MUSC 295 Topics in Music: Composers

An interdisciplinary course that investigates the music and life of individual composers. Topics vary by semester. Core designations will vary by composer.

Fryderyk Chopin

We will engage in an interdisciplinary study the music and life of the Polish pianist-composer Fryderyk Chopin (1810-1849), who lived in Paris his entire adult life. To understand Chopin’s music one must understand not only piano repertoire, manufacture, pedagogy, and technique, but also Paris--its art, literature, history, music, theater, science, politics, and medicine. And one must understand what it means to live in exile. In that spirit, students will study these diverse aspects of Paris as well as Chopin's music. Students from all disciplines are welcome in this course that requires only a reading knowledge of music and invites students to explore Chopin and his music from a wide range of disciplinary perspectives. Individual semester-long projects will be tailored to each student's particular interest in Chopin, and may include, to name a few examples, piano performance, socio-cultural and historical analysis, or the XML encoding of Chopin's music based on the standards of the Music Encoding Initiative. Additional Core Requirement Met: Regional Focus.