Music in the Renaissance

A journey through the musical landscape of the Renaissance, taken here as roughly the period 1400-1600. Particular emphasis on listening and appreciation, and on developing the vocabulary to articulate informed assessment of compositional method and style. Materials include recordings, scores, images, original texts, and secondary literature. Ability to read musical notation is essential; experience in counterpoint would be helpful. Attention will be paid to historical developments such as humanism, bookprinting, the Black Death and its aftermath, the Reformation, the art of conversation, and so on. Final project is an essay.