Topics in Contemporary Repertoire (437-0-1)
Topic
The Art of Noise
Instructors
Jay Alan Yim
847/467-2030
jaymar@northwestern.edu
Office Hours: By appointment
Jay Alan Yim has received Guggenheim and National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships, and many other awards for his music, which has been featured at international festivals (Darmstadt, Tanglewood, Ars Musica, Wien-Modern, Gaudeamus, Huddersfield, Aspen, ISCM, ICMC) and performed by the New York Philharmonic, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Orchestre National de Lyon, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Nederlands Radio Filharmonisch, Los Angeles Philharmonic New Music Group, London Sinfonietta, Ensemble SurPlus, Arditti, JACK, and Spektral Quartets, dal niente, ICE. He co-founded the intermedia collaborative 'localStyle' with Marlena Novak, and their work has been exhibited internationally (Amsterdam, Barcelona, Beijing, Berlin, Chicago, Eindhoven, London, Mexico City, New York, Sydney, Tel Aviv, Toronto, Warsaw) in festivals, museums, galleries, and public spaces.
Meeting Info
RCMA Lower Level 115: Mon 2:00PM - 4:50PM
Overview of class
This will be a discussion-based seminar aiming to explore the role(s) that noise plays, how noise is constituted (biologically, culturally), how we ascribe value to it, and its relationship to what we denote as music. We will start by asking questions—with the understanding that there may be no definitive answers, but instead an infinite series of provisional answers (that raise more questions)—and in the course of formulating those answers, circumnavigate and bring a clearer focus on the nature of sound.
What is noise? How does one define what makes something noise? What is it that make/s sound/s noise? What is it that make/s sound/s music? What is the relationship between noise and music? Are humans the only hearing organisms that experience noise? Are humans the only hearing organisms that experience music?
Registration Requirements
Permission numbers can be obtained via email to the instructor. Non-music majors are welcome.
Learning Objectives
By the end of the course, students will be able to comprehend multiple definitions of what constitutes 'noise' as a phenomenon, from a variety of perspectives. They will have read a number of essays concerned with various aspects of sonic praxis and articulated their responses to those essays in written form. Simultaneously they will have been exposed to a significant cross-section of audio recordings considered pertinent to developing an informed experience of many kinds of sonic practices that constitute the repertoire that arguably leads to noise as an artistic practice.
Teaching Method
Weekly reading and listening assignments are intended to provide the necessary background for students to productively participate during class discussions. Therefore most students will find it necessary to devote a significant amount of time to focused listening if the repertoire is unfamiliar to them. Some class sessions will include film/video screenings.
Evaluation Method
Graded course writing assignments will take the form of essays submitted via Canvas (either Microsoft Word documents or PDFs). In-class discussion will be an integral part of course activities and therefore class participation will count towards the final grade. Students are expected to do all of the listening assignments and be prepared to articulate either in written or oral form their responses to the listening assignments. While there will not be a final examination per se, we will use the time period set aside by the Registrar for the Final Exam as our final course meeting, with mandatory attendance. Students who depart early for Spring Break will be penalized.
Class Materials (Required)
Hegarty, Paul: Noise/Music: A History, ISBN 978-0-8264-1727-5 [henceforth referred to as NM]
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Barnes & Noble $35.95
Cox, Christoph and Daniel Warner (editors): Audio Culture, Revised Edition: Readings in Modern Music / Edition 2, ISBN 9781501318368 [henceforth referred to as AC].
Amazon $46.95
Barnes & Noble $46.95
Novak, David: Japanoise, ISBN 978-0-8223-5392-8 [henceforth referred to as JN]
And if you are like me and still prefer actual printed books instead, the usual online vendors have it available for modest prices:
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Class Materials (Suggested)
Additional materials will be made available during the course.