MUSC 263 Western Music and Culture in the 20th Century

This course surveys Western musical practice of the 20th century commencing with the wide-ranging artistic responses 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 and new pitch systems take hold. We will then follow the radical experimentation of the 1920s ultra-modernists through to the post-minimalist eclecticism of John Adams and Kaija Saariaho at the century's end throughout 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. Music majors and minors taking the course will be given assignments tailored to their knowledge and departmental expectations.