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