| SYLLABUS: Analysis of Rhythm and
Meter | Class Presentation
| Group Assignments | Term
Paper | Reading List | to be revised for fall 2005
Course Description: How can we study and better understand the experience of musical time? How does a performer shape the flow of meter and large-scale rhythm? In this course we will explore the analysis of rhythm through readings and analysis projects. Repertoire will include tonal, post-tonal, and popular Western music, as well as music of other traditions. A music theory elective. Prerequisite: Theory IV or graduate standing. Schedule (subject to change)
Grading and Policies
Last day
to drop without a grade: September 22 Class presentation: Form a group of perhaps four class members to complete this project. Your task is to create a phrase rhythm analysis for a movement in sonata form, employing the principles and analytical vocabulary introduced by Rothstein in Chs 1-4 of Phrase Rhythm in Tonal Music. Since time may not allow detailed study of the entire piece, a focused study on particular aspects of the piece is desirable. The outcome should be an analysis-- or a grouping of related analytical issues-- that could illuminate the performance of the work. Consider analytical decisions which could lead to varied interpretations in performance. (10% of grade) Graduate students: Integrate an idea or methodology derived from your study of an outside reading (selected from the class reading list). Date TBA: Initial presentation to the class. Introduce your analytical topic(s) and work in progress. Provide the class with an assignment (listening, reading, analysis). Date TBA: Present finished study to the class. Each individual will also turn in a four-page paper documenting their personal contribution to the presentation.
Term Paper: Write a paper approximately 12 pages in length (double-spaced typed) on a focused topic which relates to our studies of rhythm and meter. Your goal is to formulate a focused analytical topic and develop it in a thoughtful, well-organized paper. Your bibliography should include a minimum of three sources which provide analytical perspectives and/or historical context. You are encouraged to meet with me individually as your work progresses. Abstract, outline and bibliography due: Date TBA Final draft due: During Exam Week, Date TBA
Selected Reading List on reserve in the Music Library Books Wallace Berry. Musical Structure and Performance. Yale University Press, 1989. Edward T. Cone. Musical Form and Musical Performance. Norton, 1968. Nicholas Cook. Analysing Musical Multimedia. Oxford, 1998. Grosvenor W. Cooper and Leonard B. Meyer. The Rhythmic Structure of Music. University of Chicago Press, 1960. David Epstein. Beyond Orpheus: Studies in Musical Structure. MIT Press, 1979. Jonathan Cross. The Stravinsky Legacy, Cambridge University Press, 1998. David Epstein. Shaping Time: Music, the Brain, and Performance. Schirmer Books, 1995. Roger Graybill. "Prolongation, Gesture, and Musical Motion" in Musical Transformation and Musical Intuition: Eleven Essays in Honor of David Lewin. Raphael Atlas and Michael Cherlin, eds. Ovenbird Press, 1994, p. 199-224. Roy Howat. Debussy in Proportion. Cambridge University Press, 1983. Jonathan D. Kramer. The Time of Music: New Meanings, New Temporalities, New Listening Strategies. Schirmer Books, 1988. Harald Krebs. Fantasy pieces: metrical dissonance in the music of Robert Schumann. Oxford, 1999. Fred Lerdahl and Ray Jackendoff. A Generative Theory of Tonal Music. MIT Press, 1983. Joel Lester. The Rhythms of Tonal Music. Southern Illinois University Press, 1986. Leonard B. Meyer Explaining Music. University of California Press, 1973. William Rothstein. Phrase Rhythm in Tonal Music. Schirmer Books, 1989. Peter Westergaard. Notes, Beats and Measures. In An Introduction to Tonal Theory (Ch. 7). Norton, 1975. Maury Yeston. The Stratification of Musical Rhythm. Yale University Press, 1976. Victor Zuckerkandl. Sound and Symbol: Music and the External World. Pantheon Books, 1956. Articles William E. Benjamin. "A Theory of Musical Meter." Music Perception 1 (1984): 355-413. Wallace Berry. "Metric and Rhythmic Articulation in Music." Music Theory Spectrum 7 (1985): 7-33. William Berz. "Working Memory in Music: A Theoretical Model." Music Perception 12 (1995): 353-64. Charles Burkhart. "Mid-Bar Downbeat in Bach’s Keyboard Music." Journal of Music Theory Pedagogy 8 (1994): 3-26. Eric F. Clarke. "Levels of Structure in the Organization of Musical Time." Contemporary Music Review 2/1 (1987): 211-38. Edward T. Cone. "Musical Form and Musical Performance Reconsidered." Music Theory Spectrum 7 (1985): 149-158. Irene Deliege. "Grouping Conditions in Listening to Music: An Approach to Lerdahl and Jackendoff’s Grouping Preference Rules." Music Perception 4 (1987): 325-360. Roger Graybill. "Towards a Pedagogy of Gestural Rhythm." Journal of Music Theory Pedagogy 4/1 (1990): 1-50. David Headlam. "A Rhythmic Study of the Exposition of the Second Movement of Beethoven’s Quartet Op. 59, No. 1." Music Theory Spectrum 7 (1985): 114-38. Jonathan D. Kramer. "Postmodern Concepts of Musical Time" Indiana Theory Review 17/2 (1996): 21-62. Jonathan D. Kramer. "Studies of Time and Music: A Bibliography…" Music Theory Spectrum 7 (1985): 72-106. Harald Krebs. "Some Extensions of the Concepts of Metrical Consonance and Dissonance." Journal of Music Theory 31 (1987): 99-120. Steve Larson. "On Analysis and Performance: The Contribution of Durational Reduction to the Performance of J.S. Bach’s Two-Part Invention in C Major." In Theory Only 7/1 (1983): 31-45. Joel Lester. "Notated and Heard Meter." Perspectives of New Music 24/2 (1986): 116-28. Judy Lochhead. "The Metaphor of Musical Motion: Is there an Alternative?" Theory and Practice 14-15 (1989-90). Carl Schachter. "Rhythm and Linear Analysis: A Preliminary Study." Music Forum 4 (1976): 281-334. Carl Schachter. "Rhythm and Linear Analysis: Durational Reduction." Music Forum 5 (1980): 197-232. Carl Schachter. "Aspects of Meter." Music Forum 6 (1987): 1-59. Neil Todd. "A Model of Expressive Timing in Tonal Music." Music Perception 3/1 (1985): 33-58. Maury Yeston. "Rubato and the Middleground." Journal of Music Theory 19 (1975): 286-301. |