Topics in Tonal Literature and Analysis
General Information

Beethoven’s Symphonies class taught by Michael Ruhling at New Sibley Library, Miller Center. // Summer classes at University of Rochester’s Eastman School of Music July 13, 2016. // photo by J. Adam Fenster / University of Rochester
DescriptionThis course offers a crash course in music theory, covering everything from the basics of tonal voice leading and motivic analysis to advanced topics such as phrase extension, double counterpoint, canon, fugue, and ars combinatoria. Besides introducing techniques borrowed from Schenkerian theory, it will draw extensively on material drawn from eighteenth- and nineteenth-century treatises, such as those by Fux, Riepel, C. P. E. Bach, Marpurg, Koch, Türk, and Czerny. The course will focus special attention on one particular piece of music: the finale of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony.