Request for Designation as a Global Perspectives (GP) Course in Explorations
Name___Jacqueline Leary-Warsaw______________________________________________
Course number and title_MU 221, Ancient, Medieval, and Renaissance Music History_____
Departmental endorsement___Department of Music_______________________________
Has this course been submitted for any other Explorations designation? ___Yes_____
If so, which one? __IA and WR________
Please list which of your course assignments or activities addresses each of the guidelines, state
briefly how this is accomplished, and attach a syllabus or a preliminary redesign plan for the
course.
The criterion for a global perspectives course is a primary focus on the viewing of subject
matter within a global framework (culturally, politically, socially, economically, historically,
linguistically, or aesthetically).
This course examines the perception of music’s past, in all its historical, geographical and cultural breadth. The
study of a wide variety of repertoire and composers addresses the interpretation of past music cultures from the
earliest records of antiquity through the Renaissance. Geographical coverage focuses on Western Europe. Such
studies contextualize the background through which the discipline of music emerged from five complimentary
perspectives: its history (music and non-music contexts), relation to culture, linguistics (vocal music: foreign
language texts), formal analysis and creative structuring.
Assignment example:
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After reading Chapter 5 (England and Burgundy in the Fifteenth Century) in the required
textbook (Burkholder, J. Peter, Donald Jay Grout, and Claude Palisca. A History of Western
Music. 8th ed. New York, W. W. Norton, 2010.), students are given an extended writing
assignment in which they are asked the following:
 Explain how an international musical style developed in the mid-fifteenth century
and the historical and cultural circumstances that placed Burgundian composers at
the center of these developments.
 Briefly summarize Guillaume Du Fay’s career. How was it typical of musicians of his
era? How did his life facilitate the creation of an international style?
 Listen and study the score to Du Fay’s Resvellies vous. (Palisca, Claude, ed. Norton
Anthology of Western Music, Volume I: Ancient to Baroque. 6th ed. New York, W. W.
Norton, 2010)
o Which elements of this work resemble fourteenth-century French and
Italian music?
o Diagram the form of this work
o How does Du Fay’s rhythmic setting support the syntax of the French text?
o How does Du Fay use pictorial, rhetorical, or dramatic devices to convey the
meaning of the words?
Return this form as one electronic file with a syllabus appended to shagen@bsc.edu by 30 May 2011.
Birmingham-Southern College
MU 221, Ancient, Medieval, and Renaissance Music History
Professor
Jacqueline Leary-Warsaw/jwarsaw@bsc.edu
Office: Hill 120
Telephone: 220-4962
Textbooks (required)
Burkholder, J. Peter, Donald Jay Grout, and Claude Palisca. A History of Western Music. Eighth
ed. (New York, W. W. Norton, 2009).
Palisca, Claude, ed. Norton Anthology of Western Music, Volume I: Ancient to Baroque. Sixth ed.
(New York, W. W. Norton, 2010).
Textbook (optional, highly recommended)
Burkholder, J. Peter and Jennifer L. King. Study and Listening Guide for A History of Western
Music and Norton Anthology of Western Music, Sixth Edition. (New York, W. W. Norton,
2010)
Recordings (required)
Norton Recorded Anthology of Western Music, Volume I: Ancient to Baroque. Set of 6 CDs for use
with the Norton Anthology of Western Music, Vol. I. An on-line subscription is also available. If you
prefer the download option, there’s no need to buy the CDs. You can link to the Online Listening
Lab from the web page below. Note that you will need to have your discount code, which is located
at the front of the book.
The publisher's web site has several features you will want to use, chief among them the on-line
tutor. Point your browser to wwnorton.com and follow the College Books link to books on music, or
use this URL to go directly to the “Grout” home page:
http://www.wwnorton.com/college/music/grout8/
Scope and Goals
The course is a survey of the history of Western Music from its origins in Antiquity through the end
of the Renaissance. Emphasis will be placed on
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the facts of historical development in musical style
surviving sources and witnesses to that development
geographical, societal and cultural influences producing discrete musical styles
changes in performance practice during the periods covered
the origin and development of different genres of music
individual composers who contributed either to the development of styles or to the body of
surviving literature
There are several goals I have for you this term, and there are also some reasons I think this is an
important class for each of you.
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First, the acquisition of knowledge is a fundamental pursuit of the liberally-educated individual.
That's the very basis of the academic life you lead today.
From Antiquity through the present day, it has been a basic tenet of writers on music that true
musicians know their subject.
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Studying the history of the music of your own culture is part of the process of gaining
knowledge about the very substance that musicians work with on a day to day basis. You're a
musician. Everything you can possibly learn about music is important.
Of course, we realize that music is an ephemeral artistic product; it exists not as marks on a
page, which we can study at our leisure, but as sounds which have but a short life and then
disappear.
Summing it all up, the goal is to learn all you can about music, listen to it as much as you can, and
remember it all.
Objectives
If you do all that is asked of you in this class, making an honest effort to know the music, at the end
of the term, you should
 be able to speak knowledgably about the way music and society interacted in the period from ca.
600 BCE through 1600 AD.
 be able to cite the major steps in the development of western European musical style during that
time period
 be able to see or hear a piece of music from this time period and know from its style when it was
written, what genre of composition it is, and what its intended function was (i.e., why it was
written)
 know the major contributors to both the development of style and the surviving body of literature
If you keep these objectives in mind, it should help you organize the huge amount of information
you'll be expected to learn this term.
Assignments
I will post daily reading and listening assignments on MOODLE. PLEASE REMEMBER THAT YOU
ARE TO READ THE ASSIGNMENTS AND LISTEN TO THE MUSIC LISTED BEFORE YOU
COME TO CLASS. In fact, this will have a positive effect on your grade!
You will be responsible for learning to recognize many of the assigned pieces when you hear
them. Individual assignments will clearly identify which works are possible candidates for aural ID
quizzes and which are not.
You need to be prepared in each class to give an evaluation of the recorded performances
you have listened to in preparing for class. I will expect you to assess the degree to which the
spots on the page have been accurately and artistically converted to sounds. Your evaluations will
then form the basis for the first discussion in each class meeting.
You will be expected to do three online quizzes each week and occasional in-class “pop
quizzes”. Remember that Online Tutor that we talked about above? You will find the online
quizzes at that site. After you complete the quiz, the results will be sent to me with the touch of a
button, and I’ll keep track of your work and quiz grades via the site.
In addition to listening to music and reading the assigned material, you'll be expected to do some
writing each week. Don't be afraid, just do it.
Class Protocol
I expect each of you to
 Attend each class on time.
 Your daily attendance and participation grade will depend in large part on your preparation for
daily opportunities to show what you know from the readings.
 Read the assigned material before each class meeting.
 Listen to assigned material before each class meeting.
 Prepare questions about difficult-to-understand material and seek clarification at the beginning of
each class meeting.
 Turn off cell phones and other electronic devices (except laptop computers for taking notes)
before class begins. Do not let me see or hear any cell phones. If your phone rings during
class, I'll confiscate it and hold it for ransom.
 No laptops, unless we do work that specifically requires the use one.
 Bring the Anthology to each class.
 Notify me of any special needs or accommodations before the first quiz.
 Make arrangements to make up work before missing a class because of conflicts with other
classes or college activities.
 Learn to recognize and identify aurally all listening assignments.
 Submit all written assignments on or before the date they are due.
Meeting all of these expectations is the first step toward success in this class.
Quizzes, papers and exams
As pointed out above, you will be expected to take the online quiz either before or after each class
meeting – in other words, every Mon., Wed., and Fri. These quizzes have a dual purpose: to give
you some credit toward your grade, and to challenge you to absorb the background information you
will have to have in order to benefit as much as possible from class discussions.
You will receive full credit for attending and participating in the class if you do well on the quiz and
stay for the entire period. If you do not do well, or if you do not attend the entire class, you will not
receive full credit for participating in the class.
There will be six short in-class quizzes during the term. The calendar lists the dates of these short
quizzes, most of which will have a substantial aural ID component. All of them will have a
significant "take-home" component.
There will be a mid-term exam. It's on the schedule well after mid-term grades are due, but it falls
in just the right place so far as the subject matter is concerned. Because of the schedule, your
mid-term evaluation will not include your grade on this exam, but your final grade for the course
will. The format of the exam will be described in detail in one of your assignments at least one
week before the exam is given.
The final examination will be comprehensive, but you will find that it emphasizes material from the
latter part of the course. It will include a variety of opportunities for you to demonstrate what you
have learned in the course, including aural ID, term ID, composer ID, and at least two chances for
you to write at length on a subject.
You will be required to write two papers, details of which will be given to you two weeks before
each one is due. One will be due in the first half of the term, one in the final two weeks of classes.
You will also be required to write one recording review and a creative writing assignment (period
letters). Details of both are forthcoming.
Grades
The final grade for the course will be determined as follows:
Attendance and class preparation 20%
Daily assignments 20%
Online and in-class quizzes 20%
First paper 5%
Second paper 5%
Mid-Term Exam 10%
Final Exam 20%