This course will explore a large variety of repertoire from the 20th and 21st centuries. The course will focus on theoretical foundations and practical applications of a variety of well established analytical tools (e.g., motivic analysis, set theory, twelve-tone theory) as well as more recent techniques (e.g., visualization of recorded sound, spectromorphology). The following works will be studied: Bartók’s Song of the Harvest from Forty-four Violin Duets (1931), Boulez’s Structures Book Ia (1952), Cage’s Music of Changes I (1951), Carter’s Esprit Rude, Esprit Doux (1984), Dallapiccola’s Quaderno Musicale di Annalibera I (1952), Grisey’s Vortex Temporum I (1994-96), Harvey’s Mortos Plango, Vivos Voco (1980), Ligeti Désordre from Études, Book I (1985), Schoenberg’s Phantasy Op. 47 (1949), Stockhausen’s Klavierstück XI (1953), Stravinsky’s Lacrimosa from Requiem Canticles (1966), Webern’s Op. 7 No. 4 (1910).
Course Pre-requisites: Knowledge of tonal harmony (diatonic and chromatic), 18th-century counterpoint, and classical form