DQ for Watkins 528-32 & 557-65 (due Thurs 4.26)

Folks:

Posting these now, but they are not due until next THURSDAY Apr 26. Quite short (total 11pp) and available now so that you can get a jump on them over the weekend if you wish. Hang in there!

DQ for Watkins 528-32 & 557-65 Please be prepared to respond in either seminar meeting or in "Comments" on the course blog. In all venues, you must be prepared to cite specific passages (by page, paragraph, line, and quotation) in support of your responses—and specific works.

Summary: The first of these brief readings (528-32) uses the early—and most notorious, and probably most “rigorous”—compositions of Milton Babbitt as a lens through which to understand the situation of “serious” composition in post-WWII America. It explores diverse influences which shaped American composers’ choices in this period: professional, European, academic, systematic, technological, and so on. It demonstrates the reasons which underlay the choice of Webern as a model and serialism as a procedure dominating the compositional landscape in this period. You should certainly familiarize yourself with the works cited (via WebCT and/or classical.com subscription), but you should also think more deductively about parallel and contradictory artistic trends toward “order” and “disorder” in other music, and other art forms, in this period. Those parallels and contradictions are essential in understanding what happened in American music in the second half of the 20^th century.

General question(s) for consideration: Juxtapose Watkins’s comments regarding the European “Webern cult” of the post-WWII era (pp510-11) and on a roughly-analogous group of American composers in the same period (pp528-32). Think about and be prepared to provide responses to the following questions:

• What was the overall climate for “serious” composition in post-WWII America? What were the support networks and/or infrastructure for new-music composition, teaching, and performance?
• How did these climates shape the professional opportunities available for composers? How did they in turn shape these composers’ stylistic or analytical choices? [NB: the goal here is to try to understand how both musical and socio-economic environments drove the choice of serial technique as the overwhelmingly-dominant stylistic school in 1950s America]
• What was the result for new music’s reputation, reception, and audience? How did this change “who’s playing,” “who’s listening,” and/or “who’s paying”?
• What alternatives to serialism existed for composers either unable or unwilling to employ its rigorous organizational technique? Who were these composers, what were their (possibly contrasting) backgrounds, trainings, and aesthetics, and what alternative sources did they seek to draw upon in developing their alternative approaches?
• Can these “serial-alternative” composers be linked with other artistic and/or socio-economic trends in 1950s America? In other words, was there an analogous drive toward alternatives in other art forms? What were they? Give examples of artists or art-works that demonstrate same.

Summary: The second of these brief readings (557-65) provides a clearly-written and well-documented analysis of the “serial-alternative” cited above. In it, Watkins describes an “International” avant-garde which, despite his chapter title, was powerfully, even primarily shaped, by American and non-academic forces. He juxtaposes the American Cage and the European Boulez, but what clearly emerges from the comparison is the dominance of the Cagean, American, anti-academic, even “subversive” elements of what came to be called “chance” or aleatoric composition.

General question(s) for consideration: I have suggested that, while Babbitt’s maximalization of compositional control (integral serialism, analytical set theory, the use of magnetic tape and of the computer and synthesizer) dominated both academic and high-profile contexts in the 1950s, the Ivesian-Cowellian-Cageian willingness to relinquish control—to leave compositional factors to chance or to performer choice—can be seen in hindsight as equally significant.

• Why did these latter composers (quintessentially, Cage himself) choose an alternate path? Were there alternative choices driven by artistic preference, by professional opportunity, by background or biography, by compositional training, by historical experience, or by all of these factors? Be prepared to provide a detailed interpretive response.
• What was the impact of this alternate path on these composers lives, appointments, exposure, collaborations (very important), and/or interaction with the 1950s/60s culture around them? How is it reflected in specific pieces.
• We could probably agree that both the “Princeton” group represented by Babbitt, and the “alternative” group represented by Cage, were reacting to certain cultural trends, and (very importantly) to the weight of the past—a composer’s “problem” which has emerged throughout the course of the century. What is Babbitt’s relationship to models, systems, and the past? Who were his models and inspirations? What is Cage’s relationship to models, systems, and the past? Who were his models and inspirations? Be specific in your response.
• What is the influence of the serialist/academic composers? What composers of the next generation were influenced by them, and/or where did their stylistic emphases “go”? What is the influence of the alternative/experimental/”chance” composers? Who was influenced by them, and/or where their stylistic emphases play out?

For Tuesday 4.24: short additional reading: DQ for Watkins 481-86

DQ for Watkins 481-86 (grad students: please also read and be prepared to summarize and describe the insights in pp506-17)

Please be prepared to respond in either seminar meeting or in "Comments" on the course blog. In all venues, you must be prepared to cite specific passages (by page, paragraph, line, and quotation) in support of your responses—and specific works.

Summary: This short reading summarizes the early influential works of Olivier Messiaen, and of the very wide and remarkably “free” (e.g., variable) combinations of influences, procedures, and strategies that go into these works. Though the Quatuor pour le fin du temps rightly receives much attention, both for its innovations and for the very stark circumstances of its composition, other works from the late ‘30s and the war years equally represent Messiaen’s individuality and his integration of influences, philosophies, and procedures. Much more than members of more rigidly-circumscribed “Isms” (and certainly in contrast to the serialists who dominated post-WWII academic composition), Messiaen was always his “own man.” But in the pan-global and pan-historical diversity of his influences, in the combination of extraordinary “control” (of pitch, duration, dynamics, and other parameters) and remarkable freedom (of interpretation and “chance” elements), and in his sense of music as a component of multi-sensory ritual performance, he is a significant inspiration for composers as diverse as 1950s/60s Boulez, Cage, and the Minimalists.

General question(s) for consideration: What is the relationship between Messiaen’s wide and diverse influences—which you should be prepared to list—and his compositional strategies in the 1930s/40s works? Be prepared to provide at least three examples of his source influences and ways in which those specific examples can be demonstrated to influence the organization of specific works (the Quatuor, Les corps glorieux, L’Ascension, or the Messe de la Pentecote).

What are the sources of Messiaen’s ordering of various parameters, including not only pitch, but also duration, dynamics, and (especially important) registration?

(1) On p481, Watkins refers to a “new and fundamental perspective” in Messiaen’s early works. Upon what did this perspective reflect? What is the impact of this perspective on all of Messiaen’s work, through much of the balance of his career? And, an interpretive question: how and why is this new perspective a fundamental rejection of Romantic structural models? [Hint: look at the discussion, top of p482]

(2) I will have more to say in class regarding Messiaen’s diverse influences, but specifically in reference to p482, first para, what is the impact of Messiaen’s church experience upon his compositional procedures? Upon his artistic goals? Please be very specific.

(3) Be prepared to describe the specific organization structures which are summarized in the discussion (p482 bottom) from Messiaen’s Technique of My Musical Language. Note the wide range of sources he drew from and the specific impact of those sources on the techniques described.

(4) As stated above, the Quatuor is probably Messiaen’s best-known early work, but typically this is more a response to the circumstances of its composition than to the details of the work. Yet it is a composition of astonishing sophistication, an extraordinary integration of very diverse sources and ideas, and (Messiaen’s particular genius) the ability to see both procedural and philosophical parallels between such diverse ideas. In this sense, I would thus posit that the Quatuor is simultaneously a deeply “Neo-classical” and a deeply “modernist” work, that it is both deeply Catholic and yet profoundly sympathetic to other religious traditions, that it is grounded in both Messiaen’s own background as organist but also reflective of his interest in other (even non-human) musical resources. Please be prepared to explain how.

(5) Similarly: be prepared to link Messiaen to his own French and Russian predecessors (both musical and non-musical), and be specific.

(6) [Grad students only] Be prepared to summarize for the class the procedures (both organizational and structural) in Mode de valeurs et d’intensité and the Livre d’orgue [hint: what is the literal translation of each of these titles, and, why does Watkins say the latter was composed for organ rather than piano?].

(6) [Grad students only] Pay particular attention to the discussion pp509-11 of (a) the nature of the influence and relationship between Messiaen and Boulez (still one of the most respected interpreters of Messiaen’s work) and (b) (very important) Boulez’s perspectives on Webern versus Schoenberg. Be prepared to describe for, and explain to, the class Watkins’s own analysis on the attraction of Webern versus Schoenberg to a post-War generation of composers. This analysis will be equally important in understanding responses to Webern in 1950s Europe and in 1950s America.

DQ for Watkins 443-58 (grad students: please pay close attention to the material on Ruggles/Riegger/Becker, Harris, and Piston/Finney

DQ for Watkins 443-58 (grad students: please also pay close attention to the material on Ruggles/Riegger/Becker (442-43), Harris (449-50), and Piston/Finney (454-55), and be able to relate compositional resources, goals, and strategies to the classroom discussions of Ives, Cowell, and Thomson)

Please be prepared to respond in either seminar meeting or in “Comments” on the course blog. In all venues, you must be prepared to cite specific passages (by page, paragraph, line, and quotation) in support of your responses—and specific works.

Summary: These readings address the experience and reactions of American composers who were the younger contemporaries of Cowell and Ives, who in some cases claimed inspiration from their older “American experimentalist” peers, but whose focus, background, and overall aesthetics were much more strongly based in the Germanophile “great tradition” of European training (Ruggles is something of a special case and his idiosyncratic educational background differs from that of Copland, Barber, Thomson, and the other members of the Parisian “Boulangerie”).

General question(s) for consideration: These American composers (Copland, Harris, Thomson, Piston, Barber, Schuman) shared a number of biographical factors and compositional influences, but certainly two particularly important elements were (a) their “American” nationalist impulses and (b) their formal and compositional indebtedness to European “modernism.” What were the principle Euro-centric influences upon these composers? If they looked to European models, what were those models, and why did these Americans choose them? Conversely, what was these composers’ relationship to the American experimentalist traditions of Ives and Cowell? Are there parallels between and among these composers, in terms of influences, priorities, or goals? Finally, how and in what environments did these American composers influence the post-WWII generation of Americans? What was their impact?

(1) On pp443 and following Watkins discusses Copland’s (social and biographical) background, educational experience, and general artistic orientation during his early maturity as a composer. Where and with whom did he study? What would have been the possible impact(s) upon Copland of this experience? Are these experiences similar to or different from those other American composers of the same generation who are discussed in this chapter?

(2) The 1920s works of Copland discussed on pp444-45, and the various organizations and environments for which these works were produced, are decidedly “Euro-centric” and modernist in both intentions and musical procedures (have a listen via classicalmusic.com to Grohg, the 1925 Piano Concerto, the 1930 Piano Variations, or Music for the Theatre, and be prepared to respond to the following: despite the fact that the latter two works (and others produced in the same period) borrow extensively from “American” sources—especially jazz and the blues—I would suggest that the works are decidedly “European” in their treatment of these sources. In other words, I am suggesting that, though born in New York City, Copland in the ‘20s was treating even American sources in a rather “Parisian” fashion. Why might this be? And, can you relate SHMRG details of what you hear in the above works to the compositions of other 1920s Parisian composers?

(3) Overall, through p447, how would you describe Copland’s 1920s “compositional allegiances”? With what “Isms” is his 1920s music most legitimately associated? (Don’t make a snap conclusion here: this is a subtle and complicated question)

(4) pp447-48, subtitled “A Simpler Language,” describe a change in Copland’s compositional style and goals in the period after 1930, and especially after 1932. What musical, biographical, or historical events drove this change in style and goals? Be prepared to cite specific works, composers, or events, and to relate specific Copland works of the ‘30s and early ‘40s to these factors.

(5) [For grad students only: be prepared to describe Harris’s career, training, compositional emphases, and goals to the balance of the class.]

(6) pp450-54 discuss the biography, early musical influences, compositional training, and (especially important) collaborations with other artists and across media, of Virgil Thomson. How is Thomson’s career parallel to that of Copland? How does it differ? (Hint: pay particular attention to his collaborations, with both literary and film activities) I will have more to say about Four Saints in Three Acts, particularly about the biographical and cross-genre experiences that shaped Thomson’s intentions in this work, but please read this section closely for its excellent explanation of the goals which Thomson and Gertrude Stein shared in this collaboration. It is thought of as a “difficult” work, but in fact makes excellent “sense” if the listener understands what Thomson/Stein were and were not attempting to accomplish. With what earlier composers does Watkins link Four Saints? With what other “experimental” composers (chiefly in the 1950s-60s) might we link this same work? Pay particular attention to Thomson’s compositional procedure in this work as Watkins describes it.

(7) [For grad students only: be prepared to describe Piston’s career, training, compositional emphases, and goals to the balance of the class.]

(8) On pp455 and following, Watkins provides a biographical sketch and brief discussion of selected works by Samuel Barber. How specifically do Barber’s compositional experience and goals mirror or contrast those of other members of the “Boulangerie”? With what “Isms” is Barber’s music typically associated? Pay particular attention to the discussion of Summer of 1915, a musical reminiscence by Barber, of its beautiful and evocative text, and have a listen to the work on classicalmusic.com. Does this music, in its topic, mood, musical procedures, choice of text, or other factors, remind you of another American composer not a member of the Boulangerie?

(9) [For grad students only: be prepared to describe Schuman’s career, training, compositional emphases, and goals to the balance of the class.]

(10) All: Read the section “Other Americans” very closely and retain this information. It is a marvelously succinct and insightful summary of the divergent compositional traditions which came to prominence in America during and immediately after World War II, and thus is a very important preface to our discussions of the post-1945 period.

DQ for Watkins 424-30 & 433-43 (grad students: Spain and Italy also)

DQ for Watkins 424-30 & 433-43 (grad students: please read the material on Spain and Italy as well)

Please be prepared to respond in either seminar meeting or in "Comments" on the course blog. In all venues, you must be prepared to cite specific passages (by page, paragraph, line, and quotation) in support of your responses—and specific works.

Summary: This set of readings (from both Chapters 21 and 22) addresses musical experimentation in regions, as with Soviet Russia, that were somehow “outside of” or peripheral to the Austro-German-Parisian early-20th-century modernist orbit. In Spain and Italy, and especially in England and the USA, new-music composers grappled with issues reminiscent of those faced by the French Impressionists, Eastern European, and Russian composers. You are encouraged to identify and be prepared to articulate both parallels and contrasts between the experiences of these two sets of composers.

General question(s) for consideration:

What types of resources did English and American (grad students: also Spanish and Italian) composers draw upon as they sought to create alternatives to the Austro-German 19th-century symphonic/operatic tradition? What sorts of musical languages did they develop as a result of these resources? Are there parallels between the resources employed, or the musical languages resulting, by Vaughan Williams, Walton, Britten, and Ives, and those similarly employed by Bartok, Stravinsky, Prokofiev, and Shostakovich?

If so, please consider the following question about these Anglo-American composers, as we earlier asked the same question about the Soviets: what is the interplay in these composers’ works between (a) symphonic form, (b) programmaticism, and (c) modernism? How do these Anglo-American composers attempt to reconcile these three elements’ potentially conflicting imperatives?

We saw, in the case of Shostakovich and Prokofiev, that under Socialist Realist principles this resolution was essentially impossible in the context of the concert hall, but that it became less impossible in other performing venues. Was it similarly impossible for Vaughan Williams, Walton, Britten, or Ives? Be prepared to both summarize and contrast the reconciliation each of these four attempted, or failed, to effect—this means you need to compare and distinguish-between each of the four’s solutions.

Finally, a hint: How is the “symphonic form vs. programmaticism vs. modernism” issue resolved by Bartók? Is he somehow more successful at resolving this three-way conundrum than Shostakovich or Prokofiev? If so, why? And, can understanding how Bartók accomplished this help us understand the Anglo-Americans’ strategies?

(1) On p424, Watkins introduces the combination of diverse influences that shaped Ralph Vaughan Williams’s music. We will expand upon this substantially in class—because RVW’s experience illustrates the complex task faced by 20th-century composers in England specifically—but note here the interplay between “old music” and “folk music” and “new music composition” described by Watkins. Do we see any parallels between this interplay and those strategies adopted by any other “non-German” composers in the period? Recall the various nations in geographic proximity to England, and the very strong and direct interaction between London and Paris that reaches all the way back to Purcell and the high Baroque.

(2) On p424-425, first para, Watkins cites RVW’s activities with both the English Folk Song Society (EFSS) and the Purcell society. I will have more to say in class about this, and the “rediscovery” by both composers and collectors of English folk traditions which most educated classes assumed to have died out, but for your consideration: what RVW activities provided him very practical assistance in using “old music” as a basis for “new music”? And, does this strategy link him with any other “Isms”, and with any other composers, in both France and Eastern Europe?

(3) RVW is commonly described as an “English nationalist” composer. But, as we have seen, 20th-century “Nationalism” (like “Impressionism” or “Socialist Realism”) is not so much a set of definable musical characteristics. It is rather a set of compositional goals, a set of compositional strategies (chiefly involving borrowing, imitation, and allusion), and only subsequently a set of definable musical characteristics. In the case of RVW, what were the goals, strategies, and characteristics? And, are there parallels in this area between the case of RVW and those of any other composers we have discussed? Be prepared to articulate same.

(4) pp425-26 provide specific and detailed examples of how RVW used traditional or “old” musical resources to develop a “modernist” melodic, rhythmic and (especially) harmonic idiom. What were the technical details of that idiom? Does the way in which he developed this idiom resemble that of other composers? Be prepared to articulate.

(5) The discussion on p427-28 of William Walton influences, and especially the ways those influences coalesced in Façade, is strongly reminiscent of a group of composers in another nation, and of one particular composer in that group, and even of a particular composition. What group, composer, and composition? What are the “Isms” that connect Façade and this other group?

(6) Watkins’s discussion of Britten is effective, but incomplete. Certainly those Britten works which are most “popular,” or at least most widely-played, are not necessarily those works upon which his reputation as a modernist is most strongly based. That is, while the Ceremony of Carols, Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Young Person’s Guide are probably the best-known works, the Serenade, Billy Budd, the War Requiem, and Peter Grimes were vastly more influential upon other composers, particularly in Britain. I will have more to say in class about the areas (chiefly the impact of international and sexual politics) which Watkins omits from his Britain portrait, but you should certainly be able to relate Britten’s influences, the traditions of English music (especially choral song), and the modernist innovations of the influential works—using specific examples.

(7) The discussion of Ives on pp433-43 is necessarily and unavoidably incomplete. I will expand upon this with a more comprehensive picture of Ives’s background, sources, goals, and impact, but here are a few key points you should anticipate, and relate to the readings:

• What is the compositional milieu in American academic composition around the year 1890? Who are the shapers of compositional opinion?
• What is Ives’s relationship with this milieu?
• What Ives compositional resources does Watkins cite? Does Ives’s manipulation and exploitation of these resources, in seeking a modernist musical idiom, remind you of any other composers we have studied? Who and why? Be specific.
• In places (notably p435, first full para), Watkins drastically oversimplifies the degree to which Ives’s modernism “developed largely without reference to current European developments.” The actual picture is much more complicated and much more confusing (partly because, as I will relate in class, Ives abetted this confusion). Be prepared, even if Watkins does not, to link Ives with modernist experiments by his European contemporaries. [Grad students: please skim and be prepared to summarize Burkholder’s 1985 article on Ives and his European models, found on WebCT under “Materials – Week 14 – Links – Readings.”]
• All students: please visit classicalmusic.com via the TTU library’s “Databases” website and listen to “In Flanders Fields,” the Symphony #4 (excerpts of each movement), and the Piano Sonata #2 “Concord” (excerpts of each movement).

DQ for Watkins 412-21 (grad students: please read short Huband article)

DQ for Watkins 412-21 (grad students: please read short Huband article on Shostakovich found on WebCT under “Week 13 – Materials – Links – Readings”)

Please be prepared to respond in either seminar meeting or in "Comments" on the course blog. In all venues, you must be prepared to cite specific passages (by page, paragraph, line, and quotation) in support of your responses—and specific works.

Summary: This short chapter surveys the careers of Prokofiev and Shostakovich, whose lives, works, and socio-political experience form a reasonably good portrait of the interaction of musical context and musical content that impacted symphonic composition in the 20^th century. Though both Russian composers’ experience reflects the specifics of the Soviet (and Socialist Realist) artistic environment, both composers’ priorities, catalog of works, relationship with both conservative and modernist trends, is consistent with that of symphonists in other places (notably Scandinavia and the USA).

[Two-part] general question for consideration: (1) What is the three-way relationship between symphonic form, programmaticism, and modernism? Is there a way to articulate the ways that composers have juggled these (potentially conflicting) ideas and influences? (2) What is the relationship between programmaticism and 20^th-century composers’ (particularly political) experience? In other words, do 20^th-century programmatic composers tend to be aware of, or oblivious to, the political contexts in which they find themselves? Conversely, is the political awareness or experience of “absolute” composers more or less visible? Influential?

(1) Note the range of influences and resonances Watkins cites for Prokofiev, on p412. As a younger contemporary of Stravinsky, Bartok, Debussy, Skriabin, and Diaghilev, and as something of an enfant prodigue (“child prodigy”), Prokofiev drew very widely on many extant influences and ideas in the years before the Bolshevik Revolution (1917). What does this catholicity reveal about Prokofiev’s compositional strengths? About his awareness of his own historical/artistic context?

(2) Also on p412, what/who are the influences upon the Scythian Suite (1915), in terms of both program and style? This orchestral work, along with the Toccata for piano (1912), were the principle works which made Prokofiev’s name in pre-Revolution Russia (and Paris). Who/what are the obvious precursors? Be prepared to relate to both Russian and non-Russian influences.

(3) On the top of p413, Watkins identifies both Neo-classical tendencies in Prokofiev’s music of this period, and also four traits which the composer himself claimed to identify in his own music. What are those four traits; how, and which, relate to Neo-classicism, and, crucially, with what other “Isms” of the period do these traits connect Prokofiev. In other words, in these four style characteristics, Prokofiev is linked to a number of other composers working in the same period—not only to Neo-classicists. What are those other styles and composers?

(4) p413, para 2, Watkins says that the “peasant setting” of On the Dnieper “failed to move” Prokofiev, and that this “suggests a fundamental distinction” b/w him and Stravinsky. Be prepared to explain this distinction, citing specific works as evidence in support of your explanation.

(5) p413, para 3, Watkins describes very briefly Prokofiev’s experience in the West 1918-36; in class, I will considerably amplify this description—not because I believe Watkins is in error, but because a more complete description of the 1918-36 experience helps explain Prokofiev’s return to the Soviet Union, and subsequent experience, more fully.

(6) p413 (last para)-414 (top) contain a brief description of the complex and often conflicting imperatives that were imposed upon composers (and other artists) in Stalinist Russia. These imperatives came under the general heading of “Socialist Realism,” a term we will unpack and discuss in class (grad students, please read short Huband article on Shostakovich found on WebCT under “Week 13 – Materials – Links – Readings”; pay particular attention to pp3-5). However, in advance of that discussion, read this section closely, and consider the time period: the 1930s. In what other places were what other composers experiencing (internal or external) demands that their music be “socially relevant”? Thus, be prepared to relate “Socialist Realism” with other politically-informed musics of the 1930s.

(7) p415 (middle) discusses Prokofiev’s score for the Sergei Eistenstein film Alexander Nevsky, which relates the events of the German invasion of Russia in 1242 and Germany’s defeat at the climactic battle of Novgorod, when an entire army of German Knights Templar were halted on a frozen lake, whose surface shattered and in which the Germans were drowned. Nevsky was made in 1938, prior to the German invasion of Poland which formally precipitated World War II, but clearly this Eisenstein/Prokofiev collaboration was intended to anticipate—and muster support—for resistance to a Nazi invasion. Please view this YouTube excerpt, and be prepared to relate visual imagery and musical style in it to the principles of Socialist Realism. [Grad students: for more on Eisenstein as a model for both composers and film-makers, see the discussion of his seminal Battleship Potemkin, a mythographic rendering of an abortive 1905 anti-Tsarist rebellion led by Russian sailors]

(8) The discussion of Shostakovich follows logically from that of Prokofiev: he was both younger than Prokofiev, more shaped by post-Bolshevik experience than Prokofiev, and much more emblematic of Russian symphonism (and suffered at least as much at the hands of Socialist Realist critics). On p416, para 4, Watkins has a wonderful phrase to describe Socialist Realist goals: “the proper nuancing of social ideologies” (specifically in art). Be prepared to unpack and explain this phrase, citing specific events and compositions from Shostakovich’s own career.

(9) In this same paragraph, please note the astonishing contrast between 1920s Leningrad (a very progressive, experimental, avant-garde arts scene) and 1930s Russia as a whole—which became a dreadfully conservative place for the arts. What explains this about-face, between 1920s modernism and 1930s conservatism?

(10) Note the discussion (p417) of Lady Macbeth and the Symphony No. 5. Both works were roundly criticized by Socialist Realist critics (most notably, Tichon Krennikov, the notoriously repressive head of the Union of Soviet Composers); the former was withdrawn, and the latter was alleged to be Shostakovich’s “apology” for his previous “artistic errors.” What was the nature of these “errors”, from whom and for what reasons did the criticism come, and what are the “problems” in our attempts to understand Shostakovich’s artistic motivations in these works?

DQ for Watkins 383-401 (grad students: please also read 401-410)

DQ for Watkins 383-401 (grad students: please also read 401-410)

Please be prepared to respond in either seminar meeting or in "Comments" on the course blog. In all venues, you must be prepared to cite specific passages (by page, paragraph, line, and quotation) in support of your responses—and specific works.

Summary: These pages actually combine material from two different chapters: that on Webern’s “mature” (that is, post-Schoenberg) music, and that introducing Bartok’s music. If we view Webern as a kind of “parallel” to Schoenberg, and Bartok as a kind of “parallel” to Stravinsky, we will see that understanding Schoenberg’s and Stravinsky’s music of this period will help us develop a perspective on that of Webern and Bartok. One caveat: in my opinion, Watkins’s discussion of Webern’s late works neglects certain aspects of his compositional technique, particularly in the area of systematization of parameters besides pitch. Expect that my classroom presentation will address this latter factor in some detail, and be prepared to take notes accordingly.

General question for consideration: what responses, goals, and compositional traits does Webern share with Schoenberg? Bartok with Stravinsky? What responses, goals, traits and (in particular) compositional resources do Webern and Bartok develop independently or in contrast to Schoenberg and Stravinsky?

(1) p383, be prepared to unpack the very first sentence. For what “stylistic options” did Webern “show[] less concern” than his contemporaries? Why might he have avoided less concerns?

(2) Watkins refers, also on p383, to an “unspoken subscription [to] neoclassic textures and formalities” which Webern shared with Schoenberg. What are the details of this “subscription”? Which of these details or concerns did Webern share with Schoenberg? What is the source of these concerns? Why did both of these German composers leave their “subscription” “unspoken”? More general philosophical question: in order to refer to the presence of an “Ism” in a composer’s work, is it necessary that the composer him/herself must either identify or agree with that Ism? If not, why not? Another way to think about the same question: are Isms categories or trends?

(3) The discussion of the Webern Op. 14 identifies certain affinities which Watkins claims the composer shared with Expressionism, despite the degree to which Webern’s music does not “sound like” “typical” Expressionist music. What are the “typical sounds” of Expressionist works? Why do composers employ those sounds? To problematize the conventional label of Expressionism: ought we to presume that Expressionist music has a certain “sound”, any more than Neoclassical music? If Expressionism is not a product of sound, of what is it a product? Also, as part of this, be prepared to relate the biography and aesthetic of Trakl to Weimar Berlin.

(4) On p384, first full para, Watkins provides a very subtle observation about how Expressionist composers tended to treat words in texted pieces. In the sentence fragment that begins “structurally it derives from the Expressionist predilection…” what is the relationship between individual words, full texts, “involved syntactical construction”, and “silence and the pause”? How are these tendencies relevant to other works by Webern, and to his sonic aesthetic as a whole?

(5) p385 has a good summary of Webern style traits that are common across his whole catalog. Be prepared to recall these style characteristics (of which there are at least four) to all works cited in this chapter, and to contribute these observations to our classroom discussion. In addition to the influences of Expressionist texts, folk-song, and his teacher Schoenberg, what other influences upon Webern’s music does Watkins identify here?

(6) The top of p386 has a discussion on issues of restriction, and especially of symmetry, which is both very important to understanding Webern’s music, and also links his music (especially his formal/structural conception) to that of Bartok. Read “forward” into the Bartok chapter, and be prepared to relate Bartok’s treatment of structural symmetries with that of Webern—and to cite examples. On the bottom of p386, be prepared to summarize Webern’s own comments on the op. 21, and to contribute this summary to our in-class discussion of the Symphony.

(7) Nice quote about “delicate aeration” on p389; what does it mean? Give examples.

[NOTE: During our class discussion, I will add substantially to Watkins’s discussion of Webern—particularly in the area of Webern’s systematization of other musical parameters beyond pitch.

(8) On p394, Watkins cites a set of goals which drove Bartok’s folklore experiments. What were those goals, and how did they relate both to goals of other composers, and to Bartok’s own musical resources? Also on this page and the next, Watkins compares Bartok’s relationship to folk musics with that of Stravinsky. How does he differentiate the two? What is the impact on Bartok’s music?

(9) Please note, on pp395 & ff, that Bartok’s compositional influences were quite broad and diverse; though folklore/folk-music was very important, it was not the only influence. What were Bartok’s other influences, and what works does Watkins cite as evidence of these? (I will have comments to supplement Watkins’s discussion of this topic)

(10) On pp397-99, Watkins provides a brief but detailed discussion of the scalar and intervallic sources of Bartok’s harmonic language. What is the origin of these particular scalar and intervallic constructions? How does it impact Bartok’s harmonic language? His phrase structures? His cadential and modulation schema?

(11) Be prepared to demonstrate Bartok’s varied approaches to rhythm. How would you demonstrate “parlando-rubato”? “Giusto”? “Additive rhythms”? You will need to be able to play, sing, and describe each of these.

DQ for Watkins 326-40 (grad students: please also read p320-26)

DQ for Watkins 326-40 (grad students: please also read p320-26 on Stravinsky’s Rake’s Progress, and be prepared to relate both the work’s narrative and its musical allusions to the images collected at this link—scroll down for the complete set).

Please be prepared to respond in either seminar meeting or in "Comments" on the course blog. In all venues, you must be prepared to cite specific passages (by page, paragraph, line, and quotation) in support of your responses—and specific works.

Summary: This section explores the post-war tonal and formal experiments of both Francophone and Germanophile composers, focusing specifically upon the 1920s music of Stravinsky and of Schoenberg. It recognizes the degree to which these two composers themselves participated in the critical portrayal of “history in the making”—that is, that both Stravinsky and Schoenberg themselves sought to portray their respectively anti-German and German-tradition approaches as mutually antithetical: a playing-out once again of a historical antipathy between French and German compositional traditions. Watkins shows the degree to which these antipathy was a matter of perception, more than reality, and suggests that Stravinsky and Schoenberg, despite their employment of contrasted terminology, were in fact grappling with similar questions in the post-WWI period: namely—and again—the issue of the organization of large-scale forms in a post-tonal world.

General question for consideration: Assuming that these composers were both dealing with issues of large-scale formal organization, precisely what resources did Stravinsky draw upon in creating his “Neo-classical” 1920s music, and what is the relationship between Stravinsky’s resources and those drawn upon by Schoenberg? To answer this question, you must “read past” the descriptions given by each composer, which emphasized their differences, and “read to” Watkins’s own articulation of these two composers’ commonalities. Be prepared to articulate.

(1) On p326, Watkins describes a Franco-German debate focusing around the term nouveau classicisme. Messing’s article made clear to us that this term was as much a political or aesthetic badge (or label) as it was a stylistic label. When French composers used it as a derogatory label for German aesthetics, what characteristics were they criticizing? How did French composers contrast their own aesthetic choices to these German traits? [HINT: Think about how French versus German composers thought of their respective relationships to the tradition of Bach, Mozart, Haydn, Schubert, Brahms, etc. Then read “Schoenberg: ‘Onward From…’” carefully; it contains the core explanation for French versus German conceptions of their obligation to composition’s history.]

(2) On pp327-28, Watkins provides a chronological history of a selective group of Schoenberg and Stravinsky works composed in the period 1920-25. On the basis of this list, were S & S aware of, ignorant of, or pretending to be ignorant of each other’s 1920s experiments?

(3) On p329, Watkins cites “a handful of [Schoenberg] masterpieces in which the creative spirit burned radiantly…”. What works is Watkins referencing? And, what does Watkins have to say about these works’ formal organization? Be specific!

(4) Also on p329, Watkins cites Krenek’s comment that Schoenberg’s atonal works had provoked much more shock than had the (later) serial works. Why is this? Hint: think about the specific musical parameters with which atonal (e.g., Expressionist) versus serial works experimented. Was there something about the specific musical parameters of Pierrot, Erwartung, or for that matter Wozzeck, that made them “more shocking” than the later serial works? What?

(5) pp329-31: please read closely, and examine the musical excerpts (grad students: please play these at the keyboard). Be sure that you understand and can explain how the serial method, especially its treatments of contrapuntal techniques, is working in these early serial pieces. Here are essential questions pertaining specifically to the Op. 25 Suite:

• To what parameters is the serial treatment applied?
• What specific aspects of the Baroque suite—as a formal structure—make it an especially logical and appropriate choice for a first experiment with serial treatment? Hint: if you are unclear on the specific formal aspects of the Baroque suite, please review those characteristics via Grove Online—and then formulate an accurate answer to this question.
• Watkins “problematizes” Schoenberg’s treatment of the suite form in the Op. 25, but not because of the work’s non-tonal organization. Instead, Watkins identifies another SHMRG parameter whose treatment obscures the suite’s characteristics. What is that parameter, and why might Schoenberg have treated the parameter in this obscurantist fashion?

(6) On pp331-35, Watkins discusses the Op. 31 Variations for Orchestra—like the Op. 25 suite, Schoenberg’s borrowing of a Baroque-era structure for purposes of formal experiment in the new serial harmonic language. Why is the variation form particularly receptive to serial treatment? Why are both the 18^th-century suite and the variation a more apt form for serial experiment than the 19^th century sonata-allegro form? Be prepared to cite specific lines from Watkins to support your answer.
(7) Pay particular attention to the matrix on p333 and to the discussion of combinatorial hexachords on p334. Be prepared to explain the significance of both in your own words (hint: these are complicated explanations for relatively simple concepts—read closely, and figure out the concept behind the explanation).

(8) pp334-35 mention a particularly interesting commentary from a Schoenberg radio broadcast in 1931 (e.g., at a time when Schoenberg would have a bit of perspective with which to develop a “hindsight explanation” for the early-‘20s experiments of the Suite and Variations). What strategy did Schoenberg employ to “rationalize” the 12-note theme of the Variations? CRUCIAL QUESTION: how did this particular strategy serve to bolster—in fact to demonstrate—Schoenberg’s claim that his music was in the direct, defensible German tradition?

(9) On p335, the sentence beginning para1 (“It may be concluded that Schoenberg…”) is extremely important. Why? Be prepared to articulate an answer, and use the specific works cited in the same paragraph as part of your evidence.

(10) On p339, para 1 (begins “While attention to such technical matters…”) is also very important. In it, Watkins articulates an explanation for the “larger issues…that consumed virtually all composers of the time”—e.g., of the 1920s. What were those issues? What SHMRG parameters did they revolve around? How did serialism present a “solution” to these idioms? In light of Schoenberg’s comment quoted at the end of that paragraph, why was serialism a particularly attractive solution for him, in not only formal but also in historical terms?

(11) In the same page, Watkins cites the twelve-tone method as “the logical next step” for Schoenberg. The “next logical step” to what? Why was twelve-tone technique (rather than “folklorism,” Expressionism, “Neo-classicism,” or other Ism) more appealing to Schoenberg? For more insight on this, see the extended Schoenberg quote on the top of p340.

DQ for Watkins 287-306 (grad students: please also read p308-20)

DQ for Watkins 287-306 (grad students: please also read p308-20 and be prepared to summarize this material’s key insights for the balance of the class).

Please be prepared to respond in either seminar meeting or in "Comments" on the course blog. In all venues, you must be prepared to cite specific passages (by page, paragraph, line, and quotation) in support of your responses—and specific works.

Summary: This section explores a network of musical influences, drawn largely from outside the realm of German art music, which began to shape other national and stylistic schools in the ‘Teens and ‘20s. Many of these factors are analogous to those that drove Impressionism in France and various national responses in other regions.

General question for consideration: In light of Messing’s history and critique of the term “Neo-classicism”, to what goals and impulses can we attribute these “New Simplicities”? And how and to what extent did these New Simplicities operate across national boundaries?

(1) Chap 14 opens with a discussion (pp286-88) of Schoenberg’s activities in the realm of cabaret and popular musics. Though these musics are not typically thought of as Schoenberg influences, and though he himself repudiated them, Watkins suggests that his direct experience in these musics connects Schoenberg’s experience in the ‘Teens and ‘20s to that of other composers. Based on this and prior readings, what other composers, both within and outside Germany, share Schoenberg’s experience with cabaret and popular musics in this period?

(2) In the section subheaded “American Currents” (pp288-89), Watkins cites multiple examples of European interest in American popular culture, both within and outside music. What priorities, characteristics, or themes do European composers seem to be finding in these American topics, and how do these play out in their works? (Hint: consider our prior discussion of Parade). Also, in this same section, what connections can be drawn between popular influences, primitivism, and futurism?

(3) The discussion beginning p289 explores a particularly complex and fluid combination of sources and influences in German music in the 1920s, with specific focus on (one aspect of) Hindemith, Orff, Weill, and Krenek. Here are a few questions to help you formulate a thesis which explains how these factors interacted:

• What was the 1920s German perspective on jazz, what it meant, and what resources it might present for concert music?
• Looking at the illustration on p291, what “Isms” could be legitimately be attached to this image (some are more obvious associations, some less)?
• Also on p291, Watkins discusses Hindemith’s 1921 Kammermusik and its scoring. What is the significance of the scoring, and of the texture, of this piece?
• What is the interaction between Expressionism and Futurism? Could these things be matters of compositional (or audience) perspective?
• Be prepared to define the term Zeitoper and to articulate the “Isms” that this idiom might have addressed?
• On p292, last para, Watkins discusses the role that German folk music played in works of Mahler, Berg, and Schoenberg. How does he distinguish these composers’ perspectives on their own folk music from the perspectives of composers in other nations?

(4) On p294-95, be prepared to articulate the relationship between Orff’s background, principle works, and eventual efforts in music education and cognition.

(5) On pp295-399, there is an extensive discussion of Krenek’s Jonny Spielt Auf. This work is not at all well-known (and not easy to find in score or recordings), but in its topic, musical idioms, and general affect it foreshadows at least three later, better-known works (specifically, by Weill, Gershwin, and Blitzstein). How does Jonny grow out of Zeitoper, how does it reflect the “American Currents” cited previously, and how does Jonny anticipate future developments?

(6) Be prepared to articulate the ways in which “New Simplicity”, 1920s progressivism, and “American Currents” play out in Weill’s Threepenny Opera.

(7) Be prepared to articulate both the biographical and the artistic connections between Berg and Gershwin in this period, and to use these connections to contrast Berg’s perspectives on non-German music from those of Schoenberg and Webern.

DQ for Watkins 235-52

DQ for Watkins 235-52 (grad students: please also read p288-99 and be prepared to relate this material [which describes roughly contemporaneously innovations in America and in Germany] to the Italian/Russian material described in Chapter 12)

Please be prepared to respond in either seminar meeting or in "Comments" on the course blog. In all venues, you must be prepared to cite specific passages (by page, paragraph, line, and quotation) in support of your responses—and specific works.

Summary: This section explores an “Ism” which had far more impact conceptually and philosophically—even technologically—than it did sonically. That is, the Italian (and to an extent) the Russian Futurists did not in fact generate much in the way of original, “lasting,” or influential-upon-other-composers music. However, the very fact that the Futurists were better at theory than practice, yet still were conceptually very important, helps us get at the impact that ideas (as opposed to concrete compositions) shaped music in the first half of the 20th century.

General question for consideration: consider the language, metaphors, and seeming intentions that shaped and underlay the various Futurist “manifestos” (and if you don’t know the literal meaning of that word, look it up here). Now consider the time period (originally 1909-14 in Italy, then roughly 1914-21 in Europe and America). Are there any other philosophical movements extant in the public discourse in the same period which seem to employ or invoke similar language, metaphors, and/or intentions? Be prepared to articulate and to cite examples.

(1) In the very first paragraph of the chapter, Watkins cites a “revolt” in fin-de-siecle Italy as the point of origin for musical Futurism. This is a very brief commentary but it has (potentially) profound significance when set against contemporaneous musical/social/political perspectives in other places. Against what was the revolt? In what media did the revolt play out? Do the concerns of this rebellion (both musical and otherwise) in Italy have any parallels in other places at about the same time? What might account for such parallelisms? If so, how and why did the artistic “rebellion” in those other places differ from that in Italy? In what way is the Italian situation unique?

(2) On pp236-39 Watkins quotes the language of various Futurist manifestos (including those by Marinetti and Russolo, most importantly), and the descriptions of various instruments invented by composers to realize these new goals. What characteristics seem to be shared in both polemic and inventions? In other words and to quote our Syllabus, what are the “problems” the Futurists perceive themselves to be “solving”?

(3) Bottom of p237, Watkins describes the audience for a demonstration of the “Exploder” in Modena in 1913. Who was present at this demonstration? What is the significance of these persons’ presence? Do these individuals take these ideas elsewhere, either geographically or conceptually or both? If so, how can we articulate the influence (cited in the “Summary”) above of these essentially non-composing Futurist inventors upon other composers far more active? Construct and be prepared to quote a thesis that interprets this relationship.

(4) Scanning the entire chapter, make a checklist of the specific technical innovations developed by Futurist composers (noting page numbers) and be prepared to describe other works in which these innovations were employed.

(5) Watkins distinguishes between Russian and Italian Futurism. How? What are the differences? How did the Italian versus the Russian composers’ goals—or analyses of the artistic “problems” they faced—differ. Be prepared to provide an explanation for those differences and to cite evidence to support that explanation. Hint: Consider the contrasted political and artistic immediate histories of these two places. How did differing historical context shape Futurism two different ways in two different places?

(6) On pp241-42, Watkins specifically discusses the impact of Futurism upon Stravinsky. What aspects of Futurist thought does Watkins locate in which Stravinsky works? With what other “Isms” already present in Stravinsky does Watkins see Futurism being connected? Be prepared to describe these links.

(7) On p243, Watkins says “While the official ‘Futuristi’ spawned slim musical results, their influence was more salutary than would appear at first glance.” Further to the “Summary” above—how can this be? How can composers who “spawned [only] slim musical results” nevertheless have surprisingly extensive influence? What evidence does Watkins cite in support of this thesis?

(8) On pp244-45 Watkins discusses the evolution of Futurist ideas in Russia into what would become yet another “Ism” under Stalin: that of “Socialist Realism.” The circumstances of progressive, experimental, avant-garde composition in Russia before and after 1924 were very different and reflected the State’s strong influences. How did those circumstances change? Grad students: be prepared to define and provide examples of “Socialist Realism” in the period after 1924, and to explain why it became so much more important after that date.

(9) On pp248-49, Watkins discusses, among others, those aspects of Paul Hindemith’s and Edgard Varese’s music which show the influence of Futurism. Overall, be prepared to summarize and contrast Hindemith’s versus Varese’s goals for music written under this influence. What did Hindemith desire his 1920s music should accomplish? What did Varese desire in contrast? Cite evidence to support your response.

DQ for Neo-classicism articles (All read Messing, Grad students add Taruskin)

For Thursday Mar 1: find these pdf articles on WebCT "Materials - Week 08 - pdf files"

DQ for Neo-classicism articles (All read Messing, Grad students add Taruskin)

Messing, “Polemic as History: The Case of Neoclassicism”

Taruskin, “Back to Whom? Neoclassicism as Ideology” (Review essay)

Please be prepared to respond in either seminar meeting or in "Comments" on the course blog. In all venues, you must be prepared to cite specific passages (by page, paragraph, line, and quotation) in support of your responses—and specific works.

These articles both examine and “problematize” the label of “neoclassicism” which has been applied (in hindsight) to some composers and compositions, with both negative and positive connotations, referencing both stylistic and philosophical tendencies. Both Messing and Taruskin (Taruskin largely in concurring commentary to Messing’s book) suggest that NC is a more complicated, less clear, more polemical and ideological, less stylistic or historical phenomenon.

General questions for consideration: if these authors are correct that there is no such thing as a “neoclassical style,” what is the use of the term? Can it help us understand other factors, beyond issues of SHMRG characteristics? To use the terminology of the syllabus, what “problems faced by composers” did inauguration and application of the term “neoclassicism” help solve?

(1) On p481, Messing cites two “paradoxes” in the usual discussions of neoclassicism. In your own words, be prepared to summarize these paradoxes, and to provide a one-sentence articulation of Messing’s “solution” to or resolution of these seeming paradoxes. Hint: first articulate the particular rhetoric or theoretical problems which Messing believes neoclassicism was addressing.

(2) What is the role of nationalist concerns in the contested meanings of neoclassicism? Messing makes clear that the term was originally applied as a pejorative criticism by one group of composers in reference to another group of composers? What negative attributes did the term’s employers intend to convey about the opponents? Grad students: be prepared to provide a brief, complete, and accurate articulation of the extra-musical (historical, economic, political or other) factors that might have motivated this criticism?

(3) Expand (2) above outward: what was at stake in these debates? Why did composers feel this competition so strongly? Hint: try to articulate a thesis which explains the “power” that is conveyed by being able to label something? What is the “power” of labeling? Who uses or seeks to use this power?

(4) on pp482 & ff Messing cites an “emerging dissatisfaction” amongst composers who later became associated with neoclassical impulses. Dissatisfaction with what? Within music? Outside music? What qualities, aesthetics, or ideals did neoclassicism in music seek to create in opposition to this dissatisfaction?

(5) Pick at least 2 non-German composers cited in the article, jot down a list of the dates of their works which Messing cites as emblematic of NC, and look at the same dates in the creative trajectories of at least 2 German composers. (For example, look at Satie and Debussy, jot down the dates of at least 2 works by Satie and Debussy which Messing calls NC, and look at dates in the music of Brahms, Mahler, Strauss, Schoenberg, or other German composers). What patterns emerge?

(6) There are specific SHMRG characteristics which seem to be shared commonly amongst works commonly labeled “NC”; jot down a list of at least 5 of these characteristics. Having done so, be prepared to articulate at least 3 ways in which these SHMRG characteristics exemplify the aesthetics you cited in (4) above.

(7) pp491 & ff: What is neoclassicism’s view of history? Be prepared to articulate the neoclassical composer’s response to the following question: “Neoclassical aesthetics, forms, and SHMRG characteristics made it possible for these composers to come to terms with the following historical ‘problems’…[a], [b], [c]”.

(8) p493 Messing refers to a “decidedly ironic cast.” This is an adjective we have used in class (specifically but not exclusively speaking about the music of Satie). On p493 & ff, how does Messing explain the use of irony in this period? What problem(s) did “irony” make it possible for composers to solve?

(9) What is the relationship of, respectively, Stravinsky and Schoenberg to neoclassicism? Did Stravinsky feel it necessary to “negotiate a response” to NC? If so, what were the specifics of this negotiation? Did Schoenberg feel a similar necessity? If not, why not, specifically?

(10) Grad students: read Taruskin’s article through p294 and be prepared to contribute this author’s insights to discussion of the above questions. I am particularly interested in ways you can use Taruskin to nuance and/or problematize Messing’s model.

DQ for Watkins, 196-214 (grad students: add 215-22)

DQ for Watkins, 196-214 (grad students: add 215-22. Also, please locate at least 2 compositions [score excerpts or audio excerpts] and at least 2 artwork images cited but not included in the readings, and be prepared to share with the class in hard-copy or from a jump-drive)

Please be prepared to respond in either seminar meeting or in "Comments" on the course blog. In all venues, you must be prepared to cite specific passages (by page, paragraph, line, and quotation) in support of your responses—and specific works.

This section, as its titles make clear, explores the confluence of factors that led to the watershed work The Rite of Spring, now conventionally understood as marking the beginning of the “musical 20^th century.” Please pay particular attention to the historical continuum (the lengthy historical progression) and the combination of artistic and other factors in which Watkins roots this seminal work.

General question for consideration: is it possible that the Rite is widely regarded as such a watershed precisely because its roots and source influences are so complex? Is the Rite, then, a kind of “culmination”? If so, could a different piece, in the same time and place, have had the same impact? Why or why not?

(1) On p196, Watkins locates the combination of factors cited above specifically in Paris. Be prepared to articulate a thesis summarizing Watkins’ explanations for the impact of the city and its residents upon the roots of the Rite. Grad students: be prepared to cite at least 3 other influential individuals present in Paris in the pre-WWI period, but not cited specifically by Watkins; pay particular attention to “The World of Art” (pp199-200).

(2) On pp196-97, Watkins cites a group of “painters, composers, singers, actors, architects,” and others who provided new models for creative persons who sought new and/or nationalist art forms in Russia of the period. What were their sources? What were their motives? Be prepared to summarize; grad students: be prepared to link this group to roughly contemporaneous “new arts” movements outside Russia in the same period.

(3) On pp197 & ff, Watkins describes the career, influence, and styles of Rimsky-Korsakov. Be prepared to (a) summarize these elements of Rimsky’s artistic identity (particularly relating sources to compositional style) and (b) to explain both the philosophical and the practical/stylistic impact of Rimsky upon Stravinsky. Grad students: be prepared to cite specific works by each composer.

(4) Read the entire section and be prepared to describe the role(s) of Sergei Diaghilev, not only in the career of Stravinsky but also as a shaper of the world of Parisian avant-garde art. Hint: look at the citations of Diaghilev in the index. Grad students: be prepared to link at least five of the various artists (in various media) who Diaghilev brought together, and to compare Diaghilev’s role in pre-WWI Paris to the activities of other impresarios/producers in other times and places.

(5) Listen to at least TWO of the Four Tableaux (on WebCT) while following in the scenario printed in Watkins on pp202-04. Jot down a list of at least five precisely descriptive adjectives (e.g., “angular, dissonant, folk-like,” or other) which you think accurately describe musical textures in the Two Tableaux you listen to, and be prepared to articulate the SHMRG characteristics which support the choice of those adjectives. Grad students: play through the folksong excerpts on pp204-05 (11.4-11.8) and locate at least TWO places in Petroushka in which those excerpts serve as raw thematic material.

(6) On pp211-14 Watkins summarizes the range of sources, influences, ideas, and (especially) extra-musical inspirations for Le Sacre du printemps. Be prepared to summarize in your own words, in one sentence (jot down the sentence if necessary). Grad students: in addition read 215-20 and be prepared to summarize the specific motivic and rhythmic techniques which give the piece its distinctive melodic/rhythmic language.

Further to thesis statements

Folks:

Lots of good stuff here—but lots of work still to be done, particularly in the area of narrowing and specifying the nature of your thesis. If a thesis statement and/or my comments do not appear next to your focal piece, it's because I did not receive a thesis statement or need you to resend it.

General comments:

• You must employ primary sources as your principle evidence; secondary literature may be cited to reinforced points, but your analysis of evidence must be based upon those primary sources: scores, letters, journals, newspapers, iconography, etc
• You must be arguing a specific interpretation: you must in other words be seeking to “prove” something about the material in question
• You must demonstrate that your work makes an original contribution: it is not necessary to create a thesis no other author has ever argued, but your combination of evidence and interpretation must be unique and original. Typically, the best way to ensure that you are doing this is to review the existing secondary literature, to articulate how/where it is missing insight(s), and describe how your contribution addresses these insights
• Generally speaking, theses which are too broad, vague, or unspecific can be vastly narrowed and specified (a) by reference to Watkins’s own commentary on specific pieces, (b) by surveying secondary literature about specific pieces (especially but not limited to Grove Online), and, (c) most importantly, by listening to and taking notes upon the specific works. You should not be trying to create a specific thesis unless and until you have completed (a), (b), and (c).

Berio: Sequenza

Mahler: Symphony no. 6.

I will argue that Gustav Mahler’s compositional style was influenced by his role as a conductor, based on analysis of scores, particularly Das Lied von Der Erde, primary sources such as composers notes and personal accounts, and interviews of modern conductors who have studied Mahler’s works.

• OK as far as it goes, but simply to say “was influenced” is far too unspecific. In WHAT SPECIFIC WAYS was his compositional style influenced? Orchestration? Instrumental techniques? Blends? Dynamics? Distinctive approaches to notation? Distinctive combinations? Other specific characteristics? Narrow the focus of the investigation and rewrite thesis to reflect

Barber: School for Scandal

I will argue why Barber's Overture to the School for Scandal was written about the Curtis Institute and how this piece portrays programmaticism about this topic

• OK but too vague and unspecific. If you want to argue that the “Overture” was “written about” Curtis, what sorts of evidence will you use? What will your primary sources be?

Scriabin: Piano Sonata No. 9

Gershwin: Porgy & Bess

Debussy: "Nocturnes"

The Nocturnes that Debussy wrote in the early 20th century, shows many different kinds of styles, techniques, and characteristics. I will argrue using books, articles, and score analysis that Debussy used French romanticism, influences from other musical styles, and impressionism to help him with his writing of Nocturnes.

• Not really a thesis: it is reasonably obvious that Debussy was influenced by “romanticism,” “impressionism,” and “influences from other styles”; likewise, “many different kinds of styles” is way too vague. This is not sufficiently specific or original. What specific aspects of the works will you focus upon, what specific previous/outside works or other influences will you cite, and what do you specifically seek to prove?

Mahler 2

Glass

This paper will focus on both the historical and aesthetic ideas that culminated in the creation of Koyannis katsi (Sp?), namely the shifting role of art music, the procedure and development of minimalism and incorporation of non-western philosophy with regard to film.

• OK, this is sufficiently specific. But, you do not describe the specific types and pieces of primary evidence you will draw upon, and you need to articulate in the form of a thesis (“I will argue that…”)

Babbitt: All Set; Composition for Twelve Instruments

Vaughan Williams: Mass in G Minor

direct happenings in Vaughan Williams’ family life are manifested in his work – the Mass in G Minor.

• OK but rather vague and unspecific: “direct happenings…are manifested” is not precise. Which events? Manifested how? What types of primary evidence will you employ?

Walton-Belshazzar: Feast

Vaughan Williams: Five Tudor Portraits

Vaughan Williams employed Skelton's text and Tudor musical references in Five Tudor Portraits in order to establish an English national music identity in the face of (mostly Germanic) criticism of England as the "land without music." My approach will be both contextual and analytical.

• Good. What specific types or sources of primary evidence will you employ?

Messiaen: Turangalila Symphony

Futurism

Stravinsky/Neo-classicism: Octet, Pulcinella, or other

Piazzolla, or Shostakovich Conc. #1

Cage

John Cage’s first thoughts of the importance of percussion in his writing started with an argument with his teacher, Arnold Schoenberg. He had stated that he had no feeling for harmony, at which Shoenberg’s reply was that he came to a wall he could not pass. Cage’s reply was, “I will devote my life to beating my head against that wall.” I will attempt to prove that his early development as a composer was based in non- harmonic traditions that pushed his own focus to the percussive. Through insights into his early years of music study into the first composition for percussion ensemble, First Construction, I plan to prove that Cage not only pioneered development for music in the new art form of the percussion ensemble, but also found the vehicle for which he could move from harmonic superiority in music to future ventures into the exotic linear.

• Good. One or two slightly confusing or ambiguous phrases: what specifically do you mean by “the exotic linear”? It’s an interesting construction but your reader will want to be clear on what it means. Also, a question for further extension: could you expand this thesis to include a kind of “percussive approach to the exotic linear” which helps us understand his aleatoric and/or multi-media pieces? Or should this thesis only be limited to the works for percussion ensemble? I can see both possibilities; what do you think?

Short Ride in a Fast Machine

Music for 18 Musicians" by Steve Reich; John Adams "Short Ride In A Fast Machine".

Ravel: Daphnis and Chloe

DQ for Watkins, 170-95

DQ for Watkins, 170-95 (grad students: please be prepared to supply additional references to parallel art works, artists, and contemporaneous events that impacted upon late Expressionism)

Please be prepared to respond in either seminar meeting or in "Comments" on the course blog. In all venues, you must be prepared to cite specific passages (by page, paragraph, line, and quotation) in support of your responses—and specific works.

This section explores the gradual linkage (particularly in Germany but also in France) between certain aspects of “expressionism” in poetry and the visual arts, and music. Further, it describes a gradual “clarification” of the expressionist mood expressed in expressionist music. Focusing upon analysis of Schoenberg’s Erwartung and Pierrot Lunaire, Watkins suggests that these works represent a kind of final flowering of expressionism: its close linkage with programs depicting the complex, dream-like, irrationality of the subconscious. In this sense, allusion, programmaticism, autobiography, “neo-classical” impulses (at least in the form of quotations from other musics), atonality/angularity, all become tools in service of this dream-like mood. Keep in mind this gradual “clarification”—which moves away from the garish Decadence of Salome and toward a more internal and introspective mode.

(1) On pp170-71 Watkins describes a “general crisis” that “seemed to suggest the final overthrow of the Romantic age.” What was the shape of this crisis, what factors were understood to be contributing to it, in what arenas outside the arts did it appear, and how did composers in the period respond?

[Note that Watkins acknowledges that works which fall within “Romantic” stylistic or philosophical modes continued to be written in this period, but that certain works may be seen as “a watershed” into a new era. His thesis is not comprehensive, therefore, but selective.]

(2) Watkins further links several different national or stylistic schools, and across various art forms, in describing the elements of this “Expressionist attitude” (170), and in so doing usefully complicates the presumption that “German” or “French” musics in this period can be seen as simply, diametrically opposite. At both the beginning and the end of the chapter he shows relationships and cross-influences between these two national schools. Read the discussion of color theory, “correspondences,” and the Blaue Reiter group carefully (grad students: this would be a review of additional reading on DBR which you have already done).

(3) Note the particular characteristics of the “emotionalism” Watkins cites at the bottom of 171; what are these characteristics, how are they combined in various works cited in the text (grad students: or in additional works of the period), and how could you succinctly summarize the expressive goals of the music that results?

(4) on p173 Watkins provides a remarkably succinct but very dense summary of the goals, strategies, and results of German musical expressionism in the pre-WWI period. Be prepared to unpack this description line by line and phrase by phrase, citing specific works and composers to explain Watkins’s meaning.

(5) Watkins presents Erwartung as an effective test-case for his model of German expressionism. Articulate the specific goals and “moods” which this piece and related works sought to evoke. Explain how the musical/psychological portrait in Erwartung “moves beyond” earlier or parallel corollaries: what are the programmatic subtleties of this portrait? What are the musical specifics? Articulate the ways in which the “Self/Other” dichotomy and the phenomenon of “the Other” can help explain Erwartung.

(6) Follow along Sc. 1 and Sc. 2 using WebCT excerpts and the texts in Watkins. Identify at least THREE specific passages in the text and provide precise discussion of specific compositional choices which support each passage.

(7) Please read this Wikipedia article on the Italian Renaissance theatrical form called commedia dell’arte and articulate links between the behaviors and/or emotional associations of specific characters as they were appropriated by early 20^th-century expressionists. Locate and describe at least one additional allusion to commedia characters in 20^th-century arts culture from outside Watkins’s examples.

(8) Select at least THREE numbers from Pierrot, follow the texts in Watkins as you listen via WebCT, and provide precise discussion of specific compositional choices which are employed (NOTE: you must expand your analysis beyond Watkins’s own comments).

(9) See 193-94 discussion of Ravel’s La valse and articulate the linkage between Ravel’s 1923 composition and the social/artistic environment(s) that shaped it—please address this in detail.

Breeze slideshow on Debussy

See "Materials - Week 05 - Links - Breeze." Read, listen, compare to Watkins, be prepared for "drop the laser" mock-exam on Tuesday.

For mock exam, remember that, for any mystery piece from our listening, you would be expected to use SHMRG evidence to make conclusions about the following, in descending order of priority. These are a "baseline" of conclusions you should be able to draw from any score or audio example, and exactly parallel the kinds of conclusions you are expected to derive on Master's and Doctoral exams.

1. (most important) Time period of composition, as precisely as possible. In the 20th century, this means within 5 years earlier or later of actual date.

2. (next most important) Type, form, or structure of composition--and detailed description if the piece does not conform to specific traditional forms.

3. (3rd most important) National or stylistic school to which the composition belongs: German, French, Nationalist, Expressionist, Primitivist, etc.

4. (least important) Possible ID(s) of composers who fit the above three parameters.

NOTE: specific title of composition is NOT the priority, and knowing the title of the composition will not substitute for the above insights.

Please review, at the very least, the works of Webern, Debussy, and Ravel discussed in the past three class sessions.

Remember to please read the discussion of Bartok's Duke Bluebeard's Castle with our seminar discussion of the overlaps between "expressionism," "exoticism," and "color theory" in mind.

No seminar meeting Thursday Feb. 15.

See also the next set of Discussion Questions.,

DQ for Watkins, 130-54 (grad students: Schoenberg, Kandinsky, Skriabin also)

DQ for Watkins, 130-54 (grad students: be prepared to fill out the class discussion with your insights regarding Schoenberg, Kandinsky, Skriabin, and Der Blaue Reiter. Note: you are especially asked to be prepared to both define and explain the impact of concepts of “synaesthesia” in cognitive and artistic theories of the period. Suggestion: look at the color experiments of all three above-cited artists, but also look at the discussion of Bartok’s Duke Bluebeard’s Castle, and the included stage directions for Salome, to flesh your commentary)

Please be prepared to respond in either seminar meeting or in "Comments" on the course blog. In all venues, you must be prepared to cite specific passages (by page, paragraph, line, and quotation) in support of your responses—and specific works.

(1) Although the term “decadent”, in common parlance, has pejorative connotations, Watkins clearly intends a complex and subtle set of expressive characteristics. We have spoken of some related characteristics in fin-de-siecle Vienna—of a sense of “things ‘ending.’” Based on those discussions, and your reading of this chapter, be prepared to articulate (a) a definition of “decadence” which captures all Watkins connotations, (b) examples of those characteristics associated with “decadence” which we have identified in Viennese and Parisian music already examined, and (c) a model of decadence which explains its expressions across art forms in this period. Extra credit (grad students?): relate (a), (b), and/or (c) to analogous manifestations of decadence in other time periods and art forms.

(2) pp130-35 discusses at some length the impact and symbolism of the Salome story to artists, writers, and composers in the period. Unpack the characteristic connotations associated with this story and link them to other expressive concerns manifested by composers in this period. What agendas or artistic programs did the Salome story make available? What sorts of compositional characteristics (especially timbral, formal, and harmonic) did these agendas demand or make possible? Extra credit (grad students?): relate specific passages in the Huysmans text to specific music-stylistic elements in cited works of Strauss or Bartok.

(3) pp135-38: Read these pages (about Oscar Wilde’s, Aubrey Beardsley’s, Gustav Klimt’s approaches to Salome) and then realize one of the following three alternatives:

(a) Locate a substantial portion (at least 2 scenes) from Wilde’s play-script and be prepared to lead the rest of the class in a discussion of the “musical connotations” of the reading script;

(b) Locate at least 2 hi-rez full-color images of other Klimt paintings or Beardsley etchings and be prepared to lead a discussion of those images as they reveal musical connotations of decadence;

(c) Relate the mood and mode of expression in Strauss’s Salome to the general artistic, political, economic, and historical “mood” in fin-de-siecle Vienna. Musically and metaphorically, how did Salome address or confront “problems” composers and others saw themselves as facing?

(4) pp138-43: Be prepared to articulate the relationship between Salome-era Strauss, Wagner, and, crucially, other composers outside the German orbit. Is it accurate to say that “decadent symbolism” is, or is not, allied in goals or strategies to French nationalism of the same period? Extra credit (grad students?): locate textual/musical passages in the (Watkins-transcribed) Finale of Salome and be prepared to compare/relate these to passages in Debussy’s work.

(5) pp149-51: Be prepared to articulate the specific impact of Debussy’s Pelleas upon Schmitt’s Salome (and on which later Russian composers?). Unpack and summarize the impact of Russian upon French and French upon Russian composers of the period. Extra credit (grad students?): do some independent research, find out more about les Apaches, and relate their artistic credo and their behaviors to both contemporaneous and later artistic developments (especially in France). Hint: look at the Satie connection.

(6) pp152-54: Read the background on Bartok’s Duke Bluebeard’s Castle; relate this background material to the experiments in emotion, mood, and color by Der Blaue Reiter group as described in Watkins and summarized by our grad students. Articulate the specific relevant definition of synaesthesia and relate this phenomenon to the overall structure of Bartok’s opera. Conventionally we think of opera has highly programmatic, but this work reveals tight symmetrical and “abstract” musical organization; be prepared to explain. What is Bartok’s debt, in this work, to Russian nationalist composers? To German Expressionism?

DQ for Watkins, 116-29 (grad students: also read .pdf, Scott “Orientalism and Musical Style”)

DQ for Watkins, 116-29 (grad students: find the pdf for Derek Scott’s “Orientalism and Musical Style” and read the last, summary section pp326 & ff; be prepared to provide insights regarding Scott’s take on “orientalism” as part of our larger discussion of exoticism)

Please be prepared to respond in either seminar meeting or in "Comments" on the course blog. In all venues, you must be prepared to cite specific passages (by page, paragraph, line, and quotation) in support of your responses—and specific works.

This section explores the impact of both the musical and associative sources which European composers found in “exotic” cultures—cultures of “the Other.” Recall our conversation about this in seminar: the ways in which various “othernesses” were mapped-onto topics, musics, and peoples from outside the European classical-music orbit. Be prepared to link and contrast exoticism, 20^th-century nationalism, primitivism, and the respective motivations impacting each.

(1) In his opening section, Watkins identifies a long-standing fascination on the part of European composers with various “Eastern” influences. From what combinations of historical and cultural encounters does pre-20^th-century exoticism arise, and in what ways do the 20^th-century versions of the phenomenon repeat or contrast those earlier versions? What might account for these contrasts? What aspects of 20^th-century composers’ experiences transformed the “exotic” resources available to them?

(2) Note on pp116-17 the Saint-Saens prediction that, as a result of these “eastern” encounters,” “harmony and rhythm were bound to change.” Why were they so bound? What types of changes might have been anticipated from these encounters? Crucial question: why might these “eastern resources” have struck European composers, at this particular historical junction, as particularly timely or useful?

(3) There are interconnections in this period between certain musical epicenters, and performing and compositional communities; these can be discovered through a consideration of the biographies and communications between members of these communities. What were those epicenters, and, importantly, how can we discover philosophical and stylistic continuities across wide geographies? How would these interactions shape musical style in the ‘Teens and ‘Twenties?

(4) Similar to (3) above: there is a musical/historical “nexus” in this period between various forms of nationalism, antiquarianism, folklorism, primitivism, and so on. Be prepared to cite specific composers and/or works which display contrasting combinations of these influences. Out of these influences, who wrote how? Why?

(5) What is the significance of Paris, in the pre-WWI era?

(6) Which “exotic” cultures were borrowed for which pieces by which composers, with which sorts of musical or philosophical motives? Cite pieces, discuss style, seek to relate motives and results.

(7) Read closely the discussion on pp121-23, specifically investigating the influences (both musical and, more importantly, in the realm of ideas) of various cultures upon specific works of Debussy. What did Debussy specifically find in specific cultures? Paralleling (2) above, what aspects of these cultural musics might have struck Debussy as particularly timely or useful?

(8) Read the section on Ravel’s Scheherazade (123-27) and be prepared to articulate a thesis which links Wagnerian romanticism, eastern exoticism, and Ravel’s own prior influences. How did Ravel locate common inspirations in these remarkably different resources? Specific adjectival description is apt and called-for here. [Grad students: this is the place to provide insights from your reading of the “Orientalism” article.]

(9) p127, 2^nd full paragraph (“While the heyday of Exoticism…”) is a very concise and articulate summary of a very complex shift of historical perspectives—and in my opinion it is almost too concise: so many factors come together in Watkins’s model that we need to unpack them. Be prepared to lead the class in a discussion, accomplishing that, and unpacking this paragraph.

Breeze slideshow on Wozzeck

On WebCT, see "Materials - Week05 - Links - Breeze" for a slideshow on Berg's Wozzeck, including Watkins citations, diagrams, questions for consideration, etc. Read Watkins on Wozzeck (357-71) and then view/listen to this slideshow.

A bit more for grad students

Please find, on WebCT under "Materials - Week 05 - Links", a pdf article from 1918 containing Debussy's mocking fictional "interview" with a critic called M. Croche. Read for next class meeting and be prepared to summarize the artistic philosophy that Debussy puts into the mouth of this fictional character. In other words, what can we infer about Debussy's own artistic credo based upon his fictional interview? And what is the significance of the style and mode in which he chooses to present these opinions?

DQ for Watkins, 104-114 (grad students: please add 157-68)

DQ for Watkins, 104-114 (grad students: please add 157-68 and be prepared to describe their contents to the rest of the class in terms of the music of Kandinsky, Schoenberg, and Skriabin)

Please be prepared to respond in either seminar meeting or in "Comments" on the course blog. In all venues, you must be prepared to cite specific passages (by page, paragraph, line, and quotation) in support of your responses—and specific works.

This section seeks to “separate” Ravel from Debussy and to recognize that each of the two most influential “Impressionist” composers in fact occupied their own individual compositional spaces, orbits, and spheres of influence.* It suggests that Ravel, while responding to some of the same stimuli (or, to use the terminology of the Syllabus, some of the same “problems”), took quite different and in ways much more diverse strategies than did Debussy in response. It is also important to recognize that because Debussy died in 1917 and Ravel lived until the mid-30s, it is logical to see later and more contemporary musical issues appear in Ravel’s later music.

(1) Watkins makes several references (first on p104) to “cyclic” structures in Ravel’s music. What does Watkins mean by this? In what musical parameters (e.g., which SHMRG characteristics) does he identify a “cyclic” quality: form, rhythm, scales, melodic shapes, other, all of these? What might be the motivations and the implications of this “cyclic” usage?

(2) Also on p104 Watkins cites the “Neo-classicism” (discussed in future) implicit not only in the Tombeau de Couperin but also much earlier in the Sonatine (1903-05). Specifically, he mentions issues of “formalities” and “texture”. What are the “formalities” associated with these works and/or with neo-classicism? The “textures”? Be prepared to link the textures implied and described in these pieces with other works by composers outside the French orbit, and to articulate a reason for these particular textural concerns at this particular time.

(3) On pp105 & ff, Watkins describes a series of commonalities, shared interests, or even shared texts, between French and German composers of this period. How could we summarize these shared ideas and influences, in, say 25 words or less? (E.g., “Schoenberg, Berg, and Ravel—three composers of differing compositional and national background, shared an interest in this period with the works of [X], the general fin-de-siecle interest in [Y], and the specific texts of the poems [Z, 1 and 2].”

(4) Watkins cites Bertrand (poet) and his disciples as a strong influence upon various French artists and composers. Be prepared to provide a 10-15 word summary of the “nature” or “affect” of Bertrand’s work, and relate it to at least 3 pieces, 1 cited by Watkins and at least two more not cited by Watkins. In other words: identify thhe nature of Bertrand’s artistic vision and demonstrate its influence (direct or indirect) upon at least 3 specific compositions. [Grad students: try reading the French texts aloud: if a crucial element of Symbolist poetry is its sound, you should familiarize yourself with that sound.]

(5) On the bottom of p107, Watkins cites Messiaen’s term “personnage rhythmique” to describe an 8^th-note rhythm group [1+2,1+2+2]. What is/are the immediate impacts of a rhythm like this: upon phrase structure, upon accompaniment patterns, upon motivic organization? What is the relationship between “cyclic” form, personnage rhythmique, palindrome, and other quasi-symmetrical organizations? Why might composers in this period have chosen to prioritize these types of organization? What are the practical and the “affective” (interpretive/subjective) results of such organizations?

(6) p108 top: note the cited interest in bells in this period, as not only symbol (they recur throughout expressionist works) but also as sound-source: the very different composers (among others) Varese and Ives both experimented with bell-sounds or bell-imitations. Why might such sounds have provoked interest: compositionally? Sonically? Programmatically?

(7) Note (pp110 & ff) the discussion and the stylistic implications of the following strategies: new, altered, or synthetic scales; extended techniques, especially for the voice; an interest in composition organized around “shapes” (defined very broadly). Be prepared to articulate a thesis that relates these factors to issues of program and expression.

(8) p112: note the interplay between the following factors: symmetry; modality; harmonic and formal implications of both. Why are composers interested in these strategies at this time? How does they serve program? How does they relate to trends in other art forms? Cite specific passages in specific works, whether mentioned by Watkins or not.

(9) pp113-114: historically/stereotypically expressionism and exoticism have tended to be understood separately and in a not-particularly-related way. Watkins seeks to demonstrate relationships and shared influences and modes of expression between them. Summarize these, cite specific works that exemplify the relationships, and relate to specific stylistic results.

*The term “Impressionist” is placed in double-quotes because, as we shall see in discussion, it is a widely-misunderstood and mis-applied term, and requires “complication” and clear usage.