Location: The Lab

Discover a Breathtaking Epoch in Western Music

Taking a chronological approach, the course explores the fascinating gamut of 20th-century musical “isms,” from impressionism and fauvism to serialism, stochasticism, ultraserialism, neo-classicism, neo-tonalism, and minimalism, as well as the inclusivity and synthesis within concert music that embraced Western historical styles, folk and popular music, jazz, rock, Asian, Latin American, and other influences in the service of heightened expression. Through the panoramic view of the course, you’ll discover the genius of composers such as Webern, Antheil, Stockhausen, Bernstein, Takamitsu, and many others.

Topics:

Jan 4th - "20th Century Music: Be Afraid No Longer!", "Setting the Table and Parsing Out Blame"

Jan 11th - "Debussy and le francais in Musical Action", "Russia and Igor Stravinsky"

Jan 25th - "Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring", "The Paradox of Arnold Schoenberg"

Feb 1st - "The Emancipation of Melody!", "The Second Viennese School"

Feb 8th - "The 'New' Classicism", "Schoenberg and the 12-Tone Method"

Feb 15th - "Synthesis and Nationalism: Bela Bartok", "America's Musical Gift"

Mar 1st - "American Iconoclasts", "The World Turned Upside Down"

Mar 8th - "Electronic Music and European Ultraserialism", "Schoenberg in Exile",

Mar 15th - "Stravinsky in America", "For Every Action an Equal Reaction"

Mar 29th - "The California Avant-Garde", "Rock around the Clock"

Apr 5th - "East Meets West; South Meets North", "Postmordernism: New Tonality and Eclecticism"

Apr 12th - "The New Pluralism", "Among Friends"