Syllabus
Music, Desire, Political Economy
Music 576 Critical Theory of Music, Spring 1996
Tuesdays 3:30-5:30

John Rahn
(office Music 108; 543-2291; jrahn@u.washington.edu)

 
 The seminar will explore the web of interrelationships among music as it structures us and vice versa, 
desire of all kinds (sexual and other appetites) including the possibility of escape from desire, and the flows, 
structures, exchanges, and negotiations that make up our personal and public social and political worlds. 
Each participant in the seminar will lead a discussion on a topic of her or his choice, probably related to the 
paper required at the end of the term. Grading is based on participation in the developing discussions in the 
seminar, on the specific presentation to the seminar, and on the final paper. 

Week 1: General discussion of the issues, exploration of the interests of the seminar participants, 
introduction to the readings. What are some interesting questions?

Week 2: 	Attali Noise: The Political Economy of Music. 
	Collins ªRitual Sacrifice and the Political Economy of Music.º In Perspectives on Musical 
	Aesthetics (ed. John Rahn).

Week 3: 	Boretz music/consciousness/gender  
	Boretz ªInterface, Parts I-V.º In Perspectives on Musical Aesthetics 
 	Boretz ªSome Things I Noticed, Some Things I've Done, and Some Things I need to Think 
	Some More About.º In Proceedings of the Music and Power Symposium, ed. John Rahn. Seattle: 
	Center for Creation and Interdisciplinary Study of Music, School of Music, University of 
	Washington.	
	Randall, J. K. 1985. ªAre You Serious?º  In Perspectives on Musical Aesthetics.
 	Barkin ªFour Texts.º In Perspectives on Musical Aesthetics. 
	Rahn ªRepetition.º Contemporary Music Review 7(1993): 49-58.   
	
Week 4: 	Foucault History of Sexuality Part 1
	Rahn ªDifferences" Perspectives of New Music 31/2: 58-71.

Week 5: 	Butler Gender Trouble
	
Week 6: 	Deleuze and Guattari A Thousand Plateaus
		Chapter 1 ªIntroduction: Rhizomeº
		Chapter 6 ªNovember 28, 1947: How Do You Make Yourself a Body Without Organs?º
		Chapter 10 ª1730: Becoming-intense, Becoming-Animal, Becoming-Imperceptible ...º
		Chapter 11 ª1837: Of the Refrainº

Week 7:	Cage Silence. 
	Cage ªTokyo Lecture and Three Mesostics.º In Perspectives on Musical Aesthetics. 
	Laotse The Book of Tao. In The Wisdom of China and India. (On reserve.)
	assorted Buddhist texts on reserve


Weeks 8, 9 and 10: Seminar presentations by participants. 

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Some other optional readings, in units (not enough weeks in the term!): 
	
	Gans The End of Culture
	Gans ªArt and Entertainmentº and ªThe Beginning and End of Esthetic Formº in Perspectives 
	on Musical Aesthetics.
	Rahn ªCenters; Dissenters (Music, Religion, Politics).º Current Musicology 56: 72-85. 

	Essays by Adorno:
	from Prisms: "Arnold Schoenberg" and "Perennial Fashion -- Jazz"
	from Introduction to the Sociology of Music: "Chamber Music"
	from Collins anthology: "Freudian theory and the Pattern of Fascist Propaganda," 
	"Marginalia on Mahler," "On the Fetish-Character of Music," and "The Alienated 
	Masterpiece."
	Rochlitz ªLanguage for One, Language for All: Adorno and Modernism.º In Perspectives  on 
	Musical Aesthetics.

	Julia Kristeva, from Revolution in Poetic Language:
	Prolegomenon (pp. 13-19)
	Ch 1 The Phenomenological Subject of Enunciation (21-24)
	Ch 2 The Semiotic Chora Ordering the Drives (25-30)
	Ch 10 The Signifying Process (68-71)
	Ch 11 Poetry That is Not a Form of Murder (72-85)

	McClary Feminine Endings.
	Barkin  ªeither/otherº PNM 30/2
	articles by Killam, Frey, Maus in Feminist Theory Forum, PNM 31/2
	articles by Guck, Kielian-Gilbert, McClary in Feminist Theory Forum, PNM 32/1
	Silverman The Acoustic Mirror: The Female Voice in Psychoanalysis and Cinema.
	Subotnik Developing Variations: Style and Ideology in Western Music. 
	
	Hegel Phenomenology of the Spirit
	Borch-Jacobsen Lacan: The Absolute Master