Studying at the University of Verona

Here you can find information on the organisational aspects of the Programme, lecture timetables, learning activities and useful contact details for your time at the University, from enrolment to graduation.

This information is intended exclusively for students already enrolled in this course.
If you are a new student interested in enrolling, you can find information about the course of study on the course page:

Laurea in Scienze della comunicazione - Enrollment from 2025/2026

The Study Plan includes all modules, teaching and learning activities that each student will need to undertake during their time at the University.
Please select your Study Plan based on your enrollment year.

Modules Credits TAF SSD
Between the years: 1°- 2°- 3°
Between the years: 1°- 2°- 3°
Further activities
6
F
-

Legend | Type of training activity (TTA)

TAF (Type of Educational Activity) All courses and activities are classified into different types of educational activities, indicated by a letter.




S Placements in companies, public or private institutions and professional associations

iIntroductory
padvanced
mMasterful

Teaching code

4S008045

Credits

6

Language

Italian

Scientific Disciplinary Sector (SSD)

L-ART/07 - MUSICOLOGY AND HISTORY OF MUSIC

Period

2 A, 2 B

Learning outcomes

The course aims at providing the students with an introduction to the history of music and, more generally, to musicology, presenting some of the various aspects in which these disciplines are articulated. The course offers a historical, cultural and social analysis of musical pieces chosen among the great masterpieces of the classical music repertoire. Listening to these pieces with comments will contribute to deepen the students’ knowledge about their historical and socio-cultural meanings. At the end of the course the student will have acquired capacity of orientation both in reading texts on music historiography and in the critical listening of music.

Program

Music, Sound and Identity in Contemporary Society

This module will discuss music and sounds as pivotal means for fashioning and expressing identities (e.g. individual, social, gender, etc.). The module is divided into three parts:

• The first one concentrates on the foundations of musical communication. This part analyses the concept of music and sound and the role they play in defining relationships and identities.
• The second one focuses on the role played by music as an identity tool in contemporary audiovisual media (films, tv shows/series, commercials, videogames, social media).
• The third and last deals with a specific case study: the construction of female voice in history and in contemporary media as well, especially in sound art, talents, drag shows, and ASMRs or vocal assistants.

Requirements: None. Students are not required to be able to read or perform music. The module aims to encourage students’ listening skills, applicable to both contemporary music/sound and to the western canon

Didactic methods: Lectures in class with audio-visual support. AV materials will be discussed in class. Students with specific needs are invited to contact me at the beginning of the semester.

Bibliography

Visualizza la bibliografia con Leganto, strumento che il Sistema Bibliotecario mette a disposizione per recuperare i testi in programma d'esame in modo semplice e innovativo.

Examination Methods

Written test with three open questions in Italian, one for each of the three parts of the module.

International or Erasmus Students can write their exam in English, French or Spanish.
Further or substituting bibliography in English can be requested.
The bibliography may be changed in the due course of the semester.
Non-attending students should check this webpage and/or contact me well in advance.


Bibliography:

The following essay, taken from Enciclopedia della musica, diretta da Jean-Jacques Nattiez, con la collaborazione di Margaret Bent, Rossana Dalmonte e Mario Baroni, Torino, Einaudi, 2001-2006.

Vol. I, Il Novecento
Raymond Murray Schaffer: Musica/ non musica, lo spostamento delle frontiere, pp. 348-369

Luca Marconi, Muzak, ‘jingle’ e videoclips, pp. 675-700

Simon Frith, L’industrializzazione della musica e il problema dei valori, pp. 953-964

Vol. V, L'unità della musica
Marcello Sorce Keller, La rappresentazione e l’affermazione dell’identità nelle musiche tradizionali e le musiche occidentali, pp. 1116-1136

The followings essays and chapters:
Raymond Murray Schaffer, Il Paesaggio sonoro, Milano, Ricordi-LIM, 1985, pp. 13-28

Gianni Sibilla, L’industria musicale, Roma, Carocci, 2006, pp. 11-73

Lello Savonardo, Pop music, media e culture giovanili. Dalla Beat Revolution alla Bit Generation, Milano, Egea, 2017, pag. 14-52

Kathryn Kalinak: Film Music: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2010, pp. 1-31

Francesco D’Amato, Uno sguardo all’audio branding in Italia, «Comunicazionepuntodoc» 16, pp. 321-32.

Gabriele Balbi, Paolo Magaudda: Media digitali. La storia, i contesti sociali, le narrazioni, Bari, Laterza, 2021, pp. 149-161

Choose between H.S. Woods's essay:

Heather Suzanne Woods, Asking more of Siri and Alexa: feminine persona in service of surveillance capitalism, Critical Studies in Media Communication, 35/4, 2018, pp. 334-349

or both of the following essays:

Paula Clare Harper (2019): ASMR: bodily pleasure, online performance, digital modality, Sound Studies, 2019
Tasha Bjelić: Digital Care, Women & Performance: a journal of
feminist theory, 2016 DOI: 10.1080/0740770X.2016.1194008

Choose 1 between the 2 following essays:

Maurizio Corbella, Sound design. Ambiguità e necessità storica di un termine alla moda, WAV, 2010


Stefano Lombardi Vallauri, Paesaggi sonori, o meglio mondi emotivi. Che cosa fa il sound design, «Gli spazi della musica», 6/1 (2017), pp. 50-64.

The following documentary, available on youtube:

The Sound of Dune:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gkf_rdROyWw

Additional text recommend to those who need an introduction to the fundamentals of music:

Claudia Calì, Luisa Nardini, Guido Olivieri, Musica, classi di concorso A29-A30 (ex A031-A032) -A53. Manuale disciplinare completo per le prove scritte, orali e pratiche dei concorsi a cattedra. II edizione, Napoli, Simone, 2021, especially pp. 27-42; 53-59

Attendings students will find the PowerPoint of the course on the e-learning portal (Moodle)

Students with disabilities or specific learning disorders (SLD), who intend to request the adaptation of the exam, must follow the instructions given HERE