Renaissance Listening Journals Now Available

As the semester begins to wind down to the Thanksgiving and then Christmas breaks, the students in 351WI are fine-tuning their writing craft. After an extensive round of editing both by me and by their colleagues, the students have posted the final results of their study of Renaissance music on their individual blogs. You'll find the results on the toolbar to the right. Be sure to explore several different blogs as the students regularly listened to the same piece and have different insights to share depending on their backgrounds and interests.

Medieval Listening Journals

We're about 1/3rd of the way through the semester and that means that it is time for listening journals again. This semester, five students are braving the writing intensive class to produce writings about recordings they are exploring and what their friends are hearing as well. We're trying something new this semester by writing together on a wiki before we post our thoughts for the outside world to see. Hopefully, we're building a bit more community and polishing our prose a bit more as well.

You'll find the list of blogs in the toolbar to the right. Dig into these journals, find new music you've never experienced before, and join us in opening up our ears to the sounds of the medieval world.

Baroque Listening Journals

Ah, the end of the semester. Each fall semester ends with the music of J.S. Bach and his contemporaries in the musical Baroque. The period is a great one for dramatic music as opera enters the world stage and for every other genre as opera enriches them. I think you'll find much of interest in this batch of blogs:

Sarah Hardy: A journal entry on Alessandro Scarlatti's oratorio Il Primo Omicidio and a response to Jaime Tyser's entry.

Victoria Brown: A journal entry on "The Four Seasons" by Vivaldi and a response to Christopher McKiggan's entry.

Christopher Janwong McKiggan: A journal entry on Handel's Giulio Cesare, and a second response to Jamie Tyser.

Jaime Tyser: A journal entry on Buxtehude's Organ Music, and a response to Victoria Brown's entry.

Renaissance Listening Journals

Here we are, 2/3rds of the way through the semester, and it is time for another round of listening journals, this time of music from the Renaissance. Music from the Renaissance becomes more polyphonic, sounds more expansive, and offers more challenges in discussing it. You'll see how the students approached this repertoire on their individual blogs:

Julie Robison: A journal entry on Josquin des Prez's "Motets et chansons" and a response to Victoria Brown's entry.

Sarah Hardy: A journal entry on Palestrina: Motetti & Missa “Assumpta est Maria” and a response to Victoria Brown's entry.

Victoria Brown: A journal entry on "Orlando di Lasso/Reginald de Lassus: Missa pro defunctis and Prophetiae Sibyllarum" and a response to Jaime Tyser's entry.

Christopher Janwong McKiggan: Like Julie, a journal entry on Josquin des Prez's "Motets et chansons" and a response to Victoria Brown.

Jaime Tyser: A journal entry on "Gilles Binchois: Mon Souverain Desir" and the last of four responses to Victoria Brown's entry.

Enjoy!

Medieval Listening Journals

We begin our trip through history in the Medieval era, with a collection of blog entries on music ranging from Hildegard von Bingen to the Carmina Burana. Each student has taken a recording, researched it, and written about both their findings and their reactions and then a colleague has taken their original entry and posted a response. You'll find the following reactions on their individual blogs:

Julie Robison: A journal entry on "Les Escholiers de Paris: Motets, Chansons et Estampies du XIIIe siecle Ensemble Gilles Binchois" and a response to Victoria Brown's entry.

Sarah Hardy: A journal entry on "Alfonso X: Cantigas De Santa Maria" and a response to Victoria Brown's entry.

Victoria Brown: A journal entry on "Hildegard von Bingen: Canticles of Ecstasy" and a response to Julie Robison's entry.

Christopher Janwong McKiggan: A journal entry on "Carmina Burana" and a response to Jaime Tyser's entry.

Jaime Tyser: A journal entry on "Cansós de Trobairitz" and a response to Sarah Hardy's entry.

Enjoy!

Welcome

Welcome to the class blog of CONS351WI, Early Music History at the UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance. On the right hand side of the page you'll find a list of the students participating in the class this fall. Over the course of the semester, they'll be listening to music outside the textbook (and sometimes outside the norm) and writing about their research into and reactions to that music. They'll also be reading each other's writings and responding through comments and blog postings to what their colleagues are hearing. Join us as we create this online community devoted to music written before 1750. Read, listen, comment, ponder, but above all, open your ears to the echoes of the past.