Opera House (Classical Music as Art, Pop, and Avant-Garde)
Ce cours est une histoire culturelle de la musique classique occidentale, de 1800 à nos jours. Bien que la musique "classique" soit notre centre d'intérêt principal, nous examinons également les nombreuses intersections avec la musique populaire (la "folk" et la pop commerciale) et le jazz, ainsi qu'avec d'autres arts. À travers des extraits musicaux, des clips vidéo, des écoutes guidées au piano, des activités de groupe, des discussions et des débats, nous explorons les œuvres clés du répertoire classique, leur contexte culturel et social, et les catégories conceptuelles mentionnées dans le titre du cours : Art, pop et avant-garde.
Plan du cours
Opus 1. Beethoven’s Long Shadow: The Ideology of Genius
Art and craft – Kant on fine art & genius – The rise of the artistic figure
Musical/video excerpts: Beethoven, East-West Divan Orchestra
Opus 2. Wagner: Art and Revolution
The avant-garde concept – Opera vs. music drama – The “total work of art” – Two opera houses: Garnier and Bayreuth
Musical/video excerpts: V for Vendetta, Rossini, Delibes, Wagner
Opus 3. Wagner: Art and Innovation
The Ring – The purpose of a Prelude – Social “innovation” (taming audiences) – Artistic “innovation” (keeping their attention for 18 hours)
Musical/video excerpts: Bizet, Wagner, The Metropolitan Opera of New York
Opus 4. It’s a Love-Hate Thing: Schoenberg, Art-for-Art, and the General Public
Forms of marginality: Bohemianism, Dandyism, Modernism – Gauthier, Baudelaire, Wilde – Art-for-art – Art as (aesthetic/social) critique – Norms? What norms?
Musical/video excerpts: Sex Pistols, Schoenberg
Opus 5. Man, Oh Man, Oh … Woman! Women in Art Music
The canon in question – Roles and contributions: the four Ps (plus one) – Three figures: Nadia Boulanger, Florence Price, Winnaretta Singer (the Princesse de Polignac)
Musical/video excerpts: Tár, Rebecca Clarke, Camille Pépin
Opus 6. The Search for American Classical Music
Popular” culture: Folk vs Mass – Spirituals & Blues – Three paths: Copland's Lincoln Portrait, Gershwin's Porgy and Bess, Duke Ellington's It Don't Mean a Thing
Musical excerpts: Dvorak, Gershwin, Ellington, Copland, Billie Holiday
Opus 7. Modern Crisis, Postmodern “Solutions”
The experimental musical landscape – Leonard Bernstein's cry of despair – Odd couples – Postmodern music? – The Minimalist revolution
Musical excerpts: The Beatles, Boulez, Stockhausen, Glass, Einaudi, Satie, Cage, Hiromi Uehara
Opus 8 (and above). Debates, discussions, presentations.
Opera House (Classical Music as Art, Pop, and Avant-Garde)
This class is a cultural history of Western classical music, roughly 1800 to the present. Though "classical" musical is the primary focus we also look at the numerous intersections with popular music (folk and commercial pop) and jazz, as well as other arts. Through musical extracts, video clips, guided listenings from the piano, group activities, discussion and debate we explore key works in the classical repertoire, cultural and social contextual issues, and the conceptual categories mentioned in the course title: Art, pop, and avant-garde.
Syllabus
Opus 1. Beethoven’s Long Shadow: The Ideology of Genius
Art and craft – Kant on fine art & genius – The rise of the artistic figure
Musical/video excerpts: Beethoven, East-West Divan Orchestra
Opus 2. Wagner: Art and Revolution
The avant-garde concept – Opera vs. music drama – The “total work of art” – Two opera houses: Garnier and Bayreuth
Musical/video excerpts: V for Vendetta, Rossini, Delibes, Wagner
Opus 3. Wagner: Art and Innovation
The Ring – The purpose of a Prelude – Social “innovation” (taming audiences) – Artistic “innovation” (keeping their attention for 18 hours)
Musical/video excerpts: Bizet, Wagner, The Metropolitan Opera of New York
Opus 4. It’s a Love-Hate Thing: Schoenberg, Art-for-Art, and the General Public
Forms of marginality: Bohemianism, Dandyism, Modernism – Gauthier, Baudelaire, Wilde – Art-for-art – Art as (aesthetic/social) critique – Norms? What norms?
Musical/video excerpts: Sex Pistols, Schoenberg
Opus 5. Man, Oh Man, Oh … Woman! Women in Art Music
The canon in question – Roles and contributions: the four Ps (plus one) – Three figures: Nadia Boulanger, Florence Price, Winnaretta Singer (the Princesse de Polignac)
Musical/video excerpts: Tár, Rebecca Clarke, Camille Pépin
Opus 6. The Search for American Classical Music
Popular” culture: Folk vs Mass – Spirituals & Blues – Three paths: Copland's Lincoln Portrait, Gershwin's Porgy and Bess, Duke Ellington's It Don't Mean a Thing
Musical excerpts: Dvorak, Gershwin, Ellington, Copland, Billie Holiday
Opus 7. Modern Crisis, Postmodern “Solutions”
The experimental musical landscape – Leonard Bernstein's cry of despair – Odd couples – Postmodern music? – The Minimalist revolution
Musical excerpts: The Beatles, Boulez, Stockhausen, Glass, Einaudi, Satie, Cage, Hiromi Uehara
Opus 8 (and above). Debates, discussions, presentations.
- Teaching coordinator: Cannon Dwayne
- Teaching coordinator: Langlois Laura Hilary