2018/2019

2019/2020

DM270

L-ART/07 (MUSICOLOGY AND MUSIC HISTORY)

DEPARTMENT OF MUSICOLOGY AND CULTURAL HERITAGE

MUSICOLOGY

PERCORSO COMUNE

2°

2nd semester (24/02/2020 - 09/06/2020)

6

36 lesson hours

Italian

ORAL TEST

LA VIA STEFANO (titolare) - 6 ECTS

Basic knowledge of the formal and expressive interactions between music and poetry, corresponding to the program and contents of the introductory course “Poesia per musica 1”, and to its main reference book (La Via 2006, still maintained in the bibliography).

Two are the main aims of this specialistic course: first of all, to develop an interdisciplinary literary-musical sensibility, interested not only in each of the two expressive-linguistic components but also in the global effects of their mutual interaction; consequently, to form a historical and critical awareness regarding the evolution of poetic-musical language in the international and transcultural universe of modern “Auteur Song”, beyond the boundaries between ‘Art’ and ‘Popular’.

Definitions of “autorship” and applications of the concept to various repertoires of modern and contemporary Song (20th and 21th centuries); historical, sociological and aesthetic framing and classification of the notion of “Auteur Song”. Literary-musical analysis and comparative reading of compositions selected from some of the most representative Song-Books in the French, Italian, North-American, British, Brazilian and Hispano-American repertoires. The course will also focus on the problem of translation, with particular reference to the Songs by Georges Brassens, Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Violeta Parra, Chico Buarque de Hollanda.
At the end of the course, the student will be asked to apply the analytical method to a freely chosen composition (taken from any of the repertoires listed above), and to show the main results of her/his study in the form of either a seminar presentation or a written essay (see also below under “Procedures for learning verification”).

The course is structured in regular classes, whose character is at first theoretical, historical and aesthetic, then rather practically analytical and performative. During the analytical sessions, large space will be given to the listening (or video-listening) of historical recordings as well as of live performances by the teacher with the participation of the students. In this sense the teaching method can be defined as performative and multimedial, such as to involve also complementary seminar activities. Active participation to the workshop La Città della Canzone (May 2020), focusing on the singer-songwriters' compositional process, will be also proposed as an integral part of the educational experience, in this phase involving also the course of Musiche Popolari Contemporanee 2 / Contemporary Popular Musics 2 (prof. Alessandro Bratus).

– S. LA VIA, Poesia per musica e musica per poesia. Dai trovatori a Paolo Conte, Roma, Carocci, 2006: parte prima (volume); parte seconda (CD-ROM): introduzione e cap. 6.
– Il suono e l’inchiostro. Cantautori, saggisti, poeti a confronto, a cura del Centro Studi Fabrizio De André, Milano, Chiarelettere, 2009.
– M. SANTORO, Effetto Tenco. Genealogia della canzone d’autore, Bologna, Il Mulino, 2010.
– C. COSI - F. IVALDI, Fabrizio De André, cantastorie fra parole e musica, Roma, Carocci, 2011.
– K. NEGUS, Authorship and the Popular Song, “Music and Letters”, vol. 92/4, 2011, pp. 607-29.
– S. LA VIA, De André «trovatore» e la lezione di Brassens, «Semicerchio», 44 (2011), pp. 68-105.
– S. LA VIA, Princìpi e modelli formali della canzone d’autore, in Le forme della canzone, a cura di E. Careri e G. Ruberti, Lucca, LIM, 2014, pp. 3-43.
-- S. LA VIA, Suzanne di Leonard Cohen: dalla poesia alla canzone, in Cara Scientia Mia, Musica. Studi per Maria Caraci Vela, a cura di A. Romagnoli, D. Sabaino, R. Tibaldi e P. Zappalà, Pisa, ETS, 2018, pp. 521-580.
– Handouts and further bibliographic – documentary material that will be distributed during the course.

Seminar presentation (for attending students) or discussion of a written analytical essay as part of the oral exam (for non-attending students); the essay should be delivered to the teacher at least a week before the exam date. Oral exam aimed at testing not only the specific theoretical, historical and analytical competences acquired by the student, but also his critical ability in expressing his personal point of view on the main conceptual issues focussed during the course and/or in the reference texts.

Most of the analytical material (with the exception of audio and audio-visual recordings) will be gradually uploaded on the platform KIRO, accessible to all the enrolled students. Anyone who is interested in attending regularly each class is required to get such KIRO-material at the preventive behest of the teacher. Non-attending students are required to get in touch with the teacher in order to define the program, the composition to be analyzed and the additional bibliography.