TH536: CONTEMPLATING MUSIC
COURSE SYLLABUS
SPRING 2020
Instructor: Dr. John H. Morrison
Office: none
E-mail: john@johnmorrison.org
Blog: http://jhmedu.org/CM_blog/
Class website: http://jhmedu.org/CMclass
Cell phone: 617 223 1689
Credit Hours: 1
Office hours: Tuesday, Wednesday @ noon, Room L-10 (unless reserved by another person) or by appointment
Meeting Times: 1:00 – 2:55 Friday
Meeting Place: Room 10
Required score:
Messiaen: Quartet for the End of Time
Reserve recording:
Messiaen: Quartet for the End of Time
Reserve readings:
Meyer, Leonard B. Explaining Music: Essays and Explorations.
Meyer, Leonard B. Music, the Arts, and Ideas.
Morrison, “SEA: Finding Common Ground for a Global Analytical Method”
Rishin, Rebecca. For the End of Time: The Story of the Messiaen Quartet
Sessions, Roger. The Musical Experience of Composer, Performer, and Listener.
Strunk, Oliver. Source Readings in the History of Music.
COURSE DESCRIPTION, RATIONALE, AND GOALS
The primary focus of the course will be to utilize and further develop an analytical technique known as the Sound Energy Aggregate (SEA) using contemplative techniques. The approach is one which attempts to account for the role of all musical parameters in building up the composite impact – the emotional profile or sound energy aggregate – of a piece. Since the technique requires a kind of singular focus on the various parameters, one at a time, to build up an analysis, and because the outcome of the analysis rather approximates the way human consciousness deals with music as it is heard, we will employ contemplative practices to ready the mind and provide the kind of attention required to do such real-time analysis. As one will discover in preparatory readings on the nature of analysis, this is an approach that ventures somewhat into the subjective world not typically sanctioned for formal analysis in the west. In other readings, though, one will discover that some disciplines have witnessed the growth of such approaches, which usually go under the heading of phenomenology. In a certain sense, one might call our pursuit the development of musical phenomenology. An underlying subtext for the class, then, is in contemplating the nature of musical analysis.
The course will provide a vehicle for the close study of a single piece together, Olivier Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time. We will work with that piece for the entire semester.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS AND PROCEDURES
Every student should purchase the single score we are studying. While we may legally use photocopies of the score in the early weeks, since each of us will purchase the score eventually, it would not be right to use only photocopies of the library's score.
While the course will feature some traditional lecture approach, we will function mostly in a seminar format. During class for most of the semester, we will listen repeatedly to movements or segments of Quartet for the End of Time, gauging the energy contributions of musical parameters, and then attempt to forge an account of that passage or movement as an aggregate of sound energy. Further discussion of that passage will attempt higher or deeper levels of analysis, at times taking the analysis in a more traditional direction (for the first two movements), and always seeking to discover and explore the elements that drive the musical energy. As part of our process, we will explore techniques for effectively clearing and focusing the mind for this work, apply them at various points in the analytical process, and in the course of events, come to evaluate the effectiveness of the varied techniques. During the latter part of the semester, we will practice doing the contemplative exploration of sound energy during class as before, leaving as homework the deeper pondering of what we discovered in class, whether specifically musical or regarding the process of contemplative (or phenomenological) analysis. Assignments in that period have class members forge brief reflections (intuitive analytical essays?) from our work during class.
A final paper will be due at class time during the first week after classes end. That paper will ask that one consider the whole piece, how the energies of each movement are controlled, the impact of each movement on oneself, and to make and explain a diagram of the whole. Please note that additional reading may inform your final paper, indeed the entire course, and two sources (Rishin’s book on the genesis of the piece and Messiaen’s Technique of My Musical Language) are on reserve and available all semester.
It cannot be overemphasized that the class is mostly about the work each individual contributes: the teacher is a guide and collaborator, not a disseminator of data!
STUDENT OUTCOMES
At the end of the semester, a student will be able:
- to listen openly and non-judgmentally to unfamiliar music
- to penetrate the surface of a composition through repeated listening and identify the primary factors which determine its shape and impact
- to explain the interaction of musical parameters in producing complex musical outcomes
- to ponder music one is performing with the assistance of tools developed in class
- to perform music from an improved large-scale perspective
- to make musical decisions informed by a fresh understanding of the importance of minute detail
- to write essays about music which demonstrate insight into the interaction of both audible detail and perceptible shape
- to gain deeper insight, understanding, and appreciation of music from any style or period
EVALUATION
Grades will be assigned weekly, evaluating the level of engagement with the work underway in class. Essay grades are pass-fail. A credible attempt at the essay as assigned will gain credit, while falling below a certain, hard-to-define threshold will gain no credit.
The final grade will be determined as below:
Weekly work (steady participation in class): 30%
Weekly assignments (all pass-fail): 50%
Final paper: 20%
GRADING SCALE
Numerals in parentheses indicate value assigned to letter grades when computing averages.
A 94-100 (97) C 73-76 (75)
A- 90-93 (92) C- 70-72 (71)
B+ 87-89 (88) D+ 65-69 (67)
B 83-86 (85) D 60-64 (62)
B- 80-82 (81) F 0-59 (50)
C+ 77-79 (78)
ATTENDANCE AND MAKEUPS
Students are allowed at most two absences in the course of the semester. Additional absences will result in the loss of a letter grade per absence from what would have been one's grade.
COURSE OUTLINE
While all effort will be applied to maintain the schedule outlined below, it is always possible to fall behind or realize it is not necessary to go as slowly as planned.
January 17 intro, read syllabus, expose idea of SEA
January 24 discuss readings, in-class work on Messiaen (whole piece)
January 7 discuss readings, in-class work on Messiaen (first movement)
February 14 in-class work on Messiaen (first movement, continued)
February 21 in-class work on Messiaen (second movement)
February 28 in-class work on Messiaen (second movement, continued)
March 6 in-class work on Messiaen (third movement)
March 13 in-class work on Messiaen (fourth movement)
March 20 no class – spring break
March 27 in-class work on Messiaen (fifth movement)
April 3 in-class work on Messiaen (sixth movement)
April 10 in-class work on Messiaen (seventh movement)
April 17 in-class work on Messiaen (final movement)
April 24 semester wrap-up
May 1 Final paper due: SEA account of whole piece
ASSIGNMENTS
Greater levels of detail for assignments will be provided as needed. The information provided here is to assist in your planning. Please take note that assignments are listed by due date.
due date assignment
January 24 readings: Meyer, Explaining Music, Chapter 1; two Wikipedia articles on phenomenology; Morrison,
“SEA: Finding Common Ground for a Global Analytical Method”
February 7 readings:
from Meyer, Music, the Arts, and Ideas: p. 7, last paragraph (“Style...”) to p. 21 through first paragraph, and pp. 42-46
from Sessions, The Musical Experience of Composer, Performer, and Listener: pp. 1-16, and p. 125 to end of book
optional: p. 22, last paragraph, to p. 26
from Source Readings in the History of Music:
Find and read one passage from ancient history (before 1450) which indicates to you that music was approached from a contemplative perspective in that time.
February 14 Take the analysis done in class a few steps further (the nature of which will be determined through
class discussions; some will do traditional analysis, some will pursue further listening-based analysis).
February 21 Make a graphic diagram of the first movement, and write a little essay to explain it.
February 28 Take the analysis done in class a few steps further (the nature of which will be determined through
class discussions; some will do traditional analysis, some will pursue further listening-based
analysis).
March 6 Make a graphic diagram of the second movement, and write a little essay to explain it.
March 13 Make a graphic diagram of movement 3, and write a little essay to explore the operation of a single
parameter that affects the energy of the movement in some interesting manner, or to reflect on the
impact on your listening of a contemplative practice used in class.
March 20 no class, spring break
March 27 Make a graphic diagram of movement 4, and write a little essay to explore the operation of a single
parameter that affects the energy of the movement in some interesting manner, or to reflect on the
impact on your listening of a contemplative practice used in class.
April 3 Make a graphic diagram of movement 5, and take a single parameter or two and discuss their
significance in shaping the form and energy of the movement.
April 10 Make a graphic diagram of movement 6, and take a single parameter or two and discuss their
significance in shaping the form and energy of the movement.
April 17 Make a graphic diagram of movement 7, and take a single parameter or two and discuss their
significance in shaping the form and energy of the movement.
April 24 Make a graphic diagram of movement 8, and take a single parameter or two and discuss their
significance in shaping the form and energy of the movement.
May 1 Final paper due: SEA account of whole piece
Weekly Homework
After working on a movement during class, for those days where the assignment is to make a diagram of the movement and then write a little essay to describe or explain it, we’ll try to leave a few minutes, about 10, to allow people to make a personal diagram and a note or two about why it is the way it is, leaving the more formal task of writing the essay until later. The hope is that the freshness of thought in the moment will be better preserved and lead to a better essay.
As one can see by reading the weekly assignments, they are intended to summarize a day’s class work, and allow one to reflect on the music a bit more deeply. Making a diagram is always part of the homework, and “little essays” are as well. A little essay is a set of several complete sentences that focus on the topic mentioned in the day’s assignment. One is encouraged to be intuitive in exploring a concept, shoring up impressions gained from repeated listenings through score study and contemplation. Given that it will take a little practice to feel comfortable with this approach, the homework is all pass-fail, only asking that one make a credible attempt at such essays. A paragraph, certainly less than a page, is sufficient. Please type your essays before handing them in each week.
Final Paper Description
The final paper requires that one consider the whole piece, how the energies of each movement are controlled, the impact of each movement on the listener (oneself), and to make and explain a diagram of the whole. Any insight that additional reading or research brings is of value. The reserve book by Rebecca Rishin about the genesis of the piece might be of particular value in this regard.
length: 4-6 pages (typed, double-spaced)
due April 24 at class time (no class meeting planned to occur)