Course Syllabus
MUSIC 303 || AUTUMN 2016 – COURSE SYLLABUS
Professor: Huck Hodge, DMA | hhodge@uw.edu
Office: 325 Music | Office hours: MW 10:30 - 11:30
TA: Kevin Baldwin | kbald77@uw.edu
REQUIRED READINGS
Assigned readings are listed for each class session. The readings will be drawn primarily from these sources:
Kostka, Stefan (2012). Materials and Techniques of Post-Tonal Music.
4th edition. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Taruskin, Richard (2010). Oxford History of Western Music (OHWM), Vol. IV-V
Oxford: Oxford University Press
EVALUATION
Students will be evaluated through the use of the following assessment procedures:
- Assignments [60%] – Students will regularly be assigned specific exercises and analysis activities in preparation for the lectures. Many of these assignments will include a written component. The grading rubric for written assignments is included here: 303 writing rubric.pdf
- Quizzes [10%] – Periodic quizzes will be given to evaluate comprehension and acquisition of specific skills and concepts. You will also be required to identify the repertoire we study by listening to excerpts.
- Attendance/Participation [5%] – Attendance is required. Students will regularly be called on in class to respond to questions about the material under discussion. There will also be various activities (e.g., discussion forums, in-class performances) that will require student involvement.
- Final Project [25%] – The final project is in 2 parts: A larger-scale group composition project and a 3-page theoretical statement. Students may work in groups of 2-4 and will be involved in the composition and performance of their pieces. The pieces must make use of some of the different techniques covered in the class. The theoretical statement should describe the ways in which your composition responds to the various aesthetic positions covered in class and demonstrate the techniques used to convey this response.
Each student is expected to do his/her own original work. Any plagiarism will result in a grade of “F” for the course.
The scale for converting percentages to grade point scores can be found here.
ATTENDANCE POLICY
Regular attendance is required. Students who cannot attend class regularly and promptly will jeopardize their success in the class and are therefore advised not to take the course.
If a class is missed, it is the responsibility of the student to obtain any missed information from other class members first, and then the instructors if necessary. Missed classes will not alter the due date for assignments, tests, and other responsibilities. However, in the event of extended illness, every effort will be made to assist the student in completing the required course work whenever possible if it is determined feasible to do so.
Missed quizzes due to absence cannot be made up unless the student receives prior instructor approval or sufficient documentation is presented that verifies substantial reason for the absence (e.g. emergency, extended illness, etc.).
COURSE SCHEDULE
This schedule of classes and readings is subject to revision during the quarter.
Unless otherwise noted, readings should be completed BEFORE the class session in which they appear on the syllabus.
Homework is due at the beginning of the indicated class session.
1900 – 1945
9/28 Introduction, The limits of analysis
Read: Schoenberg, Brahms the Progressive, part XV (1947).pdf (finish by 9/30)
Jonathan Cross, ed., Music Analysis, 22/i-ii (2003), Editorial.pdf (finish by 9/30)
Repertoire: Johannes Brahms, O Tod || Arnold Schoenberg, No. 8 Night (Nacht) from Pierrot Lunaire
Class resources: Powerpoint: 303 lecture 1.pptx
10/3 Early atonality and expressionism
Read: Kostka, Nonserial Atonality (ch. 9: pp. 176 – 186)
Repertoire: Schoenberg, No. 8 Night (Nacht) from Pierrot Lunaire
HW: Week 1 response
Class resources: 10:3 class notes.pdf
Resources on Expressionist Art and Architecture:
Kandinsky - The Path to Abstraction | Edvard Munch (The Scream) | Rudolph Steiner and the Second Geotheanum | The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
10/5 Early atonality and expressionism
Read: Taruskin, OHWM (Vol. IV, Ch 6 – “Motivicization” in Practice)
Repertoire: Bach/Webern, Ricercare from A Musical Offering || Anton Webern, Op. 10 (Mvmt. I, III, IV)
HW (due 10/7): Pitch class sets (Kostka Ch. 9)
Class resources: 10/5 class notes.pdf
10/10 Serialism: 12-tone techniques
Read: Kostka, Classical Serialism (ch. 10, excerpt) || Taruskin, OHWM (Vol. IV, Ch 12 – Epitome)
Repertoire: Webern, Symphonie Op. 21 (Mvmt. I)
Class resources: 10-10 notes.pdf | Webern Op 21 handout.pdf
10/12 Serialism: 12-tone techniques
Read: Taruskin, OHWM (Vol. IV, Ch 12 – Epitome)
Repertoire: Webern, Symphonie Op. 21 (Mvmt. I)
HW: 1) Kostka Ch 10 part 1— Row Forms
Class resources: Webern Op 21 handout.pdf
10/17 The end of time
Read: Messiaen, excerpts from Technique de mon langage musical.pdf
Repertoire: Olivier Messiaen, Quatuor pour la fin du temps, mvmt I
HW: Messiaen — Technique de mon langage musical | Reading and Study Questions
Class resources: Powerpoint: Messiaen.pptx | Notes on Metaphysics in Messiaen.pdf
AFTER 1945
10/19 Total serialism
Read: Taruskin, OHWM (Vol. V, Ch 1): Fixations || Solace in Ritual
Repertoire: Messiaen, Mode de valuers et d’intensités || Pierre Boulez, Structures, Bk. 2, #1 || Karlheinz Stockhausen, Kreuzspiel
Class resources: Messiaen - Mode de valerus - chart.pdf || Kreuzspiel.pptx || Kreuzspiel graphs.pdf
HW (due 10/28): Total Serial Composition
10/24 Total serialism
Read: New Developments in Serialism (#153)
Adorno, excerpt from The Aging of New Music, Boulez, Schoenberg is Dead (finish by 10/26)
Repertoire: Stockhausen, Kreuzspiel
Class resources: Kreuzspiel.pptx || Kreuzspiel graphs.pdf
HW (due 10/28): Total Serial Composition
10/26 Post-war aesthetics and a critique of serialism
Read: New Developments in Serialism (#153)
Adorno, excerpt from The Aging of New Music, Boulez, Schoenberg is Dead
Watch: Jonathan Meades, BBC Documentary on Brutalist Architechture
HW: Reading/Viewing assignment (Adorno, Boulez and Brutalist Architecture)
HW (due 10/28): Total Serial Composition
Class resources: notes on Dialectic of Enlightenment.pdf || Powerpoint: Adorno, Serialism.pptx
Begin Reading (finish by 11/7): George Lewis, excerpts from Improvised Music After 1950: Eurological and Afrological Perspectives || Taruskin, No Ear for Music: the Scary Purity of John Cage
10/31 Dada and the Absurd, Noise and silence
Read: Kostka - Chapter 14.pdf
Taruskin, No Ear for Music: the Scary Purity of John Cage (finish by 11/7)
George Lewis, excerpt from Improvised Music After 1950: Eurological and Afrological Perspectives (finish by 11/7)
Repertoire: John Cage, Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano (#5) || 4' 33" ||
Class resources: Powerpoint: Cage.pptx
11/2 Indeterminate music
Read: Kostka - Chapter 14.pdf
Taruskin, No Ear for Music: the Scary Purity of John Cage (finish by 11/7)
George Lewis, excerpt from Improvised Music After 1950: Eurological and Afrological Perspectives (finish by 11/7)
Repertoire: Boulez, Luciano Berio, Morton Feldman, Stockhausen
Class resources: Powerpoint: Indeterminacy.pptx
11/7 Chance and improvisation, a critique of Cage
Read: Taruskin, No Ear for Music: the Scary Purity of John Cage
George Lewis, excerpt from Improvised Music After 1950: Eurological and Afrological Perspectives
11/9 Technological effects on music and culture in the 20th century
Read: Taruskin, OHWM, Vol. V, Ch 4 – “Real” vs. “Pure”
Michel Chion, Audio-Vision (excerpt), The Three Listening Modes
Once Upon a Time in The West (1968) | opening sequence:
11/14 Timbral/Textural Considerations
Read: Taruskin, OHWM (Vol. V, Ch 4): Reciprocity || Renaissance or Co-optation?
Repertoire: György Ligeti, Volumina || Krzysztof Penderecki, Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima || Iannis Xenakis, Metastaseis
Class resources: Powerpoint: Xenakis.pptx
HW: Lewis or Taruskin Article — response
11/16 Process music and minimalism I
Read: Steve Reich, Music as a Gradual Process
Taruskin, OHWM (Vol. V, Ch 8): New Sites of Innovation || A Contradiction in Terms?
Repertoire: Steve Reich, Come Out, It's Gonna Rain, Piano Phase ||
James Tenney, Having never written a note for percussion || Frederic Rzewski, Les moutons de Panurge
Class resources: Powerpoint: Minimalism.pptx
11/21 Process music and minimalism II
Taruskin, OHWM (Vol. V, Ch 8): "Classical Minimalism" || Secrets of Structure || A Postmodernist Masterwork?
Repertoire: Reich, Music for 18 Musicians
HW: Reich response
11/23 Nancarrow
Read: Kyle Gann, The Music of Conlon Nancarrow, The music: general considerations
Repertoire: Conlon Nancarrow, Studies for player piano (#21 & #36)
(the Studies are not in numerical order on this recording)
11/28 Spectralism
Read: Murail, Spectra and Sprites
Repertoire: Gerard Grisey, Les espaces acoustique: Partiels || Tristan Murail, Désintégrations
11/30 Spectralism
Begin Reading: Cobussen, Music and Spirituality: 13 Meditations around George Crumb's Black Angels
Cobussen endnotes.pdf (finish by 12/7)
Repertoire: Jonathan Harvey, Mortuos Plango, Vivos Voco
Class resources: Bell spectrum / Bell spectrum (pitch) || Formant region - aa / Formants (Spectrogram) || Mortuos Plango, Vivos Voco (score) || Perotín Alleluia Nativitas (score)
12/5 Postmodernism
Read: Cobussen, Music and Spirituality: 13 Meditations around George Crumb's Black Angels
Cobussen endnotes.pdf (finish by 12/7)
Repertoire: George Crumb, Black Angels
Class resources: Modernity/Postmodernity (handout)
12/7 Postmodernism
Read: Cobussen, Music and Spirituality: 13 Meditations around George Crumb's Black Angels
Repertoire: Crumb, Black Angels
HW: Cobussen Response (Black Angels - G. Crumb)
Course Summary:
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