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Music in the Culture of German-Speaking Europe
GERM288 SP

Crosslistings: GELT288,COL292

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: Lecture/Discussion

REGISTRATION INFORMATION

Level: UGRD    Credit: 1    Gen Ed Area Dept: HA GERM    Grading Mode: Student Option   

Prerequisites: NONE

Last Updated on MAR-24-2000

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