| The Life of the Work: Primary Sources and Source-Critical Understandings of Nineteenth-Century Music | ||
MUMH 6760, Music of the Romantic Era, Fall 2003 Tuesdays 6:30-9:30 p.m., Music 293 |
Course Description:
A critical command of the primary sources for the works we interpret and study is an essential component of scholarship and musicianship in general. Because primary sources, and the relationships among various primary sources, offer subtle but often-vital insights into the musical and biographical contexts that generate specific features of musical texts, interpretations that proceed without cognizance of these sources and the insights they offer are essentially at the mercy of others' readings of that vital evidence. For performers and scholars alike, a source-critical understanding of the genesis and dissemination of the musical work constitutes one of the most effective of all assurances of interpretive authority and historical validity. It often suggests valuable alternative lines of creative interpretation and a more richly detailed understanding of the life of the work or works at hand. Armed with an awareness and understanding of the sources that document a composition's creation and dissemination, we become the surviving witnesses to the life of that work. This seminar focuses on the issues, methods and methodologies, and techniques entailed in the source-critical interpretation of nineteenth-century music. Among other things, the course will examine core issues in musical notation, philology, and modes of transmission as these relate to nineteenth-century music: the basic paths that works follow as they move from conception and elaboration through performance to publication or suppression, and scholarly techniques for revitalizing our views of those works' life-spans. Some proficiency in German, French, and/or Italian is strongly recommended. |