MHL 603 – TOPICS IN MUSIC HISTORY:  20^TH AND 21^ST CENTURIES

(F-11)

Instructor:               John Spitzer

Email:                      john.spitzer@notes.sfcm.edu

Class meets:           Wednesday 9:30 -11:50, Room 507

Office Hours:          Tues.-Thurs. (by appointment), room 405

Website:                 www.sfcmhistory.com/

Topic 1 – Igor Stravinsky, Life and works

Aug 31                    “Russian” period

Repertory: Petrushka (1), Rite (1)

Sept  7                    “Neo-classicism”

Repertory: Symphonies of Wind Instruments; Orpheus

Preparation 1 - feedback due Monday Sept 5

Topic 2 – The Rise and fall of 12-tone music

Sept 14                    Classical procedures and terminology

Repertory:  Schoenberg, Wind Quintet (mvts. 1, 4); Webern, First Cantata (mvt. 1)

Listening quiz 1 (Stravinsky)

         21                  Serialism

Repertory:  Babbitt, 3 Compositions; Stockhausen, Kreuzspiel; Stravinsky, In memoriam Dylan Thomas

Preparation 2 - feedback due Monday Sept 19

        28                    Free treatment

Repertory: Berg, Violin Concerto; Copland, Piano Quartet;

Preparation 3 - feedback due Monday Sept 26

Topic 3 – Experimental Music

Oct    5                    What is experimental music?

Repertory: Ives, 3 quarter-tone pieces; Varese, Ionisation; Schaeffer: 5 studies of noise;  Cage, 4’33”; Cardew, Great Learning

Listening quiz 2 (12-tone music)

Oct  12                    Instrumental techniques and technologies

Repertory: Cowell, Advertisement, The Banshee; Cage, The Perilous Night; Nancarrow, Studies; Berio, Sequenza for Trombone

Preparation 4 - feedback due Monday Oct 10

        19                  Chance and improvisation

Repertory: Cage, Concert for Piano and Orchestra; Scelsi, Maknongan

Preparation 5 - feedback due Monday Oct 17

Topic 4 – 20^th-century opera

Oct   26                   The legacy of Verdi and Wagner

Repertory: Berg, Wozzek

Listening quiz 3 (experimental music)

Nov   2                    New Dramaturgy

Repertory: Janacek: The House of the Dead

Preparation 6 - feedback due Monday Oct 31

9                    Opera without drama

Repertory: Glass, Einstein on the Beach; Ashley, Perfect Lives

Preparation 7 - feedback due Monday Nov 7

Topic 5 – Art/Pop/Folk

Nov   16                  Creating national music

Repertory: Vaughan Williams, Dives and Lazarus; Copland, Billy the Kid; Villa Lobos, Choros #7   

Listening Quiz 4 (opera)

         23                  THANKSGIVING              

Nov 30                 Folk & pop as the route to modernism

Repertory: Bartok, Improvisations, Op.20; 5^th quartet; Ives, Putnam’s camp; Crumb: Wayfaring Stranger (2); Bolcom, Innocence and Experience

Preparation 8 - feedback due Monday Nov 28

Dec  7                    Listening Quiz 5 and  Final exam