Composer Topics (346-0-1)
Topic
Tchaikovsky
Instructors
Inna I Naroditskaya
847/467-2034
in-narod@northwestern.edu
Specialist in Azerbaijanian and Eastern music cultures, Russian music, gender studies, and diasporas. Author, articles and reviews in Ethnomusicology and Asian Music as well as essays and articles in Azerbaijanian and Russian publications; producer of numerous radio programs. Author, Song from the Land of Fire: Azerbaijanian Mugam in the Soviet and Post-Soviet Periods (Routledge, 2003). Editor, Music and the Sirens (Indiana University Press, 2006); co-editor, Manifold Identities: Studies on Music and Minorities (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2004). Recipient of Center for the Education of Women prize, Rackham research grant, Harvard University Davis Senior Fellowship, the Rockefeller Bellagio Scholarly Residency, and funding from the International Institute and School of Music at the University of Michigan.
Meeting Info
RCMA Lower Level 113: Tues 2:00PM - 4:50PM
Overview of class
Class on Peter Tchaikovsky deals with cultural and musical history in nineteenth-century Russia and with the spilt between nationalism manifested by the Mighty Five and so-called cosmopolitism of Tchaikovsky and brothers Rubinstein. "The last imperial composer," Tchaikovsky captured the splendor of the eighteenth-century court and forebode the advent of the modernism. He touched on every genres - from vocal romances and cycles of short piano pieces to monumental concerti, symphonies, and programmatic compositions, inspired by literary works and evoking visual imageries. He had especial affinity with theater, in which he began a new era in Russian ballet. A number of his operas, including lyric Eugene Onegin, mystical Queen of Spades although based on Pushkin don't befit Russian nationalistic molds of heroic historical or fairytale operas. The musical repertoire in this class includes songs, two piano and violin concerti, two of Tchaikovsky's symphonies, his Swan Lake and Nutcracker as well as his symbolist Queen, Onegin, and Iolanta (pending on changes discussed with students). Requiring active listening and reading, the class is based on rigorous seminar-type discussions.
Learning Objectives
Music of Tchaikovsky
Tchaikovsky's biography
Literary sources of his operas (Pushkin)
Critical and analytical literature
Teaching Method
Lectures and class discussions
Evaluation Method
Class preparations
Mid-term
Research paper/presentation
Class Materials (Required)
Most of material will be provided via Canvas