Musical Nationalisms (MUSC 106) tackles all these questions, and more, in its investigation of those composers of the past two centuries who have defined themselves by their ethnic roots. We'll begin with our own country and linger awhile, investigating first how a generation of American composers went about creating a "sound" for our nation's music that sticks with us today. We'll look into the many ways authentic folk sources have inspired concert music around the world and consider what is lost and what is gained in the process. We'll explore the boundaries between politics and art and uncover a historical situation that exalted such musicians as Dvorák and Sibelius into powerful ambassadors for their respective countries.
Here is an opportunity to learn about a diverse repertoire rarely studied in the classroom, even though it remains immensely popular in the concert hall. As always, Dr. Rose will have you singing and clapping your hands until the music gets into your blood and, in the case of MUSC 106, it was indeed blood--Czech, Finnish, German, British, Italian, Spanish, you name it--which from the start held the imagination of the composer! In our own time, it seems that only bloodshed follows in the wake of such determined ethnic consciousness. Let's see what musical fruits this mode of thinking has yielded in the past--and ask what good and what ill has come of them.
Credit?
Arts and Science--elective
Engineering--humanities
Peabody--humanities