57-946 Style Change Across the 18th Century
9 units, Carnegie Mellon University
The eighteenth century saw radical changes in musical style that would not be matched until the early twentieth century. Although they are often masked by overarching terms such as commonpractice tonality, the differences between Corelli and early Beethoven in terms of basic compositional practice that is, in terms of harmony, meter, and form represent a fundamental change in musical language. In contrast, the differences between Mozart and Mahler simply represent different stages within a single evolutionary development. Guided by readings from music theory and historical musicology, as well as by our own analyses of scores, this course will attempt to chart these developments across three musical styles that overlap both in time and in substance the baroque, the galant, and the classical. Focusing especially on composers from Bach to Mozart, the twin goals will be the ability to understand individual works in relation to their own stylehistorical moments, and an understanding of how musical style changed over the course of the century. This course presupposes a strong grounding in the basics of tonal harmony and form.
Prerequisites: none listed
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