Readings | Modern Music: 1900-1960 | Music and Theater Arts

This page lists the readings assigned in the textbook and auxiliary sources, plus a few lecture outlines.

Textbook: Morgan, Robert. Twentieth-Century Music. New York, NY: W. W. Norton, 1991. ISBN: 9780393952728.

Several other assigned readings are in [Strunk v.7]: Morgan, Robert, ed. Strunk's Source Readings in Music History: 20th Century. Vol. 7. New York, NY: W. W. Norton, 1997. ISBN: 9780393967005.

LEC #	TOPICS	READINGS
Part 1: European Music Before WWII Composers and ideas which gained in importance before 1939 or at least 1945. Some works studied will be from as late as 1956 but in "older" styles.
1	Introduction. Antecedents and the State of Music, 1899. The "Long Nineteenth Century." 1900-1960: The Big Questions.	Morgan. "The Nineteenth-Century Musical Background," "Europe at the Turn of the Century," and (skim) "R. Strauss." pp. 1-8, 11-17, and 28-35.
2	Stravinsky Throws Down the Gauntlet	Morgan. "New Tonalities: Stravinsky." pp. 89-103. Stravinksy, Igor. "Comments," and "Reviews of the First Performance." In Music in the Western World. Edited by P. Weiss and R. Taruskin. New York, NY: Schirmer, 1984. ISBN: 9780028729008. ———. "Dissonance." From Poetics of Music. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, 1993. ISBN: 9780674678569. (Excerpts) Kelly, Thomas Forrest. "Igor Stravinsky, Le sacre du printemps: Thursday, May 29, 1913, 8:45pm." In First Nights. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2001. ISBN: 9780300091052.
3	Bartok	Morgan. "On Bartók." pp. 103-110 and 179-186. Morgan. "On Ravel." pp. 124-27. Bartók, Béla. "The Influence of Peasant Music on Modern Music." and "The Relation of Folk Song to the Development of Art Music of Our Time." In [Strunk v.7]. You must attempt one of these two readings, but don't worry if you don't get through them: 1. An easy introduction to analyzing Bartók: Bachmann, Tibor and Peter J. Bachmann. "An Analysis of Béla Bartók’s Music through Fibonaccian Numbers and the Golden Mean." Musical Quarterly 65.1 (1979), pp. 72-78 (read 72-top of 77). Their work is based on Ernő Lendvai, Béla Bartók: an analysis of his music (London, Kahn and Averill, 1971). 2. For those wanting to go deeper, a heavier introduction: Leo Treitler, "Re: Harmonic Procedure in the 'Fourth Quartet' of Béla Bartók." Journal of Music Theory 3.2 (Nov. 1959), pp. 292-98.
4	German Music between the Wars (And a Little Before and After...)	Morgan. "The Influence of Politics: Germany: Hindemith and Weill." pp. 220-35. Hindemith, Paul. "Atonality and Polytonality." In The Craft of Musical Composition, trans. Arthur Mendel. New York, NY: Schott, 1984.
5	The Second Viennese School: Tonality and Atonality	Morgan. "Chapter III: The Atonal Revolution." pp. 62-88.
6	The Second Viennese School: Twelve-Tone Tonality	Morgan. "The Twelve-Tone System." pp. 187-219. Schoenberg, Arnold. "Composition with Twelve Tones." In [Strunk v.7]. (Excerpts) Webern, Anton, and Arnold Schoenberg. "The Limits of Compression." In Music in the Western World. Edited by P. Weiss and R. Taruskin. New York, NY: Schirmer, 1984. ISBN: 9780028729008.
7	Neoclassicism and Stravinsky (ca. 1920-1952) First Unit Test	Morgan. "Prokofiev" and "Stravinsky." pp. 238-41 and 160-79. Optional but recommended: "Neo-Classicism and developments in France." pp. 159-68. Griffiths, Paul. Igor Stravinsky, The Rake's Progress. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 1982. ISBN: 9780521237468.
Part 2: American Music Before WWII
8	Introduction; Antecedents	Crawford, Richard. An Introduction to America's Music. New York, NY: W. W. Norton, 2000. ISBN: 9780393974096. (Excerpts)
9	Charles Ives	Morgan. pp. 137-148. Ives, Charles. "Music and Its Future." In [Strunk v.7]. ———. Selected Writings. In Music in the Western World. Edited by P. Weiss and R. Taruskin New York, NY: Schirmer, 1984, pp. 423-26. ISBN: 9780028729008. Thoreau, Henry David. Walden. Chapter 1, essentially the first 20 pages or so. (Excerpts) (Download a copy of Walden from Project Gutenberg.) Block, Geoffrey. Ives: Concord Sonata. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 1996. ISBN: 9780521498210.
10	Ruth Crawford Seeger and Other American Modernists	Tick, Judith. Ruth Crawford Seeger: A Composer's Search for American Music. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1997. ISBN: 9780195065091. Straus, Joseph. The Music of Ruth Crawford Seeger. Cambridge University Press, 1995. ISBN: 9780521416467.
11	The "Art-Scientists": Cowell, Antheil, Varese	Morgan. pp. 295-302. Cowell, Henry. New Musical Resources. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 1996. ISBN: 9780521499743. Antheil, George. Bad Boy of Music. New York, NY: Samuel French, Inc. 1990. ISBN: 9780573606045.
12	Still, Gershwin (And Bernstein)	Still, William Grant. "Horizons Unlimited." In [Strunk v.7]. Wilson, Olly. "The Black American Composer." In [Strunk v.7]. Schiff, David. Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 1997. ISBN: 9780521559539.
13	Aaron Copland (Guest Lecture)	Morgan. pp. 282-92.
14	Virgil Thomson Second Unit Test	Tommasini, Anthony. Virgil Thomson: composer on the aisle. New York, NY: W. W. Norton, 1998. ISBN: 9780393318586. Watson, Steven. Prepare for Saints: Gertrude Stein, Virgil Thomson, and the Mainstreaming of American Modernism. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1995. ISBN: 9780520223530.
Part 3: Music During and After WWII
15	The Continued Tonal Tradition I: Britten and Barber	Morgan. pp. 270-78 (includes Walton); optional: pp. 128-37 (earlier English composers, includes Vaughn Williams and Holst). Seymour, Claire. The Operas of Benjamin Britten. Woodbridge, UK: Boydell & Brewer, Ltd., 2004. ISBN: 9780851158655 Felsenfeld, Daniel. Britten and Barber: Their Lives and their Music. Pompton Plains, NJ: Amadeus Press, 2005. ISBN: 9781574671087.
16	The Continued Tonal Tradition II: Shostakovich	Morgan. pp. 244-50. Shostakovich, Dmitri. "Testimony." In [Strunk v.7]. Fay, Laurel. Shostakovich: A Life. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2005. ISBN: 9780195182514. (Excerpts)
17	Oliver Messiaen	Morgan. pp. 333-45. Rischin, Rebecca. For the End of Time: The Story of the Messiaen Quartet. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2003. ISBN: 9780801441363. Pople, Anthony. Messiaen, Quatuor pour la fin du temps. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 1998. ISBN: 9780521585385.
18	Total Serialism 1: Babbittand Stockhausen	Morgan. "Serialism in Germany: Stockhausen," and "American Serialism." pp. 345-55. Babbitt, Milton. "Who Cares if You Listen?" (1958) In [Strunk v.7]. Boulez, Pierre. "Schoenberg is Dead." The Score 6 (1952): 18-22.
19	Serialism 2: Nono and Stravinsky	Morgan. "Stravinsky and Serialism." pp. 355-58. Guerrero, Jeannie Ma. "Serial Intervention in Nono's Ilcanto Sospeso." Music Theory Online 12.1 (February 2006).
20	Boulez, Carter and the Legacy of Serial Aesthetic	Morgan. 397-402. Rosen, Charles. "The Performance of Contemporary Music: Carter's Double Concerto." In Critical Entertainments. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2001. ISBN: 9780674006843.
21	Electronic Music	Morgan. pp. 306-14. Rossolo, Luigi. "The Art of Noises." In [Strunk v.7]. Varèse, Edgard. "The Liberation of Sound." In [Strunk v.7]. Stockhausen, Karlheinz. "The Concept of Unity in Electronic Music." In [Strunk v.7].
22	Cage and Aleatory	Morgan. "Indeterminacy." pp. 359-364. Eco, Umberto. "The Poetics of the Open Work." In [Strunk v.7]. (Excerpts) Cage, John. Silence: Lectures and Writings. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan Unversity Press, 1961. ISBN: 9780819560285. Samuels, Robert, ed. and tr. The Boulez-Cage Correspondence. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 1993. ISBN: 9780521401449.
23	Aleatory 2: Open Form, New York School and Fluxus (Bring Instruments Today!)	Morgan. "Indeterminacy." pp. 365-376. Cage, John. Notations. New York, NY: Something Else Press, 1973. ISBN: 9780685148648. Young, La Monte, and Jackson MacLow, eds. An Anthology of Chance Operations. 2nd ed. Bronx, NY: George Maciunas, 1970.
24	Nancarrow and Partch: Two American Originals	Morgan. pp. 302-6. Partch, Harry. "Patterns of Music." In [Strunk v.7]. Gann, Kyle. The music of Conlon Nancarrow. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 1996. ISBN: 9780521465342.