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May 21, 2024
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HC 864 - Music and Modernism in Paris, 1900-19453 credits
In the early decades of the twentieth century, artists, writers, and musicians from around the world viewed Paris as the most vibrant and cosmopolitan capitol in Europe. Arriving in the city either by choice or as refugees from the continent’s many political and economic crises, they joined their French counterparts in creating — and debating — new innovations in creative expression. In this course, we will explore the various forms of music created and performed in Paris during this period that have since been labeled as modernism. This includes many of the mainstays of the twentieth-century repertoire, from Debussy’s operatic adaptation of Maeterlink’s Symbolist drama Pelléas et Mélisande in 1902 to Messiaen’s composing of an idiosyncratic quartet while a prisoner of war in 1941. While we will devote substantial time to listening (and viewing) these and other pieces, we will also explore the ways in which recent scholars have moved away from defining modernism as a catalogue of stylistic innovations to considering modernism as a contested label, as well as the wider social and political implications of modernist cultural production. In the final weeks of the semester students will give a presentation on a person of their own choosing who was connected to music and modernism in Paris from 1900 to 1945. No prior musical experience is necessary.
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