Music and Modernism (MUSL 115W 01)

Something happened to art at the turn of the century and in the decades that followed, and the world has never been the same. The excitement in the air then was intense: all Europe (and eventually America) was breathless with the new directions and the wild risks artists were taking. Painters, poets, sculptors, architects, novelists, and composers were drastically changing the look, the sound, the very meaning of art. Combined with these avant-garde assaults on the art world were the new technologies of the new century: The telephone, automobile, and aeroplane made the world over into their own image, so that it was a place literally unimaginable to the nineteenth century.

The fascination, the violence, the sheer inventiveness of this first flush of Modernism reverberate even now, in everything we do; and everything we do inevitably rings "postmodern" and radiates from the blazing light of that cultural explosion of some eighty or ninety years ago. How can we best set out on a journey through the Modernist labryinth? How can we recapture the urgency and freshness of that time? According to the Modernists themselves, music is the answer. Almost every masterpiece of Modernist art either explicitly or implicitly makes reference to music. If it was the right point of departure for the soldiers of the avant-garde, then let it be ours, too. We will listen to many pieces and look at many paintings and read much poetry; not only the Modern works themselves, but their forebears, too. Then we will trace the legacy of Modernism down to our own time. Hop aboard MUSL 115. But you'd better watch out: Professor Rose has filled this train with Modernists, so it's moving mighty fast!

"He's so enthusiastic about the subject that one can't help but enjoy this class!"
--former student, on a course evaluation form

Credit?
Arts and Science--CPLE humanities, CPLE writing
Engineering--humanities
Peabody--humanities

Return to Music to Go or go to Music of the Middle Ages and Renaissance
Music of the Baroque and Classic Eras
Music of the Romantic and Modern Eras.