SYLLABUS ORIENTALISM/EXOTICISM I: BACH ORIENTALISM

1
V55.0730.010 – Expressive Cultures: Sound -Spring 2011; TR 2.00-3.15; 320 Silver
Rena Charnin Mueller
SYLLABUS
ORIENTALISM/EXOTICISM I: BACH
25 - 27 January
Introduction: Musical Terminology and Chronology
1 – 3 February
Historical Considerations / “Wachet auf,” BWV 140
8 – 10 - 15 February Kaffee-Kantate [Coffee Cantata ], “Schweigt stille, plaudert
nicht,” BWV 211
17 February
Exam / First Paper Due
ORIENTALISM/EXOTICISM II: MOZART
22 - 24 February
1 – 3, 8 - 10 March
Historical Considerations / Opera and the Enlightenment
Die Entführung aus dem Serail
14 – 20 MARCH: SPRING BREAK
22 March
24 March
Die Entführung aus dem Serail
Exam / Second Paper Due
ORIENTALISM/AESTHETICISM: GILBERT & SULLIVAN
29 - 31 March
5 – 7, 12 April
14 April
Historical Considerations: Aesthetics and Imperialism
The Mikado
Exam / Third Paper Due
ORIENTALISM/IMPERIALISM: WRIGHT & FORREST, BORODIN
19 – 21 April
Historical Considerations: The Empire
• Edward Knoblock: Kismet (the play)
• Otis Skinner: Kismet - the Movie(s)
26 – 28 April, 3 May Wright & Forrest:
• Kismet, the Musical
• Alexander Borodin: Kismet - the musical sources
5 May
Exam / Fourth Paper due
*
*
*
2
REQUIRED MUSIC (ALL ON CD AND/OR DVD IN THE AVERY FISHER
LISTENING CENTER)
•
Bach, Johann Sebastian:
o “Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme,” Cantata BWV 140
o “Schweigt stille, plaudert nicht” (Kaffee-Kantate), BWV 211
•
Mozart, Die Entführung aus dem Serail (complete)
•
Gilbert & Sullivan: The Mikado (complete)
•
Wright & Forrest: Kismet (complete – original cast recording)
•
Borodin, Alexander
o Symphony I in Eb Major
o Symphony II in B Minor
o In the Steppes of Central Asia
o Prince Igor: listen to the 4-act version, concentrating on the Overture Act II
and the music of the Polovetsian Dances
o String Quartet No. 2 in D Major
o Serenade chetïryokh kavalerov yednoy dame [Serenade of Four Cavaliers to
One Lady]
•
Rachmaninoff:
o “Ne me chant plus, ma belle devant moi” (“O sing me no more the songs of’
Georgia”, Pushkin), Op. 4/4
You are responsible for reading all the respective libretti. If you intend to purchase
either a set of CDs or DVDs, please check with me first: there are many different
versions available, not all of them worth the hefty price they command.
REQUIRED TEXTS AND AUDIO-VISUAL ELEMENTS
1. Said, Edward, Orientalism. 25th Anniversary Edition. Vintage Books: New York,
2003.
2. ……. Culture and Imperialism. Vintage Books: New York, 1994.
3. Mozart, The Abduction from the Seraglio. G. Schirmer libretto. New York
4. Gilbert, William Schwenck. The Mikado (online at
http://math.boisestate.edu/GaS/mikado/html/index.html)
5. Strunk and White, The Elements of Style, paperback edition.
You are required to have read the following materials, listened to the CDs, and
looked at the appropriate videos or DVDs BEFORE we discuss the compositions and
3
individuals they concern in class. Copies of all will be on reserve in Bobst Library on the 2nd
floor.
FOR THE PART OF THE SYLLABUS DEALING WITH BACH:
•
•
Libretto for both Cantata 140 and the Kaffee-Kantate (handouts; also on
Blackboard)
Wolff, Christoph, The New Bach Reader – A Life of Johann Sebastian Bach in
Letters and Documents. W.W. Norton & Co.: New York, 1998 (revision of
the earlier Hans David/Arthur Mendel Bach Reader [1966]).
o Chronology
o Part I: “Johann Sebastian Bach: A Portrait in Outline”
o Part II:
ƒ pp. 113/14 – “Order of the Divine Service in Leipzig for November
28, 1723”
ƒ pp. 145-51: “Bach’s Short But Most Necessary Draft for a WellAppointed Church Music, with certain Modest Reflections on the
Decline of the Same: Memorandum to the Leipzig Town Council”
o Part VII: “Bach in the Romantic Era”
FOR THE PART OF THE SYLLABUS DEALING WITH MOZART:
•
Synopsis and Libretto for Die Entführung aus dem Serail (handouts, Schirmer
paperback, required)
• Said, Orientalism:
o Prefaces and Introduction
o Chapter 1: “The Scope of Orientalism”
o Chapter 2: “Orientalist Structures and Restructures,” concentrating
on IV: “Pilgrims and Pilgrimages, British and French”
• Said, Culture and Imperialism
o Introduction
o Chapter 1: “Overlapping Territories, Intertwined Histories”
o Chapter 2: “Consolidated Vision,” concentrating on sections I
through IV
• Strunk, Oliver, Source Readings in Music History, rev. ed. Leo Treitler, ed.
(1998)
o Chapter 134: Francesco Algarotti, “From ‘An Essay on the Opera’”
(1755), 909-22
o Chapter 136: Christoph Willibald Gluck, “Dedication for Alceste”
(1769), 933-34
o Chapter 140: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, “Letters to His Father,” 96569
• Farinelli, Il Castrato (1994), dir. Gérard Corbiau (DVD, on reserve)
• Amadeus (1984), dir. Peter Shaffer (DVD, on reserve)
4
FOR THE PART OF THE SYLLABUS DEALING WITH GILBERT & SULLIVAN:
•
William S. Gilbert, The Mikado
o The Mikado, complete libretto – online at
http://math.boisestate.edu/GaS/mikado/html/index.html
o Michael Beckerman, “The Sword on the Wall: Japanese Elements and
their Significance in The Mikado.” The Musical Quarterly, Vol. 73,
No. 3 (1989), pp. 303-19 (accessible through JSTOR) – also on
Blackboard
o “The Mikado,” in Gilbert & Sullivan: A History and a Comment, by
H. M. Walbrook (1922), with a Foreword by Sir Henry Wood. This
book is on-line at
http://math.boisestate.edu/gas/books/walbrook/index.html
o Topsy-Turvy (1999), dir. Mike Leigh (DVD)
FOR THE PART OF THE SYLLABUS DEALING WITH WRIGHT & FORREST /
BORODIN:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Edward Knoblock, Kismet (play; on reserve)
Wright & Forrest, Kismet (libretto of the musical; on reserve)
Lawrence of Arabia (1962, dir. David Lean; DVD)
A Dangerous Man: Lawrence After Arabia (1990 TV, dir. Christopher
Menaul; DVD)
The Charge of the Light Brigade (1968, dir. Tony Richardson; DVD)
Kismet (1944, with Marlene Dietrich; VHS)
Kismet (1955, with Howard Keel; DVD)
OTHER SUGGESTED READING (chapters from these books will be assigned as
appropriate because, sadly, the Prentice-Hall books are out of print):
Rosen, The Romantic Generation (Harvard University Press; on reserve)
Ringer, Early Romantic Music (Prentice-Hall; on reserve)
Samson, Late Romantic Music (Prentice-Hall; on reserve)
*
*
*
You are required to attend one preceptorial section per week, as follows:
M 09:30am - 10:45am WS SILV 218 SWEETMAN, LAUREN
M 11:00am - 12:15pm WS SILV 218 SWEETMAN, LAUREN
R 09:30am - 10:45am WS WAVE 365 REIDY, ANNA
R 11:00am - 12:15pm WS SILV 218 REIDY, ANNA
In these sections, the Preceptors (Lauren Sweetman [[email protected]] and Anna Reidy
5
[[email protected]]) will cover aspects of music fundamentals (terminology, visuals symbols,
listening strategies), and they will also be available to answer questions related to all
assignments, listening, reading, and viewing. Each preceptorial section will have its own
papers and examinations, and these results will be factored into your final grade. Clearly,
ATTENDANCE IS HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
All the reserve materials, as well as the tapes and CDs for listening and the movies
we will view, will be in the Music Library (Avery Fisher Music and Media Center [AFLC],
Bobst, 2nd floor). If you cannot find a particular item on reserve (it may be in use for
another class, for instance), then just look up the work in the general collection catalogue
and ask for another performance: there are multiple CDs and DVDs in the AFLC. If you
choose to purchase any of the scores, many are available in Dover reprints and can be had
for discounted prices from Amazon.com, or directly from Dover on-line. Since the Patelson
Music House closed, the only other discount retail establishment in NY that carries scores
is Frank Music [244-250 West 54th Street, 10th Floor, New York, NY 10019; telephone:
(212)582-1999; store hours: Monday-Friday 11-5; E-mail:
[email protected]], which also has an excellent web-site
[http://www.frankmusiccompany.com/catalog/].
It will be worth your while to become familiar with the great on-line dictionary for
music, The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (2001) (www.grovemusic.com),
which can be accessed free of charge from any NYU computer. There is a fine search
engine, and the 29-volume hard copy is also available in the Music Library as well as in the
office of the Music Department (24 Waverly Place, Room 268). There are earlier editions of
Grove on the shelves in Bobst, and it is sometimes interesting to compare articles (it
appeared approximately every 20 years, but only the last one is on line and is being updated
continuously). Apart from the Gilbert & Sullivan Archive web-site
(www.math.boisestate.edu/GaS), OTHER ON-LINE REFERENCE TOOLS ARE USED AT
YOUR OWN PERIL, save such as The Catholic Encyclopedia, the Encyclopedia
Britannica, and a very few others. WIKIPEDIA is off-limits, and I suggest that you check
with your Preceptor or with me concerning on-line references for any of the papers. I am a
firm believer in BOOKS and use of the Library as your primary reference location, not online sources.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS
The requirements for the course include a series of four (4) papers and examinations
at the end of each section of the syllabus (Bach, Mozart, Gilbert & Sullivan, Kismet), and a
grade in the Preceptorial. No late papers will be accepted. There is no Final Examination.
Please note the manner of bibliographic citation for music titles, book titles, articles,
etc. used in this syllabus. If you like, you can use it as a model for your written work. You
can also use other systems AS LONG AS YOU ARE CONSISTENT.
6
Office hours: Wednesday, 2.00-5.00 p.m., BY APPOINTMENT. 24 Waverly Place,
Room 268D; call Pauline Lum (212/998-8301) to schedule.
Telephone: 212/998-8309; email: <[email protected]>. I would like to hear in advance
from ANYONE who anticipates missing class.