HF0121l Chamber Music I

Faculty of Music
Summer 2025
Extent and Intensity
0/2/4. 3 credit(s). Type of Completion: zk (examination).
Teacher(s)
BcA. Bc. Kateřina Maňáková, MMus, DiS. (lecturer)
Guaranteed by
prof. Barbara Maria Willi, Ph.D., MBA
Organ and Early Music Department – Dean’s Office – Faculty of Music – Janáček Academy of Performing Arts
Supplier department: Organ and Early Music Department – Dean’s Office – Faculty of Music – Janáček Academy of Performing Arts
Prerequisites
Successfully completed winter semester of Chamber Music I.
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is only offered to the students of the study fields the course is directly associated with.
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
Course objectives
The subject Chamber Music performance enables students to get acquainted with the historically informed performance practise of early music. The student is in close contact with the style of baroque and classicist music through a large number of chamber music literature of these periods. During the course the students have the possibility to cooperate in variable instrumental and vocal settings - melodic instruments, instruments of the basso continuo section and voices. The student during the study compares different instruments, their possibilities, the interconnection of the style of music and the interpretation, ornamentation and performance. After completing the subject, the student should achieve an artistic-interpretative level that will allow him to apply his newly acquired knowledge not only as a player in chamber ensembles but also as a solo player, i.e. that the student is guided during the study so that after completing the subject he may be a flexible chamber music player with a separate ability to operate a historically informed performance practise.
Learning outcomes
Throughout their studies, students have the opportunities to work together in a range of instrumental configurations – melody instruments, instruments forming ensembles with bass continuo and voice.
Given the importance of improvisation, this subject gives the students’ opportunities to develop their ability to improvise.
As a subject Chamber Music fosters creativity and the students’ personality.
It prepares them to work independently in highly competitive environments.
The graduates of this subject are expected to attain an artistic and performance level that would equip them to apply their newly acquired knowledge not only as performers in chamber ensembles, but as soloists.
Syllabus
  • Students form larger ensembles according to a range of criteria.
  • Students have the opportunity to work in a variety of instrumental combinations – voice, melody instruments, those constituting the basso continuo ensemble.
  • Time period: 17th century to the first half of the 18th century (1650–1750).
  • When performing baroque music, it is necessary to take into account also other essential elements, such as: tonal colours of musical instruments, polyphonic techniques, musical styles, forms and genres, relationships between music and text.
  • It is necessary to carefully explore the precise significance of musical symbols in every period of musical history and ascertain how they have evolved in the course of time.
  • There is good reason for students to work with manuscripts and editions of the period.
  • Students are encouraged to expand their repertoire, focusing on the detailed study of the Baroque compositions of French, German and Italian composers, as well as compositions by Czech composers who emigrated.
Literature
    recommended literature
  • Bruce Haynes: A history of performing pitch;. info
  • Couperin, François: L´Art de toucher le clavecin. Breitkopf und Härtel 1933. info
  • Dolmetsch, A.: The Interpretation of the Music of the XVIIth and XVIIIth Centuries, London 1915. info
  • Donington, Robert: The interpretation of Early Music. Faber & Faber, London 1989. info
  • Neumann, Frederick: Ornamentation in Baroque and Post-Baroque Music. With special emphasis on J. S. Bach. University Press, Princeton 1980. info
  • Rosen, Ch. : The Classical style - Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven. New York 1998. info
  • Vybrané hudebně-teoretické traktáty (S. Ganassi, G. Caccini, J. Mattheson, L. Mozart, J. J. Quantz, C. Ph. E. Bach, D. G. Türk u. a.). info
  • BURNEY, Charles. The present state of music in France and Italy: or, The journal of a tour through those countries, undertaken to collect materials for a general history of music. T. Becket, 1773
  • BUKOFZER, Manfred. Music in the Baroque Era. W. W. Norton & Company: 1947
Teaching methods
Student performance analysis - continuous monitoring of student performance (interpretation and discussion), semestral concert.
Assessment methods
Students are evaluated according to their knowledge, abilities, presentations, progress, individual preparation. The teacher evaluates the activity of students, how much they have learnt and their ability to shape this into an oral presentation. The teacher monitors the gains in theoretical knowledge of the students as well as their ability to deal with specific issues. Semestral concert.
Language of instruction
English
Further Comments
The course is taught: every week.
The course is also listed under the following terms Summer 2021, Summer 2022, Summer 2023, Summer 2024.
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