SYLLABUS

Seminar in Contemporary Music

MUSI 6397     Section 07565       Summer 2005        MTWTh 1:00-3:00

 

Dr. Tim Koozin     MSM 116      (713)743-3318 tkoozin@.uh.edu         http://www.uh.edu/~tkoozin/

 

Course Description:  Analytical and historical studies in music of our time and of the past century. Class meetings will take the form of a seminar (without formal lectures). Preparation and readiness to contribute in each class discussion is the students responsibility.

 

Prerequisite: Graduate standing in music, with no deficiencies in music theory

 

Selected Readings:    Glen Watkins. Soundings: Music in the Twentieth-Century (Schirmer Books, 1988)

Jonathan Cross. The Stravinsky Legacy (Cambridge University Press, 1998)

Joseph Straus. Introduction to Post-Tonal Theory (Prentice Hall, 1990)

 

Schedule  (subject to change)

 

Post-Tonal and the Postmodern

Joseph Straus. Introduction to Post-Tonal Theory (Prentice-Hall, 1990). Chapter 1 and Analysis 1 & 2.

Jonathan D. Kramer. Postmodern Concepts of Musical Time Indiana Theory Review 17/2 (1996): 21-62.

 

Debussy, Messiaen, Takemitsu

Watkins. Ch 5: Debussy: Impressionism and Symbolism

Articles by Jan Pasler, Koozin and others.

FIRST PAPER

 

Stravinskys Legacy

      Cross, Chs 2; Selected articles

Works by Schoenberg, Webern, Stravinsky, Bartok

      SECOND PAPER

 

Experimentation and New Music

      Cross, Ch 3; Watkins, Ch 22; Selected articles

Works by Ives, Cage, Carter, Varse, Ligeti, Berio, Stockhausen

 

Recent Music and Recent Scholarship

Readings by McClary, and others

Works by Cage, Reich, Glass, Adams, Torke, Andriessen, Zorn, and others

      THIRD PAPER

 

Grading   Papers (3 x 25%)                                                        75%    

                  Class participation, short assignments, and quizzes     25%

 

Readings

 

Basics of Post-Tonal Analysis

 

Joseph Straus. Introduction to Post-Tonal Theory (Prentice-Hall, 1990). Chapter 1, Analysis 1 & 2.

 

Music and the Postmodern

 

Jonathan D. Kramer. Postmodern Concepts of Musical Time Indiana Theory Review 17/2 (1996): 21-62.

Judy Lochhead and Joseph Auner, eds. Postmodern Music / Postmodern Thought. Routledge, 2002.

Debussy

 

Watkins. Ch 5: Debussy: Impressionism and Symbolism

Jan Pasler. "Debussy, Jeux: Playing with Time and Form," 19th Century Music, vi.1 (1982), 60-75.

Lawrence Berman. "Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun and Jeux: Debussy's Summer Rites," 19th Century Music, iii.3 (1980), 225-38.

James Hepokoski. "Formulaic Openings in Debussy," 19th Century Music, viii.1 (1984), 44-59.

Allan Forte, "Debussy and the Octatonic," Music Analysis, 10.1-2 (1991), 125-69.

Avo Somer. Musical Syntax in the Sonatas of Debussy. Music Theory Spectrum 27/1 (2005), 67-96.

 

Messiaen and Takemitsu

 

Anthony Pople. Quatuor pour la fin du temps: Cambridge Musical Handbook (1998)

     Introduction, Ch 1 (Liturgie), Ch 3 (Abme)

Malcom Troup in The Messiaen Companion, p. 392-447

     See especially parts on Chronochromie, Sept haka, and Coleurs de la Cit celeste

Jonathan Cross. The Stravinsky Legacy. (Cambridge University Press, 1998)

      Chapter on Block Forms, especially p. 46-63 (Turangalla, Momente)

Tim Koozin. Spiritual-Temporal Imagery in Music of Olivier Messiaen and Toru Takemitsu. Contemporary Music Review  7/2 (1993).

________. Toru Takemitsu and the Unity of Opposites.  College Music Symposium 30 (1990). 

________. Traversing Distances: Pitch Organization, Gesture, and Imagery in the Late Works of Toru Takemitsu. Contemporary Music Review 21/4 (2003).

 

Stravinsky and his influence on recent music

 

Jonathan Cross. The Stravinsky Legacy. (Cambridge University Press, 1998)

Joseph Straus. Remaking the Past: Musical Modernism and the Influence of the Tonal Tradition. (Harvard University Press, 1990.)

________. Stravinsky's Construction of Twelve Verticals: An Aspect of Harmony in the Serial Music, Music Theory Spectrum 21/1 (1999).

Edward T. Cone, "Stravinsky: The Progress of a Method," Perspectives of New Music 1/1 (Fall 1962): 18-26.

Recent Music and Recent Scholarship

 

Susan McClary. Conventional Wisdom (University of California Press, 2000), Chapter 5.

Timothy A. Johnson, "Minimalism: Aesthetic, Style, or Technique?," Musical Quarterly 78 (Winter 1994): 742-73.

Michael L. Klein. Intertextuality in Western Art Music (Indiana University Press, 2005), Chapter 5.

Rebecca Leydon. Towards a Typology of Minimalist Tropes. Music Theory Online 8/4 (2002).

Charles Wilson. Gyrgy Ligeti and the Rhetoric of Autonomy. Twentieth-Century Music 1/1 (2004), 5-28.

 

 

Listening

 

Claude Debussy          

 

Preludes, Selections from Book 1 (CD535)

Jeux (CD1008)

      Nocturnes, Sirnes (CD 1008)

      La Mer (CD 1008,  1930)   score: M1002.D28M4 1970

 

Olivier Messiaen

 

      piano

            Preludes (CD 3521)   (score: M25.M58P73 1930)

            Mode des valeurs et d' intensite (CD 3521)

            Catalogue d'oiseaux, book 1, Le loriot (CD 3538)

            Vingt regards sur l'enfant Jsus (CD 2578)  (score: M24.M56V5 1947)

      organ

            Les corps glorieux, L'Ange aux parfums, (CD 3430)

      piano, clarinet, violin, and cello

            Quatuor pour la fin du temps, mvts. 1 & 3, (CD 901), (CD 4848) (score: M422.M48Q3 1942x)

      orchestra

            Turangalla-symphonie (CD 2751)

            Coleurs de la Cit celeste (CD 3522)

            Chronochromie (CD 5009)     score: M1045.M58C5 1963x

            Sept hakai for piano and orchestra (CD 3522)            score: M1010.M608H3

 

Toru Takemitsu

 

      Quatrain II for piano, clarinet, violin, and cello (CD 5999)
      Le yeux clos II for piano (CD 2080)

      In an Autumn Garden for Gagaku ensemble (personal CD)

      For Away, Rain Tree Sketch (CD 2230)

      Riverrun for piano and orchestra (CD 6522)

      Quotation of Dream for two pianos and orchestra (CD 5257)

      Fantasma/Cantos for clarinet and orchestra (CD 5999)

      Archipelago S for 21 players (CD 7093)

 

 Discussed in the Jonathan Cross reading


     Stravinsky. Petrushka (CD 8223)
    Stravinsky. Le sacre du printemps (CD 8223)

Varse. Dserts, Poeme lectronique, Amriques (CD 4371)

     George Antheil . Ballet mchanique (CD 4618)

     Messiaen. Coleurs de la Cit celeste (CD 3522)

Stockhausen. Klavierstsck IX (CD 2579)

Stockausen. Momente (CD 5982)

Tippett. King Priam (CD 3511), (video 1660)

Birtwistle. Carmen arcadiae mechanicae perpetuum (CD 849)

 Discussed in the Edward T. Cone reading


     Stravinsky. Symphonies of Wind Instruments, Symphony of Psalms (CD 7825)

 

Minimalism

 

     Reading: Timothy A. Johnson, "Minimalism: Aesthetic, Style, or Technique?
     CD-853   Reich, Come Out

     CD-3779  Reich, Drumming Music

     CD-4556  Reich, Eight Lines

     CD-3909  Reich, Violin Phase

     CD-893   Reich, Tehillim

     CD-5043  Reich, Different Trains

     CD-5265   Reich, The Cave

     CD-892    Riley, In C

     CD-5013  Riley, Cadenza on the Night Plain

     CD-5008  Glass, Einstein on the Beach

     CD-5010  Glass, Songs from Liquid Days

     CD-2553   Glass, Satyagraha

     CD-2541  Adams, Grand Pianola Music

     CD-3518  Adams, Phrygian Gates

     CD-1835  Adams, Nixon in China

     CD-3571 Torke, The Yellow Pages

     CD-6767 Zorn, Spillane

     Video:    Four American Composers: Philip Glass (video 1595)

     Web site: http://www.philipglass.com/

 

Watkins. Chapters 29 and 30

 

     CD-3703 Luciano Berio: Circles, Sequenza 1 for flute
     CD-239 Luciano Berio, Sinfonia
     CD-341 Peter Maxwell Davies, Eight Songs for a Mad King
     CD-4773 George Crumb, Ancient Voices of Children

     CD-779 Rochberg, Music for the Magic Theatre
     CD-4515 Rochberg, String Quartet No. 3

 

More recommended works, some discussed in our readings:

 

     CD-7093 Takemitsu, Archipelago S for 21 players  

     CD-5999 Takemitsu, Fantasma/Cantos for clarinet and orchestra

    CD-852    Arvo Prt: Misere, Festina Lente

     CD-5045  Frederic Rzewski, Four North American Ballads

     CD-4785  Frederic Rzewski, The People United will Never Be Defeated!

     CD-656    John Corigliano, Sonata for Violin and Piano

     CD-4511  David Del Tredici, Acrostic Song from Final Alice

     CD-327    David Del Tredici, Steps

     CD-3538 Olivier Messiaen, Catalogue d Oiseaux (Books 1-3)
     CD-5009 Olivier Messiaen, Chronochromie
     CD-2751 Olivier Messiaen, Turangalila Symphony
     CD-5012 Harry Partch, The Bewitched
     CD-1449 Ben Johnston, Fourth String Quartet: Amazing Grace
     LP-2943 Yannis Xenakis, Pithoprakta
     CD-859 Krzysztof Penderecki, Threnody
     CD-855 Krzysztof Penderecki, Cello Concerto
     CD-1031 Witold Lutoslawski, Concerto for Orchestra
     CD-3679 Witold Lutoslawski, String Quartet
     CD-851 Gyorgy Ligeti: Atmospheres, Lontano

     CD-4823 Luciano Berio, Linea
     CD-3438 Luciano Berio, Points on the curve to find
     CD-851 Luigi Nono, Liebeslied
     CD-2554 George Crumb, Macrocosmos 1