Transcript 303 lecture 1x

Questions for this course:
Questions for this course:
WHY?
Questions for this course:
WHY?
What is analysis looking for?
Internal coherence?
Economy of material (organic unity?)
Narrative structure?
Questions for this course:
WHY?
What is analysis looking for?
Internal coherence?
Economy of material (organic unity?)
Narrative structure?
How do we know which pieces are good to analyze?
Are there pieces that are impossible to analyze with these methods?
Does that make these pieces worse? Better?
Questions for this course:
WHY?
What is analysis looking for?
Internal coherence?
Economy of material (organic unity?)
Narrative structure?
How do we know which pieces are good to analyze?
Are there pieces that are impossible to analyze with these methods?
Does that make these pieces worse? Better?
What about style, technique, progress? It’s undeniable that the 20th/21st centuries
have seen a huge expansion in genres and styles of music competing for attention.
Does progress still exist in art? Did it ever?
Questions for this course:
WHY?
What is analysis looking for?
Internal coherence?
Economy of material (organic unity?)
Narrative structure?
How do we know which pieces are good to analyze?
Are there pieces that are impossible to analyze with these methods?
Does that make these pieces worse? Better?
What about style, technique, progress? It’s undeniable that the 20th/21st centuries
have seen a huge expansion in genres and styles of music competing for attention.
Does progress still exist in art? Did it ever?
What is the basic set of assumptions (i.e., beliefs) about value in classical music? Are these
things still valued/valuable in our culture today? Where are there points of conflict with
contemporary society? How do composers respond to these?
Schoenberg, Brahms the Progressive:
"Brahms…proved to be a progressive in a field
which had not been cultivated for
half a century.” [i.e., motivic development]
“The most important capacity of a composer is to cast a glance
into the most remote future of his themes or motives. He has to
be able to know beforehand the consequences which derive from
the problems existing in his material, and to organize everything
accordingly.”
Beethoven, String Quartet Op. 95
Johannes Brahms, O Tod, wie bitter bist du
from Vier ernste Gesänge, Op. 121, No. 3
German text
O Tod, wie bitter bist du, wenn an dich gedenket ein Mensch, der gute Tage und genug hat
und ohne Sorge lebet, und dem es wohl geht in allen Dingen und noch wohl essen mag!
O Tod, wie wohl tust du dem Dürftigen, der da swach und alt ist, der in allen Sorge steckt, und
nichts Bessers zu hoffen noch zu erwarten hat!
English translation
Oh death, how bitter is the remembrance of you to a person at peace with his possessions,
to a man undistracted and prospering in everything and still having strength to welcome a
luxury.
Oh death, your judgment is good to a person who is needy and lacking strength, who is in
extreme old age and is anxious about everything and who is disobedient and has lost hope.