28507 - Music Philology (LM)

Academic Year 2021/2022

  • Teaching Mode: Traditional lectures
  • Campus: Bologna
  • Corso: Second cycle degree programme (LM) in Music and Theatre Studies (cod. 8837)

Learning outcomes

By the end of this course, students will:

- acquire a basic knowledge of Musical Philology and its related issues;

- test a first practical approach to music publishing techniques.

Course contents

The transmission of musical texts and their critical review. Different types of music editions. Techniques of edition. The relationship between printed edition and historically conscious execution (with special reference to operatic texts). Introduction to the preparation of a critical edition by a software for music editing (Finale 2007 for Windows of MakeMusic Inc., in Italian).

Prerequisites. Students are recommended to have already taken an examination of literary philology (Greek-Latin Philology, Romance Philology or Italian Philology). On the other hand, they are required to fully master the musical grammar, as much of the lessons and the exam will take place on musical manuscripts to be transcribed.

Prior to the beginning of the lessons, students are encouraged to read the manual by M. Caraci Vela, vol. I (see the bibliography), to acquire the notions of history of philology and more specifically of musical philology, which will not be systematically treated during the lectures.

 

 

 

 

Readings/Bibliography

An introduction to the subject and its specific terminology
(one of the two texts, at students' choice, is mandatory for those who have not already taken an exam of literary philology)

Bruno Bentivogli – Paola Vecchi Galli, Filologia italiana, Milano, B. Mondadori, 2002.

Alfredo Stussi, Breve avviamento alla filologia italiana, nuova edizione, Bologna, Il Mulino, 2009.

 

Reference manual

Maria Caraci Vela, La filologia musicale. Istruzioni, storia, strumenti critici, vol. I (Fondamenti storici e metodologici della Filologia musicale), Lucca, Libreria Musicale Italiana, 2005; vol. II (Approfondimenti), Lucca, Libreria Musicale Italiana, 2009; vol. III (Antologia di contributi filologici), Lucca, Libreria Musicale Italiana, 2013.

Students are required to study volumes I and II (complete); in addition, 3 articles from vol. III.

A different approach to the subject, alternative to vol. I of Caraci Vela, is Georg Feder, Filologia musicale. Introduzione alla critica del testo, all'ermeneutica e alle tecniche d'edizione, Bologna, Il Mulino, 1992 (optional, no longer on sale, available in the Biblioteca di Musica e Spettacolo, via Barberia 4; also available in German).

 

Technical manuals (optional)

Giandomenico Piermarini, Nuovo Finale con brio. Capire ed imparare a usare bene il più importante programma di scrittura della musica col computer.  Aggiornato alla versione “Finale 2002” in italiano, per Windows e per Macintosh, Padova, Armelin Musica, 2002 (da affiancare eventualmente al manuale ufficiale del software).

Lorenzo Ferrero, Manuale di scrittura musicale, Torino, Edt, 2007 (to refresh the graphic conventions of music printing).

 

Supplementary readings
(3 articles at students’ choice, on subjects other than those form vol. III of Caraci Vela)

Giuseppina La Face, Filologia dei testi poetici nella musica vocale italiana, «Acta Musicologica», LXVI, 1994, pp. 1-21 (available on the VIRTUALE digital platform).

Lorenzo Bianconi, Hors-d'œuvre alla filologia dei libretti, «Il Saggiatore musicale», II, n. 1, 1995, pp.143-154 (available on the VIRTUALE digital platform).

Marco Beghelli, D'acciaccature, d'accenti e d'altre minuzie, in Vincenzo Bellini: verso l'edizione critica, a cura di Fabrizio Della Seta e Simonetta Ricciardi, Firenze, Olschki, 2004 («Chigiana», n. 45), pp. 49-59.

Philip Gossett, Rigoletto. L'edizione critica e la tradizione, Bologna, Teatro Comunale di Bologna, 1993 (booklet out of sale; available in the Biblioteca di Musica e Spettacolo and on the VIRTUALE digital platform).

The articles by Dietrich Berke, Margaret Bent, Claudio Gallico, Philip Gossett, in Enciclopedia della musica, a cura di Jean-Jacques Nattiez, vol. II: Il sapere musicale, Torino, Einaudi, 2002, pp. 909-979.

The articles by Stanley Boorman, Tim Carter, Angela Romagnoli, Anik Devriès-Lesure, Marco Beghelli, Claudio Toscani, Luca Aversano, Maria Grazia Sità nel volume Il libro di musica. Per una storia materiale delle fonti musicali in Europa, a cura di Carlo Fiore, Palermo, L'Epos, 2004, pp. 115-162, 215-238, 263-382).

The articles by Georg von Dadelsen, Carl Dahlhaus, Eva Badura-Skoda nell'antologia La critica del testo musicale, a cura di Maria Caraci Vela, Lucca, Libreria Musicale Italiana, 1995, pp. 47-73 e 181-198.

 

 

Other recommended readings (optional)

 

General:

Nino Pirrotta , Natura e problemi del testo musicale, in Poesia e musica e altri saggi, Firenze, La Nuova Italia, 1994, pp. 265-275.

The item Editing by James Grier, in The new Grove dictionary of music and musicians, 2. edition, a cura di Stanley Sadie, London, Macmillan, 2001 (with bibliography) (available on the VIRTUALE digital platform).

The articles of the proceedings of the concerence L'edizione critica tra testo musicale e testo letterario, a cura di Renato Borghi e Pietro Zappalà, Lucca, Libreria Musicale Italiana, 1995.

 

On specific topics discussed during the course:

The item by Ellen Rosand – Stanley Sadie – Roger Parker, in The new Grove dictionary of Opera, a cura di Stanley Sadie, London, Macmillan, 1992 (con la relativa bibliografia) (available on the VIRTUALE digital platform).

Giovanna Gronda, Statuto d'autore e statuto del testo nella librettistica del'700, in Il ritorno di Lorenzo da Ponte, a cura di Vittorino Pianca e Aldo Toffoli, Città di Vittorio Veneto, 1993, pp. 161-173.

Philip Gossett, Compositional Methods, in The Cambridge Companion to Rossini, a cura di Emanuele Sènici, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2004, pp. 68-84 e 234-235.

Patricia Brauner, Editing Rossini, in The Cambridge Companion to Rossini, a cura di Emanuele Sènici, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2004, pp. 216-228 e 244-245.

Winton Dean, The “True” Carmen?, «The Musical Times», CVI, n. 1473, novembre 1965, pp. 846-855 (available on the VIRTUALE digital platform); revised version in Id., Essays on Opera, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1990, pp. 281-300.

Gastone Belotti, Il problema del testo autentico delle opere di F. Chopin, «Quadrivium», XVII, n. 1, 1976, pp. 89-118; poi in Id., Saggi sull'arte e sull'opera di F. Chopin, Bologna, A.M.I.S., 1977, pp. 11-40.

Claudio Sartori, the article Stampa musicale, in Dizionario enciclopedico universale della musica e dei musi­cisti, a cura di Alberto Basso, Torino, UTET, 1983-1988, Il lessico, IV, pp. 384-396.

Bianca Maria Antolini, L'editoria musicale in Italia tra gli ultimi decenni del Settecento e i primi del Novecento, in Dizionario degli editori musicali italiani 1750-1930, Pisa, ETS, 2000, pp. 7-32.

Marco Beghelli, Che cosa ci dicono le “travature” vivaldiane?, in Antonio Vivaldi. Passato e futuro, Atti del convegno internazionale (Venezia, 13-16 giugno 2007), a cura di Francesco Fanna e Michael Talbot, Venezia, Fondazione Giorgio Cini, 2009, pp. 339-352, pubblicazione on line: https://www.cini.it/pubblicazioni/antonio-vivaldi-passato-e-futuro-it (available on the VIRTUALE digital platform)

Marco Beghelli, Per fedeltà a una nota, «Il Saggiatore musicale», VIII/2, 2001, pp. 295-316; ripubblicato in Maria Caraci Vela, La filologia musicale. Istituzioni, storia, strumenti critici, vol. III: Antologia di contributi filologici, Lucca, Libreria Musicale Italiana, 2013, pp. 483-514 (available on the VIRTUALE digital platform)

 

 

 

Teaching methods

This course has an essentially practical and seminar-based approach: most of the time will be dedicated to the analysis of critical editions published in recent years and tests of electronic editing of musical scores from ancient manuscripts. Students are strongly invited to attend the lectures, even if it’s not mandatory in bureaucratic terms, but essential for learning and preparing the final examination.

 

 

 

Assessment methods

The examination takes place in two distinct moments, but on the same day: in the morning, there will be a practical test of critical editing (transcription of music and related critical notes) from a manuscript source (a short score of the ’700-’800, with or without voices; time: 2 hours); students who pass the first part, can take the oral part, early in the afternoon, on the content of the texts in the bibliography. Transcripts are performed on Open Space classroom computers, using the software Finale2007 for Windows (MakeMusic Inc.) in Italian.

Students will pass the first part if they produce an accurate and precise print score according to the current graphic patterns, demonstrating to have properly identified and resolved any errors in the source to be transcribed and to have completed the musical text in the typical gaps of the handwritten form, highlighting them with conventional marks in the score, or with appropriate recordings in the critical notes.

During the oral examination, students shall demonstrate to know the theoretical principles of the Music Philology, on the basis of what learned by reading the reference manual (Caraci Vela, La filologia musicale); in addition to it, students who have never dealt with musical philology are invited to read a literary philology manual. Students shall then list in writing the titles of the 3 articles chosen from vol. III of the manual and the 3 from the "Supplementary Articles" in the bibliography: the teacher will decide immediately which of the articles the candidate shall illustrate to complete the oral exam.

 

 

 

Teaching tools

Part of the lectures will be held in the computer Laboratory of the Department of Arts (Via Barberia 4, Open Space) for learning the software Finale (music writing). Students are invited to get a copy of the software on their own for practicing autonomously for the exam. A guide to the use of the program is G. Piermarini's manual in the bibliography. Those not practice with the graphic habits of the printed music, are invited to read the manual of L. Ferrero in the bibliography.

To find some texts (articles on international journals and encyclopaedic items), students may use the electronic resources made available by the University of Bologna (eg JStor for international journals, Grove Music Online as a reference music encyclopaedia, or other electronic resources accessible through the Portale delle Biblioteche), downloadable and printable at all computers of the University or by personal computer activating the Proxy service (http://biblioteche.unibo.it/portale/strumenti/proxy).

 

 

 

Office hours

See the website of Marco Beghelli