Selected Topics in Music Theory (435-0-1)
Topic
Mozart's Operas
Instructors
Danuta Mirka
Meeting Info
RCMA Lower Level 113: Mon, Wed 11:00AM - 12:20PM
Overview of class
Mozart's operas belong to the greatest masterpieces of Western art music. In this course we will focus on his Viennese comic operas, representing two different genres: opera buffa (Le nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni, Così fan tutte) and Singspiel (Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Die Zauberflöte). Understanding their plots and learning their music will be the necessary prerequisites of your fruitful participation in class discussion. The discussion will situate the operas in the context of their respective genres and broader socio-cultural context of late-eighteenth-century Vienna and it will delve into their structure in order to tease out their meaning and expression. In the course of this analytical inquiry we will benefit from recent advances in the field of historically informed music theory, including deployment of genres and styles (topics), building blocks of eighteenth-century harmonic language (schemata), expressive import of meter and key characteristics. We will also touch upon problems of German and Italian text setting.
The course will be of interest for students of music theory, musicology, vocal and instrumental performance, composition and conducting.
Learning Objectives
By the end of the class the student will be expected to have become familiar with the five Mozart's operas selected for class discussion and have developed an understanding of how their music achieves its expressive effect and acquires extra-musical meaning through the creative deployment of eighteenth-century conventions.
Class Materials (Required)
N/A
Class Materials (Suggested)
Thomas Bauman, W.A. Mozart: Die Entführung aus dem Serail. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987.
Peter Branscombe, W.A. Mozart: Die Zauberflöte. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991.
Bruce Alan Brown, W.A. Mozart: Così fan tutte. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995.
Tim Carter, W.A. Mozart: Le nozze di Figaro. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987.
Julian Rushton, W.A. Mozart: Don Giovanni. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981.