Special Topics:
Composers
John Cage, Ruth Crawford
Seeger: Two Perspectives in 20th Century American Music
5/22/05
Larry Polansky
Dept. of Music
Daily class notes, and
preliminary Schedule (always being revised)
Week 1(RCS)
Wednesday,
3/29: Introduction to the class
Friday,
4/1:
Go thru syllabus, and explain required work. Modes
of explanation in the class. How much music theory, how much music knowledge,
how to relate to wide range of different background. Goal: when necessary, be
able to explain the most complex musical ideas in ways that any intelligent
person can understand.
A few more words on the Crawford Sonata, and the Cage Nocturne. Class ideas?
Sing "When, Not If" (political round).
Sandburg (listen to his performance of "A Horse
Named Bill").
RCS in the 20s, and early life. Rudhyar (listen to a
bit of his music).
Talk
about updating schedule, change of test structure
Play
Peggy Seeger's "Ballad of Jimmey Massey". Talk about narrative and
dramatic modes in folk song, how that relates to RCS. Interesting example of
hearing these ideas passed on to her children (talk a little bit about Peggy
Seeger's work).
Play
recording of "when, not if"
A few words on
Scriabin, and in general, the end of harmonic practice around the time of her
first music, the birth of modernism (in RCS). Henry Cowell's early connection
to RCS.
The American Songbag.
Folk song collection. American vs. European models (show Folk Music of
the Southern Appalachians, talk a little about
Sharp). Talk about Sandburg's role in early folk song collecting, as well as
the role of arranging vs. transcribing.
The song "Lonesome Road," and RCS'
harmonic ideas. The American Songbag. Listen to some performances of those songs. "Gambler's
Blues", "Lonsesome Road", "10,000 MilesÉ"
Hazel Feld (possible presentation topic).?
"El-A-Noy" "I Don't Want No Railroad Man", some others.
RCS art pieces: Kaleidoscopic Variations, Tom Thumb (listen to each on your own, Tom Thumb possible presentation topic).
Look at Nocturne. More on
classical naming of pieces. Take a look at LOC list.
Wednesday,
4/6 No class.
Talk about concert, final
More American songbag (Martin playing and singing)
First student presentations. Brent Reidy on the Preludes
Class readings and listenings: By this time, listen
to Preludes, Violin Sonata, Tom Thumb, Kaleidoscopic Variations.
Have read Tick, Part 1 and 2, and at least some of the introduction to Strauss.
NYC, art music, Guggenheim trip to Europe. Work with Charles Seeger. American modernism
(relation to Schoenberg, Stravinsky). Dissonant counterpoint, heterophony, very new ideas (st. qtt., piano study). Diaphonic
Suites. Piano Study in Mixed
Accents.
Play an excerpt from Dan Zanes CD (from American
Songbag)
Play Ruggles Portals, Ives 3 PlacesÉ, talk about Ives a bit. Talk about their connections to RCS.
String Quartet (3rd movement),
Piano Study In Mixed Accents, Diaphonic
Suite #1.
Choice (fl/oboe, dynamics in Piano StudyÉ), compositional structures, pitch language, use of
other parameters formally (dynamics), palindromic forms, other aspects of her
musical language. Works prior to return to America. How does dissonant
counterpoint find its way into all of the parameters of the music (offset
rhythms/pitches, contrary trajectoriesÉ).
String Quartet (4th Movement), 2 Ricercari. Discussion of her work from 1930-33, student
ideas, some thoughts about her place in the history of this period. Talk about
composers' collective, period of inactivity, marriage to Seeger. Transitional
phase.
Class readings and listenings: By this time, listen to String Quartet, Piano Study in Mixed Accents, 2 Ricercari, 3 Sandburg Songs, Diaphonic Suites, Chants. Read Tick Parts III and IV, read the bulk of the first part of Strauss, plus his analyses of the two Sandburg songs, and the 3rd movement of the str. qtt..
Monday, 4/18:
Upcoming schedule. Talk about concert, and meetings.
Sing some songs for Wednesday?
The Music of American Folk Song.The project itself. Our Singing Country. Precedents. Herzog. Bartok, some Americans.
Composition book she never wrote. Lomaxes. Heterophony. Lack of drama. Great
frustration with trying to get this published. Center point of her folk music
activities (scholarly).
Songs: "Pretty Polly," "Pay Day at
Coal Creek," the work of Iron Head, Track Horse, Clear Rock, others
("Hannah"). Prothero's "Pauline". Fiddle tunes
("BonyparteÉ", "CallahanÉ", "Glory in the Meetin'
House"). Bahaman tunes ("When the Whale Get Strike", "Dig
My Grave")
Other folk song
work, 22 Folk Songs ("Sweet Betsy from Pike", the three books of
childrens' songs. Listen to contemporary recordings.
Student presenation: Art, Rissolty, Rossolty
Friday, 4/22 (no class, or guest, or will sub. X-hour). No
student presentations this week (can be done later, one suggestion, ).
Class readings and listenings: Rissolty, Rossolty. Woodwind Quintet. American Animal Songs for Children (Seeger family). By this time read TMAFS; RCS' intro. To American Folk Songs for
Children, Tick Parts V and VI
Week 5 (Cage)
Tuesday, 4/26, x-hour, James Tenney, guest. Beginning John Cage. Sonatas
and Interludes, "square root
method" pieces.
Wednesday, 4/2,
Tenney, Wolff, Brent, play Cage. (Vaughan recital). Tenney: Dream, Amores.
Wolff/Dong, 4-19, Wolff, ASALP
Friday,
4/29 Guest, Charles Dodge, talking
about Cage.
Week 6 (Cage)(1930s)
Discuss Charles Dodge's visit. An introduction to
Cage's early period (prior to about 1940) (Brent).
General
introduction to Cage's early period, prior to the 1940s, studies with
Schoenberg and Cowell; early percussion music; exploration of serial
procedures.
Concert: Jenny Lin, concert of RCS works (Preludes, Piano StudyÉ) plus RCS early work, plus Scriabin, plus Tenney. (Post concert lunch
with Jenny).
Friday,
5/6 Brent continued (30s). A reconsideration of RCS,
discussion. What did the end of her life "mean", what has it meant
for other people. Let's Build a Railroad. Some examples of arrangements
inspired by her ("Diney-oh", "My Old HenÉ")
Readings
this week: Pritchett sections 1-2. Silence pp. 1-76.
Listenings: See website
Monday,
5/9 (Brent) Music from the 1940s (dance
music, towards electronic music, prepared piano); the "square root"
method and move towards chance procedures. (Brent gives lecture as part of his
senior honors project on Cage).
Wednesday,
5/11. First Construction,
Imaginary Landscape #1, Double Music. Other
contemporary work, related: Varese (Ionisation), the work of Lou Harrison (listen to the Koro Sutro?), Party Pieces, Johanna Beyer (IV).
Readings
this week: Pritchett section 3. Silence pp. 76-194
Listenings: See website
Week 8 (Cage) (50s)
Monday,
5/16 (Brent). Electronic music, chance, indeterminacy,
theatre music. Brent talking about Music of Changes, New York School, Concerto for Prepared Piano
and Orchestra
Wednesday,
5/18. Special guest on how to use the I Ching. String
Quartet (backtrack), Why that piece
culminates the gamut technique, and the period prior to the Music of Changes. Quodlibet?
Readings
this week: Pritchett section 4-5, Silence, pp. 194-end
Listenings:
see website
Week 9 (Cage) (60s and beyond)
Monday, 5/23 1960 -. Starting with culmination
in Concert.. (show piano score), advent of transparency notation (Fontana Mix, Music Walk, VariationsÉ, Cartridge Music, many other pieces). Cage and notoreity, what that
meant to his work (travelling, "happenings", writings). Publication
of Silence, recording of Indeterminacy. Remarkable fact that by this time in the class, we
know more about Cage's music than most people did in the 1960s, even though he
was quite famous (but mainly by a kind of oversimplified reputation).
0'00
(4'33 (2)), and its implications
for his work (along with pieces like Rozart Mix). Pieces which are really meta-pieces, no
conventional music, composition, whatsoever. Simultaneity (HCE, and maybe a
relationship to RCS heterophony). Something about turning 50 and taking a
remarkably new approach (first, in 1960) for a period of about 10 years (until Cheap
Imitation). Cage as organizer,
personality. Culmination in HPSCHD.
Return
to conventional music with Cheap Imitation, and return with a vengeance with the studies (Etudes Australes, Freeman Etudes, Etudes Boreales). Pritchett's idea that on turning 60, Cage simply
"included" everything, felt no need for the kind of teleology in his
music that he had before. Ryoanji.
Freeman
Etudes and Etudes Australes. Elucidations of possibilities. Kind of extreme
notation that we saw in Music of Changes, but now, with a new generation of willing performers. Songbooks as combination of this idea with the compositional
technique (technique) of ConcertÉ.. The idea of virtuosity as hope (which is really no different than his
previous pieces). Cage as craftsperson.
Writing
and graphics: Mesostics. I-VI. Empty
Words. Roratorio. Writing "through" a text (see Circus
on), Europeras.
Readings
this week: Pritchett sections 6, Cage "Composition in Retrospect".
Listenings: See website
Week 10 (Cage)
Wednesday,
6/1: Class concert. Class prep.