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GERM288
Music in the Culture of German-Speaking Europe
GERM288 SP
Crosslistings: GELT288, COL 292
Not Currently Offered
The course will focus on moments in the Western art music
(i.e., "classical music") of primarily Austria and Germany
over a period of 200 years (approximately Gluck to Berg) and
their relation to the cultural, social, and political
history of their times. This is a listening and a reading
course, but not a survey course in the strictest sense,
although we will explore in chronological fashion the
relationships between many types of music and composers. We
will try to answer these questions: Are Germans/Austrians
musical? What political, ideological, and social roles has
music played within these cultures? What are the causes of
the crisis of European art music in the 20th century? What,
if anything, does music communicate?
MAJOR READINGS
Selected listenings include (but are not
limited to) Gluck, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert,
the Schumanns, Brahms, Wagner, Strauss, Schoenberg,
and Berg.
Readings will include selections from the lyric poetry of
Goethe, stories of E.T.A. Hoffmann, Moerike, and Mann,
excerpts from Schopenhauer, reviews by Hanslick and
Hoffmann, libretti of von Hofmannsthal and others, and
theoretical writings of Wagner and Schoenberg.
EXAMINATIONS AND ASSIGNMENTS
Several short papers as well
as midterm and final exams.
ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS and/or COMMENTS
There are no
prerequisites, but it would be well if students had some
knowledge of European intellectual currents in the
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The ability to read
musical notation is not required, although some awareness of
the various kinds of Western art music since the time of
Mozart would be helpful.
Unless preregistered students attend the first class meeting
or communicate directly with the instructor prior to the
first class, they will be dropped from the class list.
NOTE: Students must still submit a completed Drop/Add form
to the Registrar's Office.
COURSE FORMAT: Discussion Lecture
REGISTRATION INFORMATION
Level: UG Credit: 1.00
Gen Ed Area & Dept: HA GERM
Prerequisites:
None
Last Updated on MAR-22-1999
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Copyright Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, 06459