Humanities, University of Southampton

The module teaches skills in recognizing, describing and reproducing short musical forms, and develop skills in score-reading, including string quartet scores. The module will also discuss major and minor tonality: their similarities and differences, cadential harmonies, secondary dominants, Neapolitan and augmented sixth chords, diminished seventh chords.

Co-ordinator:  Professor William Drabkin

Having successfully completed the module, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of antecedent and consequent phrasing, melodic designs and their implied harmonies, variation technique as practiced by Haydn and Mozart, and modulation to the dominant and to the relative major. You should also be able to harmonize a folksong or Classical melody, correctly apply cadences to musical phrases, and to use secondary dominants, Neapolitan and augmented sixth chords, and diminished seventh chords in their proper context, compose variations on a given theme, compose minuets for string quartet, including small sonata forms.

The module looks at a sample of pieces each focusing on a sifferent aspects of eighteenth-century harmonic and compositional practice. Weekly assignments, alternating between informal and formal, focus on each of these aspects.

Two hourly classes per week, in groups of 15 students looking at folksongs, examples of Classical music (Mozart, Haydn, early Beethoven). Weekly exercises in the topics indicated above. Formative, non-assessed assignments alternate with formal assessments.

Musical works:

• Mozart’s: Pamina’s Act 2 Aria, and other numbers from The Magic Flute
• Haydn and Mozart: minuets from the string quartets
• Beethoven: “Moonlight” Sonata, first movement.

Books:

• Anna Butterworth: Harmony in Practice (Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music)
• Johann-Joseph Fux: The Study of Counterpoint (W. W. Norton)
• The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (for musical terminology)
• Walter Piston: Harmony (any edition)

• Four formal assessments, each comprising one to two pages of music each, each covering about two of the above topics, and each worth 15% of the mark for the module.
• One final project, covering all the above topics, including the composition of a minuet in sonata form, in all comprising about four to five pages of music. Worth 40%.