Selected Topics (335-0-1)
Topic
Music in Fiction, Poetry, and Theatre
Instructors
Jesse Rosenberg
847/467-2033
j-rosenberg1@northwestern.edu
Specialist in 19th- and 20th-century Italian opera, with articles published on Rossini, Donizetti, Bellini, and Verdi; papers read at national and international conferences on opera and film music history. Research interests in musical aesthetics and the convergence of music with fields such as literature, poetry, and theology. Contributor, New Grove Dictionary of Opera (Macmillan, 1992), Pipers Enzyclopädie des Musiktheaters (Pipers, 1996), New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (Macmillan, 2000). Outstanding Dissertation Award and Excellence in Teaching Award, New York University. Faculty Honor Roll, Northwestern University.
Meeting Info
RCMA Lower Level 111: Mon, Wed 12:30PM - 1:50PM
Overview of class
In A Composer's Journal (1960), Aaron Copland wrote of "the literary man" that "when he puts two words together to characterize a musical experience, one of them is almost certain to be wrong." The conviction underlying this course is that it is rather Aaron Copland who is wrong on this important point, even aside from his typically gendered wording. Writers of fiction, poetry, and theater have long been interested in exploring musical experience, and readers of many backgrounds have a great deal to learn from them about music.
The course is articulated around a weekly series of thematically-related readings drawn from several literary genres: short stories such as "Wunderkind" by Carson McCullers, biographical fiction such as Josef Skvorecky's Dvorak in Love and Klaus Mann's Pathetic Symphony, jazz-related fiction in works by Dorothy Baker (Young Man with a Horn) and James Baldwin (Another Country), poetry by writers from Shakespeare and John Dryden to Frank O'Hara and Adrienne Rich, and plays by Alexander Pushkin (Mozart and Salieri), Peter Shaffer (Amadeus), Clifford Odets (Golden Boy), Itamar Moses (Bach at Leipzig). While the course will have limited space for full-length novels, excerpts from longer works are sure to be included, such as Gustave Flaubert's Madame Bovary, Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace, Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountain and Doktor Faustus, and Willa Cather's The Song of the Lark. From week to week students will take turns leading class discussion on the assigned readings, and occasional writing assignments will round out the course work.
Evaluation Method
Students will be evaluated on their organizational and interpretive skills in class discussion and occasional writing assignments.
Class Materials (Suggested)
All readings will be made available on Canvas, but students are encouraged to purchase their own copies of two or three books.
Class Attributes
Literature & Fine Arts Distro Area