Music and Words
Zachary Coates
Jacobs School of Music
One of the most common artistic fusions we encounter in our daily lives is the melding of words and music to create song. This course seeks to give students a deeper understanding of the relationship between these two media, both from a historical perspective and in terms of modern-day music. Through readings, lectures, film viewings, live performances, and intensive class discussion, students will develop critical thinking and analytical tools for English language poetry, poetry in languages they do not speak, vocal and instrumental music, and the fusion of diverse media in general. In order to highlight the intersection between words and music, most of the class’s time will be spent on the vocal musical genres of “art song” and opera. In art song, a composer carefully sets a poem to music, typically for voice and piano. The course will cover art songs from the 19th and 20th centuries in England, Germany, France, and America, studying poets like Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Paul Verlaine, and Langston Hughes and composers like Franz Schubert, Claude Debussy, and Aaron Copland. An introduction to the operas of W.A. Mozart, Giacomo Puccini, and Benjamin Britten expand the fusion of words and music to incorporate theatrical drama, which will allow the class to study musical settings of Shakespeare’s plays. And the course closes with a discussion on modern, popular song, encouraging students to dig into music they hear on a daily basis for the ways words and sounds interact to create more powerful and interesting art. Student success will be evaluated through written critical analysis assignments as well as multiple class presentations each week. Students are not required to perform in class: performers will be brought in for live performances. No musical background required. No poetry background required. No French or German required. All levels of those skills are welcome.
This course is eligible for honors credit through Hutton Honors College.
Catalog Information: MUS-Z 171 OPERA THEATER