Library Assignments

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Back to Eric Hung's Courses

Back to Eric Hung's Home Page

Music 520: Research Seminar: Benjamin Britten
Fall 2002
 Instructor: Eric Hung

 Syllabus

This syllabus is subject to change.
 
Prerequisite: Graduate Standing in Music
Class Meetings: MW 3:10 - 4:00pm
Credits: 2
 
Goals:
(1)     To learn about and use resources available for music research;
(2)     To gain experience in writing research proposals and research papers;
(3)     To gain experience in presenting academic work;
(4)     To discuss current issues raised in the field of music history.
 
Course Basics:
In the first five weeks, you will learn about and use a variety of resources that are available for music research.  Then, you will pick a research topic, on which you will write a research proposal, give a 20-minute presentation, and write a short research paper.
To give the class some coherence and to ensure that your classmates give you helpful feedback, I have decided that the class will focus on the works of Benjamin Britten.  A prolific British composer with deep interests in music education, performance, business and politics, Britten allows us to examine many of the social issues that are embedded in music and musical life.  So, over the course of the semester, we will as a class read a significant number of articles that deal with Britten’s works.  The goals of these reading assignments are: (1) to give you an idea of the large variety of questions that are raised by music, and (2) to give you some ideas for your own research.
 
Workload:
This is a graduate seminar, so expect to spend between eight and ten hours on this course each week.
 
Grading:
      Library Assignments       25%
      Class Participation         15%
      Research Proposal         20%
      Public Presentation        20%
      Final Write-Up                 20%
 
 
CLASS SCHEDULE
 
 
Week
Library Assignment
Britten Topic
Research Paper on Death in Venice
1
The Dewey Decimal and Library of Congress Classification Systems
Juvenilia
 
2
The Internet and Computer Databases
The Concertos and the Early Symphonic Works
 
3
Dictionaries and Encyclopedias
Peter Grimes
 
4
Subject Bibliographies
Pieces for Children
 
5
Thematic Catalogs and Anthologies
Songs and Choral Music
 
6
 
The Turn of the Screw
Discuss Possible Topics
7
 
The Midsummer Night's Dream
Discuss Format of Research Proposal
8
 
War Requiem
Short Progress Report
9
 
Cello Symphony
Short Progress Report
10
 
Britten and Orientalism
DUE: Annotated Bibliography
11
 
Owen Wingrave I
DUE: Research Proposal
12
 
Owen Wingrave II and the Very Last Works
Short Progress Report
13
 
 
Long Progress Report
14
 
 
25-minute Public Presentation
Finals Week
 
 
DUE: Write-Up of Presentation

 
READINGS TO BE CHOSEN FROM THE FOLLOWING:
Aldrich-Moodie, James.  1998.  Toward a Sociology of Opera and Literature: Three Case Studies.  Unpublished Dissertation: Stanford University.
Brett, Philip.  1977.  “Britten and Grimes.”  Musical Times 118: 995-1000.
----------.  1992.  “Britten’s Bad Boys: Male Relations in The Turn of the Screw.”  Repercussions 1: 5-25.
----------.  1993.  “Britten’s Dream.”  In Musicology and Difference: Gender and Sexuality in Music Scholarship, edited by Ruth Solie, 259-280.  Berkeley: University of California Press.
----------.  1994.  “Eros and Orientalism in Britten’s Operas.”  In Queering the Pitch: The New Gay and Lesbian Musicology, edited by Philip Brett, Elizabeth Wood, and Gary C. Thomas, 235-256.  New York: Routledge.
----------.  1996.  “Toeing the Line: Britten’s Relationship to the Pastoral Tradition.”  Musical Times 137: 7-13.
Britten, Benjamin.  1941.  “England and the Folk-Art Problem.”  Modern Music 18: 71-75.
----------.  1998 (written 1964).  “On Receiving the First Aspen Award.”  In Contemporary Composers on Contemporary Music, edited by Elliott Schwartz and Barney Childs, 115-123.  New York: Da Capo Press.
Carpenter, Humphrey.  1992.  Benjamin Britten: A Biography.  New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons.
Cooke, Mervyn.  1996.  Benjamin Britten: War Requiem.  Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
-----------.  1997.  Britten and the Far East: Asian Influences on the Music of Benjamin Britten.   
Cooke, Mervyn, ed.  1999.  The Cambridge Companion to Benjamin Britten.  Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Ellis, Jim.  1997.  “Strange Meeting: Wilfred Owen, Benjamin Britten, Derek Jarman, and the War Requiem.”  In The Work of Opera: Genre, Nationhood, and Sexual Difference, edited by Richard Dellamora and Daniel Fischlin, 277-296.  New York: Columbia University Press.
Evans, Peter.  1996.  The Music of Benjamin Britten.  Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Hindley, Clifford.  1990.  “Why Does Miles Die?  A Study of The Turn of the Screw.”  The Musical Quarterly 74: 1-17.
Howard, Patricia, ed.  1985.  Benjamin Britten: The Turn of the Screw.  Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
McDonald, Ellen.  1986.  “Women in Benjamin Britten’s Operas.”  The Opera Quarterly 4: 83-101.
McClatchie, Stephen.  1996.  “Benjamin Britten, Owen Wingrave and the Politics of the Closet; or, ‘He Shall Be Straightened Out at Paramore.’”  Cambridge Opera Journal 8: 59-75.
McKellar, Shannon.  1999.  “Music, Image and Ideology in Britten’s Owen Wingrave: Conflict in a Fissured Text.”  Music & Letters 80: 390-410.
Palmer, Christopher, ed.  1984.  The Britten Companion.  Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Sinclair, Frances T.  1997.  Benjamin Britten’s Music for Children: Reflections on Youth and Innocence.  Unpublished Dissertation: University of North Carolina, Greensboro.
Whitesell, Lloyd.  1993.  Images of Self in the Music of Benjamin Britten.  Unpublished Dissertation: SUNY-Stony Brook.
Whittall, Arnold.  1993.  “The Signs of Genre: Britten’s Version of Pastoral.”  In Sundry Sorts of Music Books: Essays on the British Library Collections, Presented to O.W. Neighbour on His 70th Birthday, edited by Chris Banks, Arthur Searle and Malcolm Turner, 363-374.  London: The British Library. 
----------.  2000.  “Britten’s Lament: The World of Owen Wingrave.”  Music Analysis 19: 145-166.
 
 
LISTENING ASSIGNMENTS TO BE CHOSEN FROM THE FOLLOWING:
Two Portraits (1930; 15 mins.)
Double Concerto (1932; 22 mins.)
Sinfonietta, Op. 1 (1932; 15 mins.)
Violin Concerto, Op. 15 (1939, rev. 1958)
Sinfonia da requiem, Op. 20 (1940)
A Ceremony of Carols, Op. 28 (1942; 23 mins.)
Serenade, Op. 31 (1943; 23 mins.)
Peter Grimes, Op. 33 (1944-45; 145 mins.)
The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra, Op. 34 (1946; 14 mins.)
St. Nicolas, Op. 42 (1948; 51 mins.)
The Little Sweep, Op. 45 (1949)
The Turn of the Screw, Op. 54 (1954; 107 mins.)
Noye’s Fludde, Op. 59 (1957)
Nocturne, Op. 60 (1958; 26 mins.)
A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Op. 64 (1960; 154 mins.)
War Requiem, Op. 66 (1961; 82 mins.)
Cello Symphony, Op. 68 (1963)
Curlew River, Op. 71 (1964; 70 mins.)
Owen Wingrave, Op. 85 (1970)
Death in Venice, Op. 88 (1973; 144 mins.)
Sacred and Profane, Op. 91 (1974-75)
Phaedra, Op. 93 (1975; 15 mins.)
String Quartet No. 3, Op. 94 (1975)
 
 
VIEWINGS TO BE CHOSEN FROM THE FOLLOWING:
Coal Face (1935; 12 mins.) [Reserve: VT 03551]
Instruments of the Orchestra (1947; 20 mins.) [Reserve: VT 03551]
As many videos of the assigned operas as possible.

Last updated: January 4, 2003