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Southern Utah University
Southern Utah University
Summer Semester 2026

Graduate Seminar in Music History (Online)

MUED 6120-70I

Course: MUED 6120-70I
Credits: 2
Term: Summer Semester 2026
Department: MUSC
CRN: 21299

Course Description

In this course students will increase their fluency in the history of Western music by learning how to write and speak about the subject proficiently, knowledgeably, and persuasively. Required for Master of Music Education students. (Summer - Odd Years) [Graded (Standard Letter)] Registration Restriction(s): None

Required Texts

  • Leeman L. Perkins, “The Conceptualization of Music in the Renaissance,” in Music in the Age of the Renaissance (New York and London: Norton, 1999), 969–1057.
  • Edward Lowinsky, “The Concept of Physical and Musical Space in the Renaissance (A Preliminary Sketch),” in Music in the Culture of the Renaissance and Other Essays, ed. Bonnie J. Blackburn, 2 vols. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1989), 1:6–18.
  • Tim Carter, “Renaissance, Mannerism, Baroque,” in The Cambridge History of Seventeenth-Century Music, ed. Tim Carter and John Butt (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005), 1–26.
  • Dietrich Bartel, “The Concept of the Affections in German Baroque Music,” and “Principles of Rhetoric in German Baroque Music,” in Musica Poetica: Musical-Rhetorical Figures in German Baroque Music (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1997), 29–89.
  • Charles Rosen, The Classical Style: Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, expanded ed. (New York: Norton, 1997), 17–108.
  • Simon Schama, “The Cultural Construction of a Citizen,” in Citizens: A Chronicle of the French Revolution (New York: Knopf, 1989), 123–87.
  • Carl Dahlhaus, Nineteenth-Century Music, trans. J. Bradford Robinson (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989), 1–53.
  • Michael Ferber, “The Romantic System of the Arts,” in A Companion to European Romanticism, ed. Michael Ferber (Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2005), 552–68.
  • Robert P. Morgan, “The Modern Age,” in Modern Times: From World War I to the Present, ed. Robert P. Morgan, Music and Society (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1993), 1–32
  • Michael Levenson, “The Avant-Garde in Modernism,” in Modernism (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2011), 12–53.

Learning Outcomes

Students who successfully complete this course will be able to:
  • trace the evolution of musical genres, styles, and idioms within and across periods and repertories, with particular attention to the contributions of major works and composers
  • analyze musical works with sensitivity to their various historical, cultural, and aesthetic contexts, including formal/harmonic conventions, reception and transmission, performance practices, liturgical/social functions, and evolving instrument technologies.

Course Requirements

Readings, Assignments, and Class Discussion
A variety of reading, viewing, and listening assignments will be made throughout the course, most of which are found in the Course Outline below and on the course Canvas site. You will be expected to have read (or in some cases, at least skimmed) the required material assigned for a particular day and to come to class ready to participate in discussion. Other assignments may be given as necessary.

Class Presentations
At the beginning of the course you will be assigned one of the works from the Course Outline, on which you will make a presentation and lead a class discussion (all totaling from fifteen to twenty minutes). The content and format of your presentation will depend on the work assigned to you; you should consult with me at least once before the date of your presentation.

Essay Examinations
For each period covered by the course you will write a brief essay on an assigned topic that will require you to synthesize the material we have read and discussed in class. Each examination will be take-home, open-book. Bibliographic citations are not expected in these essays.

Course Outline

Unit I: The Renaissance

Foundation Work: Dunstable, “Quam pulchra es” (early 15th century)

Primary Work: Josquin, Missa Pange lingua (ca. 1515)

Secondary Works
  • Guillaume Du Fay, Nuper rosarum flores (1436)
  • Various composers, Mellon Chansonnier (1470s)
    • Busynoys, “Je ne puys vivre”
    • Hayne, “De tous biens plaine”
  • Maddalena Casulana, Il secondo libro de madrigali a quattro voci (1570)
  • Tomás Luis de Victoria, Motecta (1572)
  • Luca Marenzio, Il terzo libro de madrigali a cinque voci (1582)
    • “Scaldava il sol”
    • “Occhi lucenti e belli”
  • John Dowland, The Second Booke of Songs or Ayres (1600)
Visual Works
  • Raphael, The Marriage of the Virgin (1504); Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan
  • Hans Holbein the Younger, The Ambassadors (1533); National Gallery, London

Unit II: The Baroque

Foundation Works
  • Claudio Monteverdi, “Cruda Amarilli,” from Il quinto libro de madrigali a cinque voci (1590s) PDF
  • Giulio Caccini, Le nuove musiche
Primary Work: Handel, Messiah (1741)
Secondary Works
  • Claudio Monteverdi, Madrigali guerrieri, et amorosi […] libro ottavo (1638)
  • Heinrich Schütz, Symphoniarum sacrarum tertia pars, op. 12, SWV 398–418 (1650)
  • Barbara Strozzi, Diporti di Euterpe, overo Cantate e ariette a voce sola (1659)
  • Henry Purcell, The Fairy Queen (1692)
  • François Couperin, Second livre de pièces de clavecin (1717)
  • Johann Sebastian Bach, Brandenburg Concertos, BWV 1046–51 (1721)
Visual Works
  • Peter Paul Rubens, The Apotheosis of Henri IV and the Proclamation of the Regency of Marie de Médicis (1622–25); Louvre, Paris
  • Diego Velázquez, Las Meninas (1656); Museo del Prado, Madrid

Unit III: The Classical Period
Foundation Work: Pergolesi, La serva padrona (1733)

Primary Work: Mozart, Le nozze di Figaro (1786)

Secondary Works
  • Christoph Willibald Gluck, Orfeo ed Euridice (original Vienna version, 1762)
  • Joseph Haydn, String Quartet in C Major, op. 20, no. 2, Hob. III:32 (1772)
  • Joseph Bologne de Saint-Georges, Violin Concertos, op. 2 (1773)
  • Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Piano Concerto in D Minor, K. 466 (1785)
  • Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Requiem (1791)
  • Joseph Haydn, Symphony no. 102 in B-flat Major, Hob. I:102 (1794)
Visual Works
  • Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun, portrait of Marie Antoinette (1783); copy at National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
  • Jacques-Louis David, The Oath of the Horatii (1784); Louvre, Paris

Unit IV: The Romantic Period
Foundation Work: Beethoven, Symphony no. 3 in E-flat Major, op. 55 (Eroica) (1803–4)

Primary Works: Chopin, Ballades for Piano, opp. 23, 38, 47, and 52
Secondary Works
  • Franz Schubert, Winterreise (1827)
  • Robert Schumann and Clara Wieck Schumann, Zwölf Gedichte aus F. Rückerts “Liebesfrühling” (1841)
  • Richard Wagner, Prelude and Isolde’s Transfiguration, from Tristan und Isolde (1865)
  • Johannes Brahms, Violin Concerto, op. 77 (1879)
  • Giuseppe Verdi, Otello (1887)
  • Richard Strauss, Don Juan (1889)
Visual Works
  • Eugène Delacroix, The Death of Sardanapalus (1827); Louvre, Paris
  • Thomas Eakins, The Gross Clinic (1875); Philadelphia Museum of Art

Unit V: The Twentieth Century

Foundation Works
  • Arnold Schoenberg, Pierrot lunaire (1912)
  • Igor Stravinsky, The Rite of Spring (1913)
Primary Work: Stravinsky, The Rite of Spring

Secondary Works
  • Maurice Ravel, Piano Concerto in G Major (1929–31)
  • Aaron Copland, Rodeo (1942)
  • Béla Bartók, Concerto for Orchestra (1943)
  • Duke Ellington, Black, Brown and Beige (1943)
  • Krzysztof Penderecki, Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima (1960)
  • Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, Symphony no. 1 (Three Movements for Orchestra) (1983)
Visual Works
  • Pablo Picasso, Les demoiselles d’Avignon (1907); Museum of Modern Art, New York
  • Jackson Pollock, Autumn Rhythm (Number 30) (1950); Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Instructor's policies on late assignments and/or makeup work

Late assignments may be accepted in extenuating circumstances at the instructor’s discretion with a deduction in grade, as appropriate. 

Attendance Policy

An unacceptable pattern of absence or tardiness will be factored into the participation component of the final grade.

Course Fees

Content for this section will be provided by the instructor.

ADA Statement

Students with medical, psychological, learning, or other disabilities desiring academic adjustments, accommodations, or auxiliary aids will need to contact the Disability Resource Center, located in Room 206F of the Sharwan Smith Center or by phone at (435) 865-8042. The Disability Resource Center determines eligibility for and authorizes the provision of services.

If your instructor requires attendance, you may need to seek an ADA accommodation to request an exception to this attendance policy. Please contact the Disability Resource Center to determine what, if any, ADA accommodations are reasonable and appropriate.

Academic Credit

According to the federal definition of a Carnegie credit hour: A credit hour of work is the equivalent of approximately 60 minutes of class time or independent study work. A minimum of 45 hours of work by each student is required for each unit of credit. Credit is earned only when course requirements are met. One (1) credit hour is equivalent to 15 contact hours of lecture, discussion, testing, evaluation, or seminar, as well as 30 hours of student homework. An equivalent amount of work is expected for laboratory work, internships, practica, studio, and other academic work leading to the awarding of credit hours. Credit granted for individual courses, labs, or studio classes ranges from 0.5 to 15 credit hours per semester.

Academic Freedom

SUU is operated for the common good of the greater community it serves. The common good depends upon the free search for truth and its free exposition. Academic Freedom is the right of faculty to study, discuss, investigate, teach, and publish. Academic Freedom is essential to these purposes and applies to both teaching and research.

Academic Freedom in the realm of teaching is fundamental for the protection of the rights of the faculty member and of you, the student, with respect to the free pursuit of learning and discovery. Faculty members possess the right to full freedom in the classroom in discussing their subjects. They may present any controversial material relevant to their courses and their intended learning outcomes, but they shall take care not to introduce into their teaching controversial materials which have no relation to the subject being taught or the intended learning outcomes for the course.

As such, students enrolled in any course at SUU may encounter topics, perspectives, and ideas that are unfamiliar or controversial, with the educational intent of providing a meaningful learning environment that fosters your growth and development. These parameters related to Academic Freedom are included in SUU Policy 6.6.

Academic Misconduct

Scholastic honesty is expected of all students. Dishonesty will not be tolerated and will be prosecuted to the fullest extent (see SUU Policy 6.33). You are expected to have read and understood the current SUU student conduct code (SUU Policy 11.2) regarding student responsibilities and rights, the intellectual property policy (SUU Policy 5.52), information about procedures, and what constitutes acceptable behavior.

Please Note: The use of websites or services that sell essays is a violation of these policies; likewise, the use of websites or services that provide answers to assignments, quizzes, or tests is also a violation of these policies. Regarding the use of Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI), you should check with your individual course instructor.

Emergency Management Statement

In case of an emergency, the University's Emergency Notification System (ENS) will be activated. Students are encouraged to maintain updated contact information using the link on the homepage of the mySUU portal. In addition, students are encouraged to familiarize themselves with the Emergency Response Protocols posted in each classroom. Detailed information about the University's emergency management plan can be found at https://www.suu.edu/emergency.

HEOA Compliance Statement

For a full set of Higher Education Opportunity Act (HEOA) compliance statements, please visit https://www.suu.edu/heoa. The sharing of copyrighted material through peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing, except as provided under U.S. copyright law, is prohibited by law; additional information can be found at https://my.suu.edu/help/article/1096/heoa-compliance-plan.

You are also expected to comply with policies regarding intellectual property (SUU Policy 5.52) and copyright (SUU Policy 5.54).

Mandatory Reporting

University policy (SUU Policy 5.60) requires instructors to report disclosures received from students that indicate they have been subjected to sexual misconduct/harassment. The University defines sexual harassment consistent with Federal Regulations (34 C.F.R. Part 106, Subpart D) to include quid pro quo, hostile environment harassment, sexual assault, dating violence, domestic violence, and stalking. When students communicate this information to an instructor in-person, by email, or within writing assignments, the instructor will report that to the Title IX Coordinator to ensure students receive support from the Title IX Office. A reporting form is available at https://cm.maxient.com/reportingform.php?SouthernUtahUniv

Non-Discrimination Statement

SUU is committed to fostering an inclusive community of lifelong learners and believes our university's encompassing of different views, beliefs, and identities makes us stronger, more innovative, and better prepared for the global society.

SUU does not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, citizenship, sex (including sex discrimination and sexual harassment), sexual orientation, gender identity, age, ancestry, disability status, pregnancy, pregnancy-related conditions, genetic information, military status, veteran status, or other bases protected by applicable law in employment, treatment, admission, access to educational programs and activities, or other University benefits or services.

SUU strives to cultivate a campus environment that encourages freedom of expression from diverse viewpoints. We encourage all to dialogue within a spirit of respect, civility, and decency.

For additional information on non-discrimination, please see SUU Policy 5.27 and/or visit https://www.suu.edu/nondiscrimination.

Pregnancy

Students who are or become pregnant during this course may receive reasonable modifications to facilitate continued access and participation in the course. Pregnancy and related conditions are broadly defined to include pregnancy, childbirth, termination of pregnancy, lactation, related medical conditions, and recovery. To obtain reasonable modifications, please make a request to title9@suu.edu. To learn more visit: https://www.suu.edu/titleix/pregnancy.html.

Disclaimer Statement

Information contained in this syllabus, other than the grading, late assignments, makeup work, and attendance policies, may be subject to change with advance notice, as deemed appropriate by the instructor.