Music 706, 20 th Century Techniques – Dr. Paul Seitz.

Spring, 2004 semester

Week 1 - Introduction. Requirements. Texts. Reserve materials. “Modernism” and the beginning of the 20 th-century (in the 19 th century). Music from the 1880’s, e.g., Liszt, Nuages gris, Satie, Gymnopedie, etc. Read: Everdell, The First Moderns (TFM), Chapters 1,10 and 5, and Erik Satie, “Brief epigrams,” in Contemporary Composers on Contemporary Music,30-32 (on reserve). And/or, Joseph Kerman, Round Table VIII: Analysis and Interpretation in Musical Criticism (in 14th International Congress of the IMS Bologna, 27th August-1st September, 1987) in Acta Musicologica, Vol. 59, Fasc. 1. (Jan. - Apr., 1987), pp. 28-31. and/or Robert Snarrenberg, Zen and the Way of Soundscroll (in "...Is, with Respect to": Texts and Thoughts in the Space of J. K. Randall) Perspectives of New Music, Vol. 30, No. 1. (Winter, 1992), pp. 222-237.

Week 2 – Discussion of reading. Continue application of concepts: motive, stasis, change, cadential process, pitch centricity etc. Debussy in his mid 20’s: Nuages, from Nocturnes, c. 1887. Read TFM, Chapter 6 and 17, and Gauldin, Robert, Reference and Association in the Vier Lieder, Op. 2, of Alban Berg in Music Theory Spectrum, Vol. 21, No. 1. (Spring, 1999), pp. 32-42. and/or Craig Avery, Berg's 'Scheideweg': Analytical Issues in Op. 2/ii in Music Analysis, Vol. 1, No. 2. (Jul., 1982), pp. 189-202.

Week 3 - Discussion of reading. Poetry, lyrics, and compositional innovations associated with texts, c. 1908-9). Berg, Op. 2, Schoenberg, Book of the Hanging Garden. Read: TFM Chapters 16 and 18. Jonathan Dunsby 'Pierrot lunaire' and the Resistance to Theory in The Musical Times, Vol. 130, No. 1762. (Dec., 1989), pp. 732-736. and/or L. Fleury; A. H. F. S. About "Pierrot Lunaire": The Impressions Made on Various Audiences by a Novel Work in Music & Letters, Vol. 5, No. 4. (Oct., 1924), pp. 347-356. and/or Colin C. Sterne Pythagoras and Pierrot: An Approach to Schoenberg's Use of Numerology in the Construction of 'Pierrot lunaire' in Perspectives of New Music, Vol. 21, No. 1/2. (Autumn, 1982 - Summer, 1983), pp. 506-534. and/or David Metzer The New York Reception of "Pierrot lunaire": The 1923 Premiere and Its Aftermath (in American Musics) in The Musical Quarterly, Vol. 78, No. 4. (Winter, 1994), pp. 669-699.

Week 4 -- (Mon. Feb 16, (make-up session on President's Day holiday). )– Discussion of reading. The end of the 19 th century (in the 20 th century).. Compositional issues c. 1909-1912. Listen to and discuss examples from early Schoenberg Lieder. Discuss reading in TFM, concerning Schoenberg and Stefan George's influence. Listen to and discuss tonality, texture, meter, density of contrast, etc., in Schoenberg's The Book of the Hanging Garden (George text). Consider similar issues in excerpts from Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire. Rapidity of stylistic change, artistic goals. Brief discussion of readings/articles about Pierrot Lunaire. Review basic concepts of PC Set Theory: Normal order, inversion, transposition, prime form. Application of Set-Theory in Analysis of, e.g., Webern, Op. 5.

Week 5 – (Mon. Feb 23) – Begin with review of Mon., 2/16 (make-up session on President's Day holiday). Listen to and discuss examples from early Schoenberg Lieder. Discuss reading in TFM, concerning Schoenberg and Stefan George's influence. Listen to and discuss tonality, texture, meter, density of contrast, etc., in Schoenberg's The Book of the Hanging Garden (George text). Consider similar issues in excerpts from Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire. Rapidity of stylistic change, artistic goals. Brief discussion of readings/articles about Pierrot Lunaire. Review basic concepts of PC Set Theory: Normal order, inversion, transposition, prime form. Application of Set-Theory in Analysis of, e.g., Webern, Op. 5. Assignment to continue analysis begun in class for discussion in Week 6. Continue PC Set Theory, adding concepts, e.g., mapping, saturation, interval vectors. Review fundamental analytical concepts for pandiatonic music. Model combination of these with PC Set Theory in analysis of Debussy. Read TFM Chapters 3 and 12. Distribute reading/article assignments from among the following list:

TFM, Chapter 2, Chapter 21.

Allen Forte, [Letter from Allen Forte] (in Communications) in Music Theory Spectrum, Vol. 15, No. 1. (Spring, 1993), p. 112.

Eric Regener, " On Allen Forte's Theory of Chords" in Perspectives of New Music, Vol. 13, No. 1. (Autumn - Winter, 1974), pp. 191-212.

Forte, Allen, The Atonal Music of Anton Webern, Chapter 4 (in folder on reserve in Music Library).

Robert Snarrenberg, " Hearings of Webern's "Bewegt" in Perspectives of New Music, Vol. 24, No. 2. (Spring - Summer, 1986), pp. 386-404.

Allen Forte and Roy Travis, " Analysis Symposium: Webern, Orchestral Pieces (1913): Movement I ("Bewegt")" in Journal of Music Theory, Vol. 18, No. 1. (Spring, 1974), pp. 2-43.

Johnson, Peter. “ Symmetrical Sets in Webern's Op. 10, No. 4 ,” Perspectives of New Music Vol. 17, No. 1 (Autumn-Winter, 1978), 219-229

David Lewin, "Inversional Balance as an Organizing Force in Schoenberg's Music and Thought," in Perspectives of New Music, Vol. 6, No. 2. (Spring - Summer, 1968), pp. 1-21.

Allen Forte, Letter to the Editor in Reply to Richard Taruskin from Allen Forte in Music Analysis, Vol. 5, No. 2/3. (Jul. - Oct., 1986), pp. 321-337.

Week 6 – (Mon. March 1) -- Reports on readings: Discussion: the "rhetorical role" of numbers in the articles. Modernism, for certain, on the brink of WW I. Stravinsky, The Rite of Spring. The mechanics of serial technique (review?), and the concept of “twelve-tone operations. Analysis of early (" Viennese School") serial compositions: Webern, Klavierstücke (Op. Post.), Schoenberg, Op. 19, 23, and/or25. Webern, “Wie bin ich froh!”, Berg, Violin Concerto. Read: TFM, Chapters 15 and 20. Distribute articles from among the following list:

M. Du Pre Cooper, " Atonality and 'Zwolftonmusik' in The Musical Times, Vol. 74, No. 1084. (Jun., 1933), pp. 497-500.

Alban Berg, “Why is Schoenberg’s music so hard to understand?” in Contemporary Composers on Contemporary Music, 60-71 (on reserve in Music Library).

John Covach, Josef Matthias Hauer a web site condensed from Covach's “The Music and Theories of Josef Matthias Hauer,” Ph.D. diss. (Univ of Michigan, 1990).

Roger Gustafson, " Josef Matthias Hauer: A List of Works" in Tempo, New Ser., No. 161/162, ...An Austrian Quodlibet.... (Jun. - Sep., 1987), pp. 13-23.

George Rochberg, " The Harmonic Tendency of the Hexachord" in Journal of Music Theory, Vol. 3, No. 2. (Nov., 1959), pp. 208-230.

Milton Babbitt, " Since Schoenberg " (in Toward the Schoenberg Centenary, III) in Perspectives of New Music, Vol. 12, No. 1/2. (Autumn, 1973 - Summer, 1974), pp. 3-28.

Allen Forte, " Paul Hindemith's Contribution to Music Theory in the United States"in Journal of Music Theory, Vol. 42, No. 1. (Spring, 1998), pp. 1-14.

Otto Ortmann, " An Analysis of Paul Hindemith's "Unterweisung im Tonsatz"(in Abstracts of Papers Read before Washington-Baltimore Chapter) Bulletin of the American Musicological Society, No. 4. (Sep., 1940), pp. 26-28.

Week 7 – (Mon. March 8) -- Combinatoriality – Webern, Op. 29. Pause to consider Hindemith's notion of "harmonic tension" and a suggestion for the use of Interval Class Vectors as a means of trying to understand both Hindemith and PC-Set Theory. Four analysis presentations. Distribute readings for reports (week 8) from among the following list:

Milton Babbitt: " Twelve-Tone Invariants as Compositional Determinants," in The Musical Quarterly, Vol. 46, No. 2, Special Issue: Problems of Modern Music. The Princeton Seminar in Advanced Musical Studies. (Apr., 1960), pp. 246-259.

Milton Babbitt: " Set Structure as a Compositional Determinant," Journal of Music Theory, Vol. 5, No. 1. (Spring, 1961), pp. 72-94.

Milton Babbitt: "Twelve-Tone Rhythmic Structure and the Electronic Medium," in Perspectives of New Music, Vol. 1, No. 1. (Autumn, 1962), pp. 49-79.

Milton Babbitt: " On Relata I” Perspectives of New Music , Vol. 9, No. 1. (Autumn - Winter, 1970), pp. 1-22.

Milton Babbitt: “Who cares if you listen?” in Contemporary Composers on Contemporary Music, 243-250. (on reserve in Music Library).

Milton Babbitt: " On Having Been and Still Being an American Composer," Perspectives of New Music, Vol. 27, No. 1. (Winter, 1989), pp. 106-112.

Week 8 – (Mon. March 15) -- Discussion. Babbitt – Semi-simple Variations for piano, 1956. Four analysis presentations. Articles:

Bela Bartok, “The influence of peasant music on modern music,” Contemporary Composers on Contemporary Music, 72-79 (on reserve in Music Library)

Lawrence Starr, "Melody-Accompaniment Textures in the Music of Bartok, as Seen in His Mikrokosmos" in The Journal of Musicology, Vol. 4, No. 1. (Winter, 1985-1986), pp. 91-104.

Milton Babbitt, " The String Quartets of Bartok," The Musical Quarterly, Vol. 35, No. 3. (Jul., 1949), pp. 377-385.

Week 9 – (Mon. March 22) -- Returning to Bartok: Peasant music and abstract compositional systems. Analysis of examples from Mikrokosmos, 44 Violin Duets, and/or Music forStrings, Percussion and Celeste. Four analysis presentations. Four analysis presentations. Read: select from list of articles mostly by (but a few about) John Cage:

Roger Reynolds; John Cage, " John Cage and Roger Reynolds: A Conversation" in The Musical Quarterly, Vol. 65, No. 4. (Oct., 1979), pp. 573-594.

John Cage, " Tokyo Lecture and Three Mesostics" (in A John Cage Posy), in Perspectives of New Music, Vol. 26, No. 1. (Winter, 1988), pp. 6-25.

John Cage; Richard Kostelanetz, " His Own Music: Part Two" (in A John Cage Posy) in Perspectives of New Music, Vol. 26, No. 1. (Winter, 1988), pp. 26-49.

Stephen Montague, " John Cage at Seventy: An Interview" in American Music, Vol. 3, No. 2. (Summer, 1985), pp. 205-216.

Christian Wolff; David Patterson, " Cage and Beyond: An Annotated Interview with Christian Wolff" in Perspectives of New Music, Vol. 32, No. 2. (Summer, 1994), pp. 54-87.

Paul Griffiths, " Morton Feldman" in The Musical Times, Vol. 113, No. 1554. (Aug., 1972), pp. 758-759.

Catherine Costello Hirata, " The Sounds of the Sounds Themselves: Analyzing the Early Music of Morton Feldman" in Perspectives of New Music, Vol. 34, No. 1. (Winter, 1996), pp. 6-27.

Morton Feldman, “An interview with Robert Ashley, August 1964” in Contemporary Composers on Contemporary Music, 362-366 (on reserve in Music Library).

Week 10 – (Mon. March 29) -- The United States: The New York School. Four analysis presentations. Distribute articles from among the following list:

Otto E. Laske, " In Search of a Generative Grammar for Music," Perspectives of New Music, Vol. 12, No. 1/2. (Autumn, 1973 - Summer, 1974), pp. 351-378.

Dane L. Harwood, "Universals in Music: A Perspective from Cognitive Psychology," in Ethnomusicology, Vol. 20, No. 3. (Sep., 1976), pp. 521-533.

Fred Lerdahl; Ray Jackendoff, " Toward a Formal Theory of Tonal Music" Journal of Music Theory, Vol. 21, No. 1. (Spring, 1977), pp. 111-171.

Ray Jackendoff; Fred Lerdahl, "Generative Music Theory and Its Relation to Psychology" Journal of Music Theory, Vol. 25, No. 1, 25th Anniversary Issue. (Spring, 1981), pp. 45-90.

Fred Lerdahl; Ray Jackendoff; Wayne Slawson, " A Reply to Peel and Slawson's Review of "A Generative Theory of Tonal Music" (in Theory Forum), Journal of Music Theory, Vol. 29, No. 1. (Spring, 1985), pp. 145-160.

David Rosenboom, " Cognitive Modelling and Musical Composition in the Twentieth Century: A Prolegomenon," Perspectives of New Music, Vol. 25, No. 1/2, 25th Anniversary Issue. (Winter - Summer, 1987), pp. 439-446.

Jonathan Christian Petty, " Hanslick, Wagner, Chomsky: Mapping the Linguistic Parameters of Music"Journal of the Royal Musical Association, Vol. 123, No. 1. (1998), pp. 39-67.

Justin London, " The Second International Conference on Music Perception and Cognition. University of California, Los Angeles 22-26 February 1992" (in Conference Report), The Journal of Musicology, Vol. 10, No. 4. (Autumn, 1992), pp. 537-545.

Robert Snarrenberg, " Hearings of Webern's "Bewegt" in Perspectives of New Music, Vol. 24, No. 2. (Spring - Summer, 1986), pp. 386-404.

Week 11 – (Monday April 12) – The growing role of cognitive psychology and linguistics in music analysis. Discussion/reports on articles. Brief exploration of Lerdahl & Jackendoff's Generative Theory of Tonal Music. Four analysis presentations. Readings for Week 12 (final list TBA, but probably including):

David Gable, "Boulez's Two Cultures: The Post-War European Synthesis and Tradition" in Journal of the American Musicological Society, Vol. 43, No. 3 (Autumn, 1990), 426-456.

Richard Toop, " Messiaen/ Goeyvaerts, Fano/ Stockhausen, Boulez" in Perspectives of New Music, Vol. 13, No. 1. (Autumn - Winter, 1974), pp. 141-169.

Michel Foucault; Pierre Boulez; John Rahn, " Contemporary Music and the Public" (in Forum: Music in Culture), in Perspectives of New Music, Vol. 24, No. 1. (Autumn - Winter, 1985), pp. 6-12.

Benjamin Boretz, " Interface Part II: Thoughts in Reply to Boulez/Foucault: "Contemporary Music and the Public" (in Colloquy and Review), in Perspectives of New Music, Vol. 25, No. 1/2, 25th Anniversary Issue. (Winter - Summer, 1987), pp. 608-611.

Week 12 – (Monday April 19) -- Meanwhile, in Europe. Four analysis presentations. Readings for Week 13:

James Boros, A "New Tonality"?Perspectives of New Music, Vol. 33, No. 1/2. (Winter - Summer, 1995), pp. 538-553.

Fred Lerdahl, " Tonality and Paranoia: A Reply to Boros" (in Colloquy and Review), Perspectives of New Music, Vol. 34, No. 1. (Winter, 1996), pp. 242-251.

James Boros, " A Response to Lerdahl" (in Colloquy and Review), Perspectives of New Music, Vol. 34, No. 1. (Winter, 1996), pp. 252-258.

Benjamin Boretz, On Thinking about Various Issues Induced by the Problem of Discovering That One Is Not a 'Composer', and That the Space Which One Inhabits Musically Is Not 'America' in Perspectives of New Music, Vol. 27, No. 2. (Summer, 1989), pp. 38-42.

Week 13 – (Monday April 26) – Recent trends in the United States. At least four analysis presentations. Readings for Week 14:

Benjamin A. Boretz, " Relevance. Liberation" (in Being a Composer in America), in Perspectives of New Music, Vol. 27, No. 1. (Winter, 1989), pp. 114-117.

Theador W. Adorno; Max Paddison, " On the Problem of Musical Analysis" in Music Analysis, Vol. 1, No. 2. (Jul., 1982), pp. 169-187.

Week 14 – (Monday May 3) -- What have we learned, and what can we do about it? Remaining analysis presentations.

Final Exam: Monday, May 10, at 6:00 p.m.