LeonoraPiacenti
The History of Music and Musical Theatre course is designed to help those with little or no knowledge of music to understand the language of music. More specifically, the focus of the course is not so much on providing a comprehensive textbook-style overview of schools, composers and issues related to specific musical teaching topics, such as notation, composition, harmony, and so on, as on highlighting, throughout the more than two thousand years of music history, the challenging path towards achieving linguistic autonomy and, consequently, the contentious and at times dramatic relationship with language. In addition, in collaboration with an Academy of Fine Arts, the primary aim is to encourage reflection not so much on instrumental music as on music linked to performing arts experiences and to visuality in general, thereby connecting the world of sound with the world of images.
The course is supported by material derived from the ‘reading’ of a number of films and video recordings of musical performances.
COMPULSORY TEXTS
MILA, Massimo, BREVE STORIA DELLA MUSICA, Einaudi.
Course handout entitled LA SCENA DI ORFEO, 2017/18 edition, available online only at www.ilmiolibro.it from the L’Espresso Publishing Group. L’Espresso Publishing Group.
In addition to studying the texts and the course handout, students are required to prepare a non-written research project on a musical performance of their choice, taken from any of the repertoires studied: melodrama, opera, operetta, musical, ballet, etc., not from those viewed in class.