740-123 Unplugged Music 1100 to 1800

Note: Not available to Bachelor of Music Students in 2007

This subject re-examines music's significance in Western life between 1100 and 1800, by centring on an exploration of the key themes of performance spaces, musical material culture, technologies of musical transmission, and cultural transformations. Six case study areas will be discussed to illustrate how people in the past used music as an essential element in forming, controlling, or breaking cultural identities:

• 1) the formation and Reformation of sacred spaces and religious music;

• 2) the role of orality, literacy, and print culture in music making;

• 3) patronage, musical employment and music making;

• 4) piety and profanity in domestic music making;

• 5) changing notions of music as medicinal; and

• 6) consumerism and the politics of sound in public entertainment.

These six case studies will not only include references to individual Western musicians, as well as a wide range of listening examples from diverse musical works, but also will integrate an analysis of the key themes of performances spaces, musical material culture, technologies of musical transmission, and cultural transformations. Students will have the opportunity to pursue their own areas of interest within the scope of the early music covered in this subject, and in particularly with regard to the assessment. On completion of the subject students should have gained: · an enhanced understanding and critical awareness of how people use music to create, consolidate, or erode cultural identities; · the ability to write critically about the uses of early music in film and television; an enhanced capacity to undertake independent research and present it as a scholarly essay

1) EITHER a Class Presentation (40%) of 10 minutes duration analysing the use of music (1100-1800) in a film or television series to be completed between Week 4 and 6 in class; OR a Written Analysis (40%) (1000 words) of the use of music (1100-1800) in a film or television series (40%) due no later than Week 6; AND 2) a Research Essay (2500) comprising a music case study due at the end of semester.

A book of readings will be available from the University Book Room before the first class in semester.