2) the handout.
terms and concepts: sketch, draft, instrumentation, Franz Xaver Su"ssmayer, Proper of the Mass, Dies irae, major mode, minor mode
required reading: (1) The text of the oratorio. (2) In the Bible, read Genesis 1-3. Question: Since the text of the oratorio is so different from the text of the Bible, what are the main differences between the two in their views of how the world began? (3) "The Age of Reason" in The Writings of Thomas Paine, ed. Moncure Daniel Conway 4 (reprint New York: AMS Press, 1967) v.4, at least pp. 45-55, 62-73. [call number JC177.A3.1967] Having outlined his objections to the Bible as a source of revelation, where would Paine turn? Why are the natural world and science more trustworthy sources of truth than the Bible? From observing nature, what conclusions should one draw about morality? How did Paine think the world began?
terms and concepts: tonality, tonic harmony, dominant harmony, diminished chord, key, modulation, tonal plan, Puritanism, Deism, Enlightenment, Freemasonry
terms
and concepts: Elysium, form, Turkish March, orchestra, strings, woodwinds,
brass, percussion, compound duple meter, French Revolution
required reading: (1) The text of the Requiem. Question: How does the view of death expressed in Brahms's text differ from that of Mozart's Requiem? (2) The statements of the Deistical Society of New York, the American Ethical Union, and the American Humanist Association, all in: The Encyclopedia of American Religions: Religious Creeds, ed. J. Gordon Melton (Detroit: Gale Research Company, 1988) 635-47. [Though only a photocopy of the required pages is on reserve, I encourage you to browse through the rest of the book: call number (DR) BT990. E58 1988]. Questions: What is a humanist? In the absence of divine revelation, how do humanists determine what is true? What conclusions do humanists draw from observation of the natural world? How do humanists establish standards of ethical behavior? According to humanists, what value is there in the study of religion? (3) handout 1. Question: What was Brahms trying to say in his choice of texts? What was he trying not to say? (4) handout 2.
terms and concepts: humanist, agnostic, Bach revival, Caecilian movement, a capella, Frauenchor, Ma"nnerchor, alteration, flat, sharp, fugue, augmentation, inversion, stretto, ritornello
required reading: (1) The text of the symphony. The first movement is a hymn from Gregorian chant. The Second is the last part of Goethe's Faust. (2) The handout. Questions: Based on these texts, what would Mahler's highest ideals seem to have been? In Mahler's view, how did the Gregorian and Goethe texts fit together? What is the significance of "the eternal feminine" to Mahler?
terms and concepts: ghetto, emancipation, anti-Semitism, Veni Creator, Faust legend, Goethe's Faust, cyclic tonality, theme, motive, thematic development, musical analysis,
required reading: The text of the all-night vigil in the Russian Orthodox Church, found in Isabel Florence Hapgood, Service Book of the Holy Orthodox-Catholic Apostolic Church (New York: Association Press, 1922) 1-37. [Though only a photocopy of the required pages is on reserve, I encourage you to browse through the rest of the book: call number (DR) BX 359. A5H3 1922] Question: What seems to be the point or purpose of this complex ritual? See also the handout on Eastern church history.
optional reading: Timothy Kallistos Ware, The Orthodox Church, chapter 3 (pp. 51-81) [call number 5446.956.2] on the Great Schism, or any other part that interests you.
terms
and concepts: Eastern Orthodox Christianity, Great Schism, Filioque,
icons, musical nationalism, melodic variation, harmonic variation
required reading: (1) The text of "Rejoice in the Lamb" (2) In the Bible, read Psalms 147-150, Jeremiah 13, 18-20, Romans 1-2, 1 Corinthians 1-2. Question: What similarity do you see between the text of "Rejoice" and the Psalm texts? What do the readings from Romans and 1 Corinthians say about group membership, identity, sickness, and behavior? How might Jeremiah's behavior have been perceived by his contemporaries, and how does he describe his own experiences in his long speeches to God?
terms and concepts: holy fool, score reading, staff, brace/system, bass clef, tenor clef, treble clef, accidentals, sharp, flat, key signature, time signature, bar/measure, dynamics, crescendo, descrescendo, piano, forte, beam, fermata, tie, slur, rest
required readings: (1) The text of "A Survivor from Warsaw," (2) In the Bible, read Deuteronomy 5-6. Question: What does this passage seek to emphasize? (3) Irving Greenberg, "Religious Values after the Holocaust: A Jewish View?" in Jews and Christians after the Holocaust, ed. Abraham J. Peck (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1982) 63-86 [call number BM 535. J47 1982] (4) optional, on the Shema: Raphael Posner, Uri Kaploun, Shalom Cohen, Jewish Liturgy: Prayer and Synagogue Service through the Ages (Jerusalem: Ketiv Publishing House, 1975) 74-80 [call number BM 660. J 48].
terms and concepts: Sprechstimme, tonality, atonality, serialism, tone row, Shoah, Shema, Zionism.
A quote: "If faith can move mountains, disbelief can deny their existence. And faith is impotent against such impotence." Arnold Schoenberg, preface to Anton Webern's "Six bagatelles for String Quartet," 1908
optional listening (tapes on reserve)
(1) Duke Ellington, Sacred Concert No. 1 (1965), see the handout
optional listening:
(2) Mary Lou Williams, "Mary Lou's Mass" (1970-72)
terms
and concepts: traditional music, folk music, popular music, jazz, spiritual,
gospel music, rhythmic polyphony, call and response, improvisation, free
churches, spiritual, gospel music, Christian contemporary, fundamentalist,
Protestant Free Church traditions: evangelical, adventist, holiness, pentecostal,
Handel's Messiah
Vatican II - an international council of Catholic bishops (1962- 1965)
which authorized reform of the liturgy, including the use of vernacular
languages and non-classical music.
Birnbaum, Philip, ed., High Holyday Prayer Book (New York: Hebrew Publishing Co., 1951). [BM 675.H5 B5 1951]
Bradshaw, Paul F., and Lawrence A. Hoffman, eds., The Making of Jewish and Christian Worship (University of Notre Dame Press, 1991). [BV 169.l5. M35 1991]
Bradshaw, Paul F., and Lawrence A. Hoffman, eds., The Changing Face of Jewish and Christian Worship in North America (University of Notre Dame Press, 1991). [BV 193.U5. C42 1991]
Bradshaw, Paul F., and Lawrence A. Hoffman, eds., Sacred Sound and Social Change: Liturgy and Music in Jewish and Christian Experience (University of Notre Dame Press, 1992). [ML 2900. S2 1992]
Grimes, Ronald, Ritual Criticism: Case Studies in its Practice, Essays on its Theory (Columbia, S.C.: University of South Carolina Press, 1990). [BL600 .G76 1990]
Jones, Cheslyn, Geoffrey Wainwright, Edward Yarnold, eds., The Study of Spirituality (New York: Oxford University Press, 1986). [BV 4490. S78 1986]
Jones, Cheslyn, Geoffrey Wainwright, Edward Yarnold, eds., The Study of Liturgy, 2nd ed. (Oxford University Press, 1992).
Reif, Stefan C., Judaism and Hebrew Prayer: New Perspectives on Jewish
Liturgical History (Cambridge University Press, 1993). [BM 660. R45
1993]