MUSI3821: The Keyboard in Theory, Analysis and Practice, 1700-2000

• MUSI1281 - Analysis 1

• This module traces the evolving relationship between the keyboard, music theory and compositional practice from the early Eighteenth to the end of the Twentieth centuries. Beginning with an exploration of the intimate connections between keyboard practice and the teaching of composition and improvisation through the figured-bass and partimento traditions in the early Eighteenth Century, it explores subsequent themes in music history that are centrally indebted to keyboard technologies and their practices, including organology (the development of the piano), performance practices (virtuosity), temperament and tuning (equal temperament vs other tuning systems) and compositional systems (dodecaphony; microtonality). This historical thread is interleaved with and illustrated by eight analytical case studies in one representative genre (the keyboard concerto), which mix the study of canonical concerti (by J. S. Bach, Liszt, Brahms, Rachmaninov and Schoenberg) with non-canonical or more recent examples (by C. P. E. Bach, John Field, Ligeti and Grisey). The module explores themes in theory and analysis, but also has a strong historical dimension.

• The modules core content alternates nine lectures dealing with topics in the relationship between keyboard practice, music theory and composition (figured bass, partimenti, organology, virtuosity, equal temperament, combinatoriality, microtonality, transnationalism, digital composition) with eight case-study analyses exemplifying these topics in the concerto repertoire, spanning from J. S. Bachs Fifth Brandenburg Concerto (1721) to Ligetis Piano Concerto (1988). Each term concludes with a colloquium addressing key issues raised in the lectures.

Subject-specific Knowledge:

• Students will gain a deep understanding of the crucial role keyboards have played in the development of music theory, compositional practice, tuning systems and genre since 1700,
• Students will learn to relate practical skills developed at the keyboard (for example figured-bass and partimento realisation) with broader connections with compositional practice (how the development of the modern piano influences genres such as nocturne and concerto), performance practice (virtuosity), and the keyboards profound influence on musical systems (equal temperament; docecaphony; microtonality).
• Students will acquire analytical insights into key compositions in one important, representative genre (the concerto).

Subject-specific Skills:

• By the end of the module, students should be able to:
• Apply the theoretical concepts of the empfindsamer Stil, galant style, Romantic form, atonality, and contemporary music to the analysis of music from the 18th-21st centuries
• Explain the development of the piano between 1700-2000 from historical, scientific, and sociological points of view
• Explain how the form of the piano concerto developed between 1700-2000
• Articulate in essay form the connections between organology, theory, performance practice, and the social history of music
• Students will learn how to engage both theoretically and analytically with keyboard repertory from 1700-2000

Key Skills:

• Students will learn how to pursue interdisciplinary inquiry by marrying insights from musical studies (musicology, theory, analysis, critical organology, performance practice studies) with those from interconnected disciplines (media theory, transnational history, etc.)
• Students will learn how to connect historical and analytical knowledge/modes of understanding

• The module is taught through weekly lectures, small-group seminars and tutorials, which reinforce learning through engagement with cognate works. The module is assessed by submission of two summative essays, one early in Epiphany Term, the other in Easter Term. Formative assessments are also submitted, which relate directly to the work undertaken in seminars and tutorials.

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