The purpose of this course is to explore the relationship between words and music in both theory and practice. There will be two concurrent strands: 1) a close study of selected texts (ranging from the Middle Ages to the 20th century) from the recurrent aesthetic debates on words and music; 2) to explore music-text relationships through a series of analytical studies. The emphasis will be on music of the 18th and 19th centuries but other pieces taken from both earlier and later periods may also be included. A primary focus of this course will be a critique of the methods and limitations in dealing with the analysis of text settings: prose, poetic and dramatic.