Eastman School of Music - Instructor of Record

Borders, Boundaries, and Barriers in 20th-Century Music

In the twentieth century, social, cultural, political, and artistic limits were continually pushed and surpassed by musicians and non-musicians alike. Western powers were exposed to global cultures in a way that had been impossible a century earlier, all while subjugated people within the West campaigned for equal rights. As imperialism’s cultural pursuits became even more apparent, people historically excluded from “Western art music” were able to negotiate their place within an increasingly globalized world. How did these shifts of musical power influence composition and performance? And how did formal, generic, and stylistic limits shift in response to exoticism, feminism, the civil rights movement, and (post-)colonialism? This course attempts to answer these questions through the study of representative works by composers from late Romanticism to the present day, including Debussy, Schoenberg, Stravinsky, Britten, Glass, Oliveros, Saariaho, Golijov, and others.

Music Since 1900

This master’s level course is designed to provide a solid grasp of twentieth-century European and American art music by offering both broad coverage of significant works and in-depth examination of the era’s diverse musical trends, social and political environments, and aesthetic and cultural controversies. As this is an accelerated summer course, time will not permit a comprehensive study of all trends. Rather, we stop in on some of the era’s most important musical thinkers, including Mahler, Debussy, Stravinsky, Schoenberg, Shostakovich, Britten, Oliveros, Carter, and Saariaho. Through textual, score-based, and sonic study, we will analyze and question the meaning of existing rubrics for the study of music since 1900, as well as develop new ones appropriate for diverse repertoires. This approach will allow students to consider what music history and musicology can do for them as practicing musicians and educators.

Popular Music in American Life

The rise of the American popular music industry is perhaps the most important musical development of the past two centuries. This course will examine the evolution of popular music in America from the nineteenth century to the present day as a set of interconnected musical systems, as well as an expression of diverse American identities. With the course structured as a chronological survey, we will track stylistic shifts, as well as how music has reflected and influenced the cultural consciousness of the United States. Major course themes include race, gender, sexuality, protest, and technology. Students will leave the class being able to identify significant stylistic characteristics and general musical elements, as well as be able to place popular musics into appropriate historical and social contexts. The ability to read music is not required.

Michigan State University - Instructor of Record

With music as our primary source-text, we will focus on the ways in which music has been a means to negotiate Western culture’s construction of gender and sexuality from the seventeenth century to the present. The aim of the course is to expand the student’s ability to interpret Western music and how it serves to transmit, transform, and subvert ideas about human identity using musical and extra-musical resources.

Music, Gender, and Sexuality

 

With music as our primary source-text, we will focus on the ways in which music has been a means to negotiate Western culture’s construction of gender and sexuality from the seventeenth century to the present. The aim of the course is to expand the student’s ability to interpret Western music and how it serves to transmit, transform, and subvert ideas about human identity using musical and extra-musical resources. As a General Education course, this class encourages students to engage critically with their own society, history, and culture(s); it also encourages students to learn more about the history and culture of other societies. We will focus on key ideas and issues in human experience; encourage appreciation of the roles of knowledge and values in shaping and understanding human behavior; emphasize the responsibilities and opportunities of democratic citizenship; highlight the value of the creative arts of literature, theater, music, and arts; and alert us to important issues that occur among peoples in an increasingly interconnected, interdependent world

Music, Gender, and Sexuality in the Modern World

Eastman School of Music - Teaching Assistant

  • Music and Society: 1750-1880

  • Music and Society: 1750-1880

  • Other People, Other Sounds: Music and Meaning, 800-1750

  • Performing Politics in the Musical Marketplace, 1750-1880

Michigan State University - Teaching Assistant

  • Global Music Cultures

  • Great Works of Western Music (Online)

  • Popular Music in American Life

  • Popular Music, Media, and Identity in the 1980s