78079 - Methodology of Musical Analysis (1) (LM)

Course contents

Aspects of syntax and form in Johann Sebastian Bach's instrumental music

Since the musical discourse has a grammar, it is therefore provided with specific morphosyntactic and rhetoric functions. The course will investigate these functions in the sound architectures of Bach's music, with particular attention to the syntactic models inherited and handed down by him, to their contrapuntal and harmonic substance, and to their rhetorical dimension.

Students with learning disorders and\or temporary or permanent disabilities: please, contact the office responsible (https://site.unibo.it/studenti-con-disabilita-e-dsa/en/for-students) as soon as possible so that they can propose acceptable adjustments. The request for adaptation must be submitted in advance (15 days before the exam date) to the lecturer, who will assess the appropriateness of the adjustments, taking into account the teaching objectives.

Readings/Bibliography

A) Basic texts

1) Caplin, William, What are Formal Functions?, in: W. Caplin, J. Hepokoski, J. Webster, Musical Form, Forms & Formenlehre. Three methodological Reflections, Leuven Univesity Press, Leuven 2010, pp. 21-40;

2) Mastropasqua, Mauro, Tipi e categorie logiche della sintassi e della forma musicale, "Il Saggiatore musicale", 31, n. 2, 2024 [forthcoming]

B) Further readings

3) Mastropasqua, Mauro, Logica musicale. Storia di un'idea, Bononia University Press, Bologna 2011, §§ 1-4 (pp. 13-86);

4) Zoppelli, Luca, «Ut prudens et artifex orator»: sulla consistenza di una «dottrina» retorico-musicale fra Controriforma e Illuminismo, "Rivista italiana di Musicologia", 23, 1988, pp. 132-156.

Assessment methods

(1) Written test. Analysis of syntactic and formal functions (according to the methodology shown at lesson), of the main harmonic articulations and of the tonal plan of a piece assigned by the teacher the same day of the exam. Allowed time for the written test: 3 hours.

(2) Oral test. Discussion of the analysis above mentioned; questions about the contents of the essays in bibliography (on both the texts A and B).

Students with SLD or temporary or permanent disabilities. It is necessary to contact the relevant University office (https://site.unibo.it/studenti-con-disabilita-e-dsa/en) with ample time in advance: the office will propose some adjustments, which must in any case be submitted 15 days in advance to the lecturer, who will assess the appropriateness of these in relation to the teaching objectives.

Office hours

See the website of Mauro Mastropasqua