Syllabus
Course Schedule 3.10 Return of Unreason: The Rise of the Fantastic
Assign In-Class Presentations and Reading Responses
Works covered: Mozart, Don Giovanni, Act I, scenes 5, 9, and 10 and Act II, scene 15 10.10 Unreason, Cont’d
Reading Response due: Todorov, “Definition of the Fantastic,” in The Fantastic: A Structural Approach to a Literary Genre, trans. Richard Howard. Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP, 1975. 17.10 Music and Unreason: The Sublime
Reading Response due: Burke, “Part II: On the Sublime” (pp. 53-79; 113-14) in A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful. Oxford: OUP, 1990.
Works covered: Beethoven, Symphony No. 9, iv 24.10 The Sublime and Music Scholarship
Reading due:Hoffmann, “Councilor Krespel,” The Best Tales of Hoffmann, ed. E.F. Bleier. New York: Dover, 1967.
Works covered: Beethoven, cont’d 31.10 Musico-Fantastic Forms: CPE Bach Fantasias
Reading due:Hoffman, “Musico-Poetic Club,” in FPCM.
Works covered: CPE Bach, Fantasia in C Minor, H. 75; Fantasia in G Minor, H. 225, Fantasia in E-flat, H. 227. 7.11 Musico-Fantastic Forms: Mendelssohn’s “Fairy Music”
Works covered: Mendelssohn, Midsummer Night’s Dream, overture 14.11 Musico-Fantastic Forms: Schumann and Fragments
Reading Response due:Rosen, “Fragments,” The Romantic Generation. Harvard: HUP.
Works covered: Schumann, Carnaval, No. 1, “Préambule”, No. 5, “Eusebius”, No. 6, “Florestan” 21.11 The Fantastic and the Uncanny
Reading Response due:Freud, “The Uncanny,” New York: Penguin, 1998, pp. 123-159.
Works covered: Settings of Goethe’s Erlkönig by Schubert, Tomášek and Spohr 28.11 The Uncanny and the Virtuoso
Works covered: Settings of Goethe’s Erlkönig by Loewe and Reichardt; Paganini, 24 Caprices
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Annotation
Nationalism and the Fantastic in Nineteenth-Century Music
Fall, 2019
(Note: Although this is an English-langue course, several of our readings will be available also in Czech; české překlady ještě dohledáváme.)
How to use this syllabus: This syllabus provides you with information specific to this course, and it also provides information about important university policies. This document should be viewed as a course overview; it is not a contract and is subject to change as the semester evolves.
Course description:
This course explores two looming aesthetics in nineteenth-century thinking—nationalism and the fantastic—for the ways they interacted with and helped shape canonical works. It begins with a close examination of Beethoven’s ninth symphony to illuminate the peculiarities of German nationalism during the era as well as the ways this nationalism continues to inform even modern narratives in music history. Then it takes on topics like the supernatural in Berlioz’s Symphony Fantastique, depictions of madness in Schumann’s Carnaval, and the magical realms of Dvořák’s Rusalka—that is, period works’ renderings of “otherness”—to examine the ways musical practice sometimes participated in, responded to, and worked against nationalist discourses. In the end, students will gain an understanding of the stylistic and historical thinking that helped formulate and were expressed in nineteenth-century works. They will also closely examine their varied relationships to the “canon” and its practitioners, then and now, through critical reading, listening, music analysis, and writing.
Measurable Student Learning Outcomes: Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:
• Analyze the text and music of fantastic music
• Connect individual works to broader histories and social contexts
• Critically assess our varied relationships to the “classical canon” and its practitioners, in the past and today
• Closely read and critique both primary and secondary readings concerning music and the fantastic
• Formulate strategies for researching and gaining insight into fantastic music and music generally
These outcomes will be measured through students’ performance on written assignments and oral presentations.
Required Materials: Our course website will be the nervous system for this class; all updates, announcements, readings, listening, assignments, etc. will be posted there. You can also contact your classmates through this site and download any materials handed out in class.
Required Materials:
Our course website will be the nervous system for this class; all updates, announcements, readings, listening, assignments, etc. will be posted there. You can also contact your classmates through this site and download any materials handed out in class.