Sonata Forms (MUSC 191)

In recent years, students from various undergraduate schools have expressed a need for non-major music course offerings that build upon existing introductory-level courses. Courses such as Musical Nationalisms, Beethoven and the Beatles, and Introduction to Music Literature--any of which may serve as a prerequisite for Sonata Forms--are investigations of the powerful resonances between musical style and cultural context, and of music's role in the history of human thought. The focus on structural listening in these courses prepares students for the pursuit of deeper connections between the composer's practice and the intellectual currents in which s/he is working. What happens in these courses happens all the more intensely in this new, advanced course, MUSC 191, which builds upon them.

Sonata Forms focuses on the evolving adaptations of sonata form through successive periods of music history. If you enjoyed exploring Beethoven's or Tchaikovsky's sonata-form works in Beethoven and the Beatles or in Introduction to Music Lit, you're really in for a treat here, where Dr. Rose branches out to other composers in other generations, from Classical to Romantic to Modernist to the 1990s and 2000.

With help from various critics, we will grapple with the exciting challenge of turning an analysis of musical structure towards a cultural interpretation. The two tasks have always been one in the current introductory offerings. They will be even more faithfully joined in the more intellectual environment of Sonata Forms.

Prerequisite: MUSC 106, MUSC 107, MUSC 118, MUSC 119, MUSL 140, MUSL 144

"His willingness to teach "outside the lines" really helped me take my learning to heart and apply it to my life."
--former student, on a course evaluation form

Credit?
Arts and Science--elective
Engineering--humanities
Peabody--humanities

Return to Music to Go or go to Survey of Choral Music.