Note to students: This is the syllabus for spring 2013, and will probably change a little bit for this spring 2014 semester. The textbook (see below) and the overall structure of the course will be the same, though.

Music since 1900

Music 314

MWF 11:00-11:50

Location: Music Building, Room 320

Prerequisites: Music 211, 212, 307 and 4 semesters of music theory (or equivalent) -- or graduate status

Taught by: Judith Kuhn

Office: Room 109, Music Building

Phone: 414-335-6722 (please use with discretion)

E-mail (more efficient):

Office hours: 12:30-1:30 MWF, and by appointment (feel free to make appointments!)

Required Text: Alex Ross, The Rest is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century (2007) (either clothbound or paperback version is okay)

Just a note on textbooks: there really is no good textbook on twentieth-century music. Research in the area of twentieth-century music has exploded in recent years, and so any textbook written now is out of date almost by the time it’s published. I’ve chosen to use Alex Ross’s The Rest is Noise which, although it isn’t a textbook, is fun and provocative, with a good grasp of historical and political issues. I think you’ll enjoy it. Ross is the music critic for the New Yorker, and he’s a fine writer who’s not afraid of controversy. He is an impeccable researcher, and this is the best writing I know of about twentieth-century music.

One of the really fun things about Alex’s book is that you can listen to almost all of the little snippets of music he talks about. He has an audio website (also linked on our D2L page) at http://www.therestisnoise.com/2007/01/book-audiofiles.html .

Course goals

We will examine topics in art music of the twentieth century, in the context of the cultural and historical forces that shaped it. It is not a survey of twentieth-century music. The Department offers two courses (Music 307, Music 704) that survey twentieth-century music, so we will not duplicate them here. Instead, we will use the course to look at some current controversies and areas of emerging research, and to look at some works or composers in greater depth than would be possible in a survey course. If you successfully complete the course, you will be able to:

· Identify about fifty works of twentieth-century music, and place them in historical and chronological context;

· Outline important twentieth-century historical events and describe how they may have shaped stylistic developments in music

· Read, summarize and discuss emerging scholarship and other current writings about twentieth–century music;

· Discuss examples of music that have been affected by issues of gender, sexuality, race, or political or nationalistic ideology;

· Plan, research and write a paper of about ten pages on a twentieth–century musicological topic, incorporating thorough research in relevant databases, demonstrating a critical evaluation of the sources you use and good grammatical usage;

· Correctly refer to sources in your text, footnotes and bibliography according to conventions outlined in “humanities” (footnotes and bibliography) format from The Chicago Manual of Style, and

· Graduate students will also have demonstrated their ability to read and discuss challenging and controversial scholarly sources.

As we will see this semester, the twentieth century, particularly its first half, was a time of war, devastation and disillusionment. The music engages with that history and the questions it raises. Twentieth-century music – and the vehement discussions that surrounded it – bring us face-to-face with some of the most basic philosophical and aesthetic questions about music and human existence. During the semester, I hope that you will allow yourself to examine (and re-examine!) some of your own ideas about some of these questions.

· Must music be beautiful? Or is beauty (or consonance, or resolution, or balance) somehow a “papering over” of social realities, a kind of lie that benefits those in power?

· Should music instead be “honest” and “challenging” – reflecting the “truth” about the ruptures and contradictions in the world around us?

· To what extent should music be accessible to popular taste and understanding? Is music somehow “corrupted” if it is popular and accessible? If it is market-driven? Is it somehow more vulnerable to political appropriation if it is accessible?

· Should music be optimistic and uplifting? Or is “truth” more important? Is optimism a dishonesty that only serves those in power?

· Should music be abstract (“autonomous”)? To what extent should music communicate non-musical imagery and narratives?

· Should music be emotionally expressive? Or emotionally disengaged?

· How important is innovation? How does music interact with convention and cultural training? Can music ever be understood except through the conventions of the culture it lives in?

· To what extent should music reflect upon social and political issues? Can music ever separate itself from these issues?

· How much do political ideology, cultural training and other preconceptions shape our perception of music?

· To what extent have issues of racial, sexual and national identity shaped our musical values?

We’ll also look at several composers in some depth: Stravinsky, Shostakovich, Webern and Britten.

Reading and listening assignments

Online links for listening selections have been prepared for you by the music library staff (bless them!), and are posted on Panthercat e-reserve. On the Libraries Home Page or the Music History Library page, click on “course reserve”, and this will take you to the E-reserve page. Here, you should find my name under the “Instructor” list, and click on it. This will take you to the e-reserve sites for Music 314. If they aren’t yet posted, they will be in a day or two.

· Scores are also available on e-reserve. You should be able to open the score online and follow it while you are listening to the musical excerpt.

· Assigned readings not included in Ross are also on e-reserve.

· For more help on E–reserve access from campus computers, see http://www.uwm.edu/Libraries/guides/cclereshandout.pdf

· For help on access from off-campus computers, see http://www.uwm.edu/Libraries/guides/offcamp.pdf

· For any technical problems about the course, call the UWM help desk: 229-4040, or fill in a tech request form at https://www4.uwm.edu/technology/help/campus/gettechhelp.cfm.

Term paper project

Your term paper for this class will be a ten-page paper (approximately 2500 words, including footnotes) that investigates a musicological question critically and thoroughly, surveying the academic work that has already been done on the topic. Over the first few weeks of the class, you will select a general area of research and gradually focus your research on a specific question within that general area.

Plan ahead for these important deadlines for your final project:

Proposed paper topic due (heads up!!) February 6!!

List of sources (bibliography) due March 6

Term paper due April 15

Attach a list of sources (bibliography) to your paper, using proper bibliographic conventions as outlined in the Chicago Manual of Style “humanities” style of citation (footnotes and a bibliography). Your bibliography is not included in your word count. Your papers must show the source for every fact or idea that is not common knowledge, using footnotes that follow the conventions for footnotes from the Chicago Manual of Style Online (now available in full text through the Library’s “Resources A-Z” link). For most common citation questions, it is easy to check the Chicago Manual’s “Quick Guide” online at:

http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html and click on “notes and bibliography (or just search online for “Chicago Manual of Style”)

The musicology area has also provided a booklet, Guidelines for Writing Papers in Music History and Literature Classes, which provides many other tips on academic writing, and a very handy and clear guide to citing Grove Music sources. A copy is on the class website under “Help for Writing Your Papers.”

Plagiarism alert! Failure to give credit for someone else’s research or thinking is plagiarism. When in doubt, footnote! University policy defines plagiarism to include:

· Directly quoting the words of others without using quotation marks or indented format to identify them; or

· Using sources of information (published or unpublished) without identifying them; or,

· Paraphrasing materials or ideas of others without identifying the sources of that material.

Plagiarism is academic misconduct, will result in an automatic F on your paper, and may result in further action against you that could affect your professional career in the long run. No paper at all is better than a plagiarized paper.

HELP is at hand!

You are responsible for correct grammar and usage in your submissions for this class. If you are at all unsure of your writing or just want to polish your style, make use of UWM’s Writing Center (http://www.uwm.edu/Dept/English/wcenter/ ), a terrific, free and friendly resource that will help you build confidence in your writing at any level. The Writing Center opens on February 4. Take advantage of the writing assignments in this class (including exam essay questions) to improve your writing – it is a life skill that will serve you well, whatever career path you take. Create a draft or partial draft of your assignment, and make an appointment online to meet with one of the Center’s staff members. If you wait until later in the term, you’ll have more difficulty seeing someone, as the Center is very busy during the last few weeks of the term.

You will find it helpful to read (if you haven’t done so recently) William Strunk and E.B. White, Elements of Style, 4th edition, a pithy little book that has become the classic text on grammar and style. Chapter II (“Elementary Principles of Composition”) outlines the style I ask you to use in this class, and will help you to anticipate many common problems typically encountered by upper-level music students. For example, one very handy section (“Omit needless words”) includes a list of verbose phrases that should be edited out of every good essay. Please pay special attention to this chapter, which is included on the class website.

Please feel free to chat with me at any time if you would like help on your term paper (or anything else with the class!). I am determined to challenge you, but I also want to provide all the help I can, so please feel free to come and talk to me.

Year of the Arts events for this semester

This semester, as part of UWM’s Year of the Arts, we are privileged to have two special Year of the Arts events for this class.

• On February 7, in conjunction with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra’s all-Russian concerts the following weekend, Laurel Fay, the award-winning biographer of Dmitry Shostakovich, will speak on “Shostakovich and the Subversion of Soviet Music” in the library, Room E-281. Keep an eye out for special ticket offers for UWM students for the weekend’s MSO concerts.

• On March 7, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s Beyond the Score program will come to Milwaukee for a presentation at the Marcus Center in a partnership between the Peck School of the Arts and the Milwaukee Symphony. Complimentary tickets to this evening event will be available for all UWM faculty and students in early February. Gerard McBurney, the creator of Beyond the Score, will speak about it at convo on March 8. I’ll tell you more as we get closer to the event, but you can check it out at Beyondthescore.org.

Attendance and participation

Attendance in music history and literature courses is mandatory. Absences are excused by the instructor on an individual basis. Attendance is worth 10% of the final grade and is graded on a pro-rata basis. Excused absences are granted for illness, family emergency or personal exigencies. You are responsible for all assignments and material, whether or not you are present for the class. I expect to see you in class unless I excuse you.

Special note for this semester: There is a possibility that our class may be significantly disrupted by the flu. Please exercise vigilance in your personal health care, and keep me advised as to the cause of your absence. If you feel ill, please stay home, especially at the beginning of the disease, to avoid infecting others. If you must miss significant class time because of flu illness, I will make every reasonable effort to find ways to help you keep current in the course. If the format or content of the course needs to be changed because of significant absences, you will be notified by means of a syllabus change or a message on the class website.

Absences for performances, concerts or requirements for other courses: You should not generally be required by other teachers to miss class in Music 710; it puts you in a difficult spot (between two instructors) and disrupts our class. We have a specific faculty procedure when other instructors want you to miss class (to attend recitals, perform in concerts, etc.). It is designed to prevent this put-the-student-in-the-middle problem:

Any time a faculty member, ensemble or program wishes to request consideration for a student excuse to attend or participate in an event that potentially interferes with scheduled course attendance, that request must be submitted to the Chair (preferably electronically) at least one (1) month before the event request. The request must be completed with the day(s), time(s) and event(s) information, along with a complete list of student names associated with the request. This request will then be circulated to the entire faculty body for notice. Requests of less than a month will be subject to denial without submission of extenuating circumstances.

Let me know of any possible conflicting demands, and I will work it out with the other instructor. It should not be your problem.

Late policy

Late assignments will be penalized 1 percentage point for each day they are late. Assignments will not be accepted more than two weeks after the due date (the drop-box will be closed). Take-home essays for examinations and quizzes must be submitted in hard copy with the examination on the day of the exam.

Exams and quizzes

Final Examination: 10:00-12:00 Noon, Monday, May 13 in Room 320. There will also be a mid-term exam (March 13), as well as two scheduled quizzes (February 13 and April 22). Each will have listening and may have score identification or short-answer components. The mid-term and final exams will also have essays, and the final exam will include a time-line chronology exercise. Graduate students are assigned additional challenging readings during the semester, and will be asked to incorporate these readings in their take-home essays for the mid-term and the final.