MUSI 4270
COURSE No. and Name:
MUSI 4270 Topics in Musical Cultures: ITALY
CREDITS: 3
INSTRUCTOR: Dr. David Haas
COURSE Description:
MUSI 4270 for the Italy Study Abroad Program is a special adaptation of a UGA course that takes advantage of on-site opportunities in Northern Italian cities included in the program’s itinerary. Since time in Italy is short, there will be no extended research. Instead, music journalism (mainly your “observation blogs”) will be our approach, in response to the famous sites, composers, and contexts representing five centuries of Italian musical history. Field trips last year included the girls’ orphanage where Vivaldi composed and conducted, a violin-making museum in Stravidari’s Cremona, Venice’s historic opera theatre La Fenice, Venice’s monumental St. Mark’s Basilica, as well as tours of the historic conservatories where lessons and concerts will occur. Students will come away with a deeper sense of the cultural contexts for Italian music and better ears for discerning the special excellences of Italian masterworks.
Final Project: A Portfolio compiled from your Best Blogs.
David Haas
Musicology & Ethnomusicology Area,
Hugh Hodgson School of Music
University of Georgia
David Haas received his Ph.D. at the University of Michigan in 1989 and joined the University of Georgia in the same year. He is the author of two books (with a third on its way) and multiple book chapters on Russian music. He has additional research interests in symphonic music, music and narrative, uses of the leitmotiv in various repertoires, and musical virtuosity in all its shapes and forms. In the Hodgson School of Music he teaches courses to music students on music and its cultural contexts from Beethoven’s era to the present. In Athens, he performs regularly on horn in the Athens Symphony and once on stage at AthFest with a punk rock band. In study abroad programs, he teaches courses on Austrian and Italian music in its special cultural contexts. The common thread in all of this is the goal of using words to help listeners connect with music.
