57-914 Music and Nature
9 units, Carnegie Mellon University
Musicians and philosophers have long explored the rapport between music and nature, tracing musics origins alternatively to nature and human culture and defining nature differently according to their time and place. This course will examine the opposition between nature and culture through both musical compositions and philosophical writings. We will study theories of the origin of music from Lucretius to biomusicology, theories of music that seek justification by appealing to nature from Boethius to Grisey, and theories that question whether natural sounds can be music. We will also examine musical representations of place, weather, and animals through the perspectives of ecocriticism and notions of the pastoral. Repertory will include Vivaldis Spring Concerto, Beethovens Pastoral Symphony, Wagners Ring of the Nibelung, Mahlers Symphony No. 3, and Debussys La Mer. We will compare landscapes by Sibelius and Copland, birds by Dvorak, Bartk, Ravel, Stravinsky, and Messiaen, and whales by Crumb and Hovhaness. We will also treat statements on the environmental crisis by composers Harrison Birtwistle, Philip Glass, Peter Sculthorpe, and John Luther Adams. Reading, listening, discussion, 2 short papers, 1 long paper, oral presentation. This course can count as music support for undergraduate and graduate students.
Prerequisites: none listed
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