Medieval/Renaissance

Our course surveys music making from Gregorian chant to the High Renaissance. Students explore sacred and secular repertories, notation, instruments, and performance practice, situating works within liturgical, courtly, and civic contexts. Through listening, score study, and primary sources, the class examines composers, improvisation techniques, genres, and cross-cultural exchange across Europe. Music and musicians are studied through the interlocking lenses of society, politics, economics, philosophy, theology, and faith with occasional excursions into art, architecture, and literature.Fulfills one elective in Western Art Music in the major; it fulfills the period course requirement in the pre-Fall 2026 major and minor.