MUSIC 282 - Populism versus Progress in 20th Century Music

Institution:

Bard College

Subject:

Description:

The 20th century opened with a startling emancipation of sonic phenomena that had been carefully prohibited for centuries. For the next several decades, each move toward abstraction, structural rigor, and complexity was countered by another move toward populism, accessibility, and musical vernacular. The paradox of the century was that musical progressivism and political progressivism did not go hand in hand, but were often opposed: for example, Americans with communist sympathies favored folk-tune-based symphonies for the masses, while Soviet composers had a similar ideology imposed from above. This course looks at the century's "classical?usic from a political viewpoint, focusing on arguments made by Schoenberg, Cage, Babbitt, Cardew, and many other composer protagonists.

Credits:

4.00

Credit Hours:

Prerequisites:

Corequisites:

Exclusions:

Level:

Instructional Type:

Lecture

Notes:

Additional Information:

Historical Version(s):

Institution Website:

www.bard.edu

Phone Number:

(845) 758-6822

Regional Accreditation:

Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools

Calendar System:

Semester

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