Time Schedule:
Jonathan W Bernard
MUSIC 575
Seattle Campus
Development and discussion of current student and faculty research in compositional/analytical theory and metatheory.
Class description
This offering of the Seminar in Theory will focus on the movement known as minimalism, beginning with its immediate pre-history (late 1950s/early 1960s); continuing with its "strict" phase (mid-1960s until about 1975) at the hands of its four founding fathers La Monte Young, Terry Riley, Steve Reich, and Philip Glass; and concluding with the "post-minimalism" that has lasted, by some accounts, right up to the present. Some questions that we will consider, and try to answer, are listed below under "learning goals."
Student learning goals
What is musical minimalism, anyway?
How did it get started?
To what extent is minimalism an aesthetic? A style? A technique?
What approaches to the analysis of minimal music are possible/fruitful?
What is the difference between minimal and post-minimal music?
What impact has minimalism had outside so-called "serious" or "art" music?
General method of instruction
Seminar format
Recommended preparation
Suggested: Music 471 or 472, or the equivalent. There is no fixed prerequisite for this course, although some background in the analysis of 20th-century music and/or a listener's familiarity with the repertoire under study would be useful. Anyone in doubt as to whether s/he is ready for this course is encouraged to consult with the instructor.
Class assignments and grading
lots of listening; readings selected from the writings of the composers as well as from the burgeoning scholarly literature on their work; musical analysis
one in-class presentation; final paper; class participation
