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| Unit name |
Tudor Music |
| Unit code |
MUSIM0039 |
| Credit points |
20 |
| Level of study |
M/7
|
| Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24)
|
| Unit director |
Dr. Allinson |
| Open unit status |
Not open |
| Pre-requisites |
for MA students from outside the Music MA programme: A level music and/or ABRSM Grade 8 theory, or equivalent. This unit will include a lot of close work with musical scores |
| Co-requisites |
None |
| School/department |
Department of Music |
| Faculty |
Faculty of Arts |
Description including Unit Aims
This course traces music's place in the complex tapestry of 16th Century English culture and politics. We will consider the impact of religious upheavals on music and see how the changing tastes of the four monarchs affected musical styles and performance contexts. We will look at the lives of professional musicians, from guild and parish activities to life at court; from commercial activities to secret Roman Catholicism. We will also turn to areas in which little evidence survives - early publications of broadsheet music, or the role of women in musical life, for example - and explore the extent to which textbook histories weave such uncertainties into their narratives. This cultural backdrop will help us to make sense of the varied musical styles of the period, and with the analytical approaches which may fruitfully be brought to bear on them.
Aims:
- to approach the history of 16th-century English music in a manner which takes into account cultural practice
- to expand students' knowledge of the Tudor musical repertoire and to be able to comment accurately and perceptively on matters of style and structure
- to consider music of social classes and groups not usually included in traditional histories of music, such as minstrel traditions and the music-making of women.
- to develop students' ability to assemble and assimilate information from a wide variety of sources
- to engage in critical evaluation of musicological texts
- to develop effective and detailed arguments, both aurally and in writing
- to display competence in the practices, processes, techniques and methodologies that underpin musicological practice
Intended Learning Outcomes
Successful completion of this unit will:
- enable students to describe with confidence the compositional techniques and procedures employed by tudor musicians
- enable students to assess how political, economic and social situations have influenced the material under discussion
- encourage students to write critically and perceptively about a wide range of musical topics, using appropriate language and terminology
- demonstrate students' ability to defend and critique arguments orally and in writing
- display to a high level skills in selecting, applying, interpreting and organising information, including evidence of a high level of bibliographical control, and evidence of being able to evaluate and/or challenge current scholarly thinking
- apply existing analytical strategies to new repertoires with flexibility and creativity
- demonstrate the capacity for independent research
Teaching Information
10x2 hour seminars (taught jointly with level I and H students), plus a tutorial on the essay.
Assessment Information
One essay, independently devised and researched, of ca. 4000 words (60%) [outcomes 1,2, 5-7 through 3 and 4)
PLUS
one individual I5-minute presentation on an independently-researched topic, distinct from that of the essay (40%). (outcome 1, 2 and 7 and (to a limited extent) 5, through 4)
Reading and References
- Hugh Benham, Latin Church Music in England (1977)
- John Caldwell, The Oxford History of English Music volume 1 (Oxford, 1992)
- Iain Fenlon (ed.) Man and Music: The Renaissance (1989)
- Frank Harrison, Music in Medieval Britain (1958)
- Christopher Hogwood, Music at Court (1977)
- John Stevens: Music & Poetry in the Early Tudor Court (London, 1961, 2/1979)
