MUHL M406 Topics in Music History 1850-present, 2 credits, MUHL M815, 3 credits Topic: Three American Mavericks: Charles Ives, Ruth Crawford Seeger, and Aaron Copland Fall 2006

Instructor: Dr. Valerie Goertzen, Communications/Music 201 Phone 865-2207; email [email protected] Office hours: Mondays, 2-3 p.m., Tuesdays, 9:30 to10:30 a.m., or by appointment Class meeting time: Wednesdays, 4:30-6:20, Room CM 135.

Bulletin description: A seminar-style study of a single topic concerning music from Wagner to the present, usually focusing on some aspect of western art music but including consideration of influences from nonwestern and popular musics. Course may be repeated for credit, as long as topic is different.

Topic description: According to Aaron Copland, “contemporary music as an organized movement in the U.S.A. was born at the end of the First World War” (Our New Music, 1941). Copland (1900-90) and Ruth Crawford Seeger (1901-53) were among a group of Americans who strived to create independent and challenging approaches to composition in the 1920s. With the coming of the Great Depression in the 1930s and World War II, they transformed their work in accordance with the prevailing spirit of nationalism and populism. Copland composed his famous ballets and other accessible works drawing on materials of the Americas, and Seeger largely set aside composition in order to collect and preserve folk music and to devote her energies to music for children. The compositions of the staunch individualist Charles Ives (1874-1954) of the previous generation became known to a broad spectrum of musical America only beginning in the 1920s, and thus also formed a part of this emerging repertory of new music.

This seminar focuses on three American mavericks; each engaged in his or her own way with questions of musical modernism and the American voice. Among issues we will consider are: --the desire for spirituality in music, and the perceived threat to human experience posed by mechanization, mass media, and cerebral approaches to art; --stylistic changes reflecting social and economic upheaval; --the emergence of composers as political and social activists; --dissonance as a reflection of the strength, independence, and diversity of Americans; --gendered language and conceptions in American music culture.

Prerequisites: MUTH M203 (Theory IV) and MULH M307 (Music History II), or permission of instructor.

1 Textbooks and other materials to be purchased by student: None required. Materials for reading and listening (see separate list) will be on reserve in the library. Recordings of some compositions to be studied are available through the NAXOS online listening service; those that are not are being streamed and made available through Blackboard (after ca. Sept. 6). Expect to invest a few dollars in photocopying handouts for your presentation and for other assignments.

Blackboard: I have established a Blackboard account for this course. There I will post the syllabus, assignments, other class materials, and announcements; we also may use Blackboard to expand upon class discussions. I sometimes send emails to the entire class through this account, so please be sure that you check your loyno account regularly. In the event of an evacuation, you are required to check in to your Blackboard account within 48 hours. See the evacuation statement below.

Course requirements: 1. Regular attendance and active participation in class. See my policy below. 2. Preparation of daily reading and listening assignments, leading discussions as assigned, and contributing on a regular basis. Grad students will be required to take on additional reading in some weeks. 3. In lieu of in-class exams, there will be three sets of take-home essays. These are an opportunity for you to synthesize your own ideas with those from readings, listening, and class discussions. I will give specific questions or topics for you to write about, in due time. There will be no final exam. 4. Class presentation (30 minutes) and paper (8-10 pages for undergrads, 12-15 pages for grads) on a topic of your choice, approved by me. Papers are due Wednesday, December 6, at the beginning of class. Paper topics must be declared by September 20; topic paragraphs and annotated bibliographies are due October 11. Rough drafts are optional and are accepted through Nov. 22. 5. Additional written and oral assignments as given. 6. Additional reading and writing assignments are required of graduate students enrolled in M815 (3 credits). 7. If additional motivation or structure is needed, quizzes may be added to the schedule.

Evacuation Statement: Students must log on to the College emergency web site (www.loyno.la) and the University Blackboard site (http://loyno.blackboard.com) within 48 hours of any University evacuation to receive information about contacting instructors and proceeding with the course. Students will be required to do assigned course work for any evacuation of more than 48 hours. Students should also monitor the University site (www.loyno.edu) for general information.

Special Accommodations: A student with a disability that qualifies for accommodations should contact Sarah Mead Smith, Director of Disability Services at 865-2990 (Academic Resource Center, Room 405, Monroe Hall). A student wishing to receive test accommodations (e.g., extended test time)

2 should provide the instructor with an official Accommodation Form from Disability Services in advance of the scheduled test date.

Academic Integrity: All work you do for this class is expected to be your own, and there will be severe penalties for academic dishonesty, which includes, but is not limited to, plagiarism on papers or cheating on exams. Note that 1) using another writer’s words without quotation marks and 2) closely following the structure of another writer’s argument both constitute plagiarism, even if you cite the source. Summaries of the University’s definitions and procedures concerning academic integrity can be found on pp. 50-52 of the Undergraduate Bulletin and on p. 45 of the Graduate Bulletin. If you are uncertain how to use and cite the work of others within your own writing, consult reference works such as Kate L. Turabian, A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations, 5th ed., revised and expanded by Bonnie Birtwhistle Honigsblum (Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1987), or the Chicago Manual of Style, 15th ed. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003), or ask me.

Course Objectives: The principal objective of the course is to study in depth a single topic, considering both specific works and composers and the general cultural context of that time and place. Students should also improve their ability to read and listen critically, write effectively, and make oral presentations.

Expected student learning outcomes: It is expected that at the end of the course students --will be familiar with major issues relating to musical life in the U.S. in the first half of the 20th century. --will have an understanding of aesthetic values and compositional styles of Ives, Seeger, and Copland, and of these composers’ roles and impact. --will have a detailed knowledge of about twenty representative works. --will have improved their ability to develop and articulate interpretations of musical compositions. --will have improved their research skills and their ability to evaluate sources. --will have been challenged to consider the role and power of music in American culture. . Course Outline: see end of syllabus

Evaluation: 3 essay assignments @ 12% 36% Presentation 12% Paper 25% Attendance and daily preparation and participation 22% Quizzes and other written assignments 5%

3 The grading scale is as follows:

A 92-100 B+ 88-91 B 82-87 C+ 78-81 C 72-77 D+ 68-71 D 60-67 F below 60

Attendance: This class is a seminar. Regular attendance is essential to the success of the course and to each student’s performance. Even one unexcused absence will affect your grade. If you must miss class for an excellent and legitimate reason, notify me in advance by phone, email, or note. You are responsible for making up missed work.

Note that attendance and participation counts for 22% of your grade; this includes being prepared and participating in a constructive way in class discussions.

Late work Written work turned in late will be penalized normally five points for every day late (not every class period late). No term papers will be accepted after 5 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 14.

Presentation and paper: Each of you will be responsible for making a half-hour presentation to the class and writing a paper on a topic of your choice. Your project should focus on a topic relating to the course. Presentations will be scheduled for the last three weeks of class, plus the final exam time.

Your paper is due Wednesday, December 6 at the beginning of class. You must deliver the paper to me in person by that time. Early papers will be accepted but must be given to me in person. Late papers will be penalized. No papers will be accepted after the final exam.

A fuller paper assignment will be handed out in the very near future.

4 MUHL 406/815 Topics in Twentieth-Century Music Schedule of topics and major assignments

Aug. 30 Introductions; Topic and contexts

Sept. 6 Ives songs: “Two Little Flowers,” “The Things Our Fathers Loved,” “Tom Sails Away,” “General William Booth Enters into Heaven” Listen to these songs with score; be prepared to discuss Read: Grove article on Ives by Burkholder Burkholder, All Made of Tunes, 253-62, 306-11, 363-64 on these songs Hitchcock, Music in the United States, 169-171 on “Two Little Flowers” Read around in Ives, Memos, especially Part One and Part Three; what are Ives’s views on music?

Sept. 13 Ives, paraphrase and quotation: Symphony No. 2, Three Places in New England Reading: Burkholder, All Made of Tunes, 102-36 on Symphony No. 2, 317-22, 327-30, and 386-89 on Three Places

Sept. 20 Ives the transcendentalist Piano Sonata No. 2, “Concord,” The Unanswered Question Topics declared in writing

Sept. 27 Crawford, early years and Chicago period: Violin Sonata (1926) First essay assignment due (Ives)

Oct. 4 Crawford in New York and Europe: the ultramodernist Piano Study in Mixed Accents (1930) Three Songs to Poems by Carl Sandburg (1930-32)

Oct. 11 Crawford: String Quartet 1931 Bibliographies and topic paragraphs due

FALL BREAK

Oct. 18 Crawford Seeger: Folk song study and music education Nineteen American Folk Songs and other works

Oct. 25 Copland the modernist, and south of the border Symphony for Organ and Orchestra (1924) El Sálon México (1932-36) Second essay assignment due (Crawford)

Nov. 1 TBA—VG is away for American Musicological Society meeting

Nov. 8 Copland the populist Billy the Kid Suite (1939) Quiet City (1940)

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Nov. 15 Copland, the 1940s and after Third Symphony (1944-46) Old American Songs (1950-52)

Nov. 22 student presentations Rough drafts due (optional)

--Thanksgiving, Nov. 23--

Nov. 29 student presentations Third essay assignment due (Copland)

Dec. 6 student presentations Papers due at the beginning of class

Wednesday Dec. 14, 7-9 p.m., scheduled final exam time: student presentations

6 Materials for use in the course—these are on reserve or will be on reserve soon

BOOKS

Block, Concord Sonata (Cambridge Guide) ML 410 .I94 B56 1996

Burkholder, All Made of Tunes ML 410 .I94 B87 1995

Burkholder, Charles Ives and His World ML 410 .I94 C33 1996

Burkholder, Charles Ives: The Ideas behind the Music ML 410 .I94 B48 1985

Cowell, Henry and Sidney, Charles Ives and His Music

Crawford (Richard), Lott, and Oja, A Celebration of American Music: Words and Music in Honor of H. Wiley Hitchcock (includes article by Tick on RCS’s Quartet) ML 200 .C44 1990

De Lerma, bibliography of Ives’s music Reference ML 134 .I9 D4

Hitchcock, Music in the United States: A Historical Introduction

Ives, Essays before a Sonata, The Majority, and Other Writings PS 3517 .V3 E7 1962

Ives, Memos ML 410 .I94 A3

Kostelanetz, Aaron Copland: A Reader ML 410 .C756 A25 2004

Levin and Tick, Aaron Copland’s America: A Cultural Perspective ML 410 .C756 L48 2000

Nicholls, ed. The Cambridge History of American Music ML 2000 .C36 1998

Oja, Making Music Modern: New York in the 1920s ML 200.8 .N5 O43 2000

Perlis, Charles Ives Remembered: An Oral History ML 410 .I94 P5 1976

Pollack, Aaron Copland ML 410 .C756 P6 1999

Robertson, Aaron Copland: A Guide to Research Reference ML 134 .C66 R63 2001

Seeger, Ruth (w/Lomax), Folk Song: USA: The 111 Best American Ballads M1629 .L85

Starr, The Dickinson Songs of Aaron Copland ML 410 .C756 S73 2002

7 Straus, The Music of Ruth Crawford Seeger ML 410 .S4446 S77 1995

Swafford, Charles Ives: A Life with Music ML 410 .I94 S93 1996

Tick, Ruth Crawford Seeger ML 410 .S4446 T5 1997

ARTICLES

Burkholder on Symphony #2 in 19th Century Music 1987-88

Cooney on Putnam’s Camp in American Music 14 (1996): 276-312.

Crist, Elisabeth B. “Aaron Copland and the Popular Front.” Journal of the American Musicological Society 56 (Summer 2003): 409-65.

Hitchcock, H. Wiley. “Ives’s 114 [+15] Songs and What He Thought of Them.” Journal of the American Musicological Society 52 (Spring 1999): 97-144.

SCORES AND RECORDINGS

Ives Songs 114 Songs. M1620 .I92 S6 1975 (does not contain General Wm. Booth) Ives Songs. M2.3 .U6 R4 vol. 47 CD SONGS 00127 – Two Little Flowers, General William Booth Enters into Heaven, Tom Sails Away CD SONGS 00066 – Two Little Flowers, Tom Sails Away, General William Booth Enters into Heaven, The Things Our Fathers Loved

Symphony No. 2 M1001 .I66 no.2 CD ORCH 00404 (w/Unanswered Question) CD ORCH 00224

Three Places in New England M1003 .I94 T5 1935 2 copies CD ORCH 00236 CD ORCH 00241 CD ORCH 00212

Concord Sonata MM23 .I92 no. 2 1968 M23 .I92 no. 2 1947b (2nd ed.) CD KEYBD 00170 “The Alcotts” and other bits on KEYBD 00248, played by Ives

8 Unanswered Question M1045 .I95 U5 1985 CD ORCH 00404 (w/Symphony No. 2) CD CNTMP 00387 (both versions)

Crawford (Seeger) Sonata for Violin and Piano M219 .S445 1984 CD CNTMP 00139

Three Songs to Poems by Carl Sandburg CD CNTMP 00139 CD SONGS 00129

Piano Study in Mixed Accents M25 .S45 S7 CD CNTMP 00139

String Quartet 1931 M452 .S453 CD STRNG 00104

Nineteen American Folk Songs – MT 758 .S53 1995

Copland Billy the Kid Suite M1003 .C778 B4 1941B M1003 .C778 B41 1941 CD ORCH 00491

El Sálon México M1258 .C717 S3 1972 M215 .C79 S32 1970 M35 .C66 S3 1941 CD ORCH 00491

Quiet City M1140 .C65 Q5 1941 MM1045 .C77 Q9 1941 CD ORCH 00491

9 Symphony for Organ and Orchestra MM1001 .C78 no. 1 M1006 .C77 O7 CD CNTMP 00344 CD ORCH 00494

Symphony No. 3 M1001 .C78 No. 3 1966 CD ORCH 00494

Old American Songs M1615 .C67 O4 CD ORCH 00222

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