57-916 Globalization of Classical Music: USA, Turkey, Japan

6 units, Carnegie Mellon University

What sounds are made when cultures clash? What issues are at stake when composers and performers approach music with strong ties to music of other cultures, such as Debussy's Iberia and Copland's El Salon Mexico, or when, like Bartok, they introduce elements of a stylized folk music into the concert hall? How did the Western classical tradition come to be mastered in countries worldwide? Where is it resisted and why? When composers from non-Western traditions engage with classical traditions, what do they give up and what do they gain? In what ways do they seek to retain style traits or instruments from their home country? and why? Do countries all adopt this tradition in the same way and for the same reasons? How do such varied negotiations of cultures define national identities? This course addresses such questions by focusing on the role of Western classical music in the history of the United States, Turkey, and Japan - countries with very different histories of engaging with European culture, yet sharing a decisive adoption of European-based modernity in the twentieth century.

Prerequisites: none listed

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