POEMS TO MUSIC: THE HISTORY AND STYLES
cod. 1006266

Academic year 2022/23
2° year of course - First semester
Professor
- Paolo RUSSO
Academic discipline
Musicologia e storia della musica (L-ART/07)
Field
Discipline linguistiche, filologiche e metodologiche
Type of training activity
Characterising
30 hours
of face-to-face activities
6 credits
hub: PARMA
course unit
in ITALIAN

Learning objectives

At the end of the course students will have THE KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING to orient themselves in Italian literature destined to set in music and in rhythmic and metric aspects of poetry. They will then be able to identify the most appropriate texts to deepen the specific research fields of their study paths with JUDGMENT AUTONOMY. They will have acquired the necessary KNOWLEDGE TO APPLY to critical listening of music as an artistic expression and form of knowledge and expression of thought. Without requiring analytical and technical skills in music, however, it is necessary to acquire sufficient COMMUNICATION SKILLS to describe the experience of listening literarture in music with correct terminology. Students will also acquire the LEARNING SKILLS needed to understand piece of music in order to identify their particular traits and traditions.

Prerequisites

No prerequisites are requested

Course unit content

The course it will focus on relationship between text and music in vocal compositions from the Middle ages to late Nineteenth Century. For students of "Storia della musica. Metodi e materiali" the course will also decline the contents in a historical and methodological perspective

Full programme

Outlines of history of vocal music; metrics and musical rhythm; words and music in Italian popular "canzone" in late twentieth century

Bibliography

Study program

1) Paolo Fabbri, Istituti metrici e formali, in Storia dell'Opera Italiana, VI: Teorie e tecniche, immagini e fantasmi, Torino, EdT, 1998, pp. 163-230 (poi in versione ampliata ed aggiornata come Paolo Fabbri, Metro e canto nell’opera italiana, Torino, EDT, 2007)
2) Lorenzo Bianconi, Hors-d'oeuvre alla filologia dei libretti, “Il Saggiatore musicale”, II/1, 1995, pp. 143-154
3) Paolo Russo, In ascolto. Mappe sonore per la storia della musica, Lucca, LIM, 2022, capitoli 1-5; 8, 14, 16-17, 19, 22, 24
4) Luca Ziliani, L’italiano della canzone, Roma, Carocci, 2018
5) Lorenzo Coveri, Linguistica della canzone: lo stato dell’arte, Giuseppe Antonelli, Il complesso pop. Su una tendenza recente dei testi di canzone, entrambi in Storia della lingua italiana e storia della musica: italiano e musica nel melodramma e nella canzone. Atti del 4. Convegno ASLI, Associazione per la storia della lingua italiana, Sanremo, 29-30 aprile 2004, a cura di Elisa Tonani, Firenze, F. Cesati, [2005], rispettivamente a pp. 179-190 e 219-232
6) Lucia Cristina Baldo, Silvana Chiesa, “Il suonatore Jones”. Fabrizio De André, in Tempo e memoria: percorsi di ascolto fra letteratura e musica, Alessandria, Edizioni dell’Orso, 2003, pp. 217-244

Instead of the book Ziliani, "L’italiano della canzone" and the papers by Lorenzo Coveri, Giuseppe Antonelli, Lucia Cristina Baldo e Silvana Chiesa, students of Storia della musica: metodi e materiali can study:
4) L’intero volume Paolo Russo, In ascolto cit.
5) Giuseppina La Face Bianconi, Filologia dei testi poetici nella musica vocale italiana, in “Acta Musicologica”, 1994, LVI/1, pp. 1- 21
6) Bianca Maria Antolini, Le fonti musicali: esempi e casi particolari dal Trecento alla metà dell’Ottocento, https://www.dropbox.com/s/axfdx7fajumufuw/Antolini_Fonti%20musicali.pdf?dl=0

Not attending students will add at the tiltles over quoted:
7) Franco Fabbri, La canzone, in Enciclopedia della musica, a cura di Jean-Jacques Nattiez, I: Il Novecento, Torino, Einaudi, 2001, pp. 551-576
8) Nicolò Scaldaferri, 'Bronze by Gold' by Berio, by Eco. Viaggio attraverso il canto delle sirene, in Nuova musica alla radio: esperienze di fonologia della RAI di Milano, a cura di Veniero Rizzardi e Angela Ida De Benedictis, Torino, ERI-RAI, 2000, pp. 101-157 + Luciano Berio, Poesia e musica – un’esperienza, in «Incontri Musicali», III, 1959, pp. 98-111 ora in Nuova musica alla radio, pp. 236-259
9) Lucia Cristina Baldo, Silvana Chiesa, “Coro di Morti” e “A Survivor from Warsaw”, entrambi in Tempo e memoria: percorsi di ascolto fra letteratura e musica, Alessandria, Edizioni dell’Orso, 2003, rispettivamente alle pp. 167-192 e 193-216; Raffaele Pozzi, Leopardi e l’ansia di rinnovamento: il Coro di morti (1940-1941) di Goffredo Petrassi, in Storia della lingua italiana e storia della musica: italiano e musica nel melodramma e nella canzone. Atti del 4. Convegno ASLI, Associazione per la storia della lingua italiana, Sanremo, 29-30 aprile 2004, a cura di Elisa Tonani, Firenze: F. Cesati, [2005], pp. 131-142;
10) Lorenzo Coveri, Le canzoni che hanno fatto l’italiano, in Italia linguistica: gli ultimi 10 anni. Nuovi soggetti, nuove voci, un nuovo immaginario, a cura di Elisabetta Benucci e Raffaella Setti, Firenze, Le lettere 2011, pp. 69-119

Teaching methods

In relation to the health conditions of next November, this year the course will take place or in telepresence through the use of the Teams and Elly platforms or in presence. During the lessons, mainly frontal moments will alternate with interactive moments with the students about the video or audio examples proposed: ample space will in fact be dedicated to the direct experience of listening, from which the teacher will take the lead for analysis, comments and insights. During the lessons, the terminology necessary for a summary analytical description of the listening experiences will be proposed and illustrated. Useful materials for attending the course will be deposited on the ELLY platform.

Assessment methods and criteria

The test will consist of an oral interview at the end of the course according to the official calendar appointed by the Department. The interview will concern on the bibliography indicated. The interview will verify the understanding of the texts listed in bibliography; it will also verify the student's ability to navigate in the musical structures of the works discussed by bibliography: the students will therefore have to listen to them more than once while studying the critical texts. Failure to know the works is a cause of insufficiency.
The ability to elaborate further knowledge and to ask the teacher relevant questions will result in excellence. The lack of an understanding of the minimum content of the course are cause for failure of the verification. The ability to express oneself adequately, to solve problems related to information retrieval and the decoding of complex texts, as well as the ability to make independent judgments will be evaluated on a scale of thirty degrees.
The ability to develop further knowledge and to ask the teacher pertinent questions, even during the test, will result excellence. Likewise, the ability of integrated readings and cross-connections between the texts listed in the bibliography will cause excellent results.

Other information

- - -