Assignment Schedule for Humanities 2

Music and the Arts in the Twentieth Century (Spring 2001)

This document includes the complete course assignment schedule.
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Note: The dates that readings and music will be discussed are subject to revision, depending on the progress of the class. The numbers before some of the readings refer to their order in the xerox anthology.

Week 1. The Romantic Legacy

Jan. 17

 Introduction to the course.

Jan. 19

Reading due:

1. Longyear, Rey M. Nineteenth-Century Romanticism in Music. Second ed. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc. 1973. 1-8, 12-15.

 2. Zweig, Stefan. The World of Yesterday. New York: The Viking Press, 1943. 1-27.

 Listening to discuss:

Richard Wagner: Prelude from Tristan und Isolde (1857-59).

Art to discuss:
Romanticism

  

Week 2. Impressionism, Symbolism, and Proto-Modernism

Jan. 22

Reading due:

Shattuck, Roger. The Banquet Years. Revised edition. New York: Viking, 1968. 3-42.

 3. Mallarmé, Stéphane. "The Afternoon of a Faun," in Prelude to "The Afternoon of a Faun," ed. William W. Austin. New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 1970. 22-29.

 Listening to discuss:

Claude Debussy: Prélude a l'Apres Midi d'un Faune. [Prelude to "The Afternoon of a Faun"] (1894).

Art to discuss:
Impressionism,
Post-impressionism

  

Jan. 24

Reading due:

Shattuck, Roger. The Banquet Years. 45-112.		 Art to discuss:
Henri Rousseau

Listening essay #1 due

Jan. 26

Reading due:

Shattuck, Roger. The Banquet Years. 113-186.		 Listening to discuss:

Erik Satie: Excerpts from Sports et divertissements (1914).

Erik Satie: Excerpt from Parade (1917).

  

Week 3. The Banquet Years Continued

Jan. 29

Reading due:

Shattuck, Roger. The Banquet Years. 187-252.

Jan. 31

Reading due:

Shattuck, Roger. The Banquet Years. 253-324.

Feb. 2

Reading due:

Shattuck, Roger. The Banquet Years. 325-360.

Week 4. Early Modernism

Feb. 5

Reading due:

4. Stein, Gertrude. "Picasso." From Portraits and Prayers, collected in Selected Writings of Gertrude Stein. Ed. Carl van Vechten. New York: Vintage Books, 1962.		 Igor Stravinsky: Introduction and Dance of the Young Girls from Le Sacre du Printemps [The Rite of Spring]

Art to discuss:
Pablo Picasso

Paper 1 thesis due

Feb. 7

Reading due:

5. Giraud, Albert. "Pierrot Lunaire," trans. Andrew Porter, in From Pierrot to Marteau. Los Angeles: Arnold Schoenberg Institute, 1987. 28-29.

 6. Youens, Susan. "The Texts of Pierrot Lunaire: An Allegory of Art and the Mind," in From Pierrot to Marteau. Los Angeles: Arnold Schoenberg Institute, 1987. 30-32.

 Listening to discuss:

Arnold Schoenberg: "Parodie" and "Der Mondfleck" [The Moonspeck] from Pierrot Lunaire [Moonstruck Pierrot] op. 21 (1912).

Anton von Webern: Symphony, op. 21 (1928).

Art to discuss:
Expressionism

Paper 1 outline due

Feb. 9

Library tour

(meet at Honnold)

Week 5. Futurism

Feb 12

Paper 1 peer edit in class

Feb 14

Reading due:

7. Marinetti, F. T. "The Founding and Manifesto of Futurism," in Futurist Manifestos. Ed. Umbro Apollonio. Trans. R. W. Flint. New York: The Viking Press, 1909, 1973.

 Roselee Goldberg. Performance Art: From Futurism to the Present. Rev. ed. New York: Harry Abrams, 1988. Chapter 1.

 Listening to discuss:

Luigi Russolo: Risveglio di una Citta [The Awakening of a City] (1913)

Art to discuss:
Futurism

Paper 1 Due

Feb 16

Reading due:

Goldberg. Performance Art: From Futurism to the Present. Chapter 2.		  

Week 6. Dada and Surrealism

Feb 19

Reading due:

Goldberg. Performance Art: From Futurism to the Present. Chapter 3.		 Art to discuss:
Dada 		 

Feb 21

Reading due:

Goldberg. Performance Art: From Futurism to the Present. Chapter 4.		 Listening to discuss:

Excerpts from Les Six: Les Maries de la Tour Eiffel [The Eiffel Tower Marriage] (1920-21).

  

Feb 23

Library work day

(meet at Honnold)

Paper 2 thesis and bibliography due

Week 7. The Bauhaus

Feb. 26

 Listening essay #2 due

Feb. 28

Reading due:

Frank Whitford. Bauhaus. London: Thames and Hudson, 1984. 1-50.

 8. Lourie, Arthur. "Neogothic and Neoclassic," Modern Music V #3 (March/April 1928), 3-8.

 Listening to discuss:

Igor Stravinsky: Concerto in Eb "Dumbarton Oaks" (1938).

 Paper 2 outline due

Mar. 2

Reading due:

Whitford. Bauhaus. 51-101.		 Listening to discuss:

Kurt Weill: Excerpts from Die Dreigroschenoper [The Threepenny Opera] (1927).

Dmitri Shostakovich: Orchestral interlude between scenes four and five from Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District (1930-32).

Art to discuss:
Bauhaus art

 

Week 8. Neoclassicism, Nationalism

Mar. 5

Paper 2 peer edit in class

Mar. 7

Reading due:

Whitford. Bauhaus. 102-150.

Paper 2 due

Mar. 9

Reading due:

Whitford. Bauhaus. 151-201.		 Listening to discuss:

Aaron Copland: Excerpt from Appalachian Spring [chamber version] (1944).

 

Week 9: Spring Break

Week 10: Post-World War II Experimentalism

Mar. 19

Reading due:

9. Babbitt, Milton. "Who Cares If You Listen?" High Fidelity, VIII/2 (Feb. 1958), 38-40, 126-127. Reprinted in Elliott Schwartz and Barney Childs, ed. Contemporary Composers on Contemporary Music. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1967. 244-250		 Listening to discuss:

Pierre Boulez: Structures Ia (1952).

Milton Babbitt: Composition for Synthesizer (1960-61).

  

Mar. 21

Reading due:

Tomkins, Calvin. The Bride and The Bachelors: Five Masters of the Avant-Garde. Revised edition. New York: Penguin, 1968. 1-68.		 Art to discuss:
Marcel Duchamp 		 

Mar. 23

Reading due:

Tomkins. The Bride and The Bachelors. 69-144.

Cage, John. "Experimental Music" and "The Music Lover's Field Companion" from Silence. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1961. 7-12, 274-276.

 Listening to discuss:

John Cage: Excerpt from Indeterminacy(1950-59).

John Cage: 4'33" (1952).

 Paper 3 thesis and bibliography due

Week 11: The Bride and the Bachelors Continued

Mar. 26

Reading due:

Tomkins. The Bride and The Bachelors. 145-188.		 Art to discuss:
Jean Tinguely 		 

Mar. 28

Reading due:

Tomkins. The Bride and The Bachelors. 189-238.		 Art to discuss:
Abstract expressionism 		Paper 3 outline due

Mar. 30

Reading due:

Tomkins. The Bride and The Bachelors. 239-296.

Listening quiz 2

Week 12: The Avant Garde of the 1960s and 70s

Apr. 2

Reading due:

11. Burroughs, William. Nova Express. New York: The Grove Press, 1964. 142-144.

 12. Barth, John. "The Literature of Exhaustion," Atlantic. 1967. 29-34.

 13. Borges, Jorge Luis. "The Library of Babel," in Labyrinths. Trans. James E. Irby. New York: New Directions Publ. Co., 1964. 51-58.

 Listening to discuss:

George Crumb: Sections 6 and 7 from Black Angels (1970).

Paper 3 peer edit in class

Apr. 4

Paper 3 due

Apr. 6

Reading due:

Goldberg. Performance Art: From Futurism to the Present. Chapter 6		 Listening to discuss:
 John Lennon and Yoko Ono: Excerpt from Two Virgins (1969).

Art to discuss:
Pop art

 

Week 12: Minimalism

Apr. 9

Reading due:

14. Walsh, Michael. "The Heart is Back in the Game," Time (Sep. 20, 1982), 60-62.

 15. Hapgood, Fred. "Roden's eye." The Atlantic v. 260 (Aug. '87) 46-52.

 Listening to discuss:

Terry Riley: Excerpts from In C (1964).

Art to discuss:
Minimalism

 

Apr. 11

Reading due:

16. Reich, Steve. "Music as a Gradual Process" from Writings About Music. Halifax NS: The Press of the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, 1974. 9-11, 49-72.		 Listening to discuss:

Steve Reich: Movements 1 and 2 from Different Trains (1988).

Art to discuss:
Op Art

 

Apr. 13

 Paper 4 thesis due

Library work day

(meet at Honnold)

Week 14: Postmodernism

Apr. 16

Reading due:

17. Page, Tim. Insert notes to Einstein on the Beach. Elektra Nonesuch 79232-2, 1993. 8-18.		 Listening to discuss:

Philip Glass: Excerpts from Einstein on the Beach (1976).

Paper 4 Annotated bibliography due

Apr. 18

Reading due:

18. Adams, John. Interview with Jonathan Cott. Liner notes for Harmonielehre. 

19. Barth, John. "The Literature of Replenishment: Postmodernist Fiction," The Atlantic, Jan. 1980. 65-71.

 20. Calvino, Italo. "The Distance of the Moon," in CosmiComics. Trans. William Weaver. New York: Harcourt Brace, 1965, 1968.

 Listening to discuss:

John Adams: Excerpt from Movement 1 from Harmonielehre (1984-85).

Art to discuss:
David Hockney

 

Apr. 20

Reading due:

Goldberg. Performance Art: From Futurism to the Present. Chapter 7		 Listening to discuss:

Laurie Anderson: Excerpts from United States (1980).

Lou Harrison: Philemon and Baukis (1980).

 Paper 4 outline due

Week 15: Presentation Days

Apr. 23

 No class (presentation day).

Apr. 25

 No class (presentation day).

Apr. 27

 No class (work day).

Week 16: Conclusion

Apr. 30

Paper 4 peer edit in class

May 2

Paper 4 Due
Updated on January 10, 2001 (alves@hmc.edu).