MHST 237 - Music and Melodrama on Stage and Screen

FC CNDP DDHU

4 credits
This course, open to instrumentalists in the Conservatory or College, combines a survey of music and melodrama in nineteenth-century theater and early silent cinema with a practicum in performing music for silent film. Beginning with eighteenth-century experiments combining oratory, pantomime, and instrumental music, we will consider how instrumental music supported the “heightened dramatization” of nineteenth-century stage melodrama and provided the musical topics of early film. Students will then study, select, and perform cinematic photoplay music to accompany selected classic silent films. Other assessments will include a research essay and program notes in support of the final performance project. Students will visit the Cleveland Public Library to view their archive of theatrical scores and silent film books.
Does this course require off campus field trips? Yes