HIMUS 613-4 — Baroque Music Theory

Baroque Music Theory is a yearlong study of theoretical ideas about music from the 17th and 18th centuries through readings from primary and secondary sources and close analysis of musical works. The course begins with an exploration of the ancient Greek science of harmonics, the nature and generation of intervals from the monochord, theories of consonance and dissonance, and theories of mensural rhythm and proportion. The first half of the course will furthermore examine the theory of counterpoint according to Zarlino, tuning and temperament, the gamut, modes, and the emergence of the basso continuo. The second half of the course surveys theories of musical rhetoric, basso continuo and partimento as a compositional tool, the relationship between tonality and the modes, Rameau’s theory of the fundamental bass, 18th-century theories of phrase construction and rhythm, and more recent theories of galant schemata.