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Composers are sometimes at work at a covert enterprise no one talks about. We're speaking of the psychological manipulation of listeners via musical devices. Far from unpleasant, the result of such tugging on our musical marionette strings can be pure ecstasy when done by a master musician. In this course, each student will be expected to probe beneath the epidermal layers in explaining to the class why certain passages in music "get under his/her skin." No recourse will be made to text or lyrics. The explanation must be on a musical basis only, in as clinically precise a manner as possible. Failed explanations will be remanded by the members of the class/jury for further formulation. In order to set some parameters for these discussions and see how wide is the range of inquiry, the class will begin by studying the same music as "explained" by two vastly different commentators: Wallace Berry in "Structural Functions in Music" and Sir Donald Francis Tovey in "Essays in Musical Analysis." We will also read the essay "Musical Meaning: The Symbolic Web" by Jean-Jacques Nattiez. But most of the class will consist of attempting to crack--on a case-by-case basis-- musical goosepimples... WHY are we experiencing them? That means determining those predicates existing in the musical methods exploited on the page, captured in the translation process of performance, or created by recorded media. Orchestration? Plays on tonality? Chord voicings? Arching phrases? Intervallic ambrosia? Why...why...why? Is there a chance we may see pimple-raising constants, which recur again and again? (If so, how useful to know them!) The classical composers lionized in this class may be a bit different that usual: the instructor will confess to goosepimples via Sibelius and Rachmaninoff and will attempt to induce these in the class as well via analytical injection. Every class member is expected to be similarly forthright (and communicable). We'll have to really think. Recommended for CCS and L&S upper-division music majors. Ideal for those already with one or more courses from the MUS 160 series, although this is*not* required. Required Texts: Wallace Berry, Structural Functions in Music Instructor(s): Jeremy Haladyna Time(s): Mon. and Weds., 5:30 - 7:00 pm Place(s): Old Little Theatre, Room 154 << Back |
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