MUS 402(S) Senior Seminar in Music: The Music of Bela Bartok
Béla Bartók's activities-as a composer, a comparative musicologist, a performer, a music editor, an essayist-place him at the center of many intersecting trends and issues prevalent in the early twentieth century (e.g. the rise of nationalism, consciousness of tonality's decline, anxiety about musical `progress' and the search for new means of musical organization). The course will consider Bartók's music in the light of his many activities, and as a lens through which we can explore both the music that shaped his development (music of Brahms, Strauss, Debussy, Ravel, Beethoven quartets, seventeenth-century Italian keyboard music) and the musical developments that he influenced (music of Messiaen, Lutoslawski, his influence on Jazz). We will employ a variety of means to gain insights into Bartók's work, including the exploration of Hungarian folk repertoire through transcription exercises, examination of manuscript drafts, consideration of Bartók's own writings about music, and so on.
Format: seminar. Evaluation based on papers, projects, presentations, and class participation.
Prerequisites: Music 202, 207, 208, 209 and permission of instructor. Enrollment limit: all senior music majors.
Hour: E. GOLLIN