Traces the historical development of Western music in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Organized in a largely chronological fashion, the course investigates developments in musical genres, ensembles, and performance circumstances through the Baroque and Classical historical eras in music. The methodology of the course will comprise examination of the musical artifacts, the circumstances from which they arose, and their ultimate impact on the trajectory of musical history. There will be due consideration of the reception histories of the work and the ways those valuations have changed over time, up to and including the present day. Apprehension of the music itself, through guided listening and methods of analysis suited to each epoch under study, will also form an integral part of the course. The ways that theoretical and interpretive practices varied over the period in question will form a related part of the class discussions.