THMUS 551E — Transformation in Tonal Music

3 credits
Fall
Steven Laitz

Prerequisites: THMUS 511 , THMUS 511H  or THMUS 411J . The common-practice period usually refers to music composed between c. 1730-1900, or by J.S. Bach through Johannes Brahms. Compositions from this period typically unfold logically: expectations are set up and met, and when they aren’t, the surprise provides momentary expressive contrast and even drama.  The composers build up their artworks from the smallest musical units, whether an interval, short pitch constellations and/or rhythmic cells, which function as motives. These, in turn, generate melodies, periods, and sections, motivate harmonic progressions, and even connect movements.  

These progressive events often involve subtle, sometimes hidden transformations, resulting in a tightly unified composition. The surface may be related to the structure, and initial statements to distant recurrences. In this course, we will together make our way through the various levels, and timespans of a given composition, discovering and following the transformation of key motives into what turns out to be the substance of the composition, no matter how apparently contrasting it may be. The repertoire we’ll cover will be by J.S. Bach, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Chopin, Schumann, and Brahms.