Music 575 Seminar in Theory, Music 576, Critical Theory of Music/ CLIT 502

Joint courses, Winter 2007

updated Feb 20, 2007

Philosophy and music.

This seminar will explore the possibility of further cross-fertilization between philosophy, critical theory, and musical thinking in music and in music criticism. Readings from Kant, Hegel, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Adorno, Deleuze, and others in philosophy will be accompanied by readings in recent music theory and criticism. Formal musical training not required, but students should be familiar with Western musical traditions.

Members of the seminar are expected to participate actively throughout the term, entering into discussions and perhaps occasionally preparing and leading a discussion on some sub-topic of special interest to them.

A 5000-word essay will be due on the last day of the last week of classes. Grading will be based on the essay, and on participation during the seminar sessions.

The detailed syllabus below is a work in progress. We will post it online at http://faculty.washington.edu/jrahn/575W07.html and update as needed as the term goes on.

Readings:

TEXTBOOKS are at UStore; selections will be in a course pack.

TEXTS= Kant, Hegel, Nietzsche, Hanslick, Deleuze Diff&Rep, Deleuze&Guattari, Perspectives on Musical Aesthetics (PMA) 

PNM = Perspectives of New Music (a journal archived on JSTOR with a 7-year moving window)

Weeks 1 and 2:

Kant, selections: Critique of Judgment  (tr J. H. Bernard) TEXTBOOK sections 16, 17, "General Note to the First Section of the Analytic" (following 22), 49, 53, 54, 59.

Schiller, one paragraph about music; Brown, "German Romanticism and Music."

Sessions:

1 Th  intro to Kant

2 T   discuss Kant, Schiller. 

3 Th  begin discuss Hegel

Hegel, Phenomenology of Mind, Miller translation (get book, read Introduction through Freedom of Self-Consciousness, pp. 46-138) TEXTBOOK 

Marshall Brown, class notes on Hegel at http://faculty.washington.edu/mbrown/hegel.htm

Week 3

4 more Hegel Phenomenology.

5 finish Hegel Phenomenology.

Week4

6 Hegel, Aesthetics, "On the General Character of Music." Course Pack.

Hanslick, Eduard On the Musically Beautiful; Hackett, 1986 TEXTBOOK

7 Schopenhauer, The World as Will and Representation, section 32. Course Pack.

Nietzsche. The Birth of Tragedy from the Spirit of Music. Kaufman tr. TEXTBOOK

Week 5

8, 9 Adorno, Introduction to the Sociology of Music, ch. 4, 6, 10, 11, 12; "Beethoven's Late Style." Course Pack.

Rochlitz “Language for One, Language for All: Adorno and Modernism” tr into English  Perspectives on Musical Aesthetics (PMA) (TEXTBOOK) pp. 21-40; also in PNM and JSTOR
 

Weeks 6 

Deleuze, Gilles, and Felix Guattari. 1987. A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia. Translated by Brian Massumi. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. TEXTBOOK

Tuesday Feb 6

Chapter 1 “Introduction: Rhizome”

Chapter 6 “November 28, 1947: How Do You Make Yourself a Body Without Organs?”

Tom Baker, How Do You Make Music Without Substance? in Open Space Magazine, issue 1 (Spring 1999) in the Music Libary periodicals, basement floor next to the listening library; ML197 .O64.

a somewhat garbled file is online at

Thursday Feb 8

Chapter 10 “1730: Becoming-intense, Becoming-Animal, Becoming-Imperceptible ...”

Week 7

Tuesday Feb 13

Chapter 11: "1837: Of the Refrain"

See also Chapter 15, "Conclusion: Concrete rules and Abstract Machines", which may further our discussions of the basic terms of discourse.

Thursday Feb 15

Chapter 14: "1440: The Smooth and the Striated"
Deleuze, Difference and Repetition: "Conclusion" (pp 262-304) TEXTBOOK 
We will also resurrect the ongoing Hegel thread at this point.

Week 8

Tue Feb 20

Differences is in PNM ergo JSTOR online -- goto http://www.lib.washington.edu/types/ejournals/
Centers:Dissenters is in Current Musicology 56 (1994), which is online via Proquest
Repetition is in Contemporary Music Review 7/2 (1993) and is avaialable online via
Taylor and Francis

Collins “Ritual Sacrifice and the Political Economy of Music,” in Perspectives on Musical Aesthetics (PMA) pp. 9-20; also in PNM, JSTOR

We will continue to resurrect the ongoing Hegel thread during this week's discussions.

Th Feb 22

Boretz, "Language, as a Music." PNM 17, no 2 summer 1979 131-95 (JSTOR). Also in Being About Music vol. 2, pp. 1-85 (Open Space, 2003). Reading by Boretz on Open Space CD 10. Course Pack.

Week 9

Tue Feb 27

Th March 1
David Dunn, all selections in PMA: pp. 177-93 and 234-46.

performance talk?

John Cage, Silence, pp.109-145: Lecture on Nothing. Lecture on Something. Course Pack.

Week 10

Tue March 6

Pierre Boulez, selections from Orientations (tr Cooper, faber and faber, 1990): Aesthetics and the Fetishists, The Composer as Critic, Poetry—Center and Absence -- Music (pp. 31-43, 106-112, 183-98.)  Course Pack.

Boulez and Foucault, conversation in  Perspectives on Musical Aesthetics (PMA) pp 83-90; also in PNM, JSTOR

Dora Hanninen, "A Theory of Recontextualization in Music: Analyzing Phenomenal Transformations of Repetition." Music Theory Spectrum Vol. 25, No. 1 (Spring, 2003), pp. 59-97 . Warning: This includes somewhat technical music theory. Take a look at it but if you do not have the musical background, just see what you can get from it. Course Pack.

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+ Consider some of these as optional extras:

Several underrated books by Andrea Nye on feminism, Hegel, etc. Not in UW libraries, try Amazon.

http://pages.towson.edu/ncctrw/publications/danye.html

Pierre Boulez, Penser la musique dujourd'hui, Gallmard

Pierre Boulez, Jalons (pour une decenne), Bourgois

Rainer Rochlitz, Theories esthetiques apres Adorno, Actes Sud

Gilles Deleuze, Le pli, Minuit

Caputo, John D. Radical Hermeneutics: Repetition, Deconstruction, and the Hermeneutic Project; Indiana University Press, 1987

Hasty, Christopher, Broken Sequences: Fragmentation, Abundance, Beauty; Perspectives of New Music 40, no. 2 (Summer 2002) , Gallimard

Jean Baudrillard, Simulacra and Simulation

Kierkegaard, Søren Fear and Trembling/Repetition: Kierkegaard’s Writings IV; ed. Hong and Hong, Princeton University Press, 1983

Caputo, John D. Radical Hermeneutics: Repetition, Deconstruction, and the Hermeneutic Project; Indiana University Press, 1987

Hasty, Christopher, Broken Sequences: Fragmentation, Abundance, Beauty; Perspectives of New Music 40, no. 2 (Summer 2002)

----------------------CLASS LIST

Burdick, Max (Mus)                      burdim@
Cohen, Jake (Mus)                       jcohen2@
Deblois, Michael (Engl)         dank1918@
Eggertsen, Alexis (Art, auditor)        alexegg@
Gu, Yizhong (C LIT)                     yizhong@
Hansen, Traynor (Engl)          thansen3@
Hirt, Kathryn (Germanics, auditor)      khirt@
Maier, Max (C LIT)                      mcm26@
Morgan, Paige (Engl, auditor)   paigecm@
Osborn, Brad (Mus)                      brad06@
Pellegrin, Rich (Mus)                   rpellegr@
Scheufler, Eric (Germanics)             ems29@
Shelley, Pete (Mus)                     pshelley@
Terry, Sarah (Engl)                     snterry@
Waysdorf, Abby (CHID)           abbyways@
Wheless, Leann (Mus)            lwheless@