Preparation for My Winter Thursday Course
John Gibbons
The idea for the class, “Music in Cultural History: Aesthetics and Idealogy” to be offered Thursday mornings, was originally a plan to examine composers and their works in the regimes of Stalin and the Soviets and also the Third Reich, and was to be an examination of the artist in a condition of aesthetic tyranny. While that is still a significant part of the curriculum, the class is now a general history of Western music, seen from social, political, and idealogical/aesthetic perspectives. For the Soviet scene, we’ll definitely look at Shostakovich, Symphonies 4,5,10 and 13, and the opera Lady MacBeth of the Msensk District. I recommend Laurel Fay’s bio of Shosty, the relevant articles in Taruskin’s “Defining Russia Musically”, and if you want to take a look at the fraudulent book, “Testimony”, that will be discussed as well. It will probably be advisable to learn something about the careers of Tikhon Khrennikov, Dmitri Kabalevsky, Aram Khachaturian, and Sergei Prokofiev. For the Third Reich scene, Michael Kater’s book, “The Twisted Muse” and Frederic Spotts “Hitler and the Power of Aesthetics” will be used…works examined will include cantatas by Orff, symphonies and/or concertos by Karl Amadeus Hartmann, and certainly some Hindemith. I haven’t made the final determination yet, but I’m considering what among Kurt Weill, Hans Pfitzner (probably his opera Palestrina) I might want to use. The careers of Strauss, Furtwangler, “Das Wunder” Karajan and Karl Bohm may be considered.
Other sessions in the class will definitely include “Beethoven from the Eroica to Das Glorreiche Augenblick, and for this the participant will want to read a reliable history of the Congress of Vienna. “Composers and the Church” which will begin with Palestrina and Byrd and conclude with Part and Tavener. I haven’t designed the sessions yet, but I’m working on “Composers and National Identity” which will focus on late 19th century nationalism… but I would like to look at Bartok’s symbolist works as well, and maybe some Enescu or Szymanowski, whose music I’ve never presented in class before, and a session on American populism. Definitely the controversy surrounding John Adams’ Death of Klinghoffer will be considered. You’ll want to look at the relevant articles in “The John Adams Reader”.
An integrated component of the course will be selected excepts from relevant philosophical tracts about music most likely drawn from some combination of Plato,Boethius, E.T.A. Hoffman, Kant, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Wagner, Dahlhaus, Adorno, etc. I realize this list is distressingly Teutonic, but it is indeed a fact that German thinkers have addressed themselves to topics of musical aesthetics with particular zeal. And don’t groan! I promise I won’t allow this to get boring or to become useless! The sessions devoted to Soviet, Nazi, Church, and Beethoven topics are ready. In the next month, as I refine the other sessions (Nationalism, Populism, etc.) I’d be happy to listen to suggestions and requests, and to provide additional reading and listening recommendations. A completed syllabus will be available around New Years, and will be posted on this site, which will be about a week before session one. Special Note: In hopefully short order, the next couple days, similar articles to this, but pertaining to Tuesday’s “Italian Opera from the Barber of Seville to Turandot”, Wednesday evenings “Musical Theatre Genres” course, and February’s One day music theory and literacy seminar will appear on Holdekunst.
Reader Comments (5)
John, what a great class; I am already enrolled and anxiously looking forward to it. I was surprised that you have not included the Shostakovich Leningrad Symphony (#7) as it perfectly ties together the WWII Soviet and German themes, not to mention Beethoven’s Eroica, Schubert’s Marche Militare, and the key of E-flat as they all merge into that 350 measure Invasion Theme later parodied by the symbolist Mr. Bartok in his late orchestral concerto. In any event, have a great Christmas and New Year, and congrats on your Vikings burying my woeful Bears!
Great! Look forward to seein' ya. I love the "Leningrad", but it doesn't quite fit with my theme, as I see it...the connection with the Eroica, if there is such a connection, as I believe there is, is an ironic one. I don't see the "Leningrad" as primarily a stylistic or idealogical statement, particularly...the 4th, 5th, and 13th have really concrete,definable historical relevances in terms of aesthetics and idealogy, not that the 7th doesn't, but I can't do everything, and the trend of my thinking in this course leads me to something, how can I put it? Something more interior or intrinsic, that masterpieces like the 7th and 11th don't have as much of...I'll take any of Shosty's 15, but 3 and 12 are lesser, I think. But again, if you go with Taruskin's concept of Shosty's "dualness" you can make all sorts of unverifiable speculations about these and other works. An interesting question with the "Leningrad" is, "It's a great symphony,obviously. Is it great music?"...great music defined by whom, I'd like to ask! But this is not a Shostakovich class,although I got the idea for this baby after teaching a Shosty class. There are other equally interesting things on the agenda. How does Beethoven write "Glorious Moment"? What kind of music is "Bluebeard's Castle", and why didn't Bartok develop those awesome potentials? And what's up with the "holy minimalists" appropriation of medieval sonic worlds all about?
Oh, and Richard? The Vikings didn't bury the Bears. They squeaked by in an awesomely bad game, a high school calibre shambles. I usually howl in imitation of a Viking horn when there are significant positive plays for the (girly)-men in purple, (pace Arnold Schwarz.) But I was too disgusted. For Ferguson's 71 yd. catch, I could only manage a little bleat, as if from a new-born calf, that wouldn't have scared a single woman or child in some Irish or English village in the 10th century.
John, with a few simple lessons we can teach you to play the trombone with an even more awesome sound than a Viking horn. Besides, you'd then be eligible to play the 4th, 5th, or 6th trombone part in the CSO's next performance of the Shosty 7th! (Note how easy it was to connect pro football and great music!!)
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