MUSIC 162Introduction to Music History

2 credits · Music · Penn State

An introduction to the discipline of music history through the study of representative works. MUSIC 162 Introduction to Music History (2) This course introduces students to the discipline of music history, through study of the core repertoire from the common-practice era: the music of the High Baroque (especially Bach and Handel) through the end of the Classical period and the beginnings of Romanticism (Beethoven). The course objectives focus on acquisition of skills necessary for thinking historically about music. Students learn 1) to describe the main stylistic features of a work (melodic, harmonic, rhythmic, textural, timbral, formal); 2) to associate these features with particular composers and eras; 3) to compare and contrast works from the same period and from different periods; and 4) to relate stylistic features to historical context, social function, performance conditions, and listeners' experience. The course thus emphasizes agents--the people who created, performed, listened to, and paid for the music-in order to illuminate both the musical works and the historical and social factors that shaped those works' distinctive features.