87595 - Introduction to the Study of Music I

Learning outcomes

The educational aims of the teaching are the enhancement of music as a material and immaterial cultural heritage. At the end of the course the student has learnt the words of music, i.e. the technical terminology which allows him/her to speak about the fundamental concepts of the Western musical theory and practice. The student is able to manage the tools that allow him/her a conscious listening to the music, in particular the main genres of the repertoire of the Western art music and is able to contextualize them in the cultural history.

Course contents

The course is aimed at all students who wish to be introduced to musical heritage knowledge. The course is accessible to all students of the three-year degree in Conservation of Cultural Heritage (L-1), as it is intended as a preparatory course for any kind of musical knowledge and is therefore aimed at a mixed audience, made up of both those who have no knowledge of the language of music at all and those who wish to deepen their knowledge through the guided course in 'Musical Heritage'.

The educational purposes of the course concern the enhancement of the ethical, social and cultural function of listening and performing music for any person and for any society of past or contemporary age.

The teaching objective is twofold, and it aims to contribute to forming an awareness towards the recognition of the musical heritage, both material and immaterial, in its cultural context. Special attention will be paid to the different types of sources, musical terminology and performance contexts and music enhancement.

Attending students can be followed in individual exercises.

Foreign students are required to contact the professor at least one month before the exams, writing to donatella.restani@unibo.it

The course will include three parts.

In the first one, students will be introduced to the concept of 'Musical heritage', to the practices to enhance the immaterial musical heritage by UNESCO, and to the methodologies for the study of musical heritage as a form of culture.

In the second part, the focus will be on "The Words of Music", curated by PhD G. Casali, who will offer students short listening sessions and indications on the main types of sources and the methods with which to analyse them from a musicological perspective. Students will be guided to listen to some of the main forms and genres of European music and construct personal listening paths linked to enhancing the musical heritage. 

In the third part, the theme of the relationship between music and museums will be addressed, through case studies on the enhancement of music in music museums, musical instrument museums, ethnographic museums, art museums, archaeological museums, and natural science museums. Each attending student will be guided through the recent bibliography on the subject, on the basis of which they will carry out an exercise.

Non-attending students are invited to supplement the preparation of what is indicated in the bibliography with the reading of the volume: A. Vanoli, Note che raccontano la storia, Bologna, il Mulino 2022.

Readings/Bibliography

First Part

Codice dei beni culturali e del paesaggio, 2004 [https://virtuale.unibo.it/mod/url/view.php?id=1253948]

UNESCO Intangible and Tangible Musical Heritage. [https://ich.unesco.org/en/tangible-and-intangible-heritage-00097]

A. Pompilio - A. Iannucci, I beni musicali: verso una definizione, "Il Saggiatore musicale", 1, 2004, pp. 157-180 [https://virtuale.unibo.it/mod/resource/view.php?id=1253950]

F. A. Gallo, Introduzione a Musica e storia tra Medio evo e Età Moderna, Bologna, 1986, pp. 9-29.

F. A. Gallo, Musica e storia da tre letture, "Musica e Storia", I, 1993, pp. 23-38.

Second Part : The 'Words of Music'

F. Della Seta, Breve lessico musicale, Roma, Carocci, 2014 (2nd ed.).

Third Part: Music and museums

Julius von Schlosser, Raccolte d'arte e di meraviglie del tardo Rinascimento,(1908), trad. it., introduzione di Cristina De Benedictis, Sansoni, Firenze 2000.

Monographic number of the journal about the relationship between music and museum: "Curator. The Museum Journal", 62/3, 2019.

Comune di Bologna. Museo internazionale e Biblioteca della Musica. Guida al percorso espositivo, a cura di L. Bianconi e P. Isotta, 2a ed. (Comune di Bologna, 2006)

Other bibliographical references will be proposed during the lessons and will be made available online.

For non-attending students it is suggested to integrate the previous program by reading the following text:

A. Vanoli, Note che raccontano la storia, Bologna, il Mulino 2022.

Teaching methods

Lessons are accompanied by audio-visual aids, computer aids, use of videos and, above all, listening.

The teaching includes both conferences and seminars with focus groups, as well as individual exercises that will be the subject of the first part of the assessment.

 

Students who, for reasons dependent on disabilities or specific learning disorders (DSA), need compensatory tools may inform the teacher of their needs so that they can be referred to the contact persons and agree on the adoption of the most appropriate measures.

Service for students with disabilities and SLD 

Assessment methods

The exam consists of an oral interview, which, for attending students, will be introduced by the presentation of their individual exercises.

The examination will concern:

- first, knowledge of the concept of sound event, musical heritage, musical sources and the importance of music as part of history and  culture of the human beings, and the ability to orient oneself in active and critical listening to musical genres;

- secondly, will be tested the ability to use appropriate terminology in the description of the main musical structures: monody and polyphony, intervals and chords, melody, rhythm, harmony, and in the recognition of musical instruments ;

- at last, the knowledge of the main repertoires and bibliographical tools in historical musicology will be considered.

The final assessment will be expressed in the following ways:

- insufficient: lack of basic knowledge and incorrect or misleading interpretation of the topics;

- sufficient: basic knowledge; mainly correct interpretation but carried out with terminological imprecision and little autonomy;

- good: intermediate level knowledge; fully correct interpretation, but not always precise and autonomous;

- excellent grade: high level knowledge; interpretation of problems not only correct but conducted with autonomy and precision. Excellent oral expression skills.

Teaching tools

PC with video projector, sound reproduction instruments, video tools.

Students who, for reasons dependent on disabilities or specific learning disorders (DSA), need compensatory tools may inform the teacher of their needs so that they can be referred to the contact persons and agree on the adoption of the most appropriate measures.

Service for students with disabilities and SLD 

Students can take 2 more CFU attending the DIDACTIC LABORATORY “MUSICAL EXPERIENCES IN TRAVELOGUES”.

Responsible: prof. Donatella Restani, in collaboration with PhD candidate Alessia Zangrando (PhD 37th cycle).

Programme: The didactic laboratory “Musical Experiences in Travelogues” proposes to look at travel literature as a source for the study of music between ancient and modern times in order to gather new data for the study of communities that have no written musical tradition and are considered “distant” in a geographical, chronological or cultural sense.

The aim is to valorise the material and immaterial aspects of these types of sources and to reflect on the need to look at a still little-known musical heritage with an interdisciplinary approach through the analysis of manuscripts, iconographic representations and musical notation. Students will also be encouraged to consider the problems related to the musical terminology used in the travelogues and the classification of the reported sound experiences. Finally, an Excel file will be populated with the collected data, which will feed into a relational database.

Max number of students: 15 (including 7 for LM5).

Entry requirements: none

Application procedure: send an e-mail to donatella.restani@unibo.it and, for information, to alessia.zangrando2@unibo.it.

Running period: 9, 15, 22 April, 20 May 2024 (2 to 4 p.m., in-presence and online)

Basic bibliography: S. Emerit, S. Perrot, A. Vincent, Le paysage sonore de l'Antiquité. Méthodologie, historiographie et perspectives, Actes de la journée d'études tenue à l'Ecole française de Rome, le 7 janvier 2013, Châtillon, Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale, 2015 ; F. A. Gallo, Introduction, in: Musica e Storia dal Medio Evo all'Età moderna, Bologna, il Mulino, 1985, pp. 9-29; F. A. Gallo, Premessa, in P. Dessì (ed.), Per una storia dei popoli senza note, Bologna, Clueb, 2010, pp. 7-10; N. Guidobaldi, D. Restani, Paesaggi con eventi sonori: dall’Antichità al Grand Tour. Introduzione a due voci, in Patrimonio culturale condiviso: viaggiatori prima e dopo il Grand Tour, Napoli, Associazione culturale viaggiatori, Dipartimento di Beni Culturali, Università degli Studi di Bologna, 2019, 2019, pp. 331 – 337; D. Restani, A Note, in «Itineraria», 2017, 16, pp. 7-11.

Links to further information

https://www.digitalconcerthall.com/en/home

Office hours

See the website of Donatella Restani