Course Schedule and Catalog

Long Title: TOPICS IN EARLY MUSIC

Department: Medieval Studies

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 3

Description: This course will explore the music and poetry of the Medieval Procencal Troubadours and northern French Trouveres, placing their songs within the sophisticated and influential culture of courtly love. Other genres following in this tradition including Minnesang, Gallican-Portugese cantigas de amor, and Latin and Middle-English love songs, will be examined depending on the interest of the students. Among topics to be considered are stylistic continuities and divergences, the social situation of composers and performers in the Middle Ages, the relationship of music and poetry, the oral-written tradition, the songs of the female Trobairitz, and performances practice within the modern Medievalist revival. The course will also sample recent developments in scholarship including Marxist, feminist, psychoanalytic, and deconstructive approaches.