San Francisco Conservatory of Music

Department of Music History and Literature

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Pablo Picasso:
Mandolin and Guitar
(1924)

Picasso modeled this large still-life after the set he had just designed for the ballet Mercure, with music by Erik Satie and choreography by Leonid Massine. Picasso's painting combines his earlier cubist style with a new approach to color, to decorative pattern and to the psychological possibilities of interpretation.. If the table is reinterpreted as a bed, then the tablecloth becomes a blanket and the guitar and mandolin a reclining woman. One musical response to Picasso's painting, is Guy Clark's C&W song "Picasso's Mandolin" (1992).

The Music History Department

The Conservatory's Department of Music History and Literature has two full-time faculty members: John Spitzer (chair) and Emily Laurance. History courses are also taught by members of other Conservatory departments and by adjunct faculty. For a list of faculty members, click on the link to the left.

On the undergraduate level the department offers a required 3-semester sequence that covers composers, works and musical styles from the middle ages to the present, plus a variety of music history electives. Masters-level courses focus on particular topics, musical genres, composers and/or repertories. For course listings and descriptions click on a link to the left.

 

 

 

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