Transformations in Music of the 20th and 21st Centuries

Objectives

Gain insight in the field of music

1. into the interaction between cultural traditions in a period of decolonisation and globalisation, and their history, as well as into the musical transformations effected thereby.
2. Into the compositional concepts and aesthetics of musical transformation in the work of Igor Stravinsky, as well as into its reception.

Contents

Two main subjects will be studied:

1. Musical transformations in intercultural interaction

Since the late nineteen sixties in particular, western composers have developed a keen interest in the musical, ideological and religious concepts of other cultures, both ‘within’ and ‘without’ Europe and the U.S. The range of interests is broad, for example, timbre and instrumentation (Boulez), notions of time (among others, interpreted by Stockhausen in terms of 'duration octaves'), melodic and rhythmic modes (many), and attitude to life (Cage, Harvey, Tavener, De Leeuw). The questions asked during this course are: What are or were the cultural contexts of these interests, which concepts of musical structure and ethics are concerned and how are they developed and transformed into concrete compositions, what were the fashions or trends? Time will be spent on questions of mentality: According to some, one may speak of a postcolonial meeting of cultures, according to others, such as Edward Said, it is a continuation of the Western practice of appropriation from a dominant position. Attention is also given to the history of these practices, e.g. by studying the work of Stravinsky and Bartok, as well as earlier examples (among others, Wagner and Buddhism).

2. Musical transformations in the work of Igor Stravinsky

Igor Stravinsky has been, and still is considered one of the major composers of the 20th century. His approach to modern music composition as the art of transformation of other musics (‘music about music’) has been both the object of rejection as well as of imitation. For many composers of his own and later generations he has set a key example in either way. His techniques of transformation in relation to the Russian music traditions (of ‘The Five’ and of folk practices), and in relation to various periods of Western music from medieval music to dodecaphony and serialism will be studied. Attention will also be paid to the development of Stravinsky’s formalist aesthetics, to the historical setting of his work, including the modernist movement, and to the reception and criticism of it. The relation of his work to dance will be included in this study.

Scores, audio and audio-visual recordings, and texts written by composers, music critics, musicologists and cultural philosophers are studied. Analyses are also made of recent examples of intercultural performing arts in the Netherlands, in particular in the area of music and dance.

Format

Lecture/seminar

Time

3 hours a week

Study materials

General

• H.K. Bhabha, The location of culture, London & New York: Routledge, 2004 (origin. 1994).
• E. Said, Orientalism: Western conceptions of the Orient, New edition London etc.: Penguin 1995).
• P. Sloterdijk, Eurotaoïsme (Amsterdam: Arbeiderspers, 1991).

Intercultural music studies

• G. Born & D. Hesmondhalgh, eds.; Western Music and its Others: Difference, Representation and Appropriation in Music (Berkeley etc.: University of California Press 2000).
• M. Clayton, H. Trevor & R. Middleton, edd., The cultural study of music. A critical introduction, New York & London, Routledge, 2003.
• * U. Dibelius, Moderne Musik II: 1965-1985 (München etc.: Piper/Schott 1988), ‘Exotismus und Meditation’.
• * P. Gradenwitz, Musik zwischen Orient und Okzident (Wilhelmshafen: Heinrichshofen, 1977).
• P. Grifftiths, Modern music: The avant-garde since 1945 (London: etc., Dent, 1981), Chapter 11, ‘Quotation-Integration’.
• R. P. Morgan, Twentieth-century music (New York: Norton, etc. 1991), Chapter XIX, The new pluralism.
• C. M. Schmidt, Brennpunkte der Neuen Musik (Cologne: Gerig, 1977), Chapter III, ‘Europäische und außereuropäische Musik’.
• J. Shepherd and P. Wicke, Music and Cultural Theory, Cambridge: Polity Press, 1997.

About Stravinsky

• Ch.M. Joseph. Stravinsky & Balanchine. A Journey of Invention. New Haven & London, Yale U.P, 2002
• R. Taruskin. Stravinsky and the Russian Traditions. Oxford: Oxford U.P., 1996.

Cost

Costs of the course material.

Assessment

Papers, presentations and essay (20, 20 and 60 percent of the final mark).