MUHST 500, Fall 2003
Seminar in Methods of Music Research

ASSIGNMENTS

Assignment #1

Journals and Databases

1)      Go to the Periodical Room, and look through the past ten years (available on the shelf) of your chosen journal.

2)      Prepare a short presentation about that journal (about 5 minutes), in which you describe:

*the readers it seems to serve;

*the kinds of research it showcases;

*the general tone of the journal (editor, communications, articles);

*some of the topics that have attracted special attention and debate.

3)      Choose one of these “hot” topics, and search for related articles in RILM and Music Index. Print out a bibliography (at least 1-2 pages) of articles relating as closely as possible to your topic, preferably from the last ten or fifteen years. Use the exact citation form discussed in Turabian (see below). Take this bibliography to the Periodical Room, and make sure all your periodical articles come from scholarly journals.

4)      Some of these articles will be in collections, Festschrifts, or journals that UW does not own. Choose one of these and search for it in the Summit catalogue. On a separate sheet, list this item and all the Orbis/Cascade Alliance libraries that own this title. Search for another book on OCLC, and make a list of the libraries worldwide (no more than ten) that own it. I will check your answers, so make sure they are accurate.

Reading: Turabian, A Manual for Writers, pp. 165-174 (make sure you know the difference between note and bibliography citations), and 165-213 (pay attention only to the “B” examples).

Here is a list of some scholarly journals:

Acta Musicologica
Cambridge Opera Journal
Current Musicology
Journal of the American Musicological Society
Early Music
Early Music History
Ethnomusicology
Fontes artis musicae
The Galpin Society Journal
Journal of Musicology
Music and Letters
Music Library Association Notes
Musical Times
Musical Quarterly
Popular Music
Proceedings of the Royal Musical Association

NB: All your work should be printed or typed, using 12-point font and double spacing.

Assignment #2

Biography
Reading (in this order):

White, Eric Walter. Stravinsky. The Man and his Works. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1966, pp. 77-90.

Taruskin, Richard. “The Dark Side of Modern Music,” New Republic (5 September 1988), pp. 28-34.

Craft, Robert and Richard Taruskin. “‘Jews and Geniuses’: An Exchange,” New York Review of Books (15 June 1989), pp. 57-8.

Robert Craft (ed.). Stravinsky. Selected Correspondence. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1985, vol. 3, pp. 168 [27 March 1930] and 235-6 [14 April 1933].

Stravinsky, Igor. An Autobiography (1903-1934). London: Marion Boyars, 1990, pp. 39-40 [on Parsifal] and 48-9 [on Le sacre du printemps].

Walsh, Stephen. Stravinsky. A Creative Spring. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1999, pp. 517-22.

Analysis

Write up answers to each question below, using double-space, 12-point typeface.

1.      Which works above are primary sources? Which are secondary? Tertiary?

2.      What kind of information does White provide in his discussion of Stravinsky’s life during the 1930s? What picture does he provide of the poltical situation, and its effect upon Stravinsky? What is his general attitude towards Stravinsky?

3.      What primary sources does Taruskin adduce to make his argument about Stravinsky’s anti-Semitic and fascist tendencies? How does Craft dispute his use of those sources?
4.      What is the meaning of the ellipsis (….) in Stravinsky’s letter of 27 March 1930? Hint: look at Walsh, p. 516, note 84. What does this tell you about primary sources? What language was Stravinsky's letter written in, and where would you find it?

5.      What does Stravinsky object to in Parsifal? Why do you think he “forgets” about the composition of Le sacre?

6.      What weight does Walsh give Taruskin’s argument in his assessment of Stravinsky’s creative life?

Bibliography
Continue working on your bibliography, adding books and dissertations to the list of materials. Find at least one more page of citations. Review Turabian for citation style.

Assignment #3

Performance Practice


1. Read Bach’s “Short but necessary draft for a well-appointed church music,” in Hans T. David (ed.). The Bach Reader. New York: W. W. Norton and Co., 1945, pp. 120-4.


2. Listen to the Kyrie, Gloria, and Credo from Joshua Rifkin’s recording of the Mass in B Minor (Phonodisc 18 Q 22).


3. Read the following articles, letters and responses, taking notes for an intensive classroom discussion. In particular, pay close attention to the way the authors use evidence to argue their points:

*What evidence do they adduce?

*What assumptions underlie their use of evidence?

*What points seem strong, and which shaky

*Is some of the evidence really just an interpretation?

br /> Rifkin, Joshua, “Bach’s Chorus: A preliminary report,” MT (Nov. 1982): 747-54.

Marshall, Robert, “Bach’s chorus: A preliminary reply to Joshua Rifkin,” MT (Jan. 1983): 19-22.

Rifkin, Joshua, “Bach’s chorus: Some red herrings,” Journal of Musicological Research 14/3-4 (1995): 223-34.

Stauffer, George, “Response to Rifkin, Bach’s chorus,” Journal of Musicological Research, 14/3-4 (1995): 234.

Butt, John, “Bach’s vocal scoring: what can it mean?” EM, 26/1 (1998): 100-6.

Wolff, Christoff, “Bach’s chorus: stomach aches may disappear” (Correspondence), EM 26/3 (Aug. 1998): 540-1.

Rifkin, Joshua, “Reply to correspondence from C. Wolff, EM 26/3 (Aug. 1998): 541-2.

Parrott, Andrew, “Bach’s chorus: beyond reasonable doubt,” EM 26/4 (Nov. 1998): 636-58.


Prepare for a debate, defending whichever side your are assigned.

Assignment #4

Analysis and Values

This week you will be reading four analyses of the Mad Scene from Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor. One author is a feminist musicologist, one is a queer poet and English professor, and one is a Donizetti specialist. As you read, try to discover what values and agendas they bring to the analysis, and how these both illuminate and limit their reading.

1) Watch the Mad Scene (DVD ???).

2) Read:
McClary, Susan. Feminine Endings. Music, Gender, and Sexuality. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1991, pp. 80-86, 90-99.

Wayne Koestenbaum. The Queen's Throat. Opera, Homosexuality and the Mystery of Desire. New York: Vintage Books, 1994, pp. 9-45 (browse), and 225-227 (read closely).

Mary Ann Smart, “The Silencing of Lucia.” Cambridge Opera Jounral 4, no. 2 (1992): 119-141 [on electronic reserve].

Write a response to the reading (about 2 pages), in which you assess the strengths and weaknesses of each analysis. Some questions to consider: Does McClary’s feminist agenda invalidate her analysis? Does Koestenbaum’s experience as an “opera queen” give him original insights into Donizetti’s work? Does Smart’s expert knowledge make her reading more objective? Is a truly “objective” analysis possible, and, if so, what would it look like?

As you discuss the three authors, quote representative passages, using footnotes. For example:

"Koestenbaum does not hesitate to inject his personal voice into the analysis, as when he declares, 'I sing because I want to come out.'”

Read Turabian, pp. 73-86 (on quotations), and review the form of notes on pp. 187 and 202-203 (only the examples marked “N”). NB: Remember the difference between bibliographic and note form.

Assignment #5

Popular Music and the Canon

This week we will be exploring the history, construction, and power of musical canons. In particular, we will be studying how popular music both fits into and challenges the canon of Western art music (“Classical music”). Professor Larry Starr will visit the class to discuss his work on the Beach Boys and Charles Ives.

1) Reading (on electronic reserve, where you can get the full citation.)

William Weber. “The History of Musical Canon.” In Rethinking Music. Edited by Nicholas Cook and Mark Everist. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999: 336-355.

Bruno Nettl. “Mozart and the Ethnomusicological Study of Western Culture: An Essay in Four Movements.” In Rethinking Music: 137-155.

Larry Starr. “The Shadow of a Smile: The Beach Boys Album That Refused To Die.” Journal of Popular Music Studies 6 (1994): 38-59.

Larry Starr. A Union of Diversities. Style in the Music of Charles Ives. New York: Schirmer Books, 1992: Chapter 1.

2) Listening

Beach Boys. Good Vibrations: Thirty Years of the Beach Boys (CD 1904). Listen to songs discussed by Starr.

Charles Ives. “Decoration Day” (Phonodisc 25 P 10)

3) Writing

Write an anthropology of the School of Music, modeled on Nettl’s article (2 pages). What music belongs to our canon? What is excluded? How do the different divisions (Classical performance, jazz, history, theory, ethnomusicology, education) interact and/or conflict? How would you change the musical canon in the SOM, and the way it is performed and studied?

Take notes on your reading (handwritten or typed), focusing on these questions: What is a canon? When did it originate? What keeps it in place? What special challenges does popular music pose to the canon, to analysis, and to criticism? What is the “text” or “work” of popular music? I will collect these notes.

Assignment #8

Dictionaries

This week we will be taking a short look at dictionaries, the major source of “received wisdom.” You will work with the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, the most comprehensive reference work in English or any other language. You will also be looking at several other dictionaries and general reference tools. For students who do not plan on going into scholarship, this may be the most relevant assignment of the entire course.

1. Read the following reviews for discussion (on electronic reserve):

*Judy Tsou, review of New Grove II in Fontes artis musicae

*Charles Rosen, review of New Grove II in the New York Review of Books


2. Choose three headings relevant to your paper (e.g. “violin,” “Mahler,” “serialism”), and look them up in the two editions of the New Grove:

*New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Edited by Stanley Sadie. Washington, D.C.: Grove’s Dictionary of Music, 1980). [ML 100.N48]


*New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2d ed. Edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell. New York: Grove’s Dictionaries, 2001. [ML 100.n48 2001; or go to http://www.lib.washington.edu/, and click “Reference tools,” then “Encyclopedias,” then “Grove Music”]

Browse through both dictionaries, noting differences in the coverage of such items as popular music, critical theory (e.g. Orientalism, feminism, structuralism), world music, instruments, etc. Write up a short paper (1-2 pages) in which you discuss the differences between the two editions, and the different ways in which musical knowledge is selected and organized.

3. Write a sample paragraph from your paper. It should come from the body of the paper (not the introduction or conclusion). The paragraph should begin with a topic sentence, introducing the general point of the paragraph. The remaining sentences should support that point with specific examples and arguments.

Assignment #9

Editions

This week you will be exploring the making of critical editions. The recently completed Byrd Edition will serve as an example. A comparison with previous editions will reveal some of the challenges involved in scholarly editing.

·      Read the excellent article by Philip Brett (editor of The Byrd Edition). “Text, Context, and the Early Music Editor.” In Authenticity and Early Music. A Symposium. Edited by Nicholas Kenyon. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988: 83-114 [on electronic reserve]. Come prepared to discuss the following questions:

1. When did people begin editing earlier music? How did editing ideals and practice change through later history?
2. What ideals underlie the so-called Urtext? What problems surround the notion of an Urtext?
3. What is the difference between descriptive and prescriptive editing? What role should the editor play in “translating” the historical text?
4. How do the various methods of establishing an “authentic” text (Lachmann, best-text, copy-text) differ from each other? What criticism have they drawn?
5. What does “authorial intention” mean in editing?
6. Does a musical work exist outside of its historical context? What does an edition really preserve?

·      Answer the following questions on a separate page:

Look through Richard Turbet’s William Byrd: A Guide to Research. New York : Garland Pub., 1987 (on reserve).
1. What information do the Garland research guides provide (browse under ML 134)?
2. How does Turbet’s catalogue differ from a thematic catalogue, or thematisches Verzeichnis (also catalogued under ML 134)?

Look up “O Lord, Make Thy Servant, Elizabeth” in Turbet’s catalogue:
3. How many editions contain this anthem?
4. What differences do you notice between the two earliest editions?
5. What kinds of readers do these different editions seem to target?


Find the volume of the new Byrd Edition containing “O Lord, Make Thy Servant, Elizabeth.”

Refer to Craig Monson’s Textual Commentary at the back of the volume:
6. What kind of manuscript sources did Monson consult?
7. If you wanted to look at all the surviving organ parts, how many libraries would you have to visit? How many countries?

Read the Preface on “Full anthems”:
8. What do you learn about “O Lord, Make Thy Servant, Elizabeth”?
9. Is this kind of commentary and documentation appropriate or desirable in a critical edition?

Look at the Preface on “Doubtful Works”:
10. On what grounds does Monson dispute the authenticity of “Christ rising”? Are his arguments “scientific”?
Look through the Editorial Notes:
11. How did the editors decide on the proper transposition of the anthem? What “key” is it in?
12. What performance suggestions are included? Are such suggestions appropriate in a critical edition?

Look through Monson’s text of the anthem itself:
13. How does it differ from earlier editions, in such details as accidentals, slurring, text underlay, barring?
14. How can you confirm the authenticity or value of such editorial decisions?