A week Project (Composition)

1. 1.Notation/ Transposition Study
   

2. 2.Tonal Melody
   

3. 3.Melodic Variations
   

4. 4.Harmonic Variations
   

5. 5.Polytonal project
   

6. 6.12-Tone Matrix and Study
   

Journals

Listening assignments (i.e., scores and recordings) and Reading assignments

READING

— due Friday, February 12 (12 entries)

1. Vores — “Musical Literacy”

2. Copland — “How We Listen”

3. Stucky — “Listening to Contemporary Music”

4. Slonimsky — “Introduction”

— due Friday, March 12 (15 entries)

5. Bartók — “The Problem with the New Music”

6. Messiaen — Technique of my Musical Language (excerpts)

7. Partch — “Author’s Preface”

8. Hindemith — “Musical Inspiration”

— due Friday, April 9 (16 entries)

9. Stucky — “New Music and the Masterpiece Syndrome”

10. Ives — “Postface to 114 Songs”

11. Schönberg — “Heart and Brain in Music”

12. Berg — “What is Atonality?”

— due Wednesday, May 5 (15 entries)

13. Stravinsky — “About Music Today”

14. Boulez — “Schönberg is Dead”

15. Babbitt — “The Composer as Specialist”

16. Rochberg — “Reflections on the Renewal of Music”

17. 17.Zappa — The Real Frank Zappa Book (excerpts)
    

LISTENING

  — due Friday, February 12 (12 entries)

1. Debussy—Prélude à l’apres-midi d’un faune

2. Stravinsky — Le Sacre du Printemps

3. Bartók — String Quartet No. 4

4. Britten—Serenade for Tenor, Horn, and Strings

5. Shostakovich—Symphony No. 5

— due Friday, March 12 (15 entries)

6. Debussy—Voiles

7. Stravinsky — Octet

8. Ravel — Ma Mère l’Oye (suite)

9. Bartók — Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celeste

10. Messiaen — Quatuor pour la fin du temps

11. Ives — Three Quarter-Tone Pieces

12. Partch — Barstow

13. Takemitsu — Rain Spell

14. Debussy — Sarabande

15. Hindemith — Kammermusik, Op. 24 No. 1

16. Cowell — Tides of Manaunaun

— due Friday, April 9 (16 entries)

17. Milhaud — Saudades do Brasil (Book I)

18. Stravinsky — Petrouchka

19. Ives — Three Places in New England

20. Schönberg — Pierrot Lunaire (excerpts: select any seven movements)

21. Berg — Wozzeck (Act III)

22. Webern — Fünf Orchesterstücke, Op. 10

23. Schönberg — Variations for Orchestra

24. Berg — Violin Concerto

25. Webern — Concerto, Op. 24

— due Wednesday, May 5 (15 entries)

26. Stravinsky — In Memoriam Dylan Thomas

27. Copland — Inscape

28. Babbitt — Three Compositions for Piano

29. Messiaen — Modes de valeurs et d’intensitiés

30. Boulez — Le marteau sans maître

31. Rochberg — String Quartet No. 3

32. Pärt — Magnificat

33. Zappa — The Yellow Shark [album] (excerpts)

34. Zorn — Road Runner

35. Wolfe — Tell Me Everything

Reading Reference

SUPPLEMENTAL TEXTS:

Cope, David.  Techniques of the Contemporary Composer.  New York: Schirmer Books, 1997.

Dallin, Leon. Techniques of Twentieth Century Composition. Dubuque, Iowa, W.C. Brown Co., 1974.

Donato, Anthony. Preparing Musical Manuscript. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1977; 1963.

Stone, Kurt.  Music Notation in the Twentieth Century.  New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1980.

ASSIGNED READINGS:

Babbitt, Milton. “Who Cares if You Listen” (originally titled “The Composer as Specialist”) (1958).  Contemporary Composers on Contemporary Music, ed. by Elliott Schwartz and Barney Childs, pp. 243- 250.

Bartók, Béla.  “The Problem of the New Music” (1920). Composers on Modern Musical Culture, ed. by Bryan R. Simms, pp. 44-49.

Berg, Alban.  “What is Atonality” (1930/36). Composers on Modern Musical Culture, ed. by Bryan R. Simms,  pp. 61-68.

Boulez, Pierre. “Schönberg is Dead” (1952). Notes of an Apprenticeship (1968), pp. 268-76.

Copland, Aaron.  “How We Listen” (1939). What to Listen for in Music, pp. 9-19.

Hindemith, Paul. “Musical Inspiration.”  A Composers World (1952), pp. 47-66.

Ives, Charles.  “Postface to 114 Songs” (1920). Essays Before a Sonata, The Majority, and Other Writings by Charles Ives, ed. by Howard Boatwright, pp. 120-131.

Messiaen, Olivier.  Technique of My Musical Language. (1944). Part I, pp. 13-15, 18-21, 34, 58-63; Part II, pp. 1, 3-4, 17-19, 50-54.

Partch, Harry.  “Author's Preface.” Genesis of a Music (1949; 74), pp. xv-xx.

Rochberg, George. “Reflections on the Renewal of Music.”  The Aesthetics of Survival (1984), pp. 232-38.

Schönberg, Arnold.  “Heart and Brain in Music” (1946). Style and Idea , pp. 53-75

Slonimsky, Nicholas.  “Introduction” (1983). Classic Essays on Twentieth-Century Music, ed. by Richard Kostelanetz and Joseph Darby, pp. 1-22.

Stravinsky, Igor.  “About Music Today.” Conversations with Igor Stravinsky (1952), ed. by Robert Craft, pp. 119-155.

Stucky, Steven.  “Listening to Contemporary Music.”  Society for New Music Newsletter (1993)

Stucky, Steven.  “New Music and the Masterpiece Syndrome.”  Society for New Music Newsletter (January, 1992).

Vores, Andy.  “Musical Literacy.” Minnesota Composers Forum Soundboard  (June, 1993).

Zappa, Frank.  The Real Frank Zappa Book (1989), pp. 30-35, 139-150, 160-164, 171-176, 185-197.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:

Adler, Samuel.  The Study of Orchestration. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1989.

Antokoletz, Elliott. Twentieth Century Music.  Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1992.

Austin, Larry and Thomas Clark.  Learning to Compose: Modes, Materials, and Models of Musical Invention.  Dubuque, Iowa: Wm. C. Brown Publishers, 1989.

Blatter, Alfred. Instrumentation and Orchestration. New York: Schirmer Books, 1997.

Brindle, Reginald Smith. Musical Composition. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986.

Brindle, Reginald Smith.  The New Music. London: Oxford University Press, 1975. 

Cope, David.  New Directions in Music (5th edition).  Dubuque, Iowa: Wm. C. Brown Publishers, 1989.

Delone, Peter, et al.  Aspects of Contemporary Music. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1975.

Griffiths, Paul.  Modern Music: The Avant Garde Since 1945.  George Braziliier, Inc., 1981.

Kostelanetz, Richard and Joseph Darby, ed. Classic Essays on Twentieth-Century Music. New York: Schirmer Books, 1996.

Kostka, Stefan. Materials and Techniques of Twentieth-Century Music.  Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson  Prentice Hall Books, 2006.

Machlis, Joseph.  Introduction to Twentieth Century Music. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1979.

McCutchan, Ann. The Muse That Sings: Composers Speak About the Creative Process. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.

McTee, Cindy. A Music Calligrapher's Handbook: Tools, Materials, And Techniques. Saint Louis, Mo.: MMB Music, 1987.

Morgan, Robert P. Twentieth Century Music. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1991.

Salzman, Eric.   Twentieth Century Music: An Introduction (3rd edition). Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1988.

Schwartz, Elliot & Barney Childs.  Contemporary Composers on Contemporary Music.  Da Capo Press, 1978.

Simms, Bryan R., ed.  Composers on Modern Musical Culture. New York: Schirmer Books, 1999.

Simms, Bryan R. Music of the Twentieth Century: Style & Structure. New York: Schirmer Books, 1986.

Watkins, Glenn. Soundings: Music in the Twentieth Century. New York: Schirmer Books, 1987.

Concert Review

Please attend at least three composition division events during the course of the semester

and write a formal concert review on one of them.

1. 1.Discuss the strengths and weaknesses of each work
   

2. 2.Focus on only one work , considering its significance in the overall program
   

3. 3.Compare and contrast them in the context of the program
   

Additional Reference

MELODIC TRANSFORMATION