Philosophy of New Music
Beginning May 19, 2024 classes run every Sunday for 7 total weeks. Classes are from 1:00 - 3:00pm
Classes take place in person at The Luminary 2701 Cherokee, St Louis.
All classes are available through zoom with the same enrollment process. You will be prompted to specify upon checkout.
This intensive course will introduce the philosophical foundations of new music in modernity, and survey the various manifestations of its legacy in the present. We begin with Nietzsche's critique of romanticism, proceed to its influence on Modernism & the first calls for new music, its continuation into mid-century avant-gardism, and then consider minimalism & post-minimalist music. Finally, we will survey music in the post-70s cultural turn persisting today. Class time will be split between critical discussion of readings & listening to selected music works.
Readings & Listenings
Week 1 — Introduction to Modern Music & Historical Context
Reading: Friedrich Nietzsche, The Birth of Tragedy, Nietzsche, The Case of Wagner
Listening: Richard Wagner - Parsifal; Erik Satie - Socrate
Week 2 — New Music & Modernism
Reading: Arnold Schoenberg, New Music, Outmoded Music, Style, & Idea; Theodor Adorno, Music & New Music; Philosophy of New Music part 1
Listening: Schoenberg - Verklärte Nacht, Pierrot lunaire, Erwartung
Week 3 — New Music & Modernism Cont'd
Reading: Adorno, Philosophy of New Music part 2
Listening: Schoenberg - Klavierstücke Ops 11, 25; Stravinsky - The Rite of Spring
Week 4 — New Music in Crisis
Reading: Adorno, The Aging of The New Music; Vers Une Musique Informelle; Vienna; Edgar Varese, The Liberation of Sound
Listening: Anton Webern - 6 Bagatelles; Edgar Varese; Boulez, Marteau sans maitre; Bela Bartok - Microcosms; Berg 3 Pieces for Orchestra Opus 6
Week 5 — Mid-Century Avant-Gardism
Reading: John Cage, Credo; Stockhausen, Electronic & Instrumental Music; Pierre Schaeffer, Acousmatics
Listening: John Cage - Sonatas & Interludes; Stockhausen - Gruppen, Kontakte; various Musique Concrete works
Week 6 — Minimalism & Drone
Reading: Kyle Gann, La Monte Young's The Well-Tuned Piano; Gann, The Outer Edge of Consonance; La Monte Young in Conversation with Richard Kostelanetz
Listening: La Monte Young - The Well-Tuned Piano, sample from The Dream House
Week 7 — Postmodernism, Sound Art, & Experimental Music Today
Reading: Michael Nyman, Towards a Definition of Experimental Music; Pauline Oliveros, Auralizing the Sonosphere; Maryanne Amacher on Beethoven; Brian Eno, Ambient Music; Exchange between Aphex Twin & Stockhausen.
Listening: Alvin Lucier - I am Sitting In A Room, Pauline Oliveros; Amacher - Sound Characters; Laurie Spiegel, Appalachian Groove, various present listenings brought in by students
Beginning May 19, 2024 classes run every Sunday for 7 total weeks. Classes are from 1:00 - 3:00pm
Classes take place in person at The Luminary 2701 Cherokee, St Louis.
All classes are available through zoom with the same enrollment process. You will be prompted to specify upon checkout.
This intensive course will introduce the philosophical foundations of new music in modernity, and survey the various manifestations of its legacy in the present. We begin with Nietzsche's critique of romanticism, proceed to its influence on Modernism & the first calls for new music, its continuation into mid-century avant-gardism, and then consider minimalism & post-minimalist music. Finally, we will survey music in the post-70s cultural turn persisting today. Class time will be split between critical discussion of readings & listening to selected music works.
Readings & Listenings
Week 1 — Introduction to Modern Music & Historical Context
Reading: Friedrich Nietzsche, The Birth of Tragedy, Nietzsche, The Case of Wagner
Listening: Richard Wagner - Parsifal; Erik Satie - Socrate
Week 2 — New Music & Modernism
Reading: Arnold Schoenberg, New Music, Outmoded Music, Style, & Idea; Theodor Adorno, Music & New Music; Philosophy of New Music part 1
Listening: Schoenberg - Verklärte Nacht, Pierrot lunaire, Erwartung
Week 3 — New Music & Modernism Cont'd
Reading: Adorno, Philosophy of New Music part 2
Listening: Schoenberg - Klavierstücke Ops 11, 25; Stravinsky - The Rite of Spring
Week 4 — New Music in Crisis
Reading: Adorno, The Aging of The New Music; Vers Une Musique Informelle; Vienna; Edgar Varese, The Liberation of Sound
Listening: Anton Webern - 6 Bagatelles; Edgar Varese; Boulez, Marteau sans maitre; Bela Bartok - Microcosms; Berg 3 Pieces for Orchestra Opus 6
Week 5 — Mid-Century Avant-Gardism
Reading: John Cage, Credo; Stockhausen, Electronic & Instrumental Music; Pierre Schaeffer, Acousmatics
Listening: John Cage - Sonatas & Interludes; Stockhausen - Gruppen, Kontakte; various Musique Concrete works
Week 6 — Minimalism & Drone
Reading: Kyle Gann, La Monte Young's The Well-Tuned Piano; Gann, The Outer Edge of Consonance; La Monte Young in Conversation with Richard Kostelanetz
Listening: La Monte Young - The Well-Tuned Piano, sample from The Dream House
Week 7 — Postmodernism, Sound Art, & Experimental Music Today
Reading: Michael Nyman, Towards a Definition of Experimental Music; Pauline Oliveros, Auralizing the Sonosphere; Maryanne Amacher on Beethoven; Brian Eno, Ambient Music; Exchange between Aphex Twin & Stockhausen.
Listening: Alvin Lucier - I am Sitting In A Room, Pauline Oliveros; Amacher - Sound Characters; Laurie Spiegel, Appalachian Groove, various present listenings brought in by students
Beginning May 19, 2024 classes run every Sunday for 7 total weeks. Classes are from 1:00 - 3:00pm
Classes take place in person at The Luminary 2701 Cherokee, St Louis.
All classes are available through zoom with the same enrollment process. You will be prompted to specify upon checkout.
This intensive course will introduce the philosophical foundations of new music in modernity, and survey the various manifestations of its legacy in the present. We begin with Nietzsche's critique of romanticism, proceed to its influence on Modernism & the first calls for new music, its continuation into mid-century avant-gardism, and then consider minimalism & post-minimalist music. Finally, we will survey music in the post-70s cultural turn persisting today. Class time will be split between critical discussion of readings & listening to selected music works.
Readings & Listenings
Week 1 — Introduction to Modern Music & Historical Context
Reading: Friedrich Nietzsche, The Birth of Tragedy, Nietzsche, The Case of Wagner
Listening: Richard Wagner - Parsifal; Erik Satie - Socrate
Week 2 — New Music & Modernism
Reading: Arnold Schoenberg, New Music, Outmoded Music, Style, & Idea; Theodor Adorno, Music & New Music; Philosophy of New Music part 1
Listening: Schoenberg - Verklärte Nacht, Pierrot lunaire, Erwartung
Week 3 — New Music & Modernism Cont'd
Reading: Adorno, Philosophy of New Music part 2
Listening: Schoenberg - Klavierstücke Ops 11, 25; Stravinsky - The Rite of Spring
Week 4 — New Music in Crisis
Reading: Adorno, The Aging of The New Music; Vers Une Musique Informelle; Vienna; Edgar Varese, The Liberation of Sound
Listening: Anton Webern - 6 Bagatelles; Edgar Varese; Boulez, Marteau sans maitre; Bela Bartok - Microcosms; Berg 3 Pieces for Orchestra Opus 6
Week 5 — Mid-Century Avant-Gardism
Reading: John Cage, Credo; Stockhausen, Electronic & Instrumental Music; Pierre Schaeffer, Acousmatics
Listening: John Cage - Sonatas & Interludes; Stockhausen - Gruppen, Kontakte; various Musique Concrete works
Week 6 — Minimalism & Drone
Reading: Kyle Gann, La Monte Young's The Well-Tuned Piano; Gann, The Outer Edge of Consonance; La Monte Young in Conversation with Richard Kostelanetz
Listening: La Monte Young - The Well-Tuned Piano, sample from The Dream House
Week 7 — Postmodernism, Sound Art, & Experimental Music Today
Reading: Michael Nyman, Towards a Definition of Experimental Music; Pauline Oliveros, Auralizing the Sonosphere; Maryanne Amacher on Beethoven; Brian Eno, Ambient Music; Exchange between Aphex Twin & Stockhausen.
Listening: Alvin Lucier - I am Sitting In A Room, Pauline Oliveros; Amacher - Sound Characters; Laurie Spiegel, Appalachian Groove, various present listenings brought in by students