Aesthetics of 20th-Century Music
Professor: Huck Hodge, DMA | hhodge@uw.edu
TA: Jay Rauch | jayrauch@uw.edu
ABOUT THIS COURSE
This is a course on aesthetics. Aesthetics asks questions about value, e.g.:
“is this a good or bad piece of music/composer/musical style or practice”;
“what values are you basing this assessment on”;
“are those values objective/subjective, timeless/culturally determined, etc.?”
In short, we will ask, "why do the composers we look at approach music in the ways they do?"
COURSE OBJECTIVES
This course has three main goals:
- to explore the increasing plurality of artistic values and the techniques used to realize them in 20th-century Western “classical” music;
- to consider why things get so complicated/knotty (and naughty), why it seems that “anything goes” at a certain point in 20th-century music;
- to examine the ways that music sheds light on the (scientific, social, political, ethical, epistemic) beliefs we might hold about the world more generally.
To this end, we will proceed from the following axiom:
Beliefs about how the world is (or should be) organized influence:
1) the choices that composers make about the sort of music they want to create,
2) the ways we evaluate the quality of that music,
3) the opinions we have about what counts as music at all, and
4) whose voice deserves to be heard.
REQUIRED READINGS
Assigned readings are listed for each class session. Several readings will be drawn 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
SCORES (download)
EVALUATION
- 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.
- Participation [5%] – 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. In general, I will first wait for volunteers to respond to questions/prompts. Failing this, I will use a random list generator to call on students. Provided you actually participate when prompted, you will receive full credit by default.
- Final Project [25%] – The final project is in 2 parts: A larger-scale composition project and a 3-page theoretical statement (750 - 1000 words). Students may work alone or 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.
All students are expected to do their own original work. Any plagiarism will result in a grade of “F” for the course.
The chart for converting percentages to the 4.0 grade-point scale can be found here.
NOTE on ZOOM MEETINGS
I would very much appreciate it if you would "unmute" your cameras on Zoom. This helps me feel more like I'm talking to other humans and less like I'm talking to some monolithic abyss. It will also help me, via your facial expressions, to gauge which things from the lecture require more explanation, which things are painfully obvious, etc.
COURSE SCHEDULE
This schedule of classes, readings, and assignments 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 before the beginning of the indicated class session.
1900 – 1945
9/30 Introduction, The limits of analysis
Read: Schoenberg, Brahms the Progressive, part XV (1947) (finish by 10/2)
Jonathan Cross, ed., Music Analysis, 22/i-ii (2003), Editorial.pdf (finish by 10/2)
Repertoire: Johannes Brahms, O Tod || Arnold Schoenberg, No. 8 Night (Nacht) from Pierrot Lunaire
Class resources: Brahms, O Tod (score)
10/2 (precept.) The limits of analysis (discussion)
10/5 Early atonality and expressionism
Read: Kostka, Nonserial Atonality (ch. 9: pp. 178–86 (required), 175-77 (optional))Video Lesson: Pitch Class
Repertoire: Schoenberg, No. 8 Night (Nacht) from Pierrot Lunaire
HW: The limits of analysis response
Resources on Expressionist Art and Architecture:
Kandinsky - The Path to Abstraction | Edvard Munch (The Scream) | Rudolph Steiner and the Second Goetheanum | The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
Class resources: 10:5 class notes.pdf
PC Set Calculator (this is really helpful!)
10/7 A crash course in ethics and aesthetics (discussion)
A crash course in ethics and aesthetics: Lecture Manuscript
A crash course in ethics and aesthetics: Power Point file
Read: The New York Times 7/23/2020, Welcome to the Great Indoors (paywall)
HW: A crash course in ethics and aesthetics (discussion worksheet)
10/9 (precept.) Early atonality and expressionism (cont'd.)
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 10/9): Pitch class sets (Kostka Ch. 9)
Class resources: 10/4 class notes.pdf
10/12 Serialism: 12-tone techniques
Read: Kostka, Classical Serialism (ch. 10, excerpt)
Repertoire: Webern, Symphonie Op. 21 (Mvmt. I)
HW: Kostka Ch 10 part 1— Row Forms
Class resources: Webern Op 21 handout.pdf
Webern, op. 21 — opening canons
10/14 Serialism: 12-tone techniques
Read: Taruskin, OHWM (Vol. IV, Ch 12 – Epitome)
Repertoire: Webern, Symphonie Op. 21 (Mvmt. I)
HW: 12-tone matrix
Class resources: Webern Op 21 handout
10/19 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
10/21 Total serialism
Read: Taruskin, OHWM (Vol. V, Ch 1): Fixations || "Total Serialism" || 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 valuers / Boulez Structures Handout.pdf
HW (due 11/2): Total Serial Composition
10/26 Total serialism
Read: New Developments in Serialism (#153)
Adorno, excerpt from The Aging of New Music || Boulez, Schoenberg is Dead (finish by 10/28)
Repertoire: Stockhausen, Kreuzspiel
Class resources: Kreuzspiel.pptx || Kreuzspiel graphs.pdf
HW (due 11/2): Total Serial Composition
10/28 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)
Class resources: Powerpoint: Adorno / Serialism || notes on Dialectic of Enlightenment.pdf
11/2 Dada and the Absurd, Noise and Silence
Read: Kostka - Chapter 14.pdf
Begin Reading (finish by 11/9): George Lewis, excerpts from Improvised Music After 1950: Eurological and Afrological Perspectives || Taruskin, No Ear for Music: the Scary Purity of John Cage
Repertoire: John Cage, Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano (#5) || 4' 33" || Music of Changes
John Cale, I've Got a Secret / Vexations by Erik Satie
Class resources: Powerpoint: Adorno / Dada / Cage
11/4 Indeterminate music
Read: Kostka - Chapter 14.pdf
Lewis, excerpt from Improvised Music After 1950: Eurological and Afrological Perspectives (finish by 11/9)
Taruskin, No Ear for Music: the Scary Purity of John Cage (finish by 11/9)
Repertoire: Boulez, Luciano Berio, Morton Feldman, Stockhausen
Class resources: Powerpoint: Indeterminacy.pptx
11/9 Chance and improvisation, a critique of Cage
Read: Lewis, excerpt from Improvised Music After 1950: Eurological and Afrological Perspectives (finish by 11/9)
Taruskin, No Ear for Music: the Scary Purity of John Cage (finish by 11/9)
11/16 Process music and minimalism I
Read: Steve Reich, Music as a Gradual Process,
Taruskin, OHWM (Vol. V, Ch 8): "Classical Minimalism"
Mother Jones: How Steve Reich Made Music Out of White Complicity
Wall Street Journal: Kwame Anthony Appiah, Cultural Borrowing Is Great; The Problem Is Disrespect | (pdf file)
Repertoire: Steve Reich, Pendulum Music, Come Out || Pendulum Music
Pauline Oliveros, Klickitat Ride || Deep Listening Meditations: Egypt
James Tenney, Having never written a note for percussion || Frederic Rzewski, Les moutons de Panurge
La Monte Young, Compositions 1960 #7
Class resources: Powerpoint: Minimalism.pptx
HW: Lewis or Taruskin Article — response
11/18 Process music and minimalism II
Julius Eastman (contains potentially troubling language)
11/23 Timbre and Texture
Read: Taruskin, OHWM (Vol. V, Ch 4): Permission || Renaissance or Co-optation?
Repertoire: Iannis Xenakis, Metastaseis || Krzysztof Penderecki, Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima
Ruth Crawford, String Quartet, mvmt. III
2001: A Space Odyssey, monolith (Ligeti's Requiem, micropolyphony)
Powerpoint: Xenakis.pptx
HW: Minimalism, race, and cultural appropriation (extra credit assignment)
11/25 Process + Texture: Nancarrow
Read: Kyle Gann, The Music of Conlon Nancarrow, The music: general considerations
(read pp. 19-28: Tempo canon and its formal results)
Repertoire: Conlon Nancarrow, Studies for player piano (#21 & #36)
(the Studies are not in numerical order on this recording)
Josquin - missa l'homme arme super voces musicales: agnus dei II
HW: Process piece composition (extra credit)
11/30 Spectralism
Read: Tristan Murail, Spectra and Sprites (optional reading)
Repertoire: Gerard Grisey, Les espaces acoustique: Partiels || Tristan Murail, Désintégrations
Grisey, Partiels (1st section).pdf
Perfect 5th: rhythm becomes pitch
12/2 Spectralism
Begin Reading: Cobussen, Music and Spirituality: 13 Meditations around George Crumb's Black Angels
Cobussen endnotes.pdf (finish by 12/9)
Repertoire: Jonathan Harvey, Mortuos Plango, Vivos Voco || Huck Hodge, Time is the substance I am made of (in memoriam Jonathan Harvey)
Time is the substance I am made of (score)
Class resources: Bell spectrum / Bell spectrum (pitch) || Formant region - aa / Formants (Spectrogram) || Mortuos Plango, Vivos Voco (score) || Perotín Alleluia Nativitas (score)
12/7 Postmodernism
Read: Cobussen, Music and Spirituality: 13 Meditations around George Crumb's Black AngelsCobussen endnotes.pdf (finish by 12/10)
Repertoire: George Crumb, Black Angels
Class resources: Modernity/Postmodernity (handout)
12/9 Postmodernism
Read: Cobussen, Music and Spirituality: 13 Meditations around George Crumb's Black AngelsCobussen endnotes.pdf
Repertoire: Crumb, Black Angels
HW: Cobussen Response (Black Angels - G. Crumb)
12/16 Final Projects
Course Summary:
| Date | Details | Due |
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This course content is offered under a Public Domain license. Content in this course can be considered under this license unless otherwise noted.