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MUS 3252, section 002
Advanced Studies in Music Literature and Analysis:
Music Since 1950
Required Textbooks and Materials (always bring to class):
Course Description:
Music Since 1950 is designed to provide the student with a familiarity with, and working knowledge of, the music, terms and techniques of art music written from 1950 to the present day. The course will cover a wide variety of pieces, ideas, "-isms," and innovations which are important to the music of this period.
Goals for the Course
After successfully completing this course, the student should have a deeper understanding of the music of the last 50 years, including an ability to name and place (by date as well as by style) major composers and compositions. Students should also leave the course better equiped to understand the music and musical trends since 1950. Through the presentations, the student should develop their writing skills, particularly the ability to write about music, and to come to know several pieces quite well.
Grading and course policies
Final grades will be determined on the following basis:
| Class preparation and participation: | 10% |
| Presentations and other assignments | 40% |
| In-Class Listening Exams (2): | 20% (10% each) |
| Take-Home Exams (2): | 30% (15% each) |
Attendance will not be factored into your grade. However, if you are absent, please arrange to get someone's notes or have someone record the class. I will not repeat lectures to absentee students.
Homework will be accepted past the day it is due, but usually not for a grade. The presentations (which include a written part which will be handed in at the time of the presentation) will not be accepted late without prior consent. Make up exams for scheduled exams may be allowed only if notice is given prior to the scheduled time. The final exam is from 7:30-10:15am on Friday, December 9th, 2005 Class Deportment: Students are expected to assist in maintaining a classroom environment that is conducive to learning. To assure all students have the opportunity to gain from time spent in class, students are prohibited from engaging in any form of distraction. Inappropriate behavior in the classroom shall result, minimally, in a request to leave the class. Examples of inappropriate behavior include the use of cellular phones or beepers, eating in the classroom, prolonged chattering, excessive tardiness, sleeping, and overt inattentiveness.Cheating: Cheating in any form will not be tolerated. All infractions will be reported to Student Judicial Affairs and prosecuted to the maximum extent allowed by the university. Any work you hand in is expected to be your work and your work only; claiming someone else’s work as your own is cheating.
If you have a concern, problem, question, issue or whatever, the best thing you can do is talk to me about it (in person, on the phone or through email). Stay in touch!
Music Since 1950 Schedule
(this schedule is subject to change)
| Week | Topics, Reading & Listening |
Reading for Wednesday: Chapter 3 in Music Since 1945:
Presentation #1
Final Exam - Friday, December 9, 2005 from 7:30pm to 10:15asm
Week 1, August 24
Preview of Course: Music Before 1950
Week 2, August 29
Reading for Monday: Chapters 1 and 2 in Music Since 1945:
Composers and Audiences and
Precedents and Influences: Music from 1890 to 1945
Listening: Charles Ives: Unanswered Question (1909)
Anton Webern: Variations for Piano, op.27 (1936)
Olivier Messiaen: Quartet for the End of Time (1940)
John Cage: Imaginary Landscape (1939)
New Ways of Listening: The "Loudspeaker Revolution"
No class Monday, September 5
(Labor Day)
Week 3, September 7
Reading: Chapter 4 in Music Since 1945:
New Concepts and Tools
Week 4, September 12
Reading: Chapters 5 and 6 in Music Since 1945:
The Early Postwar Years, and
Pieces for Study I
Listening: Olivier Messiaen: Mode de valeurs et d'intensites (1949)
Pierre Boulez: Structure 1a (1952)
Milton Babbitt: Three Compositions for Piano (1947)
Week 5, September 19
Reading: Chapter 7 in Music Since 1945:
"Order" and "Chaos"
Listening: Pierre Boulez: Le marteau sans maitre (1953-54, rev. 1957)
Karlheinz Stockhausen: Klavierstucke XI (1956)
Presentation #2
Week 6, September 26
Reading (for Wednesday): Chapters 8 & 9 in Music Since 1945:
The Electronic Revolution I: Tape Composition and Early Synthesizers and Multimedia and Total Theater
Listening:
Chapter 9: Luciano Berio: Circles (1960)
Gyorgy Ligeti: Aventures (1962)
Edgard Varese: Poeme Electronique (1958)
Week 7, October 3
Reading: Chapter 10 in Music Since 1945:
Texture, Mass, and Density
Listening:
Robert Dick: Afterlight (1975)
Conlon Nancarrow: Study No. 17 (sometime between 1948-1960)
Elliott Carter: String Quartet No. 2 (1959)
Iannis Xenakis: Pithoproakta (1956)
Gyorgy Ligeti: Atmospheres (1961)
Witold Lutoslawski: Venitian Games (1961)
Week 8, October 10
In-Class Exam 1, Monday October 10
Reading: Chapters 11 & 12 in Music Since 1945:
Non-Western Musical Influences and
Pieces for Study II
Listening:
Olivier Messiaen: Turangalila-Symphonie (1948)
Chou Wen-Chung: The Willows are New (1957)
Lou Harrison: La Koro Sutra (1972)
Harry Partch: Barstow: Eight Hitchhiker Inscriptions from a Highway Railing at Barstow, California (1941, rev. 1968)
Toru Takemitsu: November Steps (1967)
La Monte Young: The Well-Tuned Piano (1964-81)
Week 9, October 17
Take Home Exam 1 assigned- Due Monday, October 24
Reading: Chapter 13 Music Since 1945:
Collage and Quotation
Presentation #3
Listening:
George Rochberg: Third String Quartet (1972)
Alfred Schnittke: Concerto Grosso No. 1 (1977)
Jacob Druckman: Prism (1980)
George Crumb: Black Angels (1970)
Sir Michael Tippett: The Knot Garden (1970)
Joan Tower: Petroushskates (1980)
Week 10, October 24
Reading: Chapter 14 in Music Since 1945:
The Resurgence of Tonality
Listening:
Ellen Taaffe Zwilich: Chamber Symphony (1979)
John Harbison: Full Moon in March (1979)
Joseph Schwantner: Wild Angels of the Open Hills (1977)
John Adams: Harmonium (1981)
Anthony Davis: X (1985)
Dominick Argento: Six Elizbethan Songs (1958)
Samuel Barber: Concerto for Piano and Orchestra, op. 38 (1962)
Gunther Schuller: Seven Studies on Themes of Paul Klee (1959)
Warren Benson: Songs for the End of the World (1980)
Aaron Copland: Piano Quartet (1950)
Igor Stravinsky: Threni (1958)
Week 11, October 31
Exam 2 - Monday, November 8
Reading (for Wednesday): Chapter 15 in Music Since 1945:
New Views of Performance: Space, Ritual, and Play
Listening: Stockhausen: Gruppen (1957)
George Crumb: Echoes of Time and the River (1968)
Berio: Sequenza V (1966)
Joan La Barbara: October Music: Star Showers and Extraterrestrials (1980)
Robert Erickson: General Speech (1969)
Week 12, November 7
Reading: Chapters 15 and 16 in Music Since 1945:
New Views of Performance: Space, Ritual, and Play (continued), and
Process and Minimalism
Listening: Philip Glass: Akhnaten (1984)
Steve Reich: Clapping Music (1971) & Piano Phase (1967)
Terry Riley: In C (1964)
John Adams: Shaker Loops (1978) & Nixon in China (1987)
Michael Torke: Yellow Pages (1984)
Week 13, November 14
Reading: Chapters 16 and 17 in Music Since 1945:
Process and Minimalism (continued), and
The Electronic Revolution II: Computers and Digital Systems
Thanksgiving Break
Week 14, November 21
Reading: Chapters 18 and 19 in Music Since 1945:
Pieces for Study III, and
Notation, Improvisation, and Composition
Presentation #4
Listening:
Sylvano Bussotti: Five Pieces for David Tudor (1959) #3
George Crumb: Eleven Echoes of Autumn (1966)
John Cage: Aria (1958)
Larry Austin: Accidents (1967)
Malcolm Goldstein: The Seasons: Vermont/Spring
Week 15, November 28
Take Home Exam 2 assigned- Due at time of the final exam
Reading: Chapters 19 and 20 in Music Since 1945:
Notation, Improvisation, and Composition (continued), and
Composers and National Traditions
Copyright © 1999, David Heuser
Revised - August 2005
Email any problems, questions or requests about this page to dheuser@utsa.edu
URL:
http://music.utsa.edu/electron/1950.htm