27134 - History of Singing (1)

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course the student:

- knows the main formal structures and the main constructive and communicative strategies of pop music of the twentieth century and can analyze songs and albums also with attention to the interaction between poetry and music;

- knows how to gather and evaluate the relationships, sometimes complex and contradictory, between songs, society and social groups;

- knows how to orient himself among the main musical tendencies that have characterized the history of twentieth-century song and historically and critically contextualize authors, songs and albums;

- will be able to describe and comment on all these aspects in a relevant language, such as to combine scientific rigor and communicative effectiveness.

Course contents

The course aims to offer a broad historical background on the origins and developments of the genre of the song from around the mid-nineteenth century to the present, with particular attention to the situation in Italy. The overview gradually delineated, will examine in depth both the relationships between the production and dissemination of important works and the historical-social and cultural contexts of reference, as well as the multiple interconnections that are generated between different traditions and repertoires in terms of genre, style, content and form. The formal aspect of the song, understood as a complex architectural project within which the relations between the verbal and musical dimension are also articulated, will be the subject of analysis for some emblematic cases.

Readings/Bibliography

C. COSI - F. IVALDI, Fabrizio De André. Cantastorie fra parole e musica, Roma, Carocci, 2011.

R. DI MAURO, “È nata mmiezo mare…” tra stroppole e intercalare. Forme e matrici in due celebri canzoni napoletane di primo Ottocento, Michelemmà e Io te voglio bene assaje, in Le forme della canzone, a cura di E. Careri e G. Ruberti, Lucca, LIM, 2014, pp. 93-120.

F. FABBRI, Forme e modelli delle canzoni dei Beatles, in F. Fabbri, Il suono in cui viviamo, Roma, Arcana, 2002, pp. 108-131.

S. FACCI - P. SODDU, Il festival di Sanremo. Parole e suoni raccontano la canzone, Roma, Carocci 2011, pp. 68-81.

S. LA VIA, Princìpi e modelli formali della canzone d’autore, in Le forme della canzone, a cura di E. Careri e G. Ruberti, Lucca, LIM, 2014, pp. 3-43.

J. TOMATIS, Storia culturale della canzone italiana, Milano, Il Saggiatore, 2019, Cap. 4 (pp. 265-282), Cap. 6.

 

N.B.

For further details, please check regularly the "Avvisi" section on the Professor's personal website.

Non-attending students should contact the Professor (claudioantonio.cosi@unibo.it) to agree on the alternative program.

Teaching methods

The course is organized in lectures during which listenings and projections of audiovisual documents will be proposed, so as to exemplify and stimulate discussion and active participation by students.

Assessment methods

The exam will consist of an oral interview aimed at evaluating both the acquisition of specific knowledge and skills, as well as the ability to critically and personally discuss the main contents emerging from the course and from the reading of the reference texts.

It will be assessed as excellent the performance of those students achieving an organic vision of the course contents, the use of a proper specific language, a structural and historical-contextual understanding of the pieces studied, the originality of the reflection as well as the familiarity with the tools of analysis of the History of Song. It will be assessed as discrete the performance of those students showing mostly mechanical or mnemonic knowledge of the subject, not articulated synthesis and analysis capabilities, a correct but not always appropriate language, as well as a scholastic study of History of Song. It will be assessed as barely sufficient the performance of those students showing learning gaps, inappropriate language, lack of knowledge of the instruments of History of Song. It will be assessed as insufficient the performance of those students showing learning gaps, inappropriate language, no orientation within the recommended bibliography and inability to analyse the History of Song.

Office hours

See the website of Claudio Cosi