CLASSICAL
MUSIC IN AN AGE OF POP
Eastman,
Spring 2008
Greg
Sandow
home phone: 212 974-6914
cell: 917 797-4265
email me
website (soon to be updated)
blog on the
future of classical music
in-progress online book on the future of
classical music
Class
Schedule and Assignments
Assignments may change! I’ll send
all changes to you by e-mail.
Introduction to this course
January 24
The
crisis in classical music
reading:
Greg
Sandow, Where We Stand: The
Classical Music World Today (unpublished)
Marcus
Westbury, “Mozart cover bands rake
in the moolah” (from the Sydney [Australia] Morning Herald, October 18,
2007)
Richard
Florida, excerpts
from The Rise of the Creative Class
John
Seabrook, excerpt from
Nobrow
assignment
— informal paper, one or two pages, due by e-mail, January 31:
How
would you bring classical music to the people John Seabrook and Richard Florida
describe? What kind of concert could you present, that would fit into their
world, and would interest them? These are hard questions, so don’t worry if
your answers don’t seem perfect. Just come up with some ideas that make sense
to you, and write them down, along with reasons why you think the ideas might
work.
Please
e-mail all written assignments to me, at greg@gregsandow.com.
If you can’t get them to me by the due date, you must let me know in advance.
January 31
Classical music before it was classical
reading:
James
H. Johnson, Listening in Paris, excerpt from chapter 1,
about Baroque opera in Paris
Some
anecdotes about
performances in past centuries
Excerpt from
a letter Mozart wrote to his father on July 3, 1778, about the premiere of
his Paris Symphony
Peter
Gay, excerpt from The Naked Heart: “The Art of Listening”
listening:
Mozart, Symphony No. 31, “Paris,” first movement (Academy of Ancient Music; Jaap Schroeder, concertmaster,
Christopher Hogwood, continuo.)
more
TBA
Pop music
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)”
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
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)
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”
Fixing the crisis: Presenting classical music to a new
audience (1)
reading:
three
posts from my blog:
"A Bad Caramoor Press
Release"
"How to Write
a Press Release"
three
introductions to familiar classical pieces, from the American Symphony
Orchestra League's now-defunct "Meet the Music" website:
Anne
Midgette, “The
Last Hallelujah” (about Handel’s Messiah)
Joshua
Kosman, "How
You Like Me Now?" (about Prokofiev's Violin Concerto No. 1)
Elena
Park, "The
Intimate Ninth" (about Beethoven's Ninth)
listening:
"The
Ring and I" (introduction to Wagner's Ring, produced and broadcast by WNYC, New York's public radio
station). CD on reserve at the library, or you can listen on WNYC's website.
February 28
Fixing the crisis: Presenting classical music to a new
audience (2)
Class
presentation (this week and next week, if necessary):
Pick a piece that you’ve performed, and that you
really love. Come to this class prepared to say why you love it. Imagine that
you’re not talking to musicians, or to people who already know classical music.
Instead, imagine that you’re talking to the new audience everybody wants to
attract. What would you say to get them interested in this music you love?
take-home exam, given out in class (I’ll also e-mail
it to you), due by e-mail March 6
March 6
Final
discussion
reading:
Alex
Ross, keynote
speech at the Chamber Music America national conference, January 2005