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Academic Year 2004/2005
The Dark Muse: Music and German Culture
GERM 285 SP
The course will explore music and the idea of music in German thought within the context of German Romanticism, the crisis of culture at the end of the nineteenth century, and Germany's disastrous political course in the
first half of the twentieth. The focus will be on a set of literary and philosophical readings about German music in conjunction with representative musical works of primarily the 19th and earlier 20th centuries.
Topics
will include: music and the demonic, music and death, absolute music, music as religion, and music as a copy of the will (Schopenhauer); The course will conclude with a close reading of Thomas Mann's DOKTOR FAUSTUS.
MAJOR READINGS
Major Readings:
Novalis, HEINRICH VON OFTERDINGEN (Selections)
E.T.A. Hoffmann, selected tales and criticism
Morike, MOZART ON HIS WAY TO PRAGUE
Schopenhauer, THE WORLD AS WILL AND REPRESENTATION (Selections)
Wagner, THE ARTWORK OF THE
FUTURE (Selections)
Nietzsche, THE BIRTH OF TRAGEDY
Thomas Mann, selected novellas & DOKTOR FAUSTUS.
Major Listenings:
Haydn, a string quartet
Mozart, DON GIOVANNI
Beethoven, PAINO SONATA IN C
MINOR, OPUS III
Schubert, DIE
WINTERREISE
Wagner, TRISTAN UND ISOLDE
Mahler, SYMPHONY NO. 5
Schoenberg, PIERROT LUNAIRE
Berg, WOZZECK and VIOLIN CONCERTO.
EXAMINATIONS AND ASSIGNMENTS
Frequent papers; frequent listening assignments; take-home examination.
ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS and/or COMMENTS
It will be helpful for students to have had some exposure to the intellectual currents of the 19th century. A facility for listening to music is necessary, as well as a general acquaintance with the history of Western
music in the 19th and 20th
centuries.
COURSE FORMAT:
Seminar
REGISTRATION INFORMATION
Level:
UGRD
Credit:
1
Gen Ed Area Dept:
HA GERM
Grading Mode:
Student Option
Prerequisites:
NONE
Links to Web Resources For This Course.
Last Updated on MAR-21-2005
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Copyright Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, 06459