MUSC 112-001: Creativity and Electronic/Acoustic Music
Salisbury University: SPRING 2011 | T & Th 3:30pm – 5:00pm
Dr. Robert A. Baker
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ONLINE LECTURE: week of January 24th, 2011
Complete (read, listen to and make notes) before Tuesday, February 1st.
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Hello Everyone,
In my absence this week, I've prepared an online Introduction to the course for you to read, view and listen to.
Please pay special attention to the syllabus portion below - click and save the pdf link and be sure to read it thoroughly. Feel free to send me any questions you may have about the course or syllabus and I will respond as soon as possible.
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SYLLABUS
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Please read the following pdf file of the course syllabus, and save a copy to your computer or flash drive for your records.
SYLLABUS
Be sure to read the entire syllabus, as it contains all of the policies that will be in effect for this course including evaluation, brief descriptions of course work, and important dates.
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OVERVIEW
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This course investigates trends in the field of art-music in Western culture from the early 20th Century to the present. The main thrust of the course deals with questions pertaining to why Western art-music since ca. 1910 sounds the way it does. What ideas and concerns have shaped its developments and multiple stylistic features? What techniques have composers used to achieve their desired effects? How have technological advances affected the way we listen, think, live and compose? These are just some of the questions that we will consider in our classes together, and your creative work will be informed by their multitudinous possible answers.
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INTRODUCTION
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The first part of this course will illustrate, albeit very generally, the shift in art-music composition over the past several centuries, with a particular focus on music of the past ninety years.
In preparation for our readings and discussions, I will briefly discuss several examples from the visual art world to contextualize an array of musical examples that follow.
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SOME VISUAL ART EXAMPLES
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First, consider the following painting by Dutch master Rembrandt van Rijn, entitled The Night Watch (or The Shooting Company of Frans Banning Cocq) from 1642. We see two men in the centre of the canvas, the focus of the painting, surrounded by various others to complete the scene. Captain Frans Banning Cocq (mayor of Amsterdam, and the man in black in the painting) is leading his shooting company with his lieutenant, Willem van Ruytenburch, at his side.
Rembrandt van Rijn: The Night Watch (or The Shooting Company of Frans Banning Cocq ) (1642)
This work clearly depicts real and distinguished people in an elegant and (presumably) accurate scene. An observer today may not know the identity of the men in the painting, but we can likely agree that based on their attire and central focus of the work, they appear to be important members of society and among the upper class - important social aspects, all conveyed beyond much doubt without any written explanation or description.
In addition, the use of light in Rembrandt’s piece is a classic example of his artistic approach, in this case highlighting the central men, as well as the young girl to their right. We can notice the accurate sense of lush fabric and vibrant colour in the red and white sashes worn by the two central men. We notice the straps on the shorter gentleman’s boots, and the glimmer of light on the right tip of the other’s.
In light of these observations, we can say that this work is representational – that is we can probably all agree on the visual observations I have just made, without necessarily any knowledge of the subjects’ identities.
Considering the following artwork from just over two hundred years later, Claude Monet’s Impression, Sunrise painted in 1872, we notice some stunning differences.
Claude Monet: Impression, Sunrise (1872)
This is a classic example of the French Impressionist movement and the philosophy of suggesting images rather than attempting to capture their every detail. The Impressionists were interested in suggesting movement through new approaches to light and a painting technique that rendered images lacking in sharpness with a slightly out of focus quality. This style forces the observer to ‘correct’ what they are seeing and interpret what the painter is depicting. We can likely all agree that we see two (or more?) boats on the water with the sun’s reflection on the somewhat rolling water. Similar to the Rembrandt, this work clearly represents recognizable and tangible things in our physical world.
Now consider Spanish painter Pablo Picasso’s work from 1924.
Pablo Picasso: Three Musicians (1924)
Would it surprise you to know that the title is Three Musicians? Can you see them? (… really?) I have asked this question of many students and some responses I have had are: I see what appears to be a grey clarinet, maybe the body of a guitar in the middle. There are musical notes suggesting a musical score (the printed music that musician’s read). I see three pairs of eyes (or should we say circles or holes within the black blue and grey portions running across, near the top of the canvas). Continuing with these observations one can easily be persuaded that we also see legs (the white and the orange/yellow patterns across the bottom, and possibly also the single blue vertical rectangle to the bottom right). Whatever else one might ‘see’ in this painting, we must agree that our imagination is called upon here to not just ‘correct’ as in the case with the Monet above, but to also ‘construct’ the images’ implications in one’s mind. Although we might feel that the circles across the top of the painting ‘represent’ the eyes of the (alleged?) three musicians, they are certainly not like Rembrandt’s eyes. They suggest in a basic, even primitive, manner they might be eyes because of their relative position (two circles in horizontal alignment, fairly close together) and their context (being above other shapes that could suggest arms, hands and legs). Therefore, it is the overall context that supports one’s imagination and enables us to say we ‘see’ these physical things. Given these observations, we cannot consider this work, and others like it, to be representational in the traditional sense. The observer is called upon to do mental 'work’ in order to come to his/her own interpretation.
Lastly, consider the next painting by American Jackson Pollock Full Fathom Five, from 1947.
… what are you seeing?
Jackson Pollock: Full Fathom Five (1947)
Do you see recognizable and tangible things from our physical world? At first, no: there are no people, boats, sunsets or musical instruments. But after some consideration, one might answer: but I do see black lines that appear to have been dripped and swirled over (or amidst) white and turquoise areas, with red accents throughout. The canvas appears to have a sense of depth and movement in the lines that seem to convey the very energy, motion and action with which the painting itself was created. Colour, energy, motion, and action: these qualities are conceptual, abstract, intangible, yes; but they are an integral part of our existence in the physical world. What the observer must do when considering an artwork such as this, is to contemplate the basic, fundamental aspects that he or she is seeing, aspects like colour, shape, proximity, texture, position, etc. Without considering these basic things, we cannot tell a collection of swirling lines from a flower, or a pair of circles from eyes.
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MUSICAL EXAMPLES
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By this time you might have forgotten that this is a music course (I actually did while writing the last section!). But let’s now come to music.
In a similar way we can consider the following pieces of music. Listen to these examples and notice how the overall character or style changes dramatically over time. How would you describe these changes? (you don’t have to try to be complimentary – this course is not about liking or disliking a certain musical example, just be honest!) If these pieces of music were paintings, what would they look like? Can you hear any connections with the observations on the paintings discussed above? Try to imagine what sorts of things the composers might have been focussed on when they created their pieces, audible or not. What do you think they were they concerned with most: a melody? a beat or rhythm? a serene feeling? a turbulent feeling? beauty? ugliness? noise?
Giovanni Giacomo Gastoldi
Amor vittorioso (published 1591)Ludwig van Beethoven
Symphony #3, 'Eroica', 1st movement (excerpt) (1804)Arnold Schönberg
Mondestrunken from Pierrot Lunaire (1912)György Ligeti
Lontano (1967)Iannis Xenakis
Taurhiphanie (1987)Wolfgang Rihm
Nach Schrift eine Chiffre (1982/2004)
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CONCLUSION
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Throughout this course we will consider these questions and many more. We will discuss various aesthetic points of view and philosophies toward what music has been, is, can be, should be, (shouldn’t be?!), and might be in the future.
See you in class on Tuesday, February 1st, and I look forward to meeting and working with all of you.
Best,
Rob
[end of Online Lecture]