This course will highlight the deep and complex relationships between music and theatrical drama across cultures and historical periods. This course will introduce the study of music through a number of theoretic frames including performance theory, embodiment theory, narrative theory, and musical semiotics to explore case studies that illustrate the ways in which music and theatrical drama coexist in a dynamic interplay. Case studies will range from Mozart’s operas and Japanese Noh drama, through the idea of the leitmotif in Wagner and Star Wars, to the abstract audiovisual narratives of Koyaanisqatsi. Learning and teaching activities will include lectures and tutorials.

By the end of the course, you should be able to:

1. describe the interrelationships between music and theatrical drama from several theoretical perspectives
2. apply these theoretical perspectives to a number of specific musical and filmic cases
3. demonstrate listening skills focused on the notion and techniques of musical narrative developed through the study and discussion of selected works
4. demonstrate research, analysis, discussion and writing skills through written assessment tasks to do with music and visual narrative

• One research project of 3000 words or equivalent (50%), [Learning Outcomes 1,2,4];
• Two in-class or online listening/discussion exercises (800 words each) (25% each), [Learning Outcomes 2-3).

130 hours of total student learning time made up from:

a) 39 hours of contact:

1. 26 hours of lectures (typically one per week)
2. 13 hours of tutorials or online equivalent

b) 91 hours of independent student research, reading and writing

Nil

None

Abbate, Carolyn Unsung Voices: Opera and Musical Narrative in the Nineteenth Centrury (Princeton UP, 1994)

Chion, Michel, Audio-Vision: Sound on Screen, Columbia UP, 1994

Donnelly, Kevin. 2005. The spectre of sound: music in film and television. British Film Institute; University of California Press

Kerman, Joseph Opera as Drama (1956)

Levinson, Jerrold, “Music as Narrative and Music as Drama”, Mind & Language 19/iv 2004

Wagner, Richard “Opera as Drama” (1851)