TWENTIETH-CENTURY HARMONY 117

Jdesjard

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• Publié par: yrokaleb
• Nombre de lectures: 71
• Langue: Français

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TWENTIETH-CENTURY HARMONY 117

Spring 2010

Professor Jacques Desjardins

Office: Room 419

Voicemail: 503-6200 extension 6555

Email: [e-mail]

Time and place: Tuesday and Thursday from 2:30 to 3:50 pm, room 501

Office hours: Monday and Wednesday, from 12:00 to 1:00 (except when faculty meeting)

Friday from 11:00 to noon

Objective:

Become familiar with the harmonic language of the twentieth and twenty-

first centuries. The goal of this course is to give a sense of the musical

practice that guided composers through much of the late Romantic era to the

present time. The gradual dissolution of the tonal system led to the atonality

of the early twentieth century. Many harmonic practices emerged at the

time, such that no obvious musical parentage may be observed between

composers of different countries. The exposure to such a variety of practices

should give the student a solid preparation toward the analysis and the

writing of any musical style of the twentieth century. At the end of the

semester, it is hoped that the student will be able to write a short

composition that will explore a majority of the techniques learned in class.

Content:

This course will survey the harmonic practice, as observed in works selected

from the late Romantic era up to the beginning of the twenty-first century.

The modal practice of Debussy, Ravel and Bartók, will coexist with the

expressionist tonality and atonality of Schönberg, Berg, and Webern.

Synthetic scales, as found in the works of Scriabin, Stravinsky, and

Messiaen will be surveyed together with polytonal examples from Satie and

Milhaud. A brief study of the unique language of Russian composers such

as Prokofieff, Rachmaninoff, and Shostakovitch is essential to understand

the music of the twentieth century. American composers are prominently

represented with the original diatonicism of Copland, Bernstein, and Crumb,

as well as the minimalistic harmonies of Reich and Adams. Quartal chords

will be discovered in some samples of works by Schönberg and Ives.

Textural harmony and aleatorism are featured in examples from Ligeti,

Xenakis, and Lutoslawski. More recent trends will be addressed such as

spectralism (Grisey, Murail) and microtonality (Wyschnegradsky, Mather,

and yours truly). Course work includes weekly written assignments,

analyses, and two creative projects. Class participation will also be taken

into consideration.