Syllabus
Course topics:
1. Position of classical music in the West, role of a composer.
2. Art vs the popular, local vs global
3. Tonality and classical forms, tradition and the revolt against it.
4. West and its others, orientalism, world music, folkloric inspirations
5. Sound recording and other technologies of music
6. Modernity, postmodernity, neo-styles
7. Experimental music in Europe and USA
8. Listening to non-music, field recording, acoustic ecology, noise/music
9. National music in the modern times, Czech identity in music.
Annotation
This course will focus on the ways how the music has changed during the 20th and in the first years of the 21st century. We shall not only discuss the music itself as the organized sound, but also the transformations of its position within society, relations with technology. The course main material will be chosen from European and
American classical music, but we shall also look at the development in jazz, popular and electronic music as well as the music of other regions like Asia or Africa.