MUSIC 7204 - Seminar in Eighteenth Century Music

Spring. 4 credits. Letter grades only.

Enrollment limited to: graduate students; upper-class music majors with permission of instructor.

R. Harris-Warrick.

This seminar will focus on mid-century opera, starting from theatrical works by Jean-Philippe Rameau, but also turning toward operas from across Europe, in accordance with student interests. One goal is to gain familiarity with the variety of operatic styles around the middle of the 18th century by studying both representative works and the institutional structures that supported them. Another is to take advantage of the Cornell library’s rich holdings in primary materials—scores (both printed and manuscript), librettos, iconographic sources, archival documents, theoretical writings—as well as 18th-century sources available on line, in order to build skills in utlizing and interpreting such materials. A unit on editing opera will cultivate another set of useful skills.

Topic for 2018-2019:

Spring: Opera Across Europe in the Middle of the 18th Century- Rameau and his Contemporaries