MHL 603 – TOPICS IN MUSIC
HISTORY: 20TH AND 21ST
CENTURIES
Instructor: Luciano
Chessa
Email: lucianochessa@yahoo.com
Class meets: Wednesday 9:30-11:50, Room
507
Office Hours: Wednesdays (by
appointment) Room 546
Website: http://www.sfcmhistory.com/Chessa/Topics2_home1.html
Jan 20 Intro
“Russian” period
Repertory: Petrushka (1), Rite (1)
Viewing: Rite (Joffrey), Petrushka (Paris
Ballet)
Jan 27 “Neo-classicism”
Repertory: Symphonies of Wind Instruments; Orpheus
Reading: Taruskin on Rite (OHWM);
Hamm on Petrushka
Viewing: Final
Chorale
Prep 1
due on Monday Jan 25 (Taruskin and Hamm)
Feb 3 Later
years
Repertory: Agon
Reading: Edward Cone,
“Stravinsky, Progress of a Method“
Viewing: Agon (NYC Ballet)
Prep 2
due on Monday Feb 1 (Cone)
Feb 10 Listening quiz 1 (Stravinsky)
Classical procedures and terminology
Repertory: Schoenberg, Wind Quintet (1, 4), Webern,
First Cantata
Feb 17 Serialism
Repertory:
Babbitt, 3 Compositions; Stockhausen, Kreuzspiel;
Stravinsky, In memoriam Dylan Thomas
Reading: Schoenberg,
“Composition with 12 Tones” (233-251)
Boulez: “Schoenberg is Dead”
Prep 3 due on Monday Feb 15 (Schoenberg and Boulez)
Feb 24 Free
treatment
Repertory:
Berg, Violin Concerto ; Copland, Piano Quartet; Stravinsky, Agon
Reading: Jennifer DeLapp-Birkett,
“Aaron Copland and politics”; Shostakovich: “Music and the times”
Prep 4
due on Monday Meb 22 (DeLapp-Birkett and Shostakovich)
Topic
3 – Experimental Music
March 3 Listening quiz 2 (12-tone music)
What is experimental music?
Repertory:
Ives, 3 quarter-tone pieces; Schaeffer: 5 studies of noise; Cage, 4’33”
March 10 Instrumental techniques and technologies
Repertory:
Cowell, Advertisement, The Banshee; Varèse, Ionisation; Cage, The
Perilous Night; Nancarrow, Studies; Berio, Sequenza for Trombone
Reading:
Cage, “Experimental music”
Cameron,
“Experimental music”
Prep 5
due on Monday March 8 (Cage and Cameron)
March 17 Improvisation and chance
Repertory:
Scelsi, Maknongan (versions
for double bass, bass voice, bass-tuba); Cage, Concert for Piano and Orchestra;
Reading: Rzewski, “Little Bangs”
Viewing: Casa Scelsi
Prep 6
due on Monday March 15(Rzewski)
Topic 4 – 20th-century opera
March 31 Listening quiz 3
(Experimental music)
Traditional dramaturgy in the 20th century
Berg,
Wozzeck
Viewing:
Wozzeck
April 7 New
dramaturgy
Janacek: From the House of the Dead
Viewing: House
Prep 7
due on Monday April 5 (Janacek)
April 14 Opera?
Robert
Ashley: Perfect Lives
Viewing:
Perfect Lives (TV version)
Reading: Rockwelll, "Post-Cagean Experimentation"
Prep 8 due on Monday April 12 (Rockwell)
April 21 Listening Quiz 4
(Opera)
Creating national music
Repertory: Copland, Billy the Kid;
Villa Lobos, Choros #7
April 28 Folk & pop as the route to modernism
Repertory:
Bartok, Improvisations, Op.20; 5th quartet; Ives, Putnam’s camp;
Crumb: Wayfaring Stranger (2); Bolcom, Innocence and
Experience
Reading:
Bartok: “Influence of Peasant Music”
Constant
Lambert, “Nationalism and the modern scene”
Prep 9 due on Monday April 26 (Bartok and Lambert)
May 5 Listening Quiz 5 and Final exam