MUS 137 Great Conductors/Great Orchestras (Not offered 1999-2000)
An examination of the rise of the conductor in the nineteenth century and the growth of the orchestra in the late-nineteenth and twentieth centuries with special attention to the role of the maestro in building the musical organization and repertoire in Europe and in North America. Special attention will be given to figures for whom we have major legacies of recorded and visual materials: Bernstein, Toscanini, Koussevitzky, Stokowski, Karajan, Solti, Szell, etc.; together with their respective musical organizations and the rise and influence of the recording industry in the twentieth century. Music covered will include both opera and the traditional symphonic repertoire of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The role of the orchestra as the center of North-American musical life will be examined historically together with the changed status due to a change of patronage now. Students will be encouraged to work on a project of a particular orchestra and related conductors to produce a research project reported both orally and in written form at semester's end. No prerequisites. Students from the disciplines of the social sciences particularly welcome.