Music 203H: the Collective Improvisational Practices of the Grateful Dead – Syllabus
Music 203H: The Collective Improvisational Practices of the Grateful Dead – Syllabus
Instructor: Dr. Melvin Backstrom [email protected] Class Schedule: Monday, 4-5:30PM Music Center 130 Monday, 5:30-7PM Music Center 114 Office Hours: Monday, 2-3 or by appointment Room #126
Course Description The goal of this performance-practice seminar-ensemble is to enable its participants to learn about and apply collective improvisational practices, such as those of the Grateful Dead (as well as of its jam-band progenitors), to their own musical activities. Each week will consist of 90 minutes focused on discussing assigned listenings and readings, as well as some theoretical instruction, followed by 90 minutes playing music as an ensemble in order to apply and develop the skills and practices previously discussed. A particular area of focus will be on expanding listening skills in order to facilitate in-the-moment engagement with musical sound. Another important concern will be encouraging an ecumenical stylistic repertoire in which the widest possible array of music—from popular song forms to the furthest reaches of the experimental avant-garde—are not only available for use, but can also be brought into dialogue. Music of the Grateful Dead will provide some of the material that will be used as “jumping off” material for the ensemble’s collective improvisations, but we will explore other music in a Grateful Dead-like manner as well.
Grading Participation 20% 1st Response 10% 2nd Response 10% 3rd Response 10% Presentation/Conduction 10% Final Essay 40%
Given that it counts for 20% of students’ final grade, participation is obviously highly valued and is intended to stress the importance of active involvement in the discussions and performances of which this course will consist. The three responses are relatively informal writings in which students reflect on course content: discussions, readings, listenings, and playing. They can engage with all of these different aspects or focus only on one. Although not formal essays, they must still use proper academic language, style and grammar. Students will also be required to present (verbally and in writing) an improvisational scenario made to the class, made up of any combination of pre-existing or original music, which they will then lead the ensemble in performing. As a final project, they will submit a final essay that critically reflects on the results of their scenario’s performance, as well as of their engagement with the course material in order to help them work out for themselves what elements would be most productively applied to their own musical practices.
Listenings Undoubtedly one of the most helpful aspects of studying the music of the Grateful Dead is the plethora of available recordings of their live concerts from the band’s entire 30-year existence. See https://archive.org/details/GratefulDead for free access to all publicly traded recordings. Note: There are three types of live recordings: soundboards, audience, and matrix. Soundboards were recorded by associates of the band and can only be streamed. Because they were recorded directly from the band’s live sound, they have a clean, though arguably less “alive,” sound. They are not available for download from the Internet Archive (IA). Audience recordings, in contrast, are much more “alive” but have a wide range of sound quality, from excellent to practically unlistenable. They are available for download from the IA. Matrix recordings are mixes of soundboards and audience recordings intended to give the best possible balance of good sound quality with a “live” sound. They are unavailable for download.
4/2 – Week 1: Introduction
4/9 – Week 2: 1) Amigo, Cristian. “Non-systematic Thoughts About Improvisation.” In The Grateful Dead in Concert: Essays on Live Improvisation, eds. Jim Tuedio and Stan Spector (Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co, 2010), 17-24. 2) Freeman, Robert. “Other People Play the Music: Improvisation as Social Interaction.” In Deadhead Social Science: “You Ain't Gonna Learn What You Don't Want to Know,” eds. Rebecca G. Adams and Robert Sardiello (Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press, 2000), 74-106. 3) Nicole Biamonte, “Triadic Modal and Pentatonic Patterns in Rock Music,” Music Theory Spectrum 32, no. 2 (2010), 95-110. Watch: 1) Sunshine Daydream (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URtCml8FHrU) Optional Listening: 2) 8/27/1972 is the performance recorded for Sunshine Daydream. The entire concert can be listened to here: https://archive.org/details/gd72-08- 27.sbd.braverman.16582.sbefail.shnf/gd72-08-27d2t04.shn.
4/16 – Week 3: First Response Due 1) Boone, Graeme M. “Tonal and Expressive Ambiguity in ‘Dark Star.’” In Understanding Rock: Essays in Musical Analysis, 171-210. Edited by John R. Covach and Graeme M. Boone. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997. 2) Boone, Graeme M. “Dark Star Mandala.” In The Grateful Dead in Concert: Essays in Live Improvisation, eds. James Tuedio and Stan Spector (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2010), 3) Richard Pettengill, “Performing Collective Improvisation: The Grateful Dead’s ‘Dark Star’,” in Taking It To The Bridge, eds. Richard Pettengill and Nicholas Cook (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2013), 37-51. Listening: 1) Live/Dead (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLdUZJydcw&t=303s) 2)“Dark Star>That’s It For the Other One>Turn On Your Lovelight>We Bid You Goodnight,” 2/13/1970 (https://archive.org/details/gd1970-02-13.sbd.miller.fix- 97613.97639.sbeok.flac16/gd70-02-13d3t01.flac)
4/23 – Week 4 1) David Malvinni, “‘Mind Left Your Body’: Thematic Signposts and Arrivals in the Grateful Dead’s Jazz-Rock Jamming,” in Grateful Dead and the Art of Rock Improvisation, chpt. 5. 2) Melvin Backstrom, “Pastoral Complexity in the Music of the Grateful Dead,” in “The Grateful Dead and Their World: Popular Music and the Avant-Garde in the San Francisco Bay Area, 1965-75,” PhD diss., McGill University, 2017. It is fairly long so if you don’t have time to read the whole thing, focus on pages 198-229 (38-69 of PDF) 3) “The Dead’s Early Thematic Jams,” Grateful Dead Guide (http://deadessays.blogspot.com/2010/01/deads-early-thematic-jams.html) Listening: 1) “Stella Blue>Truckin’>The Other One>Eyes of the World>China Doll,” Grateful Dead Live at Nassau Coliseum on 1973-03-15 (https://archive.org/details/gd1973-03- 15.136652.sbd.reelmaster.cassette.dat.sirmick.flac16/gd1973-03-15s2t08.flac). 2) “China Cat Sunflower>I Know You Rider,” “Jack Straw,” “Playing in the Band,” Grateful Dead Live at Nassau Coliseum on 1973-03-16 (https://archive.org/details/gd1973-03-16.sbd.miller.79186.sbeok.flac16/gd73-03- 16d2t02.flac) Optional: 1) “Birdsong,” “Dark Star>Truckin’>Morning Dew>Sugar Magnolia” and entire concert from 1973-03-16 2) Watch “China Cat Sunflower>I Know You Rider”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWQFZ7Lx-rg&t=1446s 3) “Eyes of the World”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kX3Tdlmtbzg
4/30 – Week 5: Special Guest David Gans 1) Jason Kemp Winfree, “‘Searching for the Sound’: Grateful Dead Music and Interpretive Transformation,” in The Grateful Dead and Live Improvisation, 152-63. 2) Brent Wood, “The Eccentric Revolutions of Phil Lesh,” in The Grateful Dead in Concert, 43-57. Listening: 1) “He’s Gone>Truckin’>Jam>Dark Star>Sugar Magnolia,” 3/23/1973, (https://archive.org/details/gd73-03-24.sbd.bertha-ashley.25508.sbeok.shnf/gd73-03- 24_Bertha_d3t03.shn) 2) “Jam,” (July 27, 1973) (https://archive.org/details/gd1973-07-27.mtx.seamons.100410.sbeok.flac16/gd73-07- 27d2t03.flac) 3) Dicks Picks 12 (Shared on Google Drive: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1XsHQQ0en8zVqrPsjInW0UBiKTlJ5yBss?usp=s haring)
5/7 – Week 6: Second Response Due 1) Melvin J. Backstrom, “‘Spring from Night into the Sun’: Metaphors of Dark and Light in the Music of the Grateful Dead,” Grateful Dead Studies (forthcoming). 2) David Malvinni, “‘Now is the Time Past Believing,”: Concealment, Ritual, and Death in the Grateful Dead’s Approach to Improvisation,” in All Graceful Instruments: The Context of the Grateful Dead Phenomenon (Newcastle, UK : Cambridge Scholars Press, 2007), 1-18. Listening: 1) “China Cat Sunflower>I Know You Rider,” tracks 8-9, “Truckin’>The Other One>Comes A Time>Sugar Magnolia,” tracks 19-23 (mislabeled as 19-22), and “Turn On Your Lovelight>Goin’ Down the Road Feeling Bad>One More Saturday Night,” tracks 28-30 (mislabeled as 27-29), April 26, 1972 (https://archive.org/details/gd1972-04-26.sbd.backus.12884.sbeok.shnf) 2) “Help on the Way” through “Sugar Magnolia,” tracks 13-22, Grateful Dead Live at Winterland Arena on 1977-06-09 (https://archive.org/details/gd1977-06- 09.mtx.seamons.98801.sbeok.flac16/gd77-06-09d2t02.flac)
5/14 – Week 7: 1) David Malvinni, “‘Dark Star’: Theorizing Improvisation,” Grateful Dead and the Art of Rock Improvisation, chpt. 4, 99-135 2) Shaugn O’Donnell, “Space, Motion, and Other Musical Metaphors,” in Perspectives on the Grateful Dead, 127-35. 3) Erik Silverman, “ ‘Mysteries Dark and Vast’: Grateful Dead Concerts and Initiation in the Sublime,” The Grateful Dead in Concert: Essays on Live Improvisation, 214-31. Listening: 1) “Dark Star>Me & My Uncle>Dark Star>Wharf Rat>Sugar Magnolia,” April 24, 1972 (https://archive.org/details/gd72-04-24.sbd- aud.cotsman.16332.sbeok.shnf), 2) May 26, 1972 (https://archive.org/details/gd72-05- 26.sbd.hollister.12758.sbeok.shnf/gd720526-d3t06.shn), especially “Truckin’>The Other One>Morning Dew>The Other One> Sing Me Back Home.”
5/21 – Week 8: 1) Melvin J. Backstrom, “The Grateful Dead and the Blues for Allah,” in “The Grateful Dead and Their World: Popular Music and the Avant-Garde in the San Francisco Bay Area, 1965-75,” chpt. 5 (PhD diss, McGill University, 2017), 307-51. 2) Gary Peters, “Mimesis and Cruelty,” in The Philosophy of Improvisation, chpt. 3 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2009). Listening: 1) Grateful Dead Live at Kezar Stadium on 1975-03-23 (https://archive.org/details/gd1975-03-23.sbd.miller.110126.flac16) 2) “Help on the Way” through” Sugar Magnolia,” tracks 7-14, Grateful Dead Live at Winterland Arena on 1975-06-17 (https://archive.org/details/gd75-06- 17.bertrando.unknown.233.sbeok.shnf/gd75-06-17d2t01.shn) 3) “Blues for Allah,” Grateful Dead Live at Great American Music Hall on 1975-08-13 (https://archive.org/details/gd75-08-13.fm.vernon.23661.sbeok.shnf)
5/28 – Week 9: Third Response Due; Presentations/Conductions 1) Jim Tuedio, “‘Pouring its Light into Ashes’: Exploring the Multiplicity of Becoming in Grateful Dead Improvisation,” in The Grateful Dead in Concert: Essays on Live Improvisation, 133-51. 2) David Malvinni, “The Unfolding of Jamming in the Grateful Dead’s Original Repertoire,” in Grateful Dead and the Art of Rock Improvisation, chpt. 6. Richard Middleton, “ ‘Play It Again Sam’: Some Notes on the Productivity of Repetition in Popular Music,” Popular Music 3 (Producers and Markets), 235-70. 3) “1977, May 8 – Cornell University” (http://www.deadlistening.com/2008/10/1977- may-8-cornell-university.html) Listening: 1) Grateful Dead Live at Barton Hall - Cornell University on 1977-05-08 (https://archive.org/details/gd1977-05-08.mtx.seamons.97274.sbeok.flac16/gd77-05- 08d2t01.flac) 2) Grateful Dead Live at Rainbow Theater on 1981-10-06 (https://archive.org/details/gd81-10-06.sbd.polgar.3303.sbefail.shnf/gd811006d3t01.shn)
6/4 – Week 10: Presentations/Conductions continued 1) David Malvinni, “Improvisational Types in the Grateful Dead’s Later Period,” Grateful Dead and the Art of Rock Improvisation, chpt. 7. 2) Andy Hamilton, “The Art of Improvisation and the Aesthetics of Imperfection,” British Journal of Aesthetics 40, no. 1 (Jan. 2000), 168-85. Listening: 1) Grateful Dead Live at Uni Dome, U of Northern Iowa on 1978-02-05 (https://archive.org/details/gd78-02-05.aud.set2.warner.19466.sbeok.shnf) 2) Grateful Dead Live at Nassau Coliseum on 1990-03-29 (https://archive.org/details/gd90-03-29.sbd.nawrocki.3389.sbeok.shnf)
Week 11: FINAL ESSAY DUE JUNE 11