Topics in Contemporary Music (356-0-1)
Topic
Exper Music in Thry & Practice
Instructors
Ryan Wayne Dohoney
ryan.dohoney@northwestern.edu
Office Hours: Email instructor to arrange a meeting.
Professor Dohoney teaches courses in ethnomusicology, experimental music, US and African popular music, music in Cold War culture, queer music studies, and sound studies. He is currently at work on two book projects: a historical ethnography of the premier of Morton Feldman's <i>Rothko Chapel</i> and a study of New York City's music scene in the 1970s and 1980s written through the musical networks of experimental composer-performer Julius Eastman. His work as a composer of collaborative experimental music theater works has been presented at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Chicago Cultural Center, Portland Center Stage, Performance Works Northwest, and Robert Wilson's Byrd-Hoffman Watermill Center.
Meeting Info
RCMA Lower Level 111: Tues, Thurs 2:00PM - 3:20PM
Overview of class
This course will introduce students to the theory and practice of experimental music from 1950 to the present drawing on examples from the U.S., Europe, and Japan. The course is a hybrid lecture-workshop. Together we will develop a collective performance practice and much of our class time will be devoted to the realization and performance of experimental scores. Each student will also develop an individual research project with an experimental score from the library's special collections and archives. Topics will include graphic notation, creative improvisation, Fluxus, Wandelweiser, the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians. Artists studied will include Yoko Ono, Mieko Shomi, Christian Wolff, Pauline Oliveros, George E. Lewis, Anthony Braxton and others.
Registration Requirements
Students should be comfortable with performance on their preferred instrument.
Learning Objectives
Students will become familiar with the history of experimental practices and notational styles.
Students will develop skills interpreting creative notation and embodied knowledge of contemporary experimental performance practice.
Students will develop skills for independent and original research
Teaching Method
Lecture, discussion, performance workshop, individual research
Evaluation Method
Students will be graded on their class participation (both discussion and performance), discussion posts, short writing assignments, and a final research project
Class Materials (Required)
None.