CLASSICAL
MUSIC IN AN AGE OF POP
Greg
Sandow
Spring
2009
email me
my website (soon to be updated)
blog on the future of classical music
in-progress online draft of my book, on
the future of classical music
Class
Schedule and Assignments
This schedule might change, depending on how long some of our
discussions take. I’ll email all updates.
Note that not all assignments are linked yet. These links are coming.
Introduction
to this course
January 21
The crisis in classical music
reading:
Greg Sandow, Where We
Stand: The Classical Music World Today
Marcus Westbury, “Mozart cover bands rake
in the moolah” (from the Sydney [Australia]
Morning Herald, October 18, 2007)
written assignment for next week, due Tuesday, January 27:
Write a one short paragraph for me, about the subject of next week’s
class – why classical music matters, and why you think it should survive. Or
maybe you think it shouldn’t! Or doesn’t have to. Write
whatever you think. I’ll use your comments to kick off next week’s discussion.
Please email this—and all other written assignments—to me at greg@gregsandow.com. If you’re going to be late with an assignment—not recommended—absolutely let me know in advance.
January 28
What
is classical music? Why should it survive?
reading:
some definitions of classical music, and comments about it, from various sources
Kyle MacMillan, “Violinist Zukerman
decries sad state of classical music,” Denver
Post, November 15, 3007
written assignment, due February 3 (before next week’s class):
Informal short paper, one or two pages. In this paper, I’d like you to answer four questions:
· What does classical music mean to you personally? Why do you love it? Or (in case you have a more nuanced view) why do you hate it, or feel ambivalent toward it?
· What does classical music tell you about the world you live in?
· How does it relate to your life outside classical music?
· What are you communicating to other people in your performances?
Email this to me, as usual. And of course all of this ties into the subject of our next class. Again, I’ll use your comments to start the discussion.
Dana Gioia, “The Transformative Power of Art,” commencement address at Stanford University, 2007
“Not connecting” (a post from my blog, with comments from readers)
“Not
connecting (toward a second draft)” (followup to
the “Not connecting” post, incorporating readers’ ideas)
written assignment for next week: one or two paragraphs, or simply a short list of ideas. Due February 10, before next week’s class:
typical programming for “Evening Music,” the nightly classical broadcast on WNYC, New York’s public radio station
(As you’ll see, this is very radical programming, designed for a young New York audience. It seems to be working.)
listening:
Wilhelm Backhaus, a great pianist from the last century, improvises preludes to pieces on his recital programs:
Chopin, Nocturne, Op. 27, No. 2 in D flat (live performance, Lugano, 1953)
Schumann, “Das Abend” (This was recorded at Backhaus’s last recital, which he played in 1969 in Carinthia, Austria. First there’s an announcement from the stage, saying in German that Backhaus isn’t well, and won’t play the scheduled work, Beethoven’s Op. 111 sonata. Instead, he’ll play a short Schumann piece, which we then hear, starting with an improvised prologue.)
reading:
listening/video:
Some performances from the past, all showing a kind of freedom and/or ease that musicians once seemed to have, and which (for better or worse) we’re not likely to encounter today. (You might not like some of these.)
Mendelssohn, Violin Concerto, second movement (Joseph Szigeti, violin, with the London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Sir Thomas Beecham, recorded in 1933)
Mahler, Adagietto from the Fifth Symphony; Willem Mengelberg conducting the Concertgebuow Orchestra (1926)
Schubert, “Serenade” sung in English by Richard Crooks (1941)
YouTube video: “Toreador Song” from Carmen, sung in Italian by Gino Bechi, from the 1948 film Follie per l’opera (“Mad About Opera”)
March 4, March 11: spring break
Something to think about for this class. A well-known classical music critic once said to me, years ago, that pop musicians “take no care with what they do.” Do you think this is true? And if it’s not true, why would this well-known critic believe it?
Peter Guralnick, Sweet Soul Music, excerpt (about an Aretha Franklin recording session)
listen to Aretha Franklin, “I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You)”
Clive Thompson, “Sex, Drugs, and Updating Your Blog,” from the New York Times Magazine, May 13, 2007 (about how to promote a pop career all by yourself, on the Web)
Greil
Marcus, excerpt
from his entry on the Beatles, from The
Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock & Roll
Lester Bangs, “Astral Weeks”
(an example of rock criticism, from Greil Marcus,
ed., Stranded: Rock and Roll for a Desert
Island)
listen to Van Morrison’s “Madame George”
read the lyrics
Robert Walser, Running with the Devil: Power, Gender, and Madness in Heavy Metal Music, excerpt (an example of musicological writing about pop music)
listen to Van Halen’s “Runnin’ with the Devil”
reading:
“Two Ways of Thinking” (post from my blog)
Karin Brookes, “Rally the Troops: Music Education Advocates Mobilize to Ensure that No Arts Are Left Behind,” Symphony magazine, July-August 2005
Holland Cotter, “Museums Look Inward for Their Own Bailouts” New York Times, January 11, 2009
three posts from my blog, about performances that reached a young audience:
“How to Attract a Young Audience”
Clive Thompson, “Sex, Drugs, and Updating Your Blog,” from the New York Times Magazine, May 13, 2007 (you might want to read or skim this again, since it’s obviously relevant to the discussion we’re going to have in class)
new kinds of classical performance and composing:
Mozart, Violin Concerto No. 3 in G
major, K. 216 , third movement, Gilles Apap,
violin and conductor, with the Sinfonia Varsovia (1999)
Guillaume de Machaut, Messe de Notre Dame, Gloria; Ensemble Organum (1996)
Schubert, “An die Musik,” Josephine
Foster, folksinger and producer (2006)
Michael Gordon, “Light is Calling,” from his album Light is Calling (one of the Bang on a Can composers creates music in a recording studio, as pop musicians do) (2006)
Meredith Monk, Volcano Songs, excerpt
Glenn Kotche, Clapping Music Variations (Kotche is the drummer in Wilco, and also a free jazz improviser and a classical composer. This is his adaptation of Steve Reich’s classic minimalist piece, Clapping Music.)
optional:
Jonny Greenwood, Popcorn Superhet Receiver, live performance at the Wordless Music orchestra concert, January 16, 2008, as broadcast on WNYC. Go here to WNYC’s website, scroll down till you find this piece, and click to listen. (Greenwood is the lead guitarist of Radiohead, and also a composer. He was composer in residence with the BBC in London. They commissioned and premiered this piece. The Wordless Music performance was the American premiere. Greenwood wrote the music for There Will Be Blood, and included parts of this piece.)
Be as personal as you like. In fact, the point is to talk about your own thoughts and feelings, about the very personal, individual, even unique reasons why you love the piece you’re talking about. There’s no need to talk about the history of the piece, or its structure, unless these are things that truly excite you. Speak from your heart, in your own way.