MUSC 263 Western Music and Culture in the 20th Century

This course surveys Western music of the 20th century, commencing with the wide-ranging response to the music and writings of Richard Wagner in Europe and in the United States and the emergence of a "musical modernism," as new forms, genres, styles, and pitch systems emerge and take hold. We then take up jazz, the radical experimentation of the 1920's ultra-modernists, and music under fascism. We thereafter study all subsequent major musical developments, through to post-minimalism and hip hop at the century's end. Throughout, we will be alert to the political, philosophical, and cultural forces shaping the music at issue. With the only prerequisite in taking this course being the ability to read musical notation, students from other disciplines who are eager for music-intensive study are especially welcome. This course may be used by Music Majors to fulfill the college-wide Second-Stage Writing Requirement through the successful completion of three short essays and one longer argument-driven research paper. Students must have the ability to read musical notation.