University of Sydney Handbooks - 2017 Archive

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Musicology Principal Study/Stream

Subject details

Musicology Principal Study

MCGY2603 Musicology 3

Credit points: 6 Teacher/Coordinator: Dr Alan Maddox Session: Semester 1,Semester 2 Classes: One 2 hr seminar/wk Prerequisites: MCGY1602 Corequisites: MCGY1019 Assessment: Short assignments to equivalent of 3000w (40%); major paper 3000w (50%); process and class participation (10%) Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day
Note: Department permission required for enrolment
Note: It is recommended that students will be concurrently enrolled in MCGY2612 Music in the Classical and Romantic Eras. Bachelor of Music Education student should apply for this unit of study through Special Permission.
Musicology 3 continues the emphasis on development of methodological skills begun in Musicology 1 and 2, focusing in particular on research and writing skills including formulating research questions, critical reading and building arguments. It will also continue the chronological development of music historical knowledge from Musicology 2, concentrating on the long 18th century. The continued development of methodological skills establishes a sound basis for increasing independence of thought and process. Students will work in a small group class.
Textbooks
Turabian, Kate L. A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations, 7th ed. Revised by Wayne C. Booth, et al. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007.
MCGY2604 Musicology 4

Credit points: 6 Teacher/Coordinator: Dr Alan Maddox Session: Semester 1,Semester 2 Classes: One 2 hr seminar/wk Prerequisites: MCGY2603 Corequisites: MCGY1020 Assessment: Short assignments to equivalent of 3000w (40%); major paper 3000w (50%); process and class participation (10%) Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day
Note: Department permission required for enrolment
Note: It is recommended that students will be concurrently enrolled in MCGY2613 Music in Modern Times. Bachelor of Music Education student should apply for this unit of study through Special Permission.
Musicology 4 expands students' methodological and conceptual skills by exploring more advanced concepts in musicological discourse including recent applications of critical theory to music research. Students will be expected to demonstrate increasing independence in critical thinking and research process. These skills will be put into practice in topics relating to the long 19th century. Students will continue to work in a small group class.
Textbooks
David Beard and Kenneth Gloag. Musicology: The Key Concepts. London: Routledge, 2005.
MCGY3605 Musicology 5

Credit points: 6 Teacher/Coordinator: Dr Alan Maddox Session: Semester 1,Semester 2 Classes: One 2 hr seminar/week Prerequisites: MCGY2604 Corequisites: MCGY2018 Assessment: Assignment(s)/presentation to equivalent of 2000w (20%); Major paper of about 4000w (70%), research process throughout the semester (10%). Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day
The work of Musicology 5 and 6 is intended to build on the methodological foundations of the previous semesters and develop the student's capacity for more independent study and research. A broader view of the discipline and its fields will be developed. In Musicology 5 or 6 topics in ethnomusicology and/or popular music studies will be included when possible.
Textbooks
Turabian, Kate L. A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations, 7th ed. Revised by Wayne C. Booth, et al. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007.
MCGY3606 Musicology 6

Credit points: 6 Teacher/Coordinator: Dr Alan Maddox Session: Semester 1,Semester 2 Classes: One 2 hr seminar/week Prerequisites: MCGY3605 Corequisites: MCGY2019 Assessment: Assignment(s)/presentation to equivalent of 2000w (20%); Major paper of about 4000w (70%), research process throughout the semester (10%). Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day
The work of Musicology 5 and 6 is intended to build on the methodological foundations of the previous semesters and develop the student's capacity for more independent study and research. A broader view of the discipline and its fields will be developed. In Musicology 5 or 6 topics in ethnomusicology and/or popular music studies will be included when possible.
Textbooks
Turabian, Kate L. A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations, 7th ed. Revised by Wayne C. Booth, et al. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007.
MCGY4607 Musicology 7

Credit points: 6 Teacher/Coordinator: Dr Alan Maddox Session: Semester 1,Semester 2 Classes: 2 hr seminar or 1 hr individual supervision per week as required Prerequisites: MCGY3606 Corequisites: MCGY3023 Assessment: Research proposal and literature review (50%); research progress and writing (50%). Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day
Musicology 7 and 8 form the culmination of the principal study stream in Musicology. Drawing on experience gained in the previous semesters and continuing to develop skills, the student will work on a single project throughout the two semesters. The project topic will be proposed by the student in discussion with the tutor and approved by the Musicology Unit. The final outcome by the end of Musicology 8 will be a research paper of about 10,000 words.
Textbooks
Wayne C. Booth, Gregory G. Colomb and Joseph M. Williams. The craft of research. 3rd ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008. (e-book available through the library catalogue)
MCGY4608 Musicology 8

Credit points: 6 Teacher/Coordinator: Dr Alan Maddox Session: Semester 1,Semester 2 Classes: Mix of one 2 hr seminar or 1:1 meetings as required Prerequisites: MCGY4607 Corequisites: MCGY3024 Assessment: 10,000w research paper (100%) Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day
Refer to MCGY4607
Textbooks
Wayne C. Booth, Gregory G. Colomb and Joseph M. Williams. The craft of research. 3rd ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008. (e-book available through the library catalogue)

Historical Studies

MCGY3604 J.S. Bach and his World

Credit points: 6 Teacher/Coordinator: Alan Maddox Session: Semester 2 Classes: 1 x 2hr seminar per week Prerequisites: MCGY2611 Assessment: Critical Reading Assignments (20%); Class Presentation (20%); Essay (50%); Seminar Preparation and Class Presentation (10%) Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day
Note: If students do not meet pre-requisites, they may seek permission from the Unit Co-Ordinator
More than 250 years after his death, J.S. Bach remains one of the most revered musicians in the Western tradition. What influences formed Bach's style? What makes his music embedded in its time and place, yet distinctive and instantly recognisable? This unit investigates the music of this iconic composer in its historical context, considering his training, cultural and religious environment, stylistic influences and ongoing legacy, and allows students to explore their own research interests relating to Bach's music.
MCGY3639 Modernism in Austria and Germany 1889-1914

Credit points: 6 Teacher/Coordinator: Dr David Larkin Session: Semester 2 Classes: One two-hour seminar per week Assessment: Essay (30%); Critical and analytical assignments (20%); Listening & score-based tests (20%); In-class presentation (20%); Seminar participation (10%) Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day
Between 1889 and 1914, certain Austro-Germanic composers played a crucial role in the emerging modernist movement. Richard Strauss, Mahler and Schoenberg engaged with past musical traditions and contemporary trends in visual art, literature and philosophy to produce a distinctively new type of music. Works to be studied include Strauss's tone poems, Mahler's symphonies and Schoenberg's chamber music, as well as Lieder and stage works. Among the issues which will be explored are the way in which traditional formal structures were invoked and destabilised, the changes the musical language underwent and how music was conceptualized in this era of change and crisis.
MUSC3609 Musicology

Credit points: 6 Teacher/Coordinator: Dr James Wierzbicki Session: Semester 2 Classes: 2 hr seminar/wk Prerequisites: 12 Junior credit points in Music units Prohibitions: MUSC3904 Assessment: Written assessments (50%), weekly summaries of readings (30%), participation (20%) Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day
Note: This unit is a requirement for Honours.
What do we study when we study music? What kinds of stories do we tell about the history of music? What are the central issues, questions, and concerns that drive the study of music? This unit of study will begin to answer these questions and provide an overview of historical musicology as an academic discipline. In addition, students will also learn and practice the research skills necessary to find and evaluate sources, and to define and develop an area of interest. These skills will provide a solid foundation for the independent research work necessary in the Honours year.

Ethnographical Studies

MCGY5601 Music Through Ethnography

Credit points: 6 Teacher/Coordinator: Dr Michael Webb Session: Semester 2 Classes: 2 x 2hrs per week Assessment: Written reports (30%); music transcriptions (10%); Analyses (15%); ethnographic interview (15%); Short field recording (10%); summary reflection/projection (20%) Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day
As an analytical method, ethnography concentrates on the experience of life as it is lived. Following the development of the fieldwork-based discipline of ethnomusicology, ethnographic approaches to music have come to examine: historical and archival data, objects and artefacts in collections, cyber networks, digital communications, and medical and therapeutic understandings of sound, among other aspects of everyday life. This unit of study engages ethnographic methodologies to examine the myriad ways music informs and enriches people's lives and contributes to defining how humans flourish in their natural, social and cultural environments.
MUSC2631 Music and Everyday Life

Credit points: 6 Teacher/Coordinator: A/Prof Charles Fairchild Session: Semester 2 Classes: 2 hr lecture/wk Prerequisites: 12 credit points of Junior Music units Prohibitions: MUSC2903 Assessment: Fieldwork project paper 3000 words (40%); ethnographic description of a musical event 1000 words (20%); two critical response paper (1000 words each) ( 30%), class presentations and participation (10%). Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day
Note: This unit is a requirement for Honours.
What can we learn from non-textual approaches to understanding music? The primary goal of this unit of study is to study music not as a composer, producer, performer, listener or audience member, but as an ethnographer. That is, analysing music through an observational, experiential and intellectual understanding of how people make and take meaning from music.
MUSC3610 Musical Traditions and Globalization

Credit points: 6 Teacher/Coordinator: Dr Catherine Ingram Session: Semester 1 Classes: 1 x 2hr seminar per week Prerequisites: 48 credit points of Junior Units Assessment: Academic Blog - Musical Tradition (20%); In-class Presentation (15%); Academic Blog - Musical Piece (15%); Major Essay (50%) Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day
Every musical form worldwide exists within a tradition, and globalization has been crucial in shaping those traditions in the contemporary era. This course explores different ways that musical traditions and globalization intersect. It introduces key theoretical approaches to both globalization (including postcolonial perspectives) and the concept of musical tradition, and explores case studies including social media and music in the Pacific Islands, East African hip-hop, understanding globalization's influence on indigenous Australian musical traditions and historically informed Western art music performance.

Analytical Studies

CMPN4666 Advanced Analysis

Credit points: 6 Teacher/Coordinator: Dr Damien Ricketson Session: Semester 1 Classes: 1 x 2 hr seminar/lecture per week Prerequisites: MCGY4601 Assessment: Class presentation (1000 words) (15%), Composition analysis (20%), Weekly readings reports (15%), Research Project (50%) Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day
This unit is designed to equip students with a working knowledge of current music theory and analysis practice, impart analytical skills that can be applied across a broad spectrum of activities and different musical genres and types, and develop an understanding of related concepts such as what analysis actually is, different types of analysis (functional, descriptive, surface, aural/perceptual vs. score based) and an understanding of working at different levels of abstraction.
MCGY2600 Advanced Harmony

Credit points: 6 Teacher/Coordinator: Lewis Cornwell Session: Semester 2 Classes: One 2-hour seminar/wk Prerequisites: MCGY2011 Prohibitions: MCGY2000 or MCGY2001 Assessment: Four 25-bar musical assignments (75%); 30 minute seminar presentation (25%) Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day
Students in this unit will observe in detail a selection of Western musical styles and the work of particular composers, applying the knowledge thus gained by writing short compositions in the relevant styles. For the student with some creative inclinations, the activity of stylistic imitation offers unique insights into the music of any period. Topics for study will be selected according to the interests of the group, taking into account the need for a coherent and cumulative course structure.
JAZZ3618 Jazz Musicology and Analysis

Credit points: 6 Teacher/Coordinator: Christopher Coady Session: Semester 1 Classes: One 2 hr tut/week Prerequisites: JAZZ2017 or JAZZ2624 Prohibitions: JAZZ3018 or JAZZ3019 Assessment: Essay (50%), Seminar Presentation (50%) Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day
This Unit of Study will introduce key analytic concepts and terminology pertinent to contemporary jazz practice, culture and aesthetics. The aim of the Unit of Study is to explore issues relating to the way artists and audiences create and consume jazz music, and how themes such as ideology, race, gender, globalism, media and cultural studies, economics, modernism and postmodernism, structuralism and poststructuralism affect and reflect jazz culture.

Senior Musicology Studies

MCGY2615 The Ultimate Art: 400 Years of Opera

Credit points: 6 Teacher/Coordinator: Dr Alan Maddox (coordinator), Dr David Larkin, A/Prof Michael Halliwell Session: Semester 2 Classes: One x 1-hour lecture, One x 2-hour seminar/week Prerequisites: Two units from the following (MCGY2611 or MCGY2612 or MCGY2613 or MCGY2614) Assessment: Essay (40%), Module tasks (30%), Listening tests (30%) Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day
Since its beginnings around 1600, no genre of Western art music has been more innovative or influential than opera. It has inspired devotion and disdain, and led to innumerable theoretical debates. In this unit, 400 years of changing operatic practices will be explored through a series of seminal works. These will be treated as documents of specific historical circumstances (including contemporaneous singing and staging practices), and as aesthetic objects which have been reinvented continuously down to the present.
MCGY3603 Baroque Music: History and Performance

Credit points: 6 Teacher/Coordinator: Dr Alan Maddox Session: Semester 1 Classes: One 2-hour seminar per week Prohibitions: MCGY3003 or MCGY3004 Assumed knowledge: Knowledge of baroque music such as that gained from taking a foundation music history course covering the 17th and 18th centuries. Assessment: Critical reading assignments (30%); seminar presentation or lecture-demonstration (20%), participation in class activities (10%); essay (40%) Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day
This unit is open to all students who want to go beyond the overview gained in survey courses and investigate baroque music topics of their own choice in more depth. The course emphasises student participation and individual exploration. Students choose their own readings, using primary and secondary sources ranging from 17th and 18th-century treatises, manuscripts and other documents, to the latest critical writing by international scholars. Essay topics can cover any aspect of baroque music, for example performance practice, aesthetics, instruments, or studies of the music of particular composers, genres or places. Students can choose to share their findings either in a conventional class presentation or in a lecture-demonstration / performance.
MCGY3604 J.S. Bach and his World

Credit points: 6 Teacher/Coordinator: Alan Maddox Session: Semester 2 Classes: 1 x 2hr seminar per week Prerequisites: MCGY2611 Assessment: Critical Reading Assignments (20%); Class Presentation (20%); Essay (50%); Seminar Preparation and Class Presentation (10%) Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day
Note: If students do not meet pre-requisites, they may seek permission from the Unit Co-Ordinator
More than 250 years after his death, J.S. Bach remains one of the most revered musicians in the Western tradition. What influences formed Bach's style? What makes his music embedded in its time and place, yet distinctive and instantly recognisable? This unit investigates the music of this iconic composer in its historical context, considering his training, cultural and religious environment, stylistic influences and ongoing legacy, and allows students to explore their own research interests relating to Bach's music.
MCGY3617 Music Through Literature

Credit points: 6 Teacher/Coordinator: Dr James Wierzbicki Session: Semester 2 Classes: One 2-hour seminar per week Prerequisites: MCGY2612 or MCGY2613 Prohibitions: MCGY3017 Assessment: Online and class participation and short tasks (10%); Seminar presentation (30%); Essay 3500 words (60%). Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day
Note: or with permission of the coordinator
This unit will explore specific works of literature which deal with musical matters or which make significant statements about musical aesthetics. The contribution towards understanding musical experience of creative artists who are not, or not primarily, musicians, is sometimes ignored in courses for the training of musicians. Yet, in the case of writers, such artists are often better equipped than musical professionals to capture in words, the ineffable nature of musical experience and aesthetics. Moreover their place as receivers rather than creators sometimes enables them to make statements about the broader cultural significance from a perspective outside that of production and performance. This course exists to allow trainee performers, teachers and musicologists an opportunity to explore such perspectives. Topics will be decided by class interest and may include work by Bruce Chatwin, Gunter Grass, Herman Hesse, James Joyce, Milan Kundera, Thomas Mann, Romain Roland, Vikram Seth, William Shakespeare, Tim Winton and others.
MCGY3627 Paleography of Music

Credit points: 6 Session: Semester 1 Assessment: Assignments and in-class assessments (50%); 2-hour examination (50%). Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day
Paleography of Music introduces principles and issues of some different types of western musical notation in use during the medieval and Renaissance periods, and contributes to the development of an understanding of original sources of music of these eras. Through studying original notations and sources, students can develop an understanding of the characteristics and problems of medieval and renaissance musical repertories not otherwise available. Among the notations to be studied are several chant notations including that of the musical sources of Hildegard of Bingen; white mensural notation as used in sources of fifteenth- and sixteenth-century vocal polyphony with examples likely to include music by Dufay, Ockeghem and Byrd; French and Italian lute tablatures; and German keyboard tablatures. Understanding the notations studied forms the main emphasis of this course, and students learn to transcribe from the original notations into modern musical notation. In addition, change and usage of notation, and scribal method will also be studied.
MCGY3629 Romanticism and the Fantastic

Credit points: 6 Teacher/Coordinator: Dr David Larkin Session: Semester 1 Classes: One 2-hour seminar/wk Prerequisites: MCGY2612 Prohibitions: MCGY3029 or MCGY3037 Assumed knowledge: It is expected that students will have some knowledge of harmonic and formal practices up to 1850. Assessment: Essay (30%); Critical and analytical assignment (20%); Listening and score-based tests (20%); In-class presentation (20%); seminar participation (10%) Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day
This unit will explore the fantastic as a central aspect of romanticism in its various manifestations, including the uncanny, the daemonic and the alienated. In music, this meshes fruitfully with the fantasy as a genre, which is similarly dependent on the imagination and the evasion of clear boundaries. A range of Lieder, operas, symphonic and solo works by composers such as Schumann, Berlioz, Liszt, Mendelssohn and Schubert will be studied against the backdrop of literary and artistic innovations by Goethe, Hoffmann, Byron, and Friedrich. Theories of the fantastic by Todorov, Freud and others will also be examined.
MCGY3639 Modernism in Austria and Germany 1889-1914

Credit points: 6 Teacher/Coordinator: Dr David Larkin Session: Semester 2 Classes: One two-hour seminar per week Assessment: Essay (30%); Critical and analytical assignments (20%); Listening & score-based tests (20%); In-class presentation (20%); Seminar participation (10%) Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day
Between 1889 and 1914, certain Austro-Germanic composers played a crucial role in the emerging modernist movement. Richard Strauss, Mahler and Schoenberg engaged with past musical traditions and contemporary trends in visual art, literature and philosophy to produce a distinctively new type of music. Works to be studied include Strauss's tone poems, Mahler's symphonies and Schoenberg's chamber music, as well as Lieder and stage works. Among the issues which will be explored are the way in which traditional formal structures were invoked and destabilised, the changes the musical language underwent and how music was conceptualized in this era of change and crisis.
MUSC3639 Music Journalism

Credit points: 6 Teacher/Coordinator: Dr James Wierzbicki Session: Semester 1 Classes: 1 hr lecture, 1 hr tut/week. Prerequisites: 18 junior credit points Assessment: Exercises in music journalism and reviewing 4,000 words (50%), final paper 2,000 words (30%), participation (20%) Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day
Even as the 'Age of Newspapers' seems to be coming to an end, human beings' need for authoritative commentary on music remains as strong as ever. Along with surveying the history of music journalism from the early eighteenth century up to the present day, this unit of study offers participants the chance to try their hands at various forms of music journalism.