SFSU Music 700: Laura Prichard

San Francisco State University
Department of Music
Music 700
Introduction to Graduate Study
Fall 2001

Faculty: Dr. Laura Prichard, (510) 336-0336, laura@prichard.net

Course meets: Tuesdays, 7:15 - 9:45pm, SFSU Creative Arts Building, Room 147

Description: A seminar designed as an introduction to music bibliography and basic research methodology. Pre- or corequisite to other graduate seminars. Priority given to music majors. Required for graduate students in Music. 3 units.

Use and evaluation of major bibliographic materials, including primary and secondary sources
Use of library resources and networks
Bibliographic style and techniques of research through development of individual projects. Individualized projects permit optimum benefit to students of each degree program.

Grading & Assignments:

Participation in Class Discussions, 25%
Journal Comparisons, due 10/2, 15%
Genesis/Reception History Paper, due 10/30, 20%
Performance Practice Essay, due 11/20, 20%
Annotated Repertoire Bibliography, due 12/18 (by Final exam time)20%

Texts: Writing About Music

Kate L. Turabian's A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations, 5th ed., rev., exp. by Bonnie Birtwistle Honigsblum (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987) will do just what the title promises: serve as a reference for all kinds of stylistic and formating problems.
Katherine Bergeron & Philip V. Bohlman, eds.:Disciplining Music: Musicology and Its Canons (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992).

Schedule:

9/4 Introduction to Research Methods & History of Musicology [CA147]

Bibliographic Materials for Music Research
Documentary biographies
Critical editions
Journals & Dissertations
Online indexes & Research Tools

~~9/11~~ Library & Campus Closed for Emergency

9/18 Library Tour & Catalog Demonstration [Library]

Locate catalogs, search by author, title, keyword, subject
Reference tools and music classification
Online & specialized resources

9/25 Primary Sources of Biography & Reception History: "Amadeus as Case Study"[CA147]

Gramit, David. "Constructing a Victorian Schubert: Music, Biography, and Cultural Values." Nineteenth-Century Music 17/1 (1993), 65-78.
Locating sources - printed guides

10/2 Journal Comparison due [CA147]

~~10/9~~ Class Canceled - Instructor Illness

10/16 History of Western Music: Overview of Periods & Styles [CA147]

Disciplining Music, pp. 1-22. Bergeron, "Prologue: Disciplining Music," and Randel, "The Canons in the Musicological Toolbox."

~~10/23~~ Individual Library & Archives Appointments

10/30 History of Ethnomusicology & Esthetics [CA147]

Disciplining Music, pp. 116-155. Bohlman, "Ethnomusicology's Challenge to the Canon; the Canon's Challenge to Ethnomusicology," and Nettl, "Mozart and the Ethnomusicological Study of Western Culture: An Essay in Four Movements"

11/6 Genesis/Reception History Paper due: Presentations [CA147]

11/13 Original & secondary sources as performance material. More presentations.[CA147]

Read at least two articles from this bibliography on women and performance
Study/application of theoretical works relevant to historical performance practices.
Finding, using, and evaluating sources: editions of music.
Critique of historical editions changing repertory.

11/20 Popular Music & Dance Resources [CA147]

Disciplining Music, pp. 44-94. Morgan, "Rethinking Musical Culture: Canonic Reformulations in a Post-Tonal Age," and Tomlinson, "Cultural Dialogics and Jazz: A White Historian Signifies."

11/27 Brief presentations on Performance Practice Essay [CA147]

Disciplining Music, pp. 95-115 and 182-196. Gossett, "History and Works That Have No History: Reviving Rossini's Neapolitan Operas," and Bergeron, "A Lifetime of Chants."

~~12/4~~ Outside assignment completion: develop final bibliography prospectus, send email of Performance Practice Essay (due)

12/11 Review & Conclusions [CA147]

Disciplining Music, pp. 156-181 and 197-210. Cohn and Dempster, "Hierarchical Unity, Plural Unities: Toward a Reconciliation" and Bohlman, "Epilogue: Musics and Canons."
Published bibliographies, discographies, and webliographies

Final: Annotated Repertoire Bibliography due by 10pm on December18 (during finals)

Objectives and methods:

This course is intended to prepare you to carry out the research and writing that you will need to do as a music teacher, performer, and/or scholar. It will focus on research and writing within the sphere of western art or "classical" music, with a particular focus on the history and performance practices of this music since 1600.

Among our specific goals will be:

learning (or improving our understanding of) how to use a music library and related online resources
learning to locate, read, and evaluate primary and secondary literature about music and musical reference materials
learning to locate, use, and evaluate editions of music
clearly presenting our findings--facts, interpretations, and evaluations--in both aural and written forms

We will not be primarily concerned with music performance or education, music theory, popular and non-Western music, or sound recordings. After completing the course, however, you will be prepared to carry out your own investigations in these and many other areas.

Course requirements

This is an intensive course: a full semester's worth of work must be covered within just thirteen class meetings. For this reason, attendance is mandatory and more than one unexcused absence will result in an automatic reduction of grade.

Because this is a graduate course, students are expected to come to class fully prepared, having done all reading and writing assignments and ready to participate in class discussion. We are entered here into a radical social contract, and I pledge to uphold my end. Please respect our commitment to each other. Class participation will constitute 25% of the final grade.

Major assignments will comprise both aural and written components: typically, students will be asked to give a ten-minute presentation to the class and to turn in a written version of their presentation. In the case of the "Journal Comparison" a brief outline will suffice, but students will also prepare several more formal pieces of writing, including a two research paper at least 10 pages in length, and an annotated bibliography, due on the final exam date. The is in lieu of an in-class final examination and will be worth 20% of the final grade; the three other assignments will total 55% of the grade.

Seminar format

Much of this course will be taught in a seminar setting, method courtesy of Socrates. You will not be lectured at, unless the topic is specifically marked "lecture." Rather we will get to practice sharing information and insights, based on individual and common research and topics. The general structure of the course will find us proceeding from developing research techniques and methods, to identifying problems of and perspectives in music history, to applying methods to historical problems of our own devising and interest.

Collaboration

Because you will all be working on similar assignments in the same places, you are encouraged to help one another locate and use items in the library or online. You are also encouraged to share advice with one another about how to use resources and how to evaluate them. However, all class presentations and written work must be strictly your own. Any sharing of written work or helping one another with the actual writing or preparation of assignments is strictly forbidden and will be considered a breach of academic regulations.

In addition, please be considerate of your fellow students and other library users. When you finish using an item, carefully return it to its proper place on the shelf, double-checking the call number. Please do not leave items out on desks or in carrels, and if you must carry them out of their immediate area (for instance, to use the photocopiers), bring them back where they belong; otherwise it may be several days before the library staff reshelves them!