Music 102 - FIRST NIGHTS

This course serves as an introduction to the history of western music by studying in detail the first performances of a small number of singularly important works in the western tradition including Orfeo, (Monteverdi), Messiah (Handel), the Ninth Symphony (Beethoven), the Symphony fantastique (Berlioz), and Le Sacre du printemps (Stravinsky). Using Thomas Kelly's textbook "First Nights" (which treats these five compositions) as well as videos and supplementary reading and listening materials, students will come to understand musical monuments as aesthetic objects and as manifestations of the artistic cultures that engendered them.