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Music 3706a

Topics in Music of the Late Twentieth Century

Responding to Modernism: Oppressive Tyranny or Progressive Imperative?

Fall 2012

Mondays 9:30 - 11:30 TC 342

Wednesdays 10.30-11.30 TC 342

Instructor: Dr. Emily Ansari emily.ansari@uwo.caOffice: Talbot College 229 Office hours: Tuesdays, 3.30-5.30pm

Course description

This course will give students the opportunity to familiarize themselves with a widerange of developments in European and North American concert music since 1945 byunderstanding this repertoire in relation to a major artistic current in the 20thcenturymodernism. Central to our discussions will be the following question: In the late 20thcentury, was the dominance of modernist ideals in the west a positive or negative force

for musical composition? We will try to answer this question from the perspective ofcomposers active during this period, interpreting their writings and their works asanswers to this question. Proceeding thematically through a variety of trends and stylesin concert music, we will examine a large number of composers and their works throughclose study of musical works and the aesthetic ideas that elicited them. Throughpresentations and written assignments, students will be encouraged to extend theirmusical vocabulary and find ways to describe the most challenging recent works bothmusically and intellectuallyeven those that they might not initially find appealing.

Objectives1. Gain a good understanding of the wide variety of approaches to concert music

composition in the West since 1945 and the philosophical and musical impact of theartistic movement known as modernism.2. Develop tools and vocabulary with which to describe, both verbally and in prose, thefeatures of some of the most challenging musical products of our own time.3. Increase awareness of and interest in musical creation today.

Readings, Scores and Recordings

All readings can be found in pdf form on our course Owl website. Readings that aredrawn from books are also available on one-day reserve in the library.There are also some additional books on 1-day reserve, to help you with yourpresentations and projects: these are listed at the end of this syllabus. If you need

additional books that turn out to be in high demand to be placed on reserve, please letme know.We have regular readings from the final volume of Richard Taruskins Oxford History ofWestern Music, Music in the Late Twentieth Century. To access this online, go to thelibrary website, search for the title, connect to the internet resource, and then underbrowse click on Music in the Late Twentieth Century. The different chapters withtheir subsections will then be listed.Listening materials can be accessed in some cases via NAXOS (through the librarywebsite) or else are on 2-hour reserve.

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All scores are on 2-hour reserve.

Evaluation

Attendance and Participation 15%Online discussion contributions 15%

In-class Presentation 20%Midterm take home exam 20%Final paper 30%

Assignment summary

1. Weekly contribution of at least 2 paragraphs of prose to the wiki on webct by 5pmeach Sunday night (starting Sept 16; you do not need to post Thanksgiving weekend).You are also encouraged to comment on others posts (in addition to your own post).Please include in your 2 paragraphs:

- Your response to the assigned music for that week, including your experience oflistening to it, what you think the composer was trying to achieve, and whether it

worked. You do not have to write about every piece assigned.- issues raised for you by the works you heard and readings you read that would

be worth discussing further in class.I will monitor your comments carefully and give you occasional feedback as the termgoes on. Both the amount you contributein terms of your own comments andfeedback for othersand the quality of your contributions will have a bearing onyour grade. Each week you do not contribute will result in 1% being docked from the20% of your grade that this assignment represents.

2. Presentation: choose a work from the syllabus to present on with a colleague to theclass, or help organize the debate with composers. The presentation should last 20minutes, of which max. 2-3 minutes should concern biographical detail about the

composer. Most of your presentation should be centered on discussing the nature ofthe work itself, especially considering it in relation to the topic of our class. Youshould conduct a literature search for relevant primary and secondary sources andincorporate your findings. A first-rate presentation should include references to theexisting literature but also plenty of your own perceptions of the work, built fromrepeated hearings and careful consideration. Please try to avoid repeating specificmaterial about the work found in the assigned class readings for that week. You mayuse any kind of visual or musical aid that you like to make your presentation moreeffective and engaging, including playing CDs, DVDs, and online A/V, or usingpowerpoint, handouts, and live performance.

3. Midterm take home exam, distributed in class October 24, to be submitted via webct

before class on October 29. This open-book exam will concern the artisticmovements, composers, and music discussed in class and issues surrounding theclass theme, with questions being more general than specific to allow for somevariety of response. (eg. What changes resulted in tonal music returning to fashion inthe world of new music?) An ability to demonstrate an intelligent engagement withthe issues raised in class and reference to pieces and composers studied that showsan understanding of their intentions will give you the highest grade. The exam willask you to answer 2 short answer questions (1 page typed response each) and onelong answer question (2 page typed response).

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3. Final paper (10-12 pages, due via webct before class on December 5). Write a researchpaper about any issue of your choosing that pertains to Western art music composedsince 1945. You could choose a specific work to study (excluding those covered in thissyllabus), a single composer, a genre, or a pertinent issue (including some aspect ofour course theme). Many potential topics will be suggested by the readings and in

class discussion: do come and talk to me as soon as you have any ideas. If you arestruggling to find a topic, feel free to come talk to me with at least a research areathat interests you. An A paper will contain an interesting and original thesis, so besure to make sure you have a case to make, rather than just a bunch of interestingmaterial. We will talk more about putting the paper together later in the term. A page proposal for your final paper is due in class November 7.

Course policies

This course is all about discussion and participation: attendance and participationrepresent 15% of your grade. If you miss classes or are silent in class, this gradewill be affected. If you cannot attend class for a degree-related or medical reason,

please let me know in advance. Documentation will be required in the case ofmedical-related absences. For UWOs Policy on Accommodation for MedicalIllness see www.studentservices.uwo.ca/secure/index.cfm.

Please come to each class having done the reading and listening assignments andhaving considered the issues and questions listed on this syllabus for the class. Inthis particular class, careful and repeated listening is absolutely essentialand theamount and complexity of the readings has been reduced accordingly. You will beexpected to be able to answer my questions about the readings in class, and giveyour thoughts on the works assigned for that week. Your participation grade willbe highest if you bring questions and ideas of your own to raise in class. Little hasbeen written about many of these works, so we will need to come up with our

own ideas and assessments: hopefully this will also help you to create interestingand original term papers. Overall, the more you have to say, the more stimulatingclass will be, the more you will learn, and the better you will do.

How you present your thoughts in presentations, in papers and online representsthe major part of your grade. Please take time to craft these assignments so thatthey have a thesis and a clear, cogent argument. And dont forget to proof-readessays. An A paper or presentation will contain a clear and thoughtfulpresentation of your ideas that brings new ideas to the discussion.

Please turn off your cell phone and dont surf the web during class. Laptops arestrongly discouraged.

Unless you have either the requisites for this course or written special permissionfrom your Dean to enroll in it, you may be removed from this course and it will bedeleted from your record. This decision may not be appealed. You will receive noadjustment to your fees in the event that you are dropped from a course forfailing to have the necessary prerequisites.

Plagiarism: Scholastic offences are taken seriously and students are directed toread the appropriate policy, specifically, the definition of what constitutes aScholastic Offence, as found atwww.uwo.ca/univsec/handbook/appeals/scholoff.pdf. Students must write theiressays and assignments in their own words. Whenever students take an idea, or a

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passage from another author, they must acknowledge their debt both by usingquotation marks where appropriate and by proper referencing such as footnotesor citations. Plagiarism is a major offense (see Scholastic Offense Policy in theWestern Academic Calendar). All required papers may be subject to submissionfor textual similarity review to the commercial plagiarism detection software

under license to the University for the detection of plagiarism. All paperssubmitted will be included as source documents in the reference database for thepurpose of detecting plagiarism of papers subsequently submitted to the system.Use of the service is subject to the licensing agreement, currently between theUniversity of Western Ontario and Turnitin.com (http://www.turnitin.com).

SCHEDULE

Mon Sept 10: Introductions

Wed Sept 12: Understanding the Impact of Modernism

Reading:Peter Davison, Reviving the Muse, in Peter Davison (ed.), Reviving the Muse:Essays on Music After Modernism(Brinkworth: Claridge Press, 2001), 120-148.

Mon Sept 17: Should music serve history or society?Reading:Taruskin chapter 5 (all sections)Listening:Benjamin Britten Peter Grimes(1944-5) (recording available via NAXOS onlibrary website;M1503.B75 op.33 2003)

Wed Sept 19 - Should music serve history or society?Reading:Taruskin chapter 6 (all sections)Listening:Elliott Carter, Double Concerto (1961) (recording available via NAXOS on library

website;M1010.C27C63A8)

Mon Sept 24: The polarizing influence of Cold War rhetoricReading: Taruskin, Chapter 3 - starting from Academicism, American Style up to (andincluding) The NewPatronage and its FruitsListening:Milton Babbitt, Composition for Four Instruments (1948) (no library recordinglisten on youtubehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_uHLmNpE4HM;M462.B32C6M4)

Wed Sept 26: The polarizing influence of Cold War rhetoricReading:Anne C. Shreffler, Ideologies of Serialism: Stravinskys Threni and the Congressfor Cultural Freedom, Music and the Aesthetics of Modernity (ed. K. Berger and A.

Newcomb) (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2005), 21745.

Mon Oct 1: The institutionalization of serialismPresentation: Stravinsky, Agon (1957) (CD 1, MCD19814, M1520.S87A4.B6)Reading:Joseph N. Straus, The Myth of Serial Tyranny in the 1950s and 1960s, TheMusical Quarterly83/3 (Autumn 1999): 301-343.

Wed Oct 3: The rise of total serialism

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Tim Page, Critics Notebook: The New Romance with Tonality, New York Times, 29 May1983.

Mon Nov 5: Postmodernism is born: Creating a musical collagePresentation:Jacob Druckman, Prism-After Luigi Cherubini (1980) (MCD404,

M1045.D759P7 1987)Reading: Elliott Schwartz and Daniel Godfrey, Music since 1945: Issues, Materials, andLiterature(Toronto: Maxwell Maxmillan Canada, 1993): 242-262.Watch DVD of Maurice Kagel, Ludwig Van(1970) (instructors copy on reserve)

Wed Nov 7: Minimalism: Modernism, Postmodernism or Populism?PROPOSAL FOR FINAL PAPER DUE IN CLASS

Presentation:Glass, Music in Twelve Parts(1971-4) (MCD22106, no score)Reading: Steve Reich, Music as Gradual Process, in Elliott Schwartz and Barney Childs(eds.), Contemporary Composers on Contemporary Music(New York: Da Capo Press,1998): 421-4.

Mon Nov 12: PostminimalismPresentation:Steve Reich, Different Trains1stmovement (1988) (MCD4499,M452.R443D5 1998)Reading:Jonathan W. Bernard, Minimalism, Postminimalism, and the Resurgence ofTonality in Recent American Music,American Music 21/1 (Spring, 2003), 112-133.

Wed Nov 14: Rejecting the confines of the concert hallPresentation:R. Murray Schafer, The Princess of the StarsPrincess Aria (1981)(MCD11079b,M1505.S385P3 1986)Reading: Kate Galloway, Pathways and Pilgrimages: The In-Between Spaces in the

Patria Cycle, Intersections28/1 (2007): 139-150.

Mon Nov 19: The new complexityPresentation:Brian Ferneyhough, String Quartet no. 4 (1989-90) (Search on youtube forFerneyhough String Quartet 4 (1989-90)the first four results are the fourmovements, with score)Reading:Brian Ferneyhough, Form, Figure, Style: an Intermediate Assessment, in BrianFerneyhough: Collected Writings, ed. James Boros and Richard Toop (Amsterdam:Overseas Publishers Association, 1995).

Wed Nov 21: Debate with graduate composition students: The Impact of Modernism on

todays practitioners2 studentsto organize.

Mon Nov 26: Modernist ideals and new music ensemblesGuest presenter: Western PhD Candidate, John PippenReading:Georgina Born, Rationalizing Culture: IRCAM, Boulez, and the Institutionalizationof the Musical Avant-Garde(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995): 40-65.Watch youtube video of Alarm Will Sound peforming Revolution 9:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WjfQSxcq0c

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Reserve books for Music 3706a: all on 1-day loan in the Music Library

Boulez, Pierre. Boulez on Music Today. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1971.ML197.B6813 1971a

Cage, John. Silence. Middletown, Conn.: Wesleyan University Press, 1962. ML60.C13 1961Ernst, David. The Evolution of Electronic Music.New York: Schirmer Books, 1977.ML1092.E76

Gann, Kyle.American Music in the Twentieth Century. New York: Schirmer Books, 1997.ML200.5.G36 1997

Gillespie, Don, ed. George Crumb: Profile of a Composer. New York: C.F. Peters, 1985.ML410.C944G4 1986

Glass, Philip. Music by Philip Glass.Edited by Robert T. Jones. New York: Harper & Row,1987. ML410.G398A3 1987

Griffiths, Paul. Modern Music and After.Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press,1995. ML197.G76 1995

Kostelanetz, Richard.John Cage (ex)plain(ed).New York: Schirmer Books, 1996.ML410.C24K73 1996

Maconie, Robin. The Works of Karlheinz Stockhausen. New York: Oxford University Press,1990. ML410.S858M3 1990

May, Thomas, ed.A John Adams Reader: Essential Writings on an American Composer.Pompton Plains, NJ: Amadeus, 2006. ML410.A236J63 2006

McGee, Timothy. The Music of Canada. New York: Norton, 1985. ML205.M37 1985

Morgan, Robert P. Twentieth-Century Music. New York: Norton, 1991. ML197.M675 1991

Nyman, Michael. Experimental Music: Cage and Beyond. Cambridge and New York:Cambridge University Press, 1999. ML197.N85 1999

Rockwell, John.All-American Music: Composition in the Late Twentieth Century. New York:Knopf, 1983. ML200.5.R6 1983

Schiff, David. The Music of Elliott Carter. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1998.ML410.C3293S35 1998

Simms, Bryan. Music of the Twentieth Century: Style and Structure.New York: SchirmerBooks, 1986. MT6.S534M9 1986

Stockhausen, Karlheinz. Stockhausen on Music. Edited by Robin Maconie. London andNew York: Marion Boyars, 1989. ML410.S858A5 1989

Van den Toorn, Pieter C. The Music of Igor Stravinsky.New Haven, Conn.: Yale UniversityPress, 1983. ML410.S94V36 1983

Watkins, Glenn. Soundings: Music in the Twentieth Century. New York: Schirmer Books,1988. ML197.W44 1988