AIMS AND CONTENT

LEARNING OUTCOMES (FURTHER INFO)

The course aims at providing the student with the capabilities to understand symbols and meanings of musical language, increasing the awareness of the numerous relationships between music, literatures, arts and sciences. The main assumption of the course is that the knowledge and competence about genres, forms and authors from the history of western music completes significantly the cultural preparation of any student of humanities.

TEACHING METHODS

Class lessons with CD and DVD examples.

Class will be invited to attend concerts and operas on stage in Genoa, if related to the course program.

Attending class is strongly recommended.

SYLLABUS/CONTENT

The course might be chosen in a 6 or 9 (6+3) credit format.

No specific background in music is required.

Part I (6 credits) will enquire the development of Western Music 1680 to 1890, from late Baroque to the Romantic age. The general outline of that historical period will be regularly exemplified in class through CDs and DVDs, leading students to a solid knowledge of styles, genres and main composers of Western Music from Bach to Brahms. The course will explore four seasons of European Music: Baroque, Galant, Classic and Romantic styles. A more detailed exemplification will deal with Giuseppe Verdi, one of the main Romantic composers.
 

Part II (3 credits) will concentrate on a key mature Verdi’s work, Falstaff, late Verdi's only comic opera: a unique, last encounter with Shakespeare's theatre the composer had been highly considering for half a century.

Students will be able to confront with an astonishingly modern work, revealing an unusual side of Verdi, heading towards avanguard aesthetics and techniques, fifty years after his stage debut. 

The libretto and the music will be analyzed with the constant help of examples from DVD recordings (the entire opera will be shown and commented in class). Studying Falstaff will offer a unique chance to confront with the renewal attitude of Verdi's theatre, balancing tradition and innovation, brilliant scenic action and witty irony.

RECOMMENDED READING/BIBLIOGRAPHY

Part 1

1. J.A. Rice, Music in the Eighteenth Century, Norton, 2013 (all)

2. W. Frish, Music in the Nineteenth Century, Norton, 2013,  p. 1-194.

Part 2 

1. Libretto, DVD or CD recording (+ score for those who can read music) of Verdi's Falstaff.

2. J. A. Hepokoski, Giuseppe Verdi: Falstaff, Cambridge University Press, 1983. 

3. J. Budden, The Operas of Verdi. Vol. 3. From Don Carlos to Falstaff, Oxford University Press, only the chapter on Falstaff 

3 Ch. Osborne, The Complete Operas of Verdi, Knopf, 1979, only the chapter on Falstaff

4. R. Parker, Leonora's Last Act, Princeton University Press, 1997, Chapter 5, p. 100-125.

5. H.M. Greenwald, Decoding Verdi's Comic Vision and L. and M. Hutcheon, "Tutto nel mondo è burla": Rethinking Late Style in Verdi (and Wagner), in Verdi 2001, ed. by F. Della Seta, R. Montemorra Marvin and M. Marica, Olschki, 2003, p. 281-291 and 915-928.

Books are normally available at the University Library, via Balbi 2, 3rd floor.

Listening experience during the preparation to the exam is strongly recommended. CDs and DVDs are also available at the same library. 

TEACHERS AND EXAM BOARD

Exam Board

RAFFAELE MELLACE (President)

SIMONA MORANDO

STEFANO FERNANDO VERDINO

LESSONS

LESSONS START

October 12

Class schedule

The timetable for this course is available here: Portale EasyAcademy

EXAMS

EXAM DESCRIPTION

Oral Exam.

ASSESSMENT METHODS

The exam will consist in an oral interview on the course program and its bibliography. Students will be tested on (instrumental and vocal) genres and forms, styles and main authors of the portion of history of music considered in the course program, paying specific attention to the evolution of each style.

Students will be tested on the knoledge of the course programme (topics discussed in class, readings taken from the bibliography or uploaded in the course "aulaweb"), on their capabilities in discussing the course topics and in the accuracy in employing the specific language.

The knowledge of notes taken at class will by no means considered enough.

Exam schedule