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MUSI2080 Music Analysis I
Course Type: disciplinary elective for music majors/minors, free elective for others
Prerequisite: MUSI2070 Fundamentals of Tonal Music
Instructor: Professor Daniel CHUA
Semester:  Second Semester 2022/23
Time: 10:30am – 12:20pm, Thursday
Venue: CRT-11.01 Seminar Room
This course endeavours to develop students’ understanding of tonal procedures in the melodic and harmonic construction of music during the 18th and 19th centuries, focusing in particular on the music of the Classical period. Students are expected to develop skills in music analysis, primarily through examining Schoenberg’s ideas of motif, phrase, period, sentence, and developing variation, in order to understand the construction of tonal form.
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Course Learning Outcomes
Assessment Methods
Topics
Text & Resource Materials
Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:
  • demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the basic procedures of musical analysis and Schoenberg’s ideas of motif, phrase, period, sentence, and developing variation;
  • make informed historical and theoretical judgements on music;
  • synthesize a variety of evidence from different kinds of source (musical, textual, visual) and generate a coherent argument from it.
Portfolio (20-30% depending on the number of assignments set) Students are required to complete 2-3 small exercises during the course of the semester. Although the assignments only make up a small percentage of the overall mark, they are a prerequisite for the submission of the final project.
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Final Project (70-80%) This will be an extended analysis of a set work. Students are expected to apply all the skills acquired during the course in this project to demonstrate their music analytical abilities.
  • Introduction to Analysis
  • Functions
  • Phrase Constructions
  • Models and Deviations
  • Motivic Analysis
  • Tonal Analysis
  • Formal Analysis
  • Arnold Schoenberg, Fundamentals of Musical Composition.
  • William E Caplin, Classical Form: A Theory of Formal Functions for the Instrumental Music and Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven.
  • Charles Rosen, The Classical Style.